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By this time in December, your three-season outdoor paradise is, undoubtedly, secured for the winter. This means you’re spending most of your time indoors where it’s warm. But what about your trees?
This is the ideal time to schedule tree care. That includes pruning, cabling & bracing and other work on the above ground portion of deciduous trees. Why now? Here’s why:
• Deciduous trees are dormant. Making pruning cuts now is far less traumatic than making the same cuts when sap is flowing and the tree is foliated. Then the leaves are actively making food through photosynthesis.
• Our arborists can see the tree’s skeletal structure. With the leaves gone, our arborists can stand back and inspect the tree’s structure and determine which branches need to be removed for health and aesthetic reasons. When in leaf, the leaves cover up problems and may present a different shape.
• Pruning cuts provide pests and pathogens with easy access to the interior of trees but many insects and disease organisms are dormant for the winter. Pruning now will give the wounds plenty of time to callous over before the insects and disease organisms become active again.
• Frozen ground lets us better position equipment. A tree in the middle of your front or back yard may be difficult to reach with our bucket trucks. In spring, summer and fall, we’d have to physically climb such trees. In winter, though, when the ground’s frozen, we can often maneuver closer to the tree and prune it faster and safer.
• Faster, easier clean up saves money because less debris falls by the wayside as we drag it across a snow-covered lawn. (Less friction)
You may feel sorry for arborists having to work outdoors in harsh winter conditions. They dress for the weather and take extra precautions on slippery surfaces. They’re used to it and trained to avoid hazards. However, there are some days that the weather is just so bad that even we can’t work. Scheduling now better assures you of a time that’s most convenient for you, and gives both of us plenty of options should we have to postpone.
As always, I urge you not to attempt to prune your own trees. It’s dangerous in the best weather and even worse in inclement weather. If the tree’s a flowering tree, you may unwittingly remove flower buds. Most spring flowering trees and shrubs bloom on old wood, which means this spring’s flower buds are already on the branches. To the untrained eye, they’re indistinguishable from the new leaf buds. However, our arborists are trained to identify both types of buds.
Most families live in their back yards so that’s where they concentrate their landscape efforts. Consequently, the front yard often consists of a rather boring mix of lawn and foundation plantings. That could be changing, according to the 2022 Garden Trends Report by the Green Media Group.
The report notes that there’s renewed interest in curb appeal. Homeowners are making the approaches and entrances more welcoming to visitors. Perhaps the months of few visitors during the pandemic has made people so eager to share their space with friends and family that they’re showing their appreciation as soon as someone pulls into their driveway.
Some sources are suggesting paving driveways with material other than blacktop – specifically concrete or pavers. The same sources suggest planting the borders with perennials. In our upstate New York climate, though, they would have to be very hardy perennials to withstand snow being piled on them. It would also be a good idea to install curbing between the pavement and plant border to keep your shovel, snowblower or plow from damaging the plants.
If you don’t have any trees in the front yard, consider a shade tree. Select a deciduous tree rather than a conifer. The crowns of deciduous trees are above the line of sight from the street. The foliage on most conifers extends all the way to the ground, obscuring your ability to see the street. Under overhead wires, the only tree to plant is an ornamental that grows no more than 20 feet tall.
Obscuring line of sight presents two concerns. The first is security. Blocking the view gives potential burglars cover to do their illegal activities, and it could be disastrous for your family. The other concern is that you would be blocking the view of your house and yard, reducing the curb appeal that you’re striving for.
Front porches also are trends. People are going back to the tradition of sitting on the front porch. Those with porches are rejuvenating them and many without our building them. Be sure plant material is part of your plan. Place containerized plants on the porch, attach hanging baskets of annuals from the porch and/or install window boxes to the porch rail.
The same plants as suggested for a porch can be part of the curb appeal even if you don’t have, or want, a porch. Two large containers, one on either side of the front door, would be your first opportunity to welcome guests. Baskets can be hung from the eaves and window boxes can be installed under the front windows. Remember, though, that you’ll have to water these plants more often than those in-ground.
How about giving your front door, shutters and any woodwork a fresh coat of paint to complete your front yard makeover? Some people are even installing curtains on their front porches for privacy and shade.
If your home’s curb appeal needs some attention and you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, we have landscape designers who can help you with the planning and landscape installation professionals who can help you with the planting and hardscape construction.
As the depth of winter approaches, I get asked how to deer proof trees. The answer is that you can’t completely deer proof a tree. A hungry deer will eat any plant when snow makes it impossible for them to reach their favorite food sources. However, you can make it more difficult for them to reach your trees.
The best advice may come from your neighbors. Different remedies work in different areas. What works in my neighborhood may not work in yours. So, start by asking your neighbors what they use to discourage deer and how effective is it.
Perhaps the best deterrent is to plant deer resistant plants. The most complete list of such plants that I’ve found is on Warren County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s website (warren.cce.cornell.edu) under the Gardening & Landscaping section. It lists plants that are rarely, occasionally and frequently damaged by deer.
Boxwood is one of the plants in the rarely damaged category. One of my customers has a beautiful weeping Japanese red maple in the center of a triangular planting bed. It’s surrounded by boxwood on all sides and has never been damaged by deer. (I hope I didn’t just jinx him.)
Some people have had success with wrapping their trees and shrubs in deer fencing, hardware cloth or burlap. It needs to be installed at least eight feet tall. Ten or twelve feet would be even better. Other people have been successful installing netting over small trees and shrubs.
There are also repellents, which can be purchased or made using household items, and deer resistant plants like herbs. Deer love tulip bulbs but not daffodils. There’s also the old method of stuffing socks or panty hose legs with human hair and suspending them over the plants you want to protect. Strategically placed motion activated lights may also work.
Deer are the wildlife that draw the most attention as they browse on our valuable trees and shrubs in winter but sneaky rodents may actually kill your plants. Mice and voles like to burrow down in snow or mulch piled against the trunk and chew on the bark. Rabbits do it right out in the open. If they chew all the way around the trunk or stem, they will sever the tree’s vascular system, causing it to die.
The best way to combat hungry rodents is to wrap the trunk with hardware cloth. Hardware cloth is flexible screening that can be found at hardware stores and home centers. To be safe, wrap the trunk all the way up to the first branch. Some barrier directions say to offset the hardware cloth out from the trunk with wooden or PVC frames. Plastic pipe or tree wrap can also be used but it’s important to remove any wrap in each spring so the tree can grow.
Anti desiccant is the best winter protection you can provide for your evergreen trees and shrubs. Besides keeping them from drying out from winter winds, this wax like material also lets you enjoy your plant’s beauty and color against the season’s white background. Best of all, it’s economical and easy to apply.
There’s a good biological reason for applying anti desiccant to your evergreens. In winter, both conifers and broadleaf evergreens slow down their life functions. It could be compared to animals like bears hibernating. Unlike deciduous plants, evergreens don’t go completely dormant.
Evergreens’ leaves or needles continue to manufacture food through the energy trapping process of photosynthesis. That process requires water, which is normally absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves by the plant’s xylem. Water, also a byproduct of the process, is given off through the leaves. This is called transpiration.
When the ground is frozen, the roots can’t absorb water, so the plant reabsorbs transpired water and recycles it during photosynthesis. This is fine until the wind blows. Wind picks up transpired water and carries it away before it can be reabsorbed. When this occurs, photosynthesis shuts down and the affected leaves, needles and branches die.
Desiccated leaves and branches turn brown. Rarely does the whole plant die. It just has ugly brown patches, and the only remedy is to cut out the deadwood. This affects the aesthetics of an otherwise graceful, beautiful evergreen.
Before anti desiccant was introduced, wrapping the plant in burlap was the only protection available. Instead of islands of green punctuating the sea of snow, drab brown stood out like shrouded statues. There’s still a need for burlap wraps but only for plants affected by salty road spray, young trees and shrubs that are still getting established, or tender plants that may be near the limit of their hardiness zone.
Garden centers and home stores sell anti desiccant in spray bottles. The most familiar brand is Wilt Pruf, and it’s in easily recognized green bottles. Buying one or two of these bottles to apply to a couple of evergreen shrubs is a good DIY project. Buy any more and your hand will let you know how hard it is to squeeze those spray triggers.
For properties with many or large evergreens like towering conifer trees, it’s more economical and efficient for one of our Plant Health Care professionals to apply anti desiccant. We buy it in bulk, which is considerably less than buying those consumer-size containers at retail, and you don’t have to worry about properly disposing of the empty containers. Our PHC pros apply anti desiccant with backpack sprayers that have enough pressure to reach the tops of tall trees.There’s a relatively short window of opportunity to apply anti desiccant. The temperature needs to be consistently near 40ºF but not down to freezing. If it’s too warm, it melts, too cold and it coagulates. If we get sustained warm spells during the winter, additional applications may be necessary. Nothing needs to be done in spring. The anti desiccant just melts when the weather warms up.
We all marvel at the fall colors in our region. That’s because we’ve been blessed with the right climatic conditions. However, there are a lot of explanations for this phenomenon, many of them wrong.
Back in 2012, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) posted a release on its treesaregood.org website explaining the science of autumn beauty. It’s all about the temperature swings and diminishing hours of daylight. The release says, “Leaf pigments play a crucial role in the colors we see. Chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins present in a leaf help determine what color the leaf will display.
“The pigment that gives leaves their green color is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is used in photosynthesis, which is the process that uses sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates (sugars) that fuel tree growth. During the spring and summer, with more hours of sunlight and warmer temperatures, this photosynthetic process is most active, thus leaves are green.
“When daylight hours become less and temperatures are cooler, photosynthesis slows down, and there is less chlorophyll. This decline reveals a yellow or orange pigment, carotenoid. Carotenoids, the same pigment found in carrots and corn, are usually masked by the chlorophyll.
Unlike chlorophyll and carotenoids, which are present in leaf cells throughout the growing season, anthocyanins are produced in autumn. Anthocyanins give color to familiar fruits, such as cranberries, red apples, cherries, and plums. These complex, water soluble compounds in leaf cells react with excess stored plant sugars and exposure to sunlight, creating vivid pink, red and purple leaves. A mixture of red anthocyanin pigment and yellow carotene often results in the bright orange color seen in some leaves.
“Weather conditions that occur before and during the decline of chlorophyll production can affect the color that leaves may display. Carotenoids are always present, so the yellow and gold colors are the least affected by weather.
“Colors most affected by weather are the red tones created by anthocyanin. On warm sunny days lots of sugar is produced in the leaves. Trees exposed to brighter sunlight generate the reaction between the anthocyanins and the excess sugar creating the bright red hue. Cooler temperatures cause the veins in the leaves to gradually close preventing the sugars from moving out which preserves the red tones. Thus, a succession of warm sunny days and cool crisp nights can paint the most spectacular display of color.
“The level of moisture in the soil can also affect autumn color. A severe summer drought can delay the onset of color change by weeks. Ideal conditions for producing the most brilliant colors are a warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and sunny fall days with the cooler temperatures at night.”Now that you know the science between the color change, enjoy your fall leaf peeping.
It’s that time of year again. Plant Health Care and Lawn Care renewal time. Contracts for 2022 are in the mail to current customers. I urge you to read them and respond as soon as they arrive. If your valuable landscape isn’t currently protected by this service, one of our consultants would be happy to inventory your property and make a proposal.
The renewal contract has an incentive to return it early. Returning it with payment for the full year before the date on the contract can save you a significant amount of money. The saving is often more than that money will earn in a bank account.
Why do we offer this incentive? Because it results in savings for us allowing us to share those savings with you. For example, knowing how many customers need each product allows us to more accurately determine how much to buy and get our orders in early. That’s especially important in this time of supply chain difficulties. It also reduces accounting costs for you and for us. You don’t have to write and mail a check after each visit, and we don’t have to process it. Offering this discount is our way of saying Thank You.
You’ll still receive a form in a plastic bag hung on your front door. The form will contain information on the services performed and the care you need to take to assure that any treatments will be effective. The payment section will include the cost for that visit but the balance due will be zero.
When you trust the health of your valuable lawn and landscape plants to us, you can be sure that the work will be done by one of the 12 New York State Certified Pesticide Applicators on our staff. To obtain this mandatory state license, a person is required to successfully complete a rigorous examination. To maintain their license, they have to take continuing education throughout the year. The chances are good that the professional visiting your home will also be one of the nine people who have earned the voluntary Certified Nursery & Landscape Professional and/or one of the nine who have earned the voluntary Certified Arborist credential.
Thank you for your continued confidence in our lawn and Plant Health Care professionals. We look forward to providing the same great service in 2022.
It’s not too late to apply fall fertilizer to your trees, shrubs and lawn, even though the calendar says November. This is actually the best time to fertilize deciduous trees and shrubs, and you can apply it until the ground freezes.
The first thing to get out of the way is the notion that you feed the plant when you fertilize. The late plant physiologist, Dr. Alex Shigo, stressed that plants make their own food through the process of photosynthesis. However, nutrients from the soil are needed for that process to take place.
In a perfect world, your native soil would have sufficient amounts of the necessary nutrients there for the plants’ taking. The truth is, though, that developers often strip the nutrient-rich top soil, and may not replace it with soil of equal quality. Consequently, the nutrients need to be replenished periodically through the application of fertilizer.
Although deciduous trees and shrubs may appear dead when they lose their leaves, they really are alive. They’re just dormant. Their roots continue to function by absorbing water and nutrients whenever the ground thaws. When spring arrives and the sap again begins to flow, and it’s very rich with sugar. There’s no better example of this in our area than the sugar maple. It’s during this period that the maple syrup producers tap the trees.
Fertilizing trees and shrubs now, when they’ve defoliated, or are in the process of defoliating, is the perfect time. If you apply it earlier, you run the risk of the plant generating a new flush of leaves at a time when they’re supposed to be going dormant. That defeats the purpose of defoliation, which is to protect the trees from the extra weight of snow and ice clinging to large surface area of the leaves. We’ve all seen the damage that can result from early season storms that arrive before the trees and shrubs defoliate.Lawns, too, can use some extra nourishment as they prepare for winter dormancy. That’s why fall fertilization is included in our lawn care programs. If you haven’t been on a lawn care program, you can still have our lawn care professionals apply fall fertilizer at this time. You can also have our Plant Health Care professionals fertilize your trees and shrub even if you weren’t on a PHC program. Hopefully these applications will illustrate the benefits of fall fertilization when your plants come back vigorously in the spring. Fall fertilization is to help sustain the plant during the winter and give it a head start in spring. It needs food stored in the roots to flower and foliate next spring. Spring fertilization provides the nutrients needed for top growth and overall vitality in the spring.
Leaving bare soil in your landscape is not a good idea. Bare soil is subject to erosion from water run-off, it can starve beneficial organisms in the soil, and it creates a perfect spot for weeds to germinate. There’s still time for you to plant cover crops to protect those bare spots.
Hopefully, you’ve mulched the soil where plants are already growing – around trees, shrubs and perennials for example. But what about bare spots in the lawn, annual beds and vegetable gardens?
For bare spots in the lawn, it’s best to seed them with a mixture that will blend with the existing lawn plus a healthy amount of annual rye. Annual rye germinates quickly and is very cold tolerant. It will also protect the other seeds in the mixture that take longer to germinate and are less cold hardy. The rye will grow for only a year and then die off, leaving the perennial grasses in the mixture to live on their own.
You have several cover crop options for large, bare areas like annual beds and veggie gardens. Take a lesson from the agriculture community. Farmers select cover crops for the dividend they’ll pay in terms of benefitting the soil. If the soil needs nitrogen, they’ll plant legumes like beans, peas or clover. Otherwise they are more apt to plant a grain, with rye being the most popular.
For the home gardener, crimson clover is a popular legume. Like all legumes, crimson clover has nitrogen-producing bacteria in its roots. When the plant dies, it leaves fixed nitrogen in the soil. Crimson clover produces an attractive red flower that makes your garden look nice while its roots are holding the soil in place and fixes nitrogen.
When the nitrogen-fixing benefits of legumes aren’t needed, annual ryegrass is a good cover crop choice. It’s fast growing, not unattractive and compostable in spring. If you don’t mow the rye grass in the planting beds, you can just pull it up in spring and put it on the compost pile. During the winter, the grass roots feed beneficial microbes and any plants that died decomposed, returning nutrients to the soil.
Mustard is another cover crop used by some gardeners. Its roots release chemicals into the soil that suppress weeds and soil borne pests. Good soil is, arguably, the most important factor in successful gardening. That’s why so much time and money is spent applying fertilizer and soil amendments. Planting cover crops to protect bare soil yields many of the same benefits during the season when the soil isn’t being used for other purposes.
As we get deeper into autumn, the nights are getting cooler, while the days continue to be warm. This is ideal weather for planting trees and shrubs but will soon be too cold for those tender houseplants that have been vacationing on your deck or patio all summer.
The first step for your houseplant migration back indoors is to prepare the space for them. The odds are that the space these plants vacated last spring is already repurposed, either with other plants or something else. Consequently, there may be some rearranging needed before your plants can be returned to their favorite spot.
Your houseplant transition doesn’t have to take place all at once. Base the move on forecast overnight lows nearing each plant’s cold tolerance level. They should all be back indoors when the first hard frost warning is issued.
Be sure the plants are clean before moving them inside. Remove weeds that may have taken up residence in their container. Also guard against taking insects indoors where they can infest your healthy plants. If you can see insect activity, such as eggs, chewed leaves or the insects themselves, pick off what’s visible and hose off others. If no insects or insect activity is visible, take the precautionary step of shaking the plant and then submerging the container in water to drown any insects in the soil or on the soil surface as a result of your shaking them.
Quarantining the plants for a day or two before taking them into the house would be a good idea if you’re able to. You need a place in which they can get sufficient sunlight during the day and not freeze at night. Suggestions include a garage or outbuilding with enough windows to allow photosynthesis to continue or a glassed in, unheated sunroom. This quarantine will allow the plants to adjust to an inside environment gradually. It’ll also give their soil an opportunity to dry out from their dunking, and you can check for any lingering insects. Don’t forget to water these plants if they need it. When you take the plants indoors, base your watering regimen on the humidity in the house. There’s no rain to supplement your watering. It’s all up to you to quench their thirst.
While in quarantine, check your plants to see if they’ve gained weight on their summer vacation. Those whose crowns are substantially larger than when you put them outside can be pruned before going into the house. Otherwise, they may not fit the space you have planned for them. Using pruning shears or sharp kitchen scissors remove up to half the foliage, if necessary. One third is even better. If you can identify new growth, you can prune off only that foliage and it’ll look just like it did when you took it outside. Regardless of how much you prune your plants, try to maintain their natural shape.
I’m sure you enjoyed your houseplant gracing your deck or patio all season. But now it’s time to bring them back to their natural environment. There’s a reason why they’re called houseplants; the house is their natural environment. These easy steps will make the transition good for the plants and for you.
The bane of fall can become the boom of spring. I’m talking about fallen leaves. They should be raked or blown from the lawn and flower beds, so why not put them to work helping maintain your landscape?
Leaves that you rake or blow to the curb for the municipality to take away will be composted and used in parks and around public buildings. With a little extra effort, you can compost and use the good, natural organic matter to keep your own landscape healthy. Compost is sometimes referred to as black gold, and soon it could be all over your yard just for the taking.
If you already compost, all you need to do is add the leaves to the material already decomposing. If you’re new to composting, you’ll need a bin for the raw material to decompose in. If you’re handy, you can make a wood box or a chicken wire enclosure, or even use a plastic trash can. Periodically, you’ll have to stir the material up. You can find how-to information online. You can also buy tumbling composters at big box stores and online. Then all you do is turn the handle periodically to stir the material.
Leaves should be chopped up or they won’t compost thoroughly over the winter. At least not in cold climates like ours here in upstate New York. My favorite chopping method is to load the leaves into a plastic trash can. Put on safety equipment, especially safety glasses. Then fire up your string trimmer and plunge it into the can of leaves just as you would an immersion blender in the kitchen. Repeat until the leaves are pulverized. Finally, haul the trash can to the composter and dump it.
The easiest way to compost leaves that fall on your lawn is to set your lawn mower to mulching mode when the leaves begin to fall. Each time you mow, the mower will chop the leaves right along with the grass clippings and drop them into the turf. As the leaves and clippings decompose, they’ll return organic matter to the soil.
While the mower will take care of the leaves that fall on the lawn, you’ll still have the leaves that fall in your planting beds, on the driveway and other hard surfaces to compost and return to the beds in the spring. When the soil has dried out in the spring, load the compost into a wheelbarrow or garden cart, and take it to the beds. Don’t dump it. Using a shovel, scatter it throughout the beds. Then work the compost into the soil with an iron rake.
Don’t compost leaves from diseased or insect-infested trees. They could contaminate the compost and spread the disease organisms or insects to other plants when you spread the compost in the spring. Contaminated leaves should be bagged and put in a trash tote. You can compost some kitchen scraps like coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable scraps. If you throw kitchen scraps into the compost, check for animal activity when you turn the compost. Some people have reported rodents going after the food scraps.
Compost is an excellent source of organic matter for your soil. It’s free and requires little more labor than it takes to get your leaves to the curb. Your plants will love it and so will you.
Aeration is one of the kindest things you can do for your lawn before putting it to bed for the winter, especially if you have the heavy clay soil that predominates our area. Fall is a good time to aerate your lawn, and I recommend that you do it before you do any overseeding.
Plant roots need water and oxygen. When soil is compacted, there’s little space between soil particles for these essentials. Aeration removes plugs of soil, giving the particles a little more breathing room. The spaces created by aeration quickly close up when a heavy lawnmower is run over it every week and the family plays on the lawn. As a result, aeration may be an annual part of lawn care in many area communities.
At first glance, aerators may look like a big walk behind lawn mower. Instead of blades, though, an aerator has spoon like tines or hollow tubes that the machine drives into the sod. The tubes come out of the soil filled with sod and deposit it on the lawn surface. The “plugs” are left in place to decompose and return organic matter to the lawn.
Initially, the holes left by the sod plugs provide a wide open space for water and oxygen to enter. With time, though, the holes close up with surrounding soil, which expands to fill the empty spaces. The looser soil provides the water and oxygen with a path to penetrate the whole lawn.
Aerators can be rented at equipment rental stores. If you decide on the DIY approach, I think it’ll be a one time task. Next time, you’ll turn it over to our lawn care professionals. An aerator may look like a lawn mower but it’s heavier, takes more strength to control and operates slower than a lawn mower. When you calculate the cost of renting the machine, transporting it to and from your home and the sweat and hard labor you put into the task, I think you’ll opt for having the job done professionally.
Two other jobs that are often associated with aerating are rolling and dethatching. They shouldn’t be. Lawns should not be rolled, especially those growing in clay soil. Rolling is done to take bumps out of the lawn but the soil in those bumps needs to end up somewhere. It fills up already restricted spaces between soil particles, further compacting the soil. If you do roll, it’s best to aerate right after, whether you planned to or not, in order to allow the soil to breathe. Dethatching is the gathering of dead grass plants that accumulate in turf, not grass clippings. Some lawns never need dethatching and most don’t need it as often as aerating. A lawn care professional can advise you on any services needed for a beautiful, healthy lawn.
When you think about fall color in your landscape, what comes to mind? Colorful leaves that give trees and shrubs a moment of brilliance before falling to the ground for you to rake up? Or perhaps chrysanthemums (mums)? Colorful leaves are short lived and mums all by themselves are quite boring. This post gives you ideas for other colorful fall plants that are hardy in our area.
Flowers that provided early spring color can also provide late fall color. These include violas like pansies and violets. Snap dragons and marigold will also bloom well into the fall, as will petunias. You may have to refresh or replace them in the late summer or early fall, especially if they didn’t get enough water or deadheading but they’re well suited to the weather that’s in store.
If you started the season with crocuses, you may want to end the season with the plant we call fall crocus. This bulb isn’t just a rebloom of the spring crocus. It just looks like it. Actually, the spring crocus is a member of the same family as the iris while the fall crocus is a member of the lily family. Another common name for the fall crocus is meadow saffron but don’t get excited about the saffron name. In fact, you won’t want to confuse it with the very expensive spice. The meadow saffron, or fall crocus, is actually poisonous. The fall crocus photo was taken in October at Chanticleer, a public garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
I’m not trying to minimize mums. Mass plantings are beautiful. I’m just making the point that they aren’t the only plant that flowers in fall, and suggesting that you diversify your autumn plant palette. Monoculture (limiting your plantings to one species) is never a good idea. Asters are the most common companion to mums. That’s because they both have similar growing requirements and blooming schedules. The list of fall blooming plants also includes Black Eyed Susans, Autumn sedum, Cranesbill (hardy) geraniums, sweet alyssum and heuchera, which is also called coral bells. Daylilies can also bloom into the fall, as can sunflowers. Bleeding hearts, another early spring bloomer, also adds another dimension to your fall plant palette.
Don’t forget shrubs when planting for fall color. The hydrangea is an example of a late blooming shrub. Witch hazel blooms in late fall into winter. But shrubs can show color in other ways. For example, the beauty bush displays its fruit (pictured) well into the fall and dogwoods are famous for their red twigs.
Fall doesn’t have to be any less colorful than spring and summer. Before you start packing things away and battening down the hatches for winter, why not take a trip to your garden center and see what they’ve got to make your autumn more colorful than ever? We have two or three months before you have to think winter. Make it joyful and colorful. Fall is for planting bedding plants and perennials as well as trees and shrubs. If you’d like help making selections and planting them, our landscape professionals are happy to lend a hand.
Fall doesn’t officially begin until later in September, but everyone considers Labor Day the unofficial start. Typically, the nighttime temperatures begin to fall while the daytime temperatures stay warm. It’s also when the rains return so new plantings will receive sufficient water without your having to supplement it with irrigation. And, that’s exactly why the nursery industry reminds us that Fall is for Planting.
Garden centers join in on this promotion, too. Contrary to some people’s opinion that garden centers just use the fall season to get rid of leftover nursery stock, reputable garden centers actually get fresh stock for the season. They may mark down stock that’s left from spring sales, also. That’s OK because most of their nursery stock will be perfectly fine, if they took care of it. So, how do you tell a good tree from a bad one? The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) published a consumer information bulletin, Buying High-Quality Trees, in which they offered the tips below.
A high-quality tree has….
• Strong form with well-spaced, firmly attached branches.
• A trunk free of wounds or damage.
• A quality root system to support healthy growth.
Conversely, a low-quality tree has…
• Weak form in which multiple stems originate from the same point and branches grow into each other.
• A trunk with wounds from handling or incorrect pruning.
• Limited, crushed or circling roots in an undersized root ball or container.
Some of the ways you know a tree’s form is strong is even spacing of branches along the trunk. Avoid branches facing upward and forming narrow angles. As the branches grow, they’ll compete with the trunk for the limited space between them and branches usually lose the fight and break. Trees in which the trunk splits into two equal leaders can be a problem as it grows. Those two leaders are called co-dominate but one is always stronger. If the angle between them is narrow, the weaker will inevitably split. This can be prevented by cabling and bracing but that’s an extra expense. It should be noted that the limbs you see on a young tree will seldom survive to maturity, but the spacing will remain true to form. Branches don’t grow upward; they remain in the same position for life. As the trunk grows higher, it shoots out new branches, while the lower ones are shaded out by the upper branches or have to be pruned off for clearance purposes.
Always inspect the trunk of a tree you’re considering buying. Look for signs of insects, wounds like frost cracks (injuries to the bark that run vertically up the tree), and improper pruning cuts. Sometimes the grower removes the lower branches to encourage a fuller crown. If flush cuts – those flat to the trunk – were made, special tissue in the branch collar was removed. This tissue contains cells that help the pruning wound to callous over to protect the tree from insect or diseases. Any pruning cuts should bulge out like a donut but shouldn’t leave any branch stubs. If the trunk is wrapped in protective material, remove it and inspect the trunk before you buy the tree.
Whether the tree is bare root, balled and burlapped or containerized, you should check the roots before buying. Bare roots are easiest to check. Make sure the roots are moist and not discolored or crushed. The roots were probably pruned when the tree was dug. Make sure the root ends are cleanly cut, rather than ragged as though they were ripped from the ground. If the roots are long, the ragged end can be pruned so it’ll grow correctly. Containerized plants are the next easiest to check at the garden store before buying. Slip it out of the pot and look for roots encircling several other roots. If present, try pulling the offending root out straight. If it’s too big to be straightened, pass on the tree, unless the garden center offers to fix it for you at no charge. The repair involves cutting the offending root and removing the section that crosses other roots. A girdling root that remains in place can eventually kill all or part of the tree. Also check the root collar, the point at which the root and trunk connect, to be sure it’s not buried in the container soil. If it is, pull the soil away and make sure that collar remains exposed when you plant the tree.
Balled and burlap roots are the most difficult to check. However, you can check the root collar and make sure it isn’t buried. Be sure to retain the right to return the tree if you find any root damage like girdling root when you get the tree home. You’ll cut the string or wire holding the burlap to the trunk when you plant the tree, and that’s when you can examine the rootball closely.
Regardless of whether you buy a bare root, containerized or balled and burlapped tree you should keep the roots moist but not sopping wet if you aren’t going to plant it right away. When you do plant it, dig the hole two or three time larger around than the rootball but only as deep. Before planting, remove the pot from containerized trees but just the string or wire from balled and burlapped trees. The burlap will decompose in the ground. Spread the roots out when planting bare root stock. As you backfill, stop periodically to tamp down the soil lightly but not enough to compact it. Be careful not to bury the root collar. Finally, water the backfill.
It’s already that time of year when I remind you to check your lawn for grubs. These pests have been destroying lawns for decades. We can’t eliminate them but we can manage them with a little diligent observation.
During June and the first couple weeks in July, grubs in their adult stage have been flying around trying to find a mate. You may have seen…or heard them. They’re big, brown beetles with either an attraction to light or a very poor sense of direction. We usually become aware of them when they fly right at our windows, making a distinctive sound as they hit. There are usually enough of them that it sounds like a hail storm. If you’ve experienced this phenomenon, it’s a safe bet that you have grubs in your lawn, or soon will.
The beetles are either European chafers or Japanese beetles. After mating, the female lays eggs in the turf of your lawn. The immature stage is crescent-shaped white grubs. Upon emergence from the eggs, grubs immediately burrow into the root zone of your lawn and begin feasting on grass roots. They continue feeding until the soil surface temperatures go down and winter sets in. This is when they burrow deeper into the soil, where it’s warmer. In the spring, they rise back up to the root zone and continue their feast until they’re about two inches long. They then pupate, morph into adults and begin flying into your windows all over again.
The best time to wage war against grubs is in the fall. This is when they are small and weak and don’t require aggressive control measures. If you wait until next spring to control them, the grubs will be bigger, stronger and more resistant to control measures. And they will have had more time to destroy your lawn.
You can start looking for grubs now. You may not see them on your first try but keep at it. To check for grubs, cut several one-foot squares of sod from different areas of your lawn. A sharp knife is the only tool you’ll need. Roll the pieces of sod back and check both the bottom of the sod and the hole for little grubs that look like the picture. If you count six or fewer grubs in each square, you don’t have a big enough infestation to warrant treatment. If any of the squares has seven or more grubs, you should put the sod back in place and apply a treatment.
Treatment is an easy do it yourself job. You can buy granular grub control products at garden centers and home stores and spread them just as you would granulated fertilizer. Follow label directions. Don’t use more than the label directs on the false assumption that twice as much will be twice effective. Just the opposite is true. If this is a job you’d rather not do yourself, our lawn care professionals can diagnose whether you have a grub problem and, if you do, apply the most effective material at just the right strength. This service is part of our lawn care program but we also offer it to property owners who aren’t on a lawn care program.
Poet Robert Frost’s statement about fences making good neighbors may not apply to trees planted on a boundary line. Boundary trees have been sources of contention between neighbors for centuries, and it has led to laws that govern who owns boundary line trees and who’s responsible for their care.
A book, entitled Arboriculture and the Law, published by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), states that, generally, courts find that a tree positioned on a property line between two residences is common property, and thus, the responsibility of both property owners. ISA explains, “This typically means the tree cannot be pruned, destroyed, or altered without both parties agreeing to the changes. Sometimes this requires the two parties to have a written agreement on the terms of care for the tree. If a tree is securely on your property, in the eyes of the law you are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep.”
Sometimes a tree that you planted near your lot line grows and grows until it straddles the boundary between your yard and the neighbor’s. When that happens, you have a new partner in the ownership of that tree. This can lead to disagreements between you and your reluctant co-owner. This situation can be prevented by making sure you know the expected trunk diameter and crown and root spread of any tree or shrub you plant close to the boundary line and make sure it’s far enough into your property to keep it from encroaching on your neighbor’s property. As an aside, shared ownership also applies to fences on the boundary line. So, install fences several inches on your side of the line, too.
More common than a tree straddling a boundary line is a tree that’s allowed to grow unattended until branches hang over into your neighbor’s yard and drops leaves in their yard, possibly in their pool or on their patio, or drops litter on their vehicles. Worse yet are situations in which branches hanging over the neighbor’s house breaks and falls on the roof or the roots grow under the driveway, causing it to heave. Who’s responsible for such damage? According to the lawyers who wrote the ISA book, the common rule of thumb is that a homeowner should consider themselves responsible for tending to any trees that could cause harm to a neighbor’s home or person.
If you don’t take the responsibility for your interfering tree, the neighbor can take the necessary action on their side of the boundary, according to the law. They can remove any portion of the tree invading their property. ISA states that courts have determined that a landowner owns all the space above and below his property, and if something invades either of those areas, it is his
right to remove it.
If the wind breaks a branch and it falls on the neighbor’s roof you can’t escape responsibility by pleading ignorance or that it was an “Act of God.” If you could have prevented the damage by regularly checking and maintaining your tree(s), you may be able to prevent many problems in your life. It’s also a good idea to maintain a photo history with before and after of everything you do or have done. If your trees or landscape does sustain damage, ISA recommends that you….
• Contact your homeowner’s insurance company.
• Have the insurance company send a professional tree and landscaping appraiser out to your property immediately after the damage has occurred.
• Have the appraiser determine your financial loss, including the cost of removal and repair.
• Have any repairs or removal work performed by our professional arborists. We have 13 ISA Certified Arborists and one Board Certified Arborist on staff.
Fall is for planting, and that time will soon be upon us. Selecting a tree and a planting site should be no trivial matter. After all, many trees that are planted this fall may outlive their owners. You should prepare to plant with longevity in mind because it’ll only happen if you select the right plant for the right place. Otherwise, your efforts and investment could become a short-lived money pit.
If you don’t like where you’re living, you can move. Few trees have that luxury. They have to stand there and take whatever nature and the environment metes out. As stressed trees’ health decline, they begin costing money for repair. When they finally give up the ghost, the cost to take them down becomes a major investment. It will then cost even more to fill the empty space left by the tree removal.
The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) suggests you ask yourself these questions and use your answers in making your tree selection and placement decisions:
• Why am I planting this tree? What functions will it serve? Large, healthy trees increase property values and make outdoor surroundings more pleasant. A deciduous shade tree that loses its leaves in fall provides cooling relief from summer’s heat while allowing the winter sun to warm your home. An ornamental tree displays beautiful flowers, leaves, bark or fruit. Evergreens with dense, persistent foliage can provide a windbreak or a screen for privacy. A tree or shrub that produces fruit can provide food for you or wildlife. Trees can also reduce runoff, filter out pollutants and add oxygen to the air we breathe.
• Is a small, medium or large tree best suited for the location and available space? Do overhead or belowground utilities preclude planting a large, growing tree — or any tree at all? What clearance is needed for sidewalks, patios, or driveways? Selecting the right form (shape) to complement the desired function (what you want the tree to do) can significantly reduce maintenance costs and increase the tree’s value in the landscape. In addition, mature tree size determines the level of benefits received. Larger trees typically provide the greatest economic and environmental returns. Depending on the site, you can choose from hundreds of form and size combinations. A low, spreading tree may be planted under overhead utility lines. A narrow, columnar evergreen may provide a screen between two buildings. Large, vase-shaped trees can create an arbor over a driveway.
Site conditions to consider when making your selection and placement decisions include soil conditions, exposure to sun and wind, drainage, space constraints, hardiness zone, human activity and insect and disease susceptibility. If the site is shady, you’ll want to select a shade tolerant tree instead of one that loves sun. You won’t want to select a tree that won’t tolerate wet feet for a low part your landscape. Hardiness is the plant’s ability to survive in the extreme temperatures of the particular geographic region where you’re planting the tree. We’re in Zone 5. Planting the wrong tree in the wrong place accounts for more tree deaths than all insect and disease related deaths combined.
• What are the soil conditions? Is enough soil of sufficient quality available to support mature tree growth? When new homes are built, the soil is often disturbed, shallow, compacted and subject to drought. Most trees will suffer in these conditions without additional care. We can take soil samples from your yard to test for texture, fertility, salinity and pH (alkalinity or acidity). These tests can be used to determine which trees are suited for your property and may include recommendations for improving poor soil conditions.
Following these ISA recommendations, which I heartily endorse, can make this an autumn to remember…the start of a long and beneficial relationship.
The best time to know where you need more plants in your landscape is when the plants you have are in bloom, or recently bloomed. That time is now. So take photos and make notes so you’ll know exactly where you need more plants and what types of plants you need. Or better yet, try some ideas now.
Spring flowering plants like bulbs and flowering shrubs are through blooming for the season. Now they’re foliage plants. Does the green of these foliage plants satisfy you? Is there balance between areas that are in summer bloom and the foliage plants that have already bloomed? Or is the void of color in part of your landscape a major distraction? This is a personal preference. I’m a woody plant lover so I like mass areas of foliage.
If you want more color, take a trip to the garden center and buy annuals. For just a bit of color to break up the green monochrome, plant annuals around the base of trees or a bed of shrubs. You should have a mulched area between the plants and the grass, walkway or whatever’s adjacent to the foliage plant(s). Foliage plant beds that border on grass can be easily expanded by removing some grass and planting annuals.
You may have a space that looks barren, devoid of either flower or foliage plants. Such a space will give you a blank slate to experiment. Consider removing the sod and plant a bed of annuals. Experiment with plants of different heights and colors with a view to replacing the annuals with perennials either this fall or next spring. Since this is an experiment, I suggest saving the sod in case you decide that the space looks better in grass than flowers and be sure to take photos.
When you cut the sod, rent a sod cutter. Depending on the size bed you’re making, you’ll cut small, flat rectangles or large rectangles that you can roll up for easy handling. Roll out black plastic on the driveway or a part of your yard where it won’t be an eyesore or kill any other plants. The area you choose should get plenty of sunlight and access to water. The sod likes plenty of both. Finally, roll out the sod on to the plastic. Makes sure it gets plenty of moisture in the form of rain, your hose, a sprinkler or a combination.
Should you decide that your new bed looks better as lawn, you can just pull the flowers out, then level and rake the ground. Before resodding, you might want to put down some pre-emergent weed killer to keep from having unwanted flowers growing up in your lawn next season. After any waiting period specified on the pre-emergent package, put the pieces of sod together like a jigsaw puzzle. Walk on it to make sure it makes good contact with the soil and water it.
An easy alternative for temporary fill-ins for flowerless areas is to use containers. Containerize annuals and place them in the area you want filled with color. If you like the color they bring to the space, leave them in place for the season and then replace the containers with low maintenance perennials. If the color doesn’t do anything for you, use the containerized plants to give plenty of color to your deck, patio, pool area or front entrance – any area that needs softening with a little color.
A landscape can never have too much color but don’t forget foliage plants. They add structure and bulk to a landscape, and they give it form. Foliage plants can also add color to your landscape without showy blooms. Choose varieties with colorful leaves and form. A weeping lace leaf Japanese red maple is a good example. Plants with variegated leaves are also good choices.If you know that an area of your landscape needs help but can’t come up with satisfying ideas, or if you prefer to enjoy your landscape without having to do the work, I suggest you work with one of our landscape designers to give your property just the look you want. And our landscape installation professionals can bring the design to life
Landscaping and gardening have a language of their own. For example, one term that some would consider an oxymoron is deadheading. You would think that deadheading would have something to do with killing a plant but it’s actually a procedure that extends a plant’s life.
Deadheading is the practice of removing spent flowers from a plant before they can go to seed. Every life process requires that energy be expended. Removing flowers when they begin looking as though they’re dying prevents them from expending energy to finish the flowering process and setting seed heads. Instead, they’ll direct that energy to blooming again to finish the reproduction process that you short circuited.
Some gardeners refer to the process of deadheading as “pinching off” the flowers. On many annuals, you can pinch the stem just below the bloom you’re removing. Some gardeners believe that pinching’s the only way to remove fading flowers. Others, me included, have no problem using tools when that will help. The stems of some annuals are just too thick to be pinched. A pair of ordinary kitchen scissors will do the trick for most annuals and many herbaceous perennials. Woody perennials are a different story.
Most flowering shrubs will only bloom once a year but it’s a good idea to deadhead them anyway just to keep them tidy. Who wants to see limp, brown, dead flowers hanging from their shrubs? Pruning shears work best for this job. You can dull kitchen scissors quickly by cutting wood with them. There’s debate over whether deadheading flowering shrubs will yield more flowers next season, but it will keep them from misdirecting energy.
Deadheading shrubs will provide you with a low impact landscaping activity on summer days when your green thumb gets itchy. Be careful when removing spent flowers, though. Look for buds and avoid them. The buds are next year’s flowers. Removing them with this year’s spent flowers will result in no blooms next year.
There’s a difference between deadheading and pruning. To deadhead, you just remove the blooms at their base. Don’t remove any wood. Pruning is for removing dead, dying, broken or rubbing branches or shoots. Pruning is also used to shape shrubs by removing or trimming back branches to maintain a particular form. This procedure is more than a simple cut at the base of a flower. Pruning cuts should be made all the way to the base of the shrub or, at least to a junction with another branch or a leaf. You don’t want to leave stubs.
If you want to do something for your landscape, even on a hot summer day, consider leisurely walking your property. The purpose: to inspect your trees for hazards. This should be done periodically throughout the year because tree needs, and hazards, change with the season. Summer is a good time to start.
Trees are much like pets. They provide you with great pleasure, but they can also be a liability for which you are responsible. Knowing the possible hazards that can turn your trees from a source of enjoyment to a source of concern can make tree ownership less worrisome and more enjoyable. Here are some hazards to keep an eye on. They were compiled by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA).
• Trees growing too close to electric wires. Tree parts that touch an energized wire can cause an outage, fire, surge or other damage. A tree in contact with a live wire can conduct electricity to the ground, causing injury to anyone who touches it. Keeping wires and trees separated is essential.
• Large, dead branches in a tree.
• Detached branches hanging in trees.
• Cavities or rotten wood along the trunk or in major branches.
• Mushrooms at the base of a tree.
• Cracks or splits in the trunk or where branches are attached.
• Branches that have fallen from the tree.
• Adjacent trees that have fallen over or died.
• A trunk that has developed a strong lean.
• Major branches arising from one point on the trunk.
• Roots that have been broken off, injured or damaged by lowering the soil level, installing pavement, repairing sidewalks or digging trenches.
• Recent site changes due to construction, raising the soil level or installing lawns.
• Leaves that have prematurely developed an unusual color or size.
• Tree removals from adjacent wooded areas.
• Topping or heavy pruning of trees.
• Forked trunk with branches and stems equal in size.
Trees may appear strong and majestic, and they are. But they are also very complex organisms. These two factors are why tree care isn’t a DIY activity. As you inspect your trees, the only task for you to do is pick up any fallen branches. Everything else is a job for our professional arborists. If a tree on your property has any of the conditions in the checklist, there’s the danger of branches falling on you, and believe me, they’re heavy. People have been killed by falling branches. If rot is present, there’s a chance that portions of the tree will break when you put weight on them. Or the whole tree could topple injuring you and any bystanders and damaging property.
July and August are called the dog days of summer for a reason. Many people like to lie down and sleep on a hot afternoon, just like a dog does. Kind of lazy like. Well if you and your dog feel lazy and just want to be left alone, what makes you think your landscape plants want to be pampered on hot days?
I recommend that you get everything done now and then just sit back and take in the beauty. One thing you can do is make sure your plants have sufficient water. They like an inch a week. If you don’t have an irrigation system, you could set up a network of soaker hoses. Then you’ll be ready to water them, if need be. All you’ll have to do is turn the spigot(s) on a quarter turn. Turning them on any further can cause the soaker hoses to burst.
You may have to prioritize to keep your water bill from going through the roof. I recommend placing young and newly planted trees and shrubs at the top of the list, followed by perennials. Losing these plants will result in the greatest financial loss. Watering annuals depends on your budget and ambition. If they should be changed out soon, don’t bother. Let them run their natural course and then change them out and keep the fresh plants watered.
Watering your lawn is costly and time consuming. Nature has equipped turf with a defense mechanism. Lawns go dormant when it’s hot and dry. That’s why the grass turns brown. When the temperatures cool and the rain returns, it will green up again. Caution 1: Avoid walking on the brown grass. You’ll break the blades and leave unsightly footprints. And, if you shouldn’t walk on dormant grass, you certainly shouldn’t mow. Caution 2: Be sure you fertilize now if your lawn needs a late spring fertilization. Fertilizing during the dog days can burn the grass when it’s dormant.
One task you can do all summer is deadhead your flowers. Deadheading is removing spent flowers before they go to seed. This enables the plant to redirect its energy to producing another flush of flowers, rather than dropping seeds. Also, make sure all your plants are well mulched. Mulch moderates soil temperatures, cooling it in summer and warming it in winter.If you really feel ambitious, you might consider building paths, if you don’t already have them, so you can walk through your landscape without having to walk through your planting beds or across your lawn.
A lot of emphasis is being placed on landscaping for small spaces because more and more busy people are opting for smaller yards. If that’s the trend, where does that leave the owners of big landscapes? It can leave the creative person with the best of several worlds. You could divide your large garden into several small, themed gardens, or outdoor rooms.
Some of the theme gardens to consider include…
• Cottage Garden. Quite common in the United Kingdom, where properties tend to be small, cottage gardens are full of colorful plants, spaced close together to discourage weeds. The gardens often look as though seeds were scattered in the garden and they grew randomly. Actually, they’re carefully planned and planted, and they’re meticulously cared for.
• Wildflower Garden. At first blush, a wildflower garden may seem like the American equivalent of a cottage garden. However, the seeds for these gardens are purchased as mixtures and scattered, much like planting a lawn. Also called meadow gardens, wildflowers are often planted on hillsides and other large, hard to manage pieces of property. They usually have to be mowed only in the fall so that the seeds that fell on the ground can grow next spring. Buy only branded seed mixes. Bargain mixes may contain weed seeds and others that you don’t want.
• Cutting Garden. This is a utilitarian garden of flowers you’ll cut and display in vases in your home. You can plant either in rows or any creative shape you want.
• Pollinator Garden. A pollinator garden can be free standing or simply bright colored, deep flowers and plants caterpillars like mixed into another garden. You should have a butterfly house and water puddler nearby, too. Don’t worry about bees; they can find your garden from their hives miles away.
• Edible Garden. This is just another word for a vegetable garden. It, too, can be free standing planted either in traditional rows or as you’d plant an ornamental garden. Or you can be trendy and mix edibles and ornamentals in a single garden.
• Secret/Meditation Garden. This should be a completely enclosed space planted mostly with foliage plants and, possibly, a few flowering plants. The mood should be tranquil and relaxing – a place where you can retreat to and shut the world out.
• Japanese Garden. More often than not, your garden would be a Japanese style garden rather than an authentic Japanese garden. If you’re going to design your own, I recommend researching Japanese gardens online or at the library. There are very definite rules for plants and their placement, as well as hardscape features like statuary and rocks. Japanese gardens usually require more space than the other styles discussed above.
Ideas are endless. The mix of styles is limited only by your imagination. The number and size of each garden depends on the size of your property, as well as the ambiance you want to create. If you need help with the design and installation, we have a staff of creative landscape designers who can take the stress out of evolving an idea into a cohesive plan that you or our installation professionals can bring to reality.
Wildlife, birds and pollinators should all be considered when planning a new landscape or changes to your present landscape. Do you want to attract wildlife? Would you prefer that the furry creatures not visit but birds are welcome? Surely you want pollinators, unless you or someone in your family is allergic to bees.
The wild guests you’ll welcome will influence the plant material you specify. All wildlife need food, water, shelter and a place to bear and raise their young. If you want to attract mammals, investigate what mammals live in your area and specify the plants they like to eat. Keep in mind that wild animals have a mind of their own, as evidenced by the damage that’s done to woody plants every winter by deer and rodents. Remember, too, that they can bite and scratch if you try to be too friendly, and some carry diseases like rabies.
Perhaps it would be wiser to keep them close enough that you can enjoy their antics but far enough from your living area that they’re less apt to do any damage. Then plant their food sources near the edge of your property. Research what kind of shelter they need and put that further out, too. A water feature in your outback would provide them with their hydration needs. If you don’t want to attract wildlife, discourage them by not providing any of their necessities.
Birds have the same four basic needs as mammals. Getting birds to visit is as easy as providing for those needs. Putting out bird feeders is sure to bring them to your yard. Before you buy bird seed, make a list of the birds that visit your yard so you can buy a seed mix they like. Be sure to buy, or build, bird feeders that are difficult for squirrels to access. They’ll scare the birds away and make a mess of the seed. To provide water for birds to drink and bathe in only requires a birdbath that can be purchased at any garden or home center.
Most birds are very particular about their shelter. Robins will nest almost anywhere – in trees, in birdhouses, in the eaves of your house. Wrens like birdhouses. They are the birds that settle into homemade birdhouses the most. When making birdhouses, be sure the entry hole is the right size for the bird you want to attract. If it’s too big, a lazy bird you don’t want may take over the house.
Bluebirds will use birdhouses for winter shelter, as well as a nesting shelter to raise their young. Cardinals also like birdhouses but they and blue jays will also roost in thick evergreens. If you have a mosquito problem, you may want to attract purple martins. These birds like to live in special apartment houses, which are sold at specialty bird supply stores and online. The employees at a specialty bird store can give you advice on attracting the various birds that call your area home.
Attracting pollinators is all the rage these days because the bee population is dying off and monarch butterflies are in decline. If you have annuals or perennials with bright colored flowers then you’ll attract pollinators. If bees visit your yard, you don’t have to worry about providing shelter. Their apiary may be miles away but they’ll find their way home. Hummingbirds, also good pollinators, roost in their nests or in tree branches, often sleeping upside down.
Butterflies need the most help. The adults suck nectar from flowers, and in the process pick up pollen on their feet. They deposit the pollen on another flower when they stop for another drink. However, one of the best things you can do to attract butterflies is to plant food for their young. Monarchs, for example, will only lay their eggs on milkweed plants because their caterpillars will only eat milkweed leaves. Milkweeds aren’t the most attractive plant so you might want to plant them in a less prominent place in your yard. The butterflies will find them.
You can help these beautiful workers by investing in a butterfly house, also known as a butterfly box, and a puddler, which is a shallow vessel butterflies use to drink and bathe from. You can find these online or at specialty bird stores. The staff at the bird store can also provide you with information on what species live in your area and their caterpillars’ food needs.
If you want to attract wildlife, birds and/or pollinators without doing the necessary work and research, our landscape designers are fauna experts as well as flora experts. All you have to do is share your desires with them and they will take it from there.
Water isn’t scarce here. We have the Finger Lakes to the south and Lake Ontario to the north. But that’s no reason to waste water. After all, most of us have to pay for each gallon we use. Luckily, we seldom have to irrigate our established landscapes.
New plants do need supplemental water if they don’t receive at least an inch a week from precipitation. Once they’re established, they will also like at least the inch a week. However, the roots of many established plants find a reliable water source, except when we experience a drought. You may have to irrigate some of your plants this season because rainfall for the year is well below last year’s level. Keep an eye on your plants and irrigate any that begin to look droopy and stressed.
When planning new landscape, or changes to your present landscape, here are some water conservation techniques to consider:
• Check the nursery tags of the plants you’re planning to buy. They should have a section on water requirements. Look for those that say, “Drought Tolerant.” No plant is drought loving, except possibly some succulents that won’t grow here anyway. But there are plenty of drought tolerant plants at area garden centers.
• A landscape of all drought tolerant plants might not satisfy your aesthetic desire. In your design, you can group your plants according to water needs to conserve water. If you do have to irrigate, you’ll be able to snake soaker hoses around the group and water them all for the same amount of time.
• Use the terrain in your yard for water conservation. Plant those that need the most water in the lowest area of your yard and those that need less water on higher ground. Then, when it rains, the plants on the higher ground will receive the water they need and the excess will flow downhill to supplement the rain falling on the thirstier plants. You can see that principal at work in nature. You seldom see trees like willows or cottonwoods growing on a hill. They’ll be in the lowest, soggiest place. On top of the hill, you’ll find plants that aren’t fussy and need only minimal moisture.
• Use mulch liberally. Organic mulch, such as wood chips, is one of the best water conservation measures. The mulch absorbs water and then releases it slowly. It prevents a belly gushing rain storm from flooding the site. Lots of rain all at once runs off before it can soak into the soil. Mulch holds the water and releases it gradually. As the mulch decomposes, it returns organic matter to the soil to nourish the plants. Spreading one or two inches of mulch in every planting bed and two or three inches under every tree is one of the healthiest ways to a beautiful landscape. You can buy mulch in bags at your garden center for small properties. For the average suburban landscape, however, it’s less expensive to buy in bulk. We can deliver it by the cubic yard and dump in your driveway for you to spread, or we can spread it for you.
If you incorporate these suggestions into your landscape, you’ll spend less time tending to your landscape and more time enjoying it. You can sit on the deck or patio sipping a nice, cool drink of the water you didn’t have to use to irrigate your plants.
Memorial Day is the unofficial start to the gardening season in New York’s Rochester and Finger Lakes region. That day was selected for both edible and ornamental gardens and landscapes because we can be pretty sure there won’t be any more frosts or freezes this spring.
With Covid still on people’s minds, this three-day holiday weekend will find many families staying at home. That doesn’t mean you have to stay in the house. You can have a fun filled staycation outdoors planting a garden. Make it a family affair.
Planting annuals and vegetables affords you an opportunity for the whole family to get involved. As a family, walk your property to see where annuals and veggies should be planted. If you’re familiar with flowering annuals, you can make a list of the number of each variety you need to fill your spaces. Estimate on the high side so you can plant them close together and discourage weeds. If you aren’t that familiar with the various plants, measure your beds and then rely on the nursery tag information and advice from the garden center horticulturists to guide you in making your choices. Also let the garden center horticulturists guide you as to which plants to buy as seeds and which to buy in pots and six packs.
Include in your plan an area just for the children to plant and take care of. While it’s up to you whether you plant veggies in rows or mix them in with the flowers, I suggest that the kids’ garden be a mix of both. It will show them the difference between ornamentals and edibles as they grow side by side. They will also get great satisfaction from being able to pick and eat the fruits of their labor. Can’t you see the smiles on their faces as they pick juicy red tomatoes fresh from the vine, bite into them as the juice runs down their chin? I hope you have your phone with you to take a photo you can cherish forever. Last but not least, combination gardens are very trendy today. As long as you’re teaching them to garden, you might as well teach them the most modern way. Who knows, you might want to plant the grown-up gardens the same way.
If you take the whole family to the garden center, everyone can have a say in what will be purchased. There’s no sense in buying annuals that don’t appeal to other members of the family or veggies that won’t get eaten. When you get home, you might want to begin by helping the kids get their garden planted first, especially if they’re excited about getting started. You have a three-day weekend and, hopefully, more patience than the young ones.
A Memorial Day weekend like this, modified in the face of a pandemic, can become a family tradition for many Memorial Days ahead.
The gypsy moths are back in greater numbers than last year. It’s only the beginning of June and all of the tan egg cases haven’t even hatched. Yet, we’re seeing all kinds of destruction.
There are so many gypsy moth caterpillars that they’re eating any tree they can find. Although their preferred diet is oaks and maples, they’re even eating conifers this year like white pines and blue spruces. While deciduous trees can survive a year or two of a gypsy moth infestation before succumbing to this pest, I don’t believe conifers have that resilience, and expect that we’ll see an unusually high number of fatalities among evergreens.
As if the destruction they wreak on our trees isn’t bad enough, gypsy moth caterpillars make a mess of the properties on which infested trees are located. When a tree canopy becomes overloaded with caterpillars, the weaker ones either fall out of the tree or are pushed out by their stronger relatives. As a result, back yard toys, outdoor furniture, cars and walkways are covered with these hairy caterpillars, identified by parallel rows of red and blue dots on their backs. Some choose to change trees. They spin silk threads to take them down to the ground and land on passerby’s clothes and get tangled in the hair. Those that land on walkways also create a slipping hazard for pedestrians.
Our plant health professionals are spraying smaller trees with a fast-acting insecticide and are injecting material directly into the trunks of large trees. Upon request, they can also apply Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), a bacteria that only attacks caterpillars. However, this organic treatment requires a couple of weeks to begin working and often requires multiple applications for control. Most property owners prefer a single treatment that begins eliminating this pest in days.
Its best to treat your trees now, while the gypsy moth caterpillars are small and weak. They’ll continue to grow all summer, reaching up to two inches. Then they’ll come down the tree, pupate in the soil, emerge as adults, mate, climb up the tree, lay their eggs, and the cycle of destruction will start all over again.
The gypsy moth is an invasive species but not in the sense of some of the more recent invaders who came here undetected in packing material. In the 1860s, gypsy moths were imported from Europe in an effort to establish a silk industry in the United States. Some of the caterpillars escaped and, as they say, the rest is history.
Since gaining their freedom more than 150 years ago, the gypsy moth decimated trees in New England, where the “experiments” were being conducted. They then spread into adjacent states and to the Midwest. Much of the spread has been aided by unwittingly motorists. Gypsy moths lay their eggs in places other than trees, including the undersides of vehicles like campers.
Upon its arrival here, the gypsy moth had no natural enemies. Today, they are subject to attack by some other insects, pathogens, birds and mammals. However, when gypsy moth caterpillars are devouring your valuable trees and raining down on your family and possessions, I doubt if you want to wait for nature to take its course. Our professionally applied control treatment will help you get back to enjoying life again quickly.
