MENUWe plant evergreens for their graceful beauty and magnificent color that breaks up winter’s white and drab brown. This beauty and color come with a price. In winter, evergreens are exposed to winds that can dry them out and cause branch dieback. The dieback appears as brown patches on an otherwise green tree or shrub.Unlike deciduous trees and shrubs that go dormant in winter, evergreens continue their bodily functions, although at a much slower pace. This includes photosynthesis, which depends on water and nutrients from the soil reacting with the sun’s energy to make food that’s stored in the plant’s root system until it’s needed elsewhere in the plant.Water and oxygen are byproducts of photosynthesis. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere for us to breathe and water is released through the plant’s leaves or needles. This release of water is called transpiration.When the ground freezes in winter, roots can’t absorb water from the soil. The plant then depends on reabsorbing transpired water back in through the leaves or needles. High winds, however, blow the water off the leaves or needles before it can be reabsorbed, causing the leaves or needles to dry out. This is called desiccation.Desiccation can be minimized by spraying a wax like substance, called anti-desiccant, on your evergreens. The most popular brand name is Wilt-Pruf. You can buy it in spray bottles at garden centers if you have only a few evergreens to spray. We use a backpack sprayer to apply antidesiccant to properties with greater needs, such as large evergreen trees or many evergreen shrubs.When deciding on how many evergreens need spraying on your property, include broadleaf evergreens, such a boxwoods and rhododendrons, as well as conifers. With more leaf area, broadleaf evergreens tend to transpire more water than conifers.Tender trees, especially young trees that you just planted this year, may need a burlap coat, as well as anti-desiccant. Just drive poles into the ground around the perimeter of the tree, wrap with burlap and staple it to the poles. Be sure to keep the top open to moisture and sunlight. Wrapping may also be needed for trees planted close to the road to protect them from road salt spray.Anti-desiccant is one of the most economical insurance policies you can buy to increase the survival rate of evergreen trees and shrubs. You should plan ahead, however, since there is a relatively short application opportunity. It has to be applied when the temperature falls below 40ºF but after the chance of warm days passes since warm days can melt the material. You can buy anti-desiccant at the garden store now and hold on to it until needed. If you want us to apply it, you should call now so we can schedule the application.
Remember last winter when the snow and cold weather turned your valuable landscape into a buffet for deer, rabbits, mice and other mammals? We don’t know what this winter will bring, but it’s best to follow the Boy Scout motto – Be Prepared.This is the right time of year to begin planning your strategy for dealing with hungry animals. Depending on what method you decide upon, some pre-emptive action may have to be taken now, while the weather is still warm and the ground isn’t frozen.The three peskiest mammals that we have to be concerned about are the whitetail deer, cottontail rabbit and field mouse. Each requires a different tactic to “discourage” them from destroying your valuable trees and shrubs. Regardless of what deterrent you select, it won’t prevent a starving animal from feeding on your plants. These animals that we like to see on our property in the summer become nuisances in winter because the snow covers their preferred food sources.People express the most concern about deer feeding on their trees and shrubs in winter. That’s because they’re so big and eat higher up in the tree than the smaller pests. As a result, it’s easier to see the damageThe biggest danger actually comes from the smallest of the big three – the field mouse. These pests prefer to eat under cover of snow or mulch; it protects them from cats, birds of prey and other predators. They burrow down and eat the tender bark around the base of young trees and shrubs. If they’re hungry enough, or have enough companions, they can eat all the way around the trunk or stem, girdling and killing the tree.The two best mouse deterrents are to be sure you don’t have any mulch volcanoes around your trees or shrubs and to keep the snow shoveled away from the base of trees. Like mice, rabbits also like tree bark. However, they don’t try to hide. Brazen rabbits will stand right on the snow and eat bark off your young trees. While deer will eat trunk bark, they prefer twigs. Pruning off any branches below six feet will discourage animals from browsing there.Wrapping the trunks of young trees with hardware cloth and building a fence around shrubs will make it difficult for animals to eat the bark. Wrap the cloth as high as six feet above the ground, or above the anticipated snow height, and you have a deterrent for all the pests. Be sure to remove the hardware cloth in the spring to accommodate the trunk’s new growth.While the hardware cloth is, arguably, the most effective method, some others include commercial preparations, fox urine, bloodmeal, domestic rabbit pellets, human hair and even a shower radio and a string of noisy cans. There isn’t much evidence that any of these tactics work well but anything is worth a try.Black deer fencing is becoming popular, but fencing in a whole landscape can be expensive and there may be some liability factors associated with that. I recommend checking with your town and insurance agent before installing it.Some plants are unpalatable to certain animals. I’m certainly not recommending that you rip out your current landscape and replace it with these plants. It would be a very boring landscape, but planting a few plants on the list near an especially prized tree or shrub will make animals think twice before coming near.Our landscape designers have a list of animal-resistant plants and they would be happy to share it with you if you contact us.
Horticulture has two mantras that we always remind you of when talking or writing about planting. One is “right plant, right place,” which we’ll discuss later. The other is “Fall is for Planting.”Fall is the ideal time to plant almost everything from lawns to trees. There are a few plants, however, that should be planted in the spring. Annuals are chief among them. The Morton Arboretum in Chicago also recommends waiting until spring to plant some slow to establish tree species, such as bald cypress, American hornbeam, ginkgo, larch, magnolia, hemlock, sweetgum, tuliptree, and willow. Also, broadleaved evergreens, such as rhododendrons, and narrow-leafed evergreens, such as yews, prefer spring planting. In general, plants with shallow, fibrous root systems can be planted easier in the fall than those with fewer, larger roots, according to the Morton Arboretum scientists.The most generally accepted fall planting time is August through October, although I shy away from planting in August unless the owner is prepared to water frequently. August is often very dry and hot around here. Then someone throws a switch right after Labor Day and days continue to be warm but nights cool off. When air temperatures are cooler than soil temperature, plants add root growth rather than top growth, resulting in better developed root systems in spring.I have one caution. Conifers should be planted earlier than hardwoods. So, I recommend planting conifers in September and hardwoods in either September or October. You can plant hardwoods right up until the ground freezes but there won’t be time for the roots to get as well established as they would if planted in September or October.Many nurseries and garden centers order new plants for fall planting. You’ll be able to tell which are new and which survived the summer drought. If you’re looking for a bargain, you may be able to negotiate deep discounts on the survivors. Personally, I don’t like to do that. I rather pay list price and get new stock.Plant the same way in fall as you do in spring. Select a planting site whose conditions are right for the plant you select. Remember – right plant, right place. Dig the planting hole two to three times bigger around than the rootball, but only as deep. If potted, remove the plant from its pot. If balled and burlapped, remove the wire basket or rope but leave the burlap around the ball.Set the plant in the hole and backfill, stopping occasionally to press the backfill to fill in any air pockets. Don’t pile soil up against the trunk. Finally, water well.It’s good to mulch any new planting, but it’s especially important in fall. The mulch will help moderate the temperature shifts during the winter. Spread 2 to 3 inches, but don’t pile it up against the trunk in a mulch volcano. Before winter, add another inch of mulch, but be prepared to remove that in spring.This year has been a year of extremes, from record cold to record heat, from record rainfall to near drought. I won’t even try to predict what kind of fall and early winter we are in for, so I suggest that you do your fall planting early so that your new acquisitions can become well established while weather conditions remain seasonal. That way, they’ll be better able to withstand nature’s winter assaults.
If you’re one of those people who’s not gardening due to time constraints, I just found some time for you. Try “pot-in-pot” gardening. There’s nothing to it.Although developed for nursery production applications, this process is now finding favor among time-strapped home gardeners. The traditional way of planting containerized plants is to buy nursery stock and transplant it into decorative pots. Pot-in-pot involves just slipping plants, still in their nursery pots, into decorative containers.Recently, a friend used this pot-in-pot technique for flowers he traditionally places on graves of loved ones for the summer. In past years, he bought flats of flowers and transplanted them into decorative pots. This year, he bought hanging baskets the same size as the decorative containers. All he had to do was lower the hanging baskets into the decorative pots using the hangers and then remove the hangers.I tried that at home as well, except that I opted for nursery pots instead of hanging baskets. As the photo shows, I placed nursery pots of flowers into three matching, decorative containers. One had yellow marigolds, another red geraniums and the third had a small blue and white flower. That plant was near the end of life when planted, so I replaced it with chenille firetail. I’ve since changed out the marigolds, as well, replacing them with yellow mums.Plan to water these plants more often than you would plants transplanted into containers. The nursery pots are just that much smaller than the nursery pots that water has to be replenished more often. That’s in a normal year. We had enough rain in July that I only had to water once or twice. If there’s no rain for a couple of days, I check them with a moisture meter and water if necessary.At summer’s end, when these flowers need to be changed out, I’ll just pull the nursery pots out, put the plants in the compost heap and recycle the pots. Then I’ll get appropriately sized nursery pots of chrysanthemums (mums) and plant them the same way – pot-in-pot.If you want to plant annuals in the ground for quick change out, you can bury nursery pots in the planting bed right up to the rim. Then buy plants in same size nursery pots and slip them into the buried containers. When they have completed their lifecycle, just lift the inner pots out and replace them with fall flowers.I wrote in the opening paragraph that this technique was developed in the nursery industry. Nursery managers plant row after row of sapling trees using the pot-in-pot method. This way, they can just lift the trees out of their liner pots to ship to landscapers and garden stores.We in the tree and landscape business are just as time challenged as you, so I was happy to learn that home gardeners have embraced this pot-in-pot technique.
You can make three gardening friends happy and your garden happy with just a few minutes of work. All you have to do is divide an overgrown perennial. A few more minutes to split another perennial and you can please three more friends and your garden will be even happier. Fall is the best season for all this happiness to take place.If you’re new to gardening, you surely have seen those small perennials you planted grow and grow and grow over the last year or two or more. Gardens don’t like crowding and, despite the temptation to rip out those unruly perennials, the proper procedure is to split them.Fall is a good time to split perennials because fall is for planting. You’ll give each new perennial that you create an opportunity to become well established before winter sets in.Perennial splitting can be good exercise and a stress reliever. Here’s how it’s done:
Perennials give gardens their lasting beauty, beauty that it behooves us to share with others. When you split overgrown perennials, you extend your gardening season, or someone else’s, without spending a penny. I call that a good deal, and it’s fun.
After spending time enjoying the summer beauty of your landscape, it will soon be time to begin preparing it for fall and winter. I recommend taking time during these last few weeks of garden leisure to write down all the tasks you will have to do before winter sets in. That way, you can prioritize your work and go about it in an efficient manner, rather than frantically trying to remember what you have to do each weekend.Here is a check list of preparations that I’ve identified. I’ll cover some in more detail in later posts.
Fortunately, we have a couple of months before we need to really batten down the hatches. But here are some additional late season tasks to put on the schedule:
I hope you heeded my advice to sit back and enjoy the result of your gardening labors during the dog days of summer because, as you can see here, a significant amount of work awaits you as summer melts into autumn.
Good news! Barring any sudden, severe drought at this late point in the summer, preparing your lawn for fall will be a bit easier than it would in a normal year.We’ve had no dry spell this summer. Consequently, the grass didn’t go dormant, brown up, crunch under foot and create good conditions for weeds to take up residence. This means that we shouldn’t have to cross our fingers and hope that our lawns will green up with the return of cooler temperatures and regular rainfall.This fall, your major lawn care tasks will be to renovate any bare spots caused by grubs – after treating for them of course – and applying weed control to broadleaf weeds before they go to seed. This will reduce the chance of seeds germinating first thing in spring.Grass will continue to grow and make food through photosynthesis until the ground freezes. The turfgrass plants are trying to store as much food in their roots as possible before going dormant so they have sufficient energy to break dormancy in the spring. To be successful, your lawn needs that important inch of water a week and soil nutrients. Although nature usually cooperates in the fall by providing enough rain, you should be prepared to water if nature doesn’t come through.Fertilizing in the fall replenishes the soil nutrients that the grass plants used during the summer. Lack of summer dormancy means that your turfgrass extracted more minerals and nutrients from the soil to support its ongoing photosynthesis. These nutrients need to be replenished to assure that the grass plants will be able to manufacture sufficient food to sustain themselves through the winter and into early spring.Remember, fertilizer is not plant food. Plants make their own food through photosynthesis. For that reaction to take place, however, the plants need minerals and nutrients present in the soil. If your soil is deficient in any of these nutrients, they need to be replenished through fertilization. You could look at fertilizer as vitamin supplements for plants.With the definition of fertilization in mind, I feel safe in writing that not all lawns need fertilization. If all the essential nutrients are present in your soil, replenishing them is like taking excess vitamin supplements. It doesn’t do any good and may do harm. A good rule of thumb is that, if you needed to fertilize in the spring, you need to fertilize in the fall. If you use a granular fertilizer, you either have to time the application right before it rains or be prepared to water it into the soil.Fall is a good season to aerate your lawn, especially if the grass is thick and the soil heavy, as in clay. Aerating takes many forms. The urban legend that you only have to mow the lawn wearing golf shoes is just that – an urban legend. Aerification is done to loosen the soil. The holes have to penetrate deeper than the roots, and an actual soil plug has to be removed to give the remaining soil space in which to expand.Perhaps the most difficult task is anticipating when your last mowing will be so you can drop your mower down to two or two-and-a-half inches for that final cut of the season. Overwintering with a crew cut will reduce your lawn’s susceptibility to winter fungal diseases. The lawn will also look better when the snow melts next spring because it won’t have that matted look.
Lawn grubs have long been a scourge for area property owners. These white, crescent-shaped insects eat turfgrass from the roots upward. Consequently, you don’t know you have a problem until it’s too late, unless you are on the lookout for grubs.The best method for determining if you have grubs, and the method our lawn care professionals use, is to cut one foot square sections of sod at different locations around your lawn. Fold the sod back to expose the underside of your sod, as well as the soil just below the sod. Count the number of grubs in each section. Six or fewer per section are not cause for concern; your lawn should be able to successfully fight them off. Action should be taken if seven or more are present.Big, brown beetles flying around in June, slamming into your house’s doors, windows and siding were the adult grubs. They may have been European chafer beetles, Japanese beetles or even the Bluegrass billbug. The beetles are lawn grub adults. If you saw or heard them flying around your yard, you probably have grubs in your lawn right now.As with many insects, the adults’ lifespan is very short. Their only task is to reproduce. Once they do that, they die. These pests lay their eggs in sod. When the tiny grubs hatch, they immediately burrow into the sod, below the surface, and begin feasting on your tasty turf roots. As the temperatures cool and lawns go into winter dormancy, the grubs burrow further down into the soil to overwinter.This is the best time to treat for grubs. They are young, small and weak, so treatment doesn’t have to be as aggressive as it does in the spring when the two-inch, nearly full-grown grubs return to the surface to begin eating your lawn once again.There is another pest that likes our lawns, but its larvae aren’t grubs. It’s called the sod webworm and its larvae live in the thatch instead of burrowing into the ground.Gray moths flying around just above your lawn earlier in the summers was a good sign that your turfgrass is now hosting the sod webworm. Their flights were reconnaissance flights looking for a suitable place to lay eggs.Like tree and shrub insects, each lawn insect has its own lifecycle and food preference. Treating for them within the window of opportunity can be a challenge. This is why it makes sense to hire a lawn service. For one modest fee, one of our lawn care professionals will visit your home, check for the presence of pests and take appropriate action. He’ll leave a door hanger explaining the action he took. The only other way you’ll know that we’ve been there is by the little yellow signs that the state requires us to post.Even though the growing season is winding down, you can still use our lawn care service. Just call to schedule a meeting with one of our representatives.
Balancing hardscape and plant material has been an ongoing discussion among landscape designers, as well as property owners. The simple answer is that the two elements should blend into a single environment. The next step in the equation has to do with taste. Which do you like more? Hardscape? Or greenscape?Design according to your taste, but coordinate so that it flows naturally. Too many plants can make your yard look like a jungle and hide any hardscape elements. Too few plants and a glut of hardscape will look like a concrete jungle. Instead, balance them so that one element doesn’t overpower the other.The trend to outdoor living has resulted in a higher percentage of space devoted to hardscape. However, outdoor living space is concentrated in one area of the back yard. In the ideal design, the outdoor space is close to the house so that it forms a room that’s an extension of the indoor space. Depending on the amount of space available, plants can extend from the outdoor room to form a landscape of annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees and even lawn.In an effort to reduce maintenance, an increasing number of people in our area are opting for smaller back yards. If your outdoor room takes up most of your back yard, you may be able to use plants to accent or soften the perimeter of the outdoor room. Containerized plants can be placed strategically within the outdoor room to break up the large areas of concrete, bricks and other building materials. Containerized plants can also be used to define the different outdoor living spaces, such as sitting, kitchen or dining area.The smaller your space, the more carefully you have to choose plant material since fewer plants have to provide all the green support for the area. Never loose focus, however, of the mantra “right plant, right place.” This is just as true in a small space as it is in a large space. You wouldn’t want a large tree, for example, to grow into and over your outdoor living space, especially a tree that drops stuff like pollen, flowers and seeds.Striking the right balance can be challenging for many, so more and more families are turning over to our professional designers the task of blending hardscape and greenscape into a beautiful outdoor extension of their living space.
When I come across a new gardening term or fad, I like to share it with you. New for 2015 is Bed-Head Gardening.The term got its name from the way many of us look when we get up in the morning. When you look in the mirror and see that mussed up hair, it’s called a bed-head. A Bed-Head garden is defined as one that emphasizes natural beauty rather than a labor intensive formal style. Like a whimsical garden, a Bed-Head garden is an extension of the gardener’s personality.It’s a casual style for the person who enjoys natural beauty and has an “anything goes” attitude. It has been described as “purposefully un-styled.” Many gardeners embracing this style are those with a great appreciation for nature and a better than average environmental consciousness.Some of the elements that define a Bed-Head garden are natural contours rather than flatness, curvy paths, native and low-maintenance plants, little or no hardscape, lots of color, and plants arranged to look as though they grew in that space naturally – chaotically rather than in ordered rows.The intentionally messy look needs much less maintenance than a more formal look. You’re going for an overgrown appearance, which means much less pruning and weeding.Some Bed-Head gardeners even go so far as to include veggies in their gardens and raise livestock like chickens. I think many of our towns would frown on that approach.For some, the anything goes attitude is just the opposite from all they’ve been taught, but something they would like to strive for. If you’d like to have it but don’t, you could work with one of our designers to create a Bed-Head garden. Who knows, it might grow on you and you’ll find that the more laid back style is something you’d like to incorporate into other aspects of your life.
Do you fidget, walk around your property, and feel guilty about not having any gardening tasks to do in the middle of summer? There’s no reason to; you should be doing nothing right now. It’s summer; you’ve done all you can to give your landscape tender, loving care. Now it’s time to enjoy it.Take a page from southern gardeners. Slow down and smell the roses, or any other flower that’s in bloom right now. Summer is the time to sit outside with a cool lemonade and just enjoy the results of your work.Plants shouldn’t be fertilized in the summer, so you can’t do that. The only thing we recommend at this time is to deadhead spent flowers and help Mother Nature provide sufficient water for your plants. If we have more than a week without rain, your plants may need water. They need an inch a week, and it’s best for them to get it all at once. You may also need to weed your planting beds.With the cost of water these days, you may want to prioritize. Water those plants with droopy, curled leaves that look like they need watering first. Then prioritize according to value. Young trees may need water but most mature trees don’t. Their root structure is sufficient to find water. Shrubs are valuable so they should be second on your priority list, followed by perennials.Annuals should be low priority since they’re inexpensive and may be changed out several times a year anyway. Turfgrass turns brown because it has the ability to go dormant under extremely hot, dry conditions and then green up again in the fall when cooler weather and rain return. It doesn’t appear that we have to worry about that this year.Trees, shrubs and perennials are best watered with drip irrigation, rather than spraying. A significant amount of sprayed water evaporates before it reaches the plants. If you have an irrigation system, ask your irrigation contractor to install drip emitters for your trees, shrubs and perennials. If you use a hose, invest in soaker hoses and snake them around the plants you want to water. Soaker hoses are made from recycled tires, so you’ll be helping the environment as well as your plants. You will also be saving on water since you only open the tap a quarter turn.While sitting on the deck or patio enjoying your landscape, you may want to read a book on how you can enjoy more time like this and less maintaining the garden. I’ve written about Slow Gardening by Mississippi garden writer Felder Rushing, and I just heard about a new book, entitled Gardening from a Hammock by Canadian garden writer Dan Cooper. I haven’t read the latter book yet, so I can’t vouch for it.Take my advice and enjoy your garden without fretting. It’ll show your kids or grandkids that gardening really isn’t as much work as they’ve been led to believe. Sometimes you can just relax and survey your work.
Summer is the ideal time to prune most evergreens. This includes both conifers like pine and spruce and broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons and boxwoods. The reasons are twofold.First, the buds that produce new growth formed last fall on the old wood of many evergreens. New growth is the light green needles that appear at the ends of branches. If you prune while the new growth is still light green, it will grow back and you’ll have to prune again. If you wait until the new growth turns its natural shade of green, you’ll only have to prune once.Second, pruning now gives the wounds sufficient time to heal before it’s time for next year’s new growth buds to form.Most evergreen trees do not need as much pruning as deciduous trees. Evergreen trees are usually pruned to control size and to remove dead, dying or broken branches. Pruning evergreen trees is not a do-it-yourself job. Besides evergreen trees’ height, their branches are very “springy.” They can break easily if you try stepping on them. Leave pruning to our professionals. We value you as a customer and don’t want you to become a statistic.Confine your pruning to evergreen shrubs. If you have coniferous shrubs like yews (taxus) or junipers, I recommend that you selectively prune, removing one branch at a time rather than shearing. When selectively pruning shrubs, follow the same rules as you would for a tree. Don’t leave stubs. Cut branches all the way back to a fork. If you can see a branch collar, leave it rather than cutting flush to the trunk or bigger branch.Selectively pruned shrubs look better when they have a natural shape, rather than the tight geometrical shapes that result from shearing. Shearing also may leave ragged cuts because branches are too big around for shears to make a clean cut.Save your shearing for such broadleaf evergreens as boxwoods. Boxwood branches are smaller so shears will leave cleaner cuts. I do caution, however, that shearing can become more difficult to maintain as the plant increases in size.You don’t have to prune your own shrubs. Our professionals can care for them, just as they do your trees. By turning it over to the pros, you don’t have to make decisions like whether to shear or selectively prune. You also won’t have to dress in a long sleeve shirt, long pants and gloves on a hot summer day to keep from getting scratched by the needles and branches.Evergreens look nice and add color to your yard, even in the dead of winter. However, their biology is very different from deciduous trees and require different care. To be sure they receive the proper care, leave the work to our professional arborists.
Do you want a stiff, formal garden or a more whimsical garden? Whimsy is defined as endearing quaintness or oddity. A secondary definition is an impulsive notion. Synonyms include humorous, quirky and eccentric. I like to define garden whimsy by the first two synonyms. It should reflect your sense of humor. If you are quirky, that should be reflected in your garden whimsy.Most of all, garden whimsy should reflect your personality in both the plant material and the hardscape. That’s because the whimsical features of your garden have to appear spontaneous. Otherwise, it may lose its impact.
Personality is important. If you’re a serious, intense person, you may not want a bottle tree as part of your landscape. When shopping for molded concrete statues, the more serious person in our household wanted a St. Francis statue while I preferred a rotund sea captain. (We ended up with both). In a previous blog, I mentioned the customer with the sign in an overgrown bed that reads, “Experimental dandelion farm. Don’t disturb the weeds.” These are all examples of different people’s ideas of whimsy. Others may include such items as the popular fairy gardens or model trains. Photos accompanying this post show other examples of whimsy. The gardens with the flower sculpture and the big frog are in private gardens in Pennsylvania. The big frog has a motion detector. When you walk past it, it talks to you.So, you see, garden whimsy is a figment of your imagination, brought to life outdoors on your property. Our designers can help interpret your sense of humor into a whimsical garden or they can take the elements of your whimsy, like a talking bull frog, and design them into an attractive garden.
Now that the sea of yellow has disappeared from your lawn, are you wishing you had contracted for professional lawn care? If so, you still can. Dandelions aren’t the only weeds that will live in your lawn this growing season. Remember, weeds are what we call “adventitious” plants. When they see an opening, they fill it.A nice, thick lawn discourages weeds. One way to encourage a thick lawn is to mow high – no less than three inches. Another way is to fertilize. Fertilizer is the backbone of a lawn care program. If your turfgrass has all the nutrients it needs to stay healthy, it will grow nice and thick, and will discourage weeds.Sure you can spread fertilizer and weed control yourself, but when you calculate the cost of materials and the value of your time, is it worth it? Then you also have to remember your application times throughout the season. If you forget, you can be sure the weeds will be happy to live in any square inch of empty real estate.We don’t know what the summer will bring. Our weather now may be a prelude to a hot, dry summer. A healthy lawn now has the best chance of springing back in the fall. Turfgrass has the ability to go dormant in hot, dry weather, thus the brown color. You can water it all summer, but few people do, what with the cost of water and all. When the temperatures moderate and the rain returns in fall, healthy lawns green right up.Here are a few reminders if your lawn does brown up this summer. Avoid walking on it. The crunch underfoot is blades of crispy grass breaking. This means no mowing; it doesn’t need it. It also means no fertilizer; the plants are dormant.I’ve written about the annual gardening surveys, which this year have concentrated on Millenials and the time constraints that prevent them from working on their lawns and landscapes. We’re here to help.New lawn care customers can start now and we’ll prorate the annual fee so they won’t be billed for the spring applications they didn’t receive.
Now that your trees are all leafed out, how do they look? Nice and green? Plenty of foliage? This is a good sign that they’re healthy. To be sure, though, I recommend that you call for a tree inspection by one of our 10 Certified Arborists.We’ll check the trunk, branches and roots to be sure they’re healthy. We’ll be on the lookout for insects, especially those that bore into the wood to do their damage. We’ll also examine your trees for diseases like rot that attacks branches, trunks and roots.Our arborist will make long term recommendations for keeping the trees healthy. If they need immediate attention, you’ll be made advised of the action needed to repair any hazardous conditions that can cause injury or property damage.Your trees may just need pruning to thin and lighten the crowns and reduce the chance of a branches breaking in a windstorm. Treating for insects and diseases may be needed. If dead branches have to be removed due to insect or disease damage, aesthetic pruning may be called for to restore the tree as close to its natural form as possible. In extreme cases, a tree may have to be removed if hazardous conditions endanger people and property. Removal is a last resort, however. Our arborists are a creative group. They are able to save many trees that a non-professional would cast on to the woodpile.Trees are landscapes’ skeletons. They give it structure. They also take a long time to grow to the point that they can assume that awesome role. During their growth, families often form an emotional bond with their trees. Cognizant of this relationship, we don’t take the decision to remove a tree lightly. Even if you aren’t emotionally attached to your trees, you should be aware of a financial consideration. You can heap a great deal of professional care on a tree for the cost of removing it. And, in the end you’ll still have your tree, rather than a bill for removing it and another for replacing it.
Good news! The pendulum is swinging from strictly native plants to include some non-natives.Until very recently, many garden purists would only plant U.S. native plants, believing that introduced plants were responsible for a host of environmental woes. Many would limit their plant palette to only those that were native to their own locale. Those who dared plant introduced plants were often vilified.Today, many native-only advocates are moderating their stance to, “It’s OK to plant suitable non-native plants along with natives.” I believe that most gardeners are now approaching the middle ground. More garden communicators are suggesting that a plant be judged on specific characteristics and suitability for a particular location and not its point of origin, so long as it’s not a plant that is potentially invasive. This has been my attitude right along, and I applaud the gardening community for seeing the benefits that many non-native plants can bring to a landscape.It’s easy to point to invasive insects and diseases as the culprits that wreaked such havoc as decimation of the American elm and the current scourge of our native ash trees. It should be noted that pests like these weren’t purposely introduced to our shores. They hitchhiked here. On the flip side of this argument, scientists are experimenting with crossing imported varieties with our native varieties to reestablish our elm and ash populations.The key words when determining whether to plant an introduced plant is “potentially invasive.” No matter how attractive a plant is, if it can take over your landscape, don’t plant it. It’s not worth the extra, sometimes futile, maintenance required to keep it under control.If we removed every introduced species from our urban forest, our landscape would look barren indeed. Many non-natives are suited just fine to our climate and growing conditions. Few garden centers would carry a plant that is knowingly invasive. It’s poor customer relations. Native and non-native, plants undergo extensive field trials before being introduced into the nursery trade today. The chances are very good that any undesirable traits will be discovered before a new plant ever reaches your local garden center.So, take it from me that, contrary to what you may have heard, you can use non-native plants and still be a good, eco-friendly gardener. Just do your homework and be cautious until a new introduction, native or not, proves itself in the field.
The most memorable line from a particularly scary move is: “They’re heeeere.” The same can be said right now for a particularly scary tree pest – the emerald ash borer. I’ve been seeing the tiny, metallic green adults flying around all over the place, and this means danger for any ash trees on your property.The emerald ash borer didn’t just arrive. The borers, in their larval form, have lived inside ash trees for nearly a year. They fed on the tree’s tender outer layers of wood, right where the xylem transports water and nutrients from the roots to the crown and the phloem distributes food throughout the tree. The disruption of the trees’ vascular function is what causes death.The emerald ash borer prefers to lay its eggs in the upper reaches of a tree, where it’s safer. As those upper branches die, they work their way down the tree until the whole tree is dead. This spring, we did work in Buffalo and I saw a lot of dead ash trees there. I really don’t want to see them here, and don’t think you do either, especially in your yard.Your time to treat with a preventive is here. I have seen quite a few dead adult borers in our area, which means they have already laid their eggs. We have to inject preventive material into trees so it’s there to greet the newly hatched larvae as they chew their way into the trees.Once the new larvae have bored their way into a tree, we have to switch from prevention mode to treatment mode. This mean injecting Treeage into the tree annually, instead of every other year for prevention. Although treatment requires twice as many applications as prevention, the prognosis isn’t as good. While expensive, prevention or treatment injections are still less expensive than removing a dead tree and replacing it.Remember, emerald ash borer control is not a do-it-yourself job. The most effective control material is restricted to state licensed pesticide applicators, and using anything else is a waste of money. So, if you have ash trees, schedule prevention (or treatment) before the window of opportunity closes.Finally, buy firewood only where you’ll burn it. Not only does it reduce the spread of this insidious pest; it’s the law.
While we were nestled snugly away in our homes during the harsh winter, emerald ash borer larvae were snuggledinside ash trees feasting away. Right now, they’re in the final days of pupation.Soon metamorphosis will be complete and the little, metallic green adults will chew “D” shaped holes to the outside. The adults have only one purpose. That’s to mate and start the next generation on its road to destruction. After the female has made indentations in the bark of an ash tree and deposited an egg in each indentation, she will die. The male dies right after mating.As soon as the eggs hatch, the new larvae begin boring into the tree, disturbing the tree’s vascular system that’s so vital to its life. The xylem transports water and nutrients from the roots to the crown where photosynthesis takes place. The phloem distributes the food made by photosynthesis all around the tree.If you have an ash tree, we urge you to take preventive action by having us apply a systemic treatment now. This is when the treatment is most effective, and it will last for two years. If you wait until after the emerald ash borer strikes, you’ll need an annual application to control the pest. Inaction will result in a dead tree in those communities where this pest is active. It would be much better to welcome this new generation of larvae with a Treeage cocktail while they’re young and vulnerable.Remember, too, if your good weather activities include wood fires, buy your firewood only where you’ll burn it. Not only does it reduce the spread of this insidious pest; it’s the law.Emerald ash borer control is not a do-it-yourself job. The most effective control material is restricted to state licensed pesticide applicators, and using anything else is a waste of money. So, if you have ash trees, call now to discuss scheduling treatment.
Choosing bedding plants for your garden is like choosing paints for an artist’s palette. The one big difference, however, is that the plants are alive.Bedding plants can be annuals or perennials or a combination of the two. You might even include some small shrubs in your beds. In addition to selecting plants for their color, you have to select them for their hardiness and the growing conditions they like. After all, the garden’s main purpose is to provide color, brightness and pleasure, rather than hours of maintenance.Some people have a natural affinity for colors. They can select just the right combinations. Others have difficulty coordinating colors. A color wheel might help. Many garden stores have them, or a staff member can help. Paint stores also have color wheels.I went to the Internet and Googled “Color coordinating flowers” and got 10,800,000 results. The first one was The Oregonian newspapers’ oregonlive.com site and its garden tips page. A color wheel was the first thing up. Other sites were by gardening magazines like Better Homes & Gardens and Fine Gardening.While it’s possible to randomly plant bedding plants and let flowers pop up whenever nature tells the plants that it’s time, most gardeners prefer a bloom sequence. This means planting so you have an ongoing sea of color. When the first blossoms fade, the next plants flower and continue the color until the next group is ready to take their place.After you’ve decided on the color mix of plants that you want in your beds, you then have to research such important concerns as their hardiness in our zone 5-6 climate and their susceptibility to insects and diseases.As you can see, planting beautiful, colorful garden beds takes a bit more research than painting your house where color is the only consideration. If you want the garden of your dreams without taking the time to do all the necessary research, turn it over to our professionals. Our designers know how to coordinate colors and how to create bloom sequences. They also know plants that are hardy and pest resistant, and those that aren’t.Design is the first step. Installation is the second, and we have landscape crews who install beautiful planting beds every day.You can make one call and then sit back and enjoy your garden.
Imported, invasive pests are coming at us in droves. Last week, I wrote about the emerald ash borer, but this is only one invasive pest that came from abroad. Granted it’s getting most of the attention because it’s the most active invasive here.Last month, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County held a first detectors seminar to train arborists and other professionals on how to detect the hemlock woolly adelgid and Asian longhorned beetle as well as the EAB. We’ve treated for some hemlock woolly adelgid but we have fewer hemlocks than ash trees in our area.The Asian longhorned beetle is the real bad guy. This pest isn’t fussy about what it eats as long as it’s wood. Fortunately, it has been contained in a small area on Long Island. However, a few outbreaks have been reported in other places and authorities moved in and dealt with them quickly. So, they have been able to eradicate it in these locations. Like the emerald ash borer, the Asian longhorned beetle’s principal means of transportation is in illegally moved firewood.In addition to the foreign invaders, we also have a number of home grown pests that we still need to control. These include aphids, scale and various other bugs. Every once in a while, gypsy moth will rear its ugly head and we have to take swift action to keep it from gaining a foothold again.A Plant Health Care program assures you that a trained professional will visit your property at least once a month during the growing season and can take appropriate action while insects are most vulnerable. This approach often allows us to use less aggressive treatment methods than if you called us after you see a target insect. At that point, many have already done their damage.
Arbor Day is this Friday, April 24. Few people can observe this day on Friday, however, due to work, school and other commitments. So, why not celebrate Arbor Weekend? Trees don’t care if they’re planted on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or any other day for that matter.Make your Arbor Weekend a family affair. Look through books or on the Internet and get family consensus about what kind of tree to buy. It might be a good idea to agree on several choices because the planting area you select may not be suitable for your first choice.Before you go to your garden center, do some homework. Take photos of the proposed planting area and take these with you to the garden center. Is the site in full sun all day? Full shade? Partial sun? Morning? Afternoon? Which way does the prevailing wind blow? Is it a high spot in the yard or a low spot? Is it close to structures? To walkways or the driveway? Or electric wires?The reason you took that little test is to be sure you select the right plant for the right place. You don’t want to buy an expensive tree that likes full sun and then plant it in shade or partial sun. 0r a tree that needs lots of water on top of a hill or one that doesn’t like wet feet in the lowest spot in your yard.These are all things that you need to check out before swiping your card. Many answers will be on the nursery tag attached to the tree. If any information you need is not on the tag, ask one of the horticulturists at the store. That’s one of the reasons why we recommend buying trees at local garden centers. They employ professional horticulturists who can answer your questions and help you select a good tree for your site.Also, local garden centers buy from nurseries that grow plants for our climate. While a tree imported from the south or west may be hardy in our zone 5-6 climate, many are not acclimated to weather like we just experienced, and they may not survive.When you get your tree home, follow the planting guidelines that we have shared several times. Dig the hole two to three times the diameter of the tree root but only as deep as the root. Place the tree in the hole and backfill, tapping down the backfill just enough to remove air pockets.Take a break several time while backfilling and water the backfill. This will also help prevent air pockets. Don’t stake unless you absolutely must to keep the wind from blowing the tree over. For the first year, be sure the tree receives at least an inch of water either from rain or irrigation.This will be a weekend well spent, and the tree you plant will keep growing year after year. Even when they’re grown up, your children will look up at that tree and remember the great time they had buying and planting it.
A good starting point for planning your 2015 gardening and landscape work is to consult your journal. Last May, I suggested that you manage your landscape by keeping a garden journal. If you did that, you’ve probably already consulted the journal to schedule this year’s activities.If you didn’t start a journal last year, consider it this year. Referring back to last year’s blog will give you some pointers on how to start a journal, the form it should take and even how to do it electronically.This would be a good year to start journaling after our long, hard winter. However, I suggest you include, prominently, information on the winter severity and any late start to the growing season. This will alert you to the reason why the growing season may appear to start early next year. It won’t actually be early, it will be at a more normal time.While journaling is good for scheduling planting, fertilizing and other annual gardening tasks, it is the only way to conduct an environmentally sound Plant Health Care (PHC) program. If a certain pest invaded your plants last spring, you need to check this spring to be sure they aren’t back, or to take action if they have returned.Our PHC professionals all keep electronic journals for each of our customers. They consult it before their monitoring visits so they know to pay particular attention to certain plants for specific pests.If you’re a casual gardener who doesn’t want to be bothered journaling and would just rather enjoy your landscape, we have the professionals who can take as much, or as little work off your plate as you want.Gardening should be fun. If it isn’t fun for you but you enjoy the results, that’s when it’s time to call in the pros.
Spring will soon wake up from its winter slumber, and with it will come the rainbow of color that we all look forward to. Some call it a rebirth, but it is really a reawakening.This color arrives relatively quietly. First the crocus peeks its colorful petals out of the ground, even if it’s covered with snow. Satisfied with its surroundings and that spring is on its way, more crocus appear. Depending on how many crocus you’ve planted, you may be swimming in a sea of color.As the crocus begins to fade, it’s replaced by daffodils, tulips and hyacinths, but these early bloomers are just the leaders of a whole parade of spring color. Trees and shrubs (woody plants), as well as herbaceous plants, bloom in spring.Forsythia is the first shrub to bloom, showing off its bright yellow flowers. Azaleas and rhododendrons follow. Here in our area, all of this is just a prelude to Rochester’s favorite flower, the lilac.Unlike annuals and perennials, there’s no need to pinch off spent flowers from woody plants. They set their flower buds way back in the fall, so enjoy them while they’re here because, when they’re gone, they’re gone until next year.If your flowering trees and shrubs need pruning, resist the temptation to prune them now. These plants should be pruned after they bloom. Otherwise, you may cut off the flower buds. It’s difficult to distinguish between flower buds and leaf buds. Our professionals learn the difference in their horticulture classes, but for the untrained eye, the two buds can be indistinguishable.Following the initial burst of color, the rainbow will begin fading to green. Flowers and their stems will turn brown on your spring bulb plants. Go ahead and cut off the spent flowers right at the base of the stem. However, don’t cut off the green leaves. They’re hard at work making food through photosynthesis and storing it in the bulb to give them the energy to flower and leaf out next year. Many herbaceous perennials will continue to bloom if you pinch off spent flowers once they’ve withered but before they drop their seeds.After woody plants have finished flowering and leafed out, they can be pruned. Remember to cut branches back to a branch big enough to be able to take over the removed branches’ function. Also, never climb a tree or even a ladder. It’s dangerous. Instead, give us a call and let our well trained, equipped, insured professional arborists do your pruning.
Horticulture and gardening seem to be shrouded in some kind of a mystique. Too many people believe the proverbial “green thumb” is an actual indicator of whether or not a person can grow plants.I believe that the green thumb myth is based on our agrarian forebears who could grow plants without any real knowledge of how they grew. This approach came about by trial and error and those said to inherit the green thumb simply observed what their parents and grandparents did, copied them and passed the information on to their descendants.The fact is that knowledge of how plants grow and how to care for them can be acquired, and there are many sources of this knowledge available to people of all ages and socioeconomic status.This knowledge can be acquired from the many books available at the library or local bookstore. You can also go online, but the information you’re seeking may not be as reliable as a published book that has been fact-checked, edited and, possibly, even peer reviewed.Here in our area, we have excellent gardening education resources. In our hometown of Webster, we have the renowned Webster Arboretum that conducts classes on various gardening and horticulture subjects. In Rochester, the Rochester Civic Garden Center publishes a whole seasonal catalog of courses. This catalog is available online (www.rcgc.org) and in paper form. Both of these organizations are membership organizations so the discounted member fees for their educational programs can more than make up for the membership cost.Each state has a cooperative extension service within its state agricultural college and each operates a Master Gardener program. There’s no charge for the excellent, comprehensive educational program that Master Gardeners receive. In exchange, however, you have to volunteer for at least a minimum number of service hours. This service may take the form of answering questions on the phone at the Cooperative Extension office, talking to garden clubs and other interested organizations, writing for the newsletter or a variety of other outreach activities.While botany and horticulture are subjects that can be learned, good landscape design requires a certain amount of “God-given” talent in addition to sound horticulture knowledge. Also, the best horticulture knowledge cannot prepare you for the physical labor needed to install a new landscape or maintain large trees.The most important lesson you can learn is to know what you can do well and identify your limitations. Do those tasks that you are able to do and want to do and hire the best people you know to do the other stuff. That’s why we’re here. We really like to work in partnership with knowledgeable property owners to create and maintain beautiful landscapes. Visit us at www.birchcrestlandscape.com.
If last week’s blog inspired you to expand your horticulture knowledge, I’d like to make some suggestions on how you can share that knowledge. There’s a real need for this knowledge beyond the confines of your own, private garden.The Webster Arboretum and Rochester Civic Garden Center were two suggested sources for horticulture-related educational classes. Chances are you joined the organization you chose for your classes, and they’ll never be at a loss for ways to help. They would certainly appreciate your assistance.As I explained last week, the Master Gardener program requires volunteer outreach work. Cooperative Extension hopes, however, that you won’t limit your volunteer service to the minimum number of hours. They would like you to continue volunteering for the task you undertook originally or a different task. The Master Gardener program couldn’t survive if everyone just worked the minimum. They depend on people continuing to volunteer and moving up the ranks in the organization. Much of the program is led by volunteers.Sustainability is today’s buzzword and we have a number of cooperative, sustainable farms that practice “community supported agriculture.” These farms operate with minimal staff and many volunteers. If you enjoy fresh vegetables and don’t have the space for a sizeable garden, a CSA membership might be just right for you. Volunteering at a CSA might also be a way to apply the horticulture knowledge you acquired or are acquiring.The ideas above are just a few of the abounding opportunities to volunteer or to work professionally in the gardening or landscape field. Don’t forget the reason you sought to expand your horticulture and gardening knowledge – your own landscape garden. Budget enough time to be sure it receives the tender loving care that it deserves. And, don’t forget that we’re here to provide any assistance you want or need.
