Goodway Landscaping Gardens : * Porosity of the soil mix is critical, to ensure the right level of moisture and drainage to keep the roots as healthy as possible. So be sure to use the right product for the situation – use potting soil for container plants, for example.

At our Visalia nursery, our newly constructed greenhouses are state-of-the-art and energy efficient. High roofs with venting increase circulation naturally. The boilers used to heat the greenhouses are high efficiency, helping to reduce the amount of fuel needed to provide the optimum growing environment for our plants. The irrigation system was engineered to use the least amount of energy possible to water the plants.

Goodway Landscaping Waterfalls Mycorrhizae

We add mycorrhizae to all our plants. Mycorrhizae are a group of beneficial organisms that grow along the roots of host plants, enlarging the roots’ naturally-occurring surface-absorbing capacity by as much as 100 times, making the plant much more efficient in the uptake of nutrients and water. Mycorrhizae helps to reduce transplant shock, stress from drought, soil-borne diseases, water usage and the reliance on fertilizers.

Now that you have the pond you have always wanted it is time to think about providing the ecosystem it deserves. This will not only keep your water garden clean and promote a self-maintaining pond; it will provide a healthy habitat for fish, turtles, butterflies, birds, frogs, newts and salamanders, aquatic plants, and dragonflies (which help to control the mosquito population!). Let's cover the basics to ensure vibrant fish in an ecologically sound habitat: your pond!

Jeff Zima Ponds For every pest in nature there is a predator bug that will leave the plant alone while dining on the bad bugs. These are called beneficials and include ladybugs, praying mantis and lacewings. Protecting beneficials takes advantage of nature’s control mechanisms. Chemical pesticides kill both pests and beneficials, which leads to pest population explosions once the predators are gone. The new approach to pest control is through least toxic measures designed to protect beneficials while controlling pests.

Goodway Landscaping Water Gardens Aquatic Plants are Mother Nature's best filters - from a filtration perspective they are second to none. Thriving from the excess nutrients in a pond and depriving the algae of its food source, the aquatic plants in a water garden, given proper coverage, are critical to the overall ecosystem. It is not a good idea to keep more than one pond plant in its container (and none for ponds 8'x11' and smaller) because aquatic plants need to stretch their roots in order to thrive, and because those roots will help to reduce bio-solids, or sludge.