Professional Landscaping Services offered in Truro

If having a beautiful garden is something you desire why not let the professional at MacIntosh Landscaping help you?

A garden should be an extension of the inside of your home. Being able to enjoy the beauty of nature in a well-planned garden can be a perfect way to enjoy a relaxing weekend with friends and family.

Let us help you. Our staff are knowledgeable in the field of horticulture and take pride in their work. Whether it be renovating an existing garden or starting a new one we can help you have the beautiful garden you desire.

What we can do:

• Garden Design
• Construction & Installation
• Seasonal Maintenance Contracts
• Installation of Flowers & Bulbs

Hardscape features act as focal points in your landscape. Fences can define property lines, create barriers for privacy, provide screening, noise reduction or just for visual interest that will add beauty to you landscape.

Our ability to create wood projects is not limited to just fences. We also can build small decks, docks, arbors, and pergolas, sheds and retaining walls. Let us create a beautiful design for your wood project today.

Possible Applications for Wood Structures:

• Wooden Decks
• Fences
• Pergolas
• Arbors

These features are known as hardscape features in a landscape. Hardscaping includes all the non-living elements and aspects of landscape design.

Brick adds beauty and elegance to any landscape. Brick pavers, segmental retaining walls, pillars, fire pits add texture, color and functionality to your landscape. Whether creating a formal entrance, large patio or small walkway we can help. We are authorized installers for all Shaw Brick products. We know how to properly install the products and ensure that every installation meets or exceed the high quality expected by the manufacturer.

Brick pavers are made from concrete. Colour and style choices are endless.

Possible Applications for Brick Installations:

• Patios
• Walkways
• Driveways

Our skilled technicians can transform your landscape into a natural oasis. A water feature can add a sense of tranquility to your garden. A well designed water feature can even have fish and planting that make the water feature look like it belongs.

Back yard gardening can be great fun. Having a water feature not only adds interest but also adds functionality to the space. A back yard pond can create a habitat for many small birds, frogs and fish. The sound of the water adds a calming effect to your garden. Our ponds are high quality Aquascape systems.

The Auqascape system use a natural approach to creating a natural ecosystem which involves imitating the natural forces found in nature to create a balanced pond ecosystem. The correct combination of plants, fish and natural filtration means the pond does not require harsh chemicals to keep them clean and running properly. The Aquascape water feature systems allow us endless possibilities from a pondless waterfall to a large pond with streams and waterfalls. From rushing water to soothing streams, we can create a show piece for you garden.

Possible Applications for Water & Landscape Features:

• Ponds
• Waterfalls
• Dry stream
  • This is a way to direct water into a "trench" lined with fabric and filled with river stone. Works well for lawns that have wet areas at certain times of the year. To add even more interest you can put a small bridge over the "dry stream".
• Biofiltration garden
  • A landscape designed specially to intercept storm water run-off and encourage infiltration through the process of slowing the flow, spreading the water out and allowing it to soak in.

Using natural stone adds beauty and elegance to your landscape. Using a natural product is environmentally sustainable and adds colour variations that cannot be duplicated with a manufactured product. Natural stone will outlast most other materials and can be used to create walkways, patios, retaining walls, firepits , steps, and curbing just to name a few.

Possible Applications for Retaining Walls:

• Accent Boulders
• Water Features & ponds
• Curbing
• Seating Areas
• Stone Step Slabs
• Retaining Walls
• Fire pits
• Dry Streams

Natural stone will stand the test of time and the possibilities are endless!

The main purpose of a retaining wall is to help prevent soil erosion, create usable beds out of steep terrain and to provide decorative or functional landscaping features. They may be independent structures, or may be part of a wider construction work, such as a building. Retaining walls can be used as seating areas, steps and firepits, shoreline erosion and more. There are a vast number of products on the market today to create both structural and decorative walls. It is important to select a product that is suitable for your application when designing a retaining wall.

Possible applications:

• Seating walls
• Steps
• Decorative walls
• Curbing

When making the decision to install a lawn you should consider two options. Sodding or seeding. The main difference between sodding and seeding is the time it takes to become an established usable lawn. Another difference is the cost. Although the site preparation should be the same, seed is typically less expensive than sod.

Sodding involves transplanting mature turf that has been grown and cared for by a professional sod grower.

Seeding can be done manually by hand or mechanically by using a hydro seeder.

Let us help you choose the most cost-effective method for your budget.

Which option should I choose?

There are three considerations that should be considered when deciding whether to install hydroseed or sod:

• Type of grass you desire: Is it a high traffic area, will it be mowed regularly, it the location shady/sunny, dry/wet?
• Site preparation: Both seed and sod need similar amounts of topsoil for optimum performance. The recommended amount is 4-6"
• New lawn care: To establish and maintain any lawn it requires adequate moisture, fertility and mowing.

Possible applications for sodding:

• Slopes
• Lawns

Possible applications for hydroseeding:

• Large lawn areas
• Sports fields
• Roadsides
• Natural areas

Do you have a vision of a particular project? Did you see something in a magazine? Regardless of your idea we are here to help make your vision a reality.

As part of our full service, we offer landscape plans with 3D rendering services available to see your project come to life so you can see what your outdoor project idea will look like.

Project Ideas

• Patios: Our patio designs range from traditional to curves and circles, stone, brick pavers, borders, and designs in a wide range of colors.
• Retaining Walls: The possibilities are endless. Structural, wood, stone, segmental wall blocks, big blocks with endless color and style choices. We can build walls that will provide seating areas, retain soil to create a flat surface, create tiered levels for plantings or add a decorative edge to a garden.
• Kitchens: Now that people are spending more time in their own back yards, outdoor kitchens are a popular request in specialty landscaping projects. Being able to prepare meals outdoors while being able to practice social distancing with guests is a huge benefit to your outdoor space.
• Firepits: If you enjoy spending time with family and friends outside why not consider a fire fit! Firepits can be used year-round and allow outdoor gatherings with warmth and the confidence of being socially distant.
• Gardens: Selecting the right plant for the right space is an important aspect of gardening. Choosing a cute little plant at a garden centre, only to find out in a couple of years that it is now overpowering your window is a common mistake most home gardeners make. We will help you select the right plants for your space by taking into consideration your preference to color and style while considering environmental conditions such as soil conditions, exposure, plant function while choosing the plants that with best thrive in your garden.
• Driveways & Walkways: Hardscape features such as walkways and driveways are very functional aspects of your landscape can also be beautiful and create flow with the rest of the design.
• Stone Steps: If your landscape design involves different heights, why not consider natural stone steps to transition between the levels of your landscape. Natural stone is timeless and can be both a beautiful and practical addition to you yard.
• Water Features: Whether you have a large or small property, there is a water feature that can work in your space. Water features can provide a sense of calm, serenity and sophistication to your space.
• Wood Structures: From gazebos to pergolas to privacy screens, fences that become a part of your specialty project can create more shade, create intimate spaces, and provide privacy to your garden space.
• Unique Vision: Many of our customers have come to us with their own unique ideas. If we can do it, we will. If not, we will help direct you to the proper professional that can do it for you. Some of the features we have created include putting greens, fountains, dry streams, shoreline retaining walls, outdoor amphitheatre seating walls, curbing, benches, rain gardens and more!

Rain Gardens

A rain garden is a garden which takes advantage of rainfall and storm water runoff in its design and plant selection. Usually, it is a small garden which is designed to withstand the extremes of moisture and concentrations of nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, that are found in storm water run-off.

• Rain gardens can cut down on the amount of pollution reaching creeks and streams by up to 30%.
• The purpose of a rain garden is to help to ensure that rain water is available for plants rather than have heavy water runoff go directly into catch basins or storm sewers. The gardens also help to prevent erosion and slow the flow of water in heavy runoff areas. Planting suitable plants in these type of gardens can add beauty to an otherwise unsightly wet area of your landscape. Finally these gardens help to improve the quality of water that does run off because the garden acts as a filtration system for soil contaminants, pollen, and erosion control.

Green Roof installations

A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems.

Benefits of a Green Roof

• Reduce storm water run-off by as much as 75%.
• Reduced cooling costs in the summer.
• Reduced heat loss and energy consumption in winter conditions.
• Natural Habitat Creation for many bird species.
• Filter pollutants and heavy metals out of rainwater.
• Help to insulate a building for sound; the soil helps to block lower frequencies and the plants block higher frequencies.
• Filter pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air which helps lower disease rates such as asthma.
• If installed correctly many living roofs can contribute to LEED points.
• Increase agricultural space.
• With green roofs, water is stored by the substrate and then taken up by the plants from where it is returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation.
• Green roofs not only retain rainwater, but also moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for any of the water that happens to run off.