MENUYou probably thought you were done with tests once you finished school, but nooo — lawns, gardens and other landscaping areas need soil tests every so often! Luckily, these are easily managed projects with important benefits for the long-term health, vigor, growth and beauty of your landscape.
The why of it
Soil in any landscape, whether it’s a small flower garden or a huge commercial property, can develop a wide range of issues. Either naturally because of your setting or region, or over time due to changing weather conditions, new plantings, fertilizer use, pesticide use, chemical runoff from neighboring properties, organic matter breaking down, etc., the soil in your landscape can lack nutrients that trees, shrubs and flowers need to thrive and look their best. It takes a professional soil test to know if your plants need more or different types of nutrients.
What to look for
The soil in your landscape or garden has to provide a certain level of nutrients and quality for everything living in it to do well. That means an ideal pH — a balance of acidic and alkaline levels in the soil leading to a neutral environment. If the soil in your landscape has issues, your plants will let you know. You might see browning or dying leaves, stunted growth, wilting, foliage turning yellow, and other symptoms of soil that is too acidic.
How it works
Soil testing is pretty straightforward. Our landscape professional will take samples to measure the pH level in
various locations throughout your landscape — how acidic or alkaline the soil might be.
While garden and home centers do offer a wide range of tools for doing this yourself, the results will depend on how well the soil sample is taken and assessed, so you might want to use a professional for this process. Even if you perform a soil test on your own, it’s smart to turn to the pros for your next steps.
If the soil in your landscape is too acidic or alkaline, don’t despair: Our landscape professionals can help with remediation. We will look for the ideal soil quality for your area and plantings. With that information in hand, it might be suggested that new planting choices that will be happier in your soil environment should be considered. But often we provide advice about ways to improve the soil quality so your existing plants can thrive as well as performing the treatment.
Passing the test
Once the soil testing is done, you can sit back and let your garden grow. Enjoy knowing that your landscape is healthy and ready to carry you through the next few seasons with your mind at peace.
As the weather improves, your green thumb may start getting itchy. The weather may not be good enough to do any planting or bed preparation yet but there are some things you can do that will get you out of the house and into the yard.On a nice day with no snow, may I suggest that you walk your yard looking for weeds, and pull them. Weeds are dormant now but many come back to life and begin growing before your lawn does. This means that the weeds have a head start on the grass and can begin crowding it out.
While the weeds you see have a head start, there are more weed seeds lurking just under the soil surface waiting for the soil to warm up. Unless you applied pre-emergent weed killer last fall, these will germinate as soon as the thermometer reaches the right temperature.Pulling dormant weeds in your lawn and planting beds now will keep you ahead in the annual war on weeds. Instead of being overwhelmed with both the dormant weeds and freshly germinated seeds, you’ll only have to worry about the newly germinated seeds once the busy growing season starts.While checking for weeds, it would be wise to also check the mulch in your planting beds. If it has settled to less than 3 inches, you might want to fluff it up. If it’s doesn’t return to at least 3 inches, getting more mulch and spreading it on a snow-free weekend will protect your plant roots and discourage weed germination. If it fluffs up to 4 inches or more, remember to remove the excess in the spring so you only have 2 or 3 inches.During your walk of the property, take a garbage bag and pick up any trash that has blown into your yard over the winter. You may be shocked to see how much you collect. It’s surprising to see how much stuff is under the snow. Collecting this trash during your winter walk(s) speeds clean up when it’s spring cleaning time.Doing these little tasks as you limber your green thumb during the winter means that you can get right to the good stuff – caring for your lawn and landscape – when spring actually arrives.
Plants aren’t the only part of a landscape that needs ongoing maintenance. Hardscapes can also suffer wear and tear at the hands of Mother Nature. Since most hardscape items are put away or covered up for the winter, they are out of sight, out of mind until you open them up for the season, only to find that you have to take precious fair weather time to make repairs.Take a tip from the professionals and use winter wisely to do needed maintenance so you can get a running start in spring as soon as the last frost melts. Sure, it’s only the middle of February but that famous rodent didn’t see his shadow, which means spring could come early. If the weather runs true to form, we’ll start seeing more good days than bad. Not enough to go out and buy new flowering plants but enough for you to start preparing your non-growing items.
Removable fabric furniture covers like cushion or pillow coverings should be removed in the fall, regardless of whether you store the furniture inside or outside. These fabrics should be laundered sometime during the winter. After a season outside, they are sure to have picked up dust and dirt, and if they’ve gotten wet, they may have mold or mildew that needs to be taken care of.The best way to begin your hardscape maintenance is to make a plan. Jot down all the hardscape maintenance tasks that await you. Then prioritize them. Which ones can you do in the garage or shed? Which need good weather because they have to be done outside?Jobs that can be done in the garage or shed may include cleaning and servicing the gas grill. Painting, upholstering or repairing furniture may also be done inside. This should be work for rainy or snowy weekends. Save the outside jobs like masonry repairs or fixing the water feature for better weather. By gathering all the material and tools you’ll need before starting any project, you can decide on each weekend’s work at the last minute. If something has to dry or cure, be sure to check the weather forecast for the few days following the weekend to be sure you have enough time.If your patio pavers need leveling, try to hold that off until March or even early April when you’re pretty confident that the frost threat has passed., Heaving caused by frost may be one of the reasons why the patio needs leveling.All during the winter, it’s a good idea to keep your deck or patio free of ice and snow. This can reduce the need for repairs. Minor snowfalls are best removed with a broom, rather than a shovel. For heavier snowfalls in which shoveling is needed, use a plastic, rather than metal, shovel. This will reduce the chance of scratching the deck or patio surface.Avoid chemical deicers like salt that can leave stains and pit the surface. If you really need to melt ice, try cat litter. It’s much less abrasive.
People will place plants anywhere they’ll grow. First containers gained popularity. Then raised beds became all the rage. Today, it’s vertical gardens.Vertical gardens aren’t new. Several decades ago, a local company manufactured modular, plastic vertical gardens that they marketed to grow food in areas like deserts that are difficult to farm. The Longwood Gardens green wall, pictured in my January 1 post, was built in 2010. The vertical garden photo shown here was taken at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in 2012.
Vertical gardens and green walls are becoming trendy now because more people are opting for smaller properties, which means they need planting beds with smaller footprints. So, they are doing the same with gardens as develop[ers have done with buildings. When there’s no more ground to build on, they start building upward.Vertical gardens aren’t limited to space-challenged folks. Some are accents in larger landscapes. Others are used instead of hedges or other plants to define spaces within a landscape. Still others are being installed just to be trendy.There are a number of ways that plants can be held in place in vertical gardens. If interested, make mounting systems part of your research when designing a vertical garden. Keep in mind that they are containerized plants so they’ll need the same special attention as traditional containerized plants. Most notably, they’ll likely have to be watered more often than in-ground plants. However, there are a number of self watering systems available. I’ve seen one that waters plants at the top and lets the water drip down, watering the lower plants as it drops. Any water that makes it all the way to the bottom is collected and recycled.Overwintering is another consideration you’ll have to deal with. When buying plants, discuss overwintering with a horticulturist at your garden center. They may recommend perennials that are hardy to a zone or two colder than where you live. Or, you can plant annuals and throw them on the compost pile in the winter. Then replant in the spring.If you are interested in joining the vertical garden evolution, you have a number of ways to do it. You can go to a home store to buy the frame and mounting material and to your local garden center to buy the plants and build your vertical garden from scratch. Garden centers also sell kits so you can go the “some assembly required” route. If you just want to enjoy the beauty of a vertical garden in your landscape, our designers can design one to compliment your current landscape or integrate it into a new or renovated landscape. And our installation professionals can handle all the fabrication details.Vertical gardens aren’t limited to the outside. They are also available for indoor use. Some are mounted on the wall instead of art or photos. Other configurations make nice room dividers. Indoor vertical gardens are also available in kit form.
Shrubs can take a beating in winter. The wind can break branches. Snow piled on top of them can bend branches over, even to the ground. Overly saturated soil can cause the whole shrub to lean while frequent freeze/thaw cycles can cause them to come right out of the ground. Evergreen shrubs may have brown patches from winter burn.The time to make some repairs is as soon after the damage occurs and weather permits. Others should be held off until spring. Here is some of the common winter damage to shrubs and repairs that can be made:• Snow bends shrub branches. Resist the temptation to knock the snow off. This can cause them to spring back
and could result in internal cracking. Wait for the snow to melt. Usually, the branches will gradually return to their normal shape. Just be patient. If spring comes and they haven’t returned to their natural shape, you can try tying them together. If that doesn’t work, the sagging branches will have to be removed.• Branches break. Broken branches need to be pruned or removed. When the weather permits, cut the broken branch just above the first live bud or leaf that’s below the break. If the branch is too badly damaged, remove it at the base. DON’T leave stubs. If in doubt whether a branch is alive, lightly scratch the bark. If the next layer is green, it’s alive. If it’s gray, it’s dead.• Brown patches appear on needled evergreens and leaves wilt on broadleaf evergreens. These indicate winter burn due to desiccation (drying out). The wind blew water given off through the leaves/needles before the shrub could reabsorb it and reuse it in photosynthesis. The first day above 40 degrees, spray your evergreens with antidesiccant to reduce the chance of further winter burn. Broadleaf evergreens will drop their winter burned leaves and may fill in the area with new leaves. If not, prune the dead foliage and wood. Burned needles won’t regenerate, so the brown areas have to be pruned.• Critter browsing. Branches that deer have chewed on can be pruned back to live buds. Branches low on a shrub that are chewed by rodents may recover on their own in the spring, unless they’ve girdled the branch by chewing all the way around it. In that case, the branch should be removed.• Frost heave. This condition is caused by freezing and thawing of the ground. Shallow rooted shrubs can actually be pushed up out of the ground. Those that aren’t completely out of the ground may be able to be pushed back into place when the ground is thawed. Those that are pushed completely out of the ground or that will not go back in should be replanted when the ground thaws.All of the do-it-yourself information above pertains only to shrubs, although much of the same winter damage applies to trees as well. Repairing trees, however, is too dangerous. The only winter damage repair to trees we recommend is contacting us to request an arborist to inspect your trees and make repair recommendations. Our arborists can also repair your shrubs if you’d rather not do it yourself.
Sustainability has become the mantra for the new decade. However, everyone seems to have their own definition of sustainability. As with any such thing, there are extremes and most of us fall right in the middle.Here are some things you can do to make your landscape more sustainable this spring. None of these suggestions is extreme. They are all done easily and will likely be an aesthetic as well as environmental improvement for your landscape. Each will contribute to your property’s sustainability and reduce your maintenance needs.Plant native plants. As I’ve written before, the strict definition of native plants is next to impossible to apply since we’ve been hybridizing plants and trading seeds with other countries since colonial times. My definition is a plant with its roots in our area that has been planted successfully here for many years. That includes nativars – cultivars[caption id="attachment_1304" align="alignleft" width="262"]
These two river birches we are pruning are native trees. The arbor vitae behind them are also native. Non Native Asian arbor vitae are available in some areas of the country.[/caption]of native plants. (Cultivars are plants bred by horticulturists for specific characteristics) I also use many introduced plants that have been grown here for many years and behave themselves.Native plants attract pollinators, birds and wildlife. Of course, you may not want to attract wildlife. If you plant their favorite food source, they could leave you with a mess. So, that’s a decision you’ll have to make. Attracting pollinators, however, is important, and takes some planning so you have plants that butterflies and beneficial insects need to survive.Native plants also save water, even though we seldom have to irrigate here in Western New York. They should also need less fertilizer and little or no pesticides. That statement doesn’t take into consideration exotic pests that come to our shores from other countries.Reduce your lawn area. This also contributes to sustainability, as well as reducing the time you spend mowing. And when you spend less time mowing, you are using less gas and you spend less time maintaining your lawn. Convert lawn area to planting beds or meadowland, or add a patio or outdoor living area. Less water, fertilizer and pesticide is also good for the environment.Besides reducing your workload, a meadowland will attract wildlife, support pollinators and clean the air. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), running a gas powered mower for an hour emits as much pollution as taking a 20 mile road trip in your car.Implementing these tips takes planning, which you can do at your leisure during the winter downtime. If you would rather have a professional touch, one of our landscape designers can help you to any extent you want. They also have time over the winter to help you define sustainability from their perspective.
Weather conditions control tree growth. They react to temperature and light, and cold temperatures, short days, as well as winter dormancy provide ideal pruning conditions. You could say, if fall is for planting then winter is for pruning.That doesn’t mean going out with your chainsaw and starting to cut just because it’s winter. It means inspecting your trees to determine if they really need pruning. Pruning shouldn’t be guided only by the calendar. It should be guided by the calendar and the tree(s). Arboricultural best practices direct us to prune with a purpose. First, inspect your tree(s) to determine if they…• Have broken, hanging, crossing or rubbing branches.
• Suffer from an insect or disease attack.• Overhang structures.• Block a vista.• Block traffic visibility.• Need thinning.• Need to be reduced in size.If any of these conditions exist, the tree(s) should be pruned. If none of these conditions exist, you’re lucky and don’t need to worry about pruning. If you are on the fence, one of our professional arborists can inspect your trees and make recommendations.If your trees do need pruning, please get any thoughts of doing it yourself out of your mind quickly. There are good reasons why our arborists use personal protective equipment (PPE). Our work is dangerous, even for professionals. It’s even more dangerous for amateurs.Our arborists always wear eye and ear protection. The reason for that is obvious. They also wear helmets because “struck by” (being struck by a falling or swinging limb) is one of the major causes of injury and death in tree care operations. You’ll never see a professional arborist pruning while standing on a ladder. It’s too easy to slip and fall. They always secure themselves in the tree with ropes or work from an aerial bucket.Winter is a good season to prune because, with no leaves, we can see the tree’s skeletal structure, and the cutting wounds will be well calloused (healed) before insects and diseases become active again in spring. Frozen ground will support our heavy equipment and clean-up is easier when we don’t lose leaves as we drag cuttings to the chipper.All the while we are pruning, you can stay in the nice, warm house and watch. And when we’re finished, you’ll be safe and happy and your trees will be safe and happy.
New trends in gardening emerge every year. You might like to try some while others may not appeal to you. The industry authority on current gardening trends is the garden trends report, published each year by the Green Media Group. Published for the last 20 years, this report reflects the things people are doing with their landscapes nationwide. In recent years, it has focused on how social trends influence landscaping.[caption id="attachment_1290" align="alignleft" width="199"]
This great example of a green wall, completed in 2010, is at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.[/caption]This year is no exception. The report notes that half the population lives in cities. That number is expected to rise to 70% by 2050. While we are seeing a return to city living in Rochester, it doesn’t reach the national numbers. Urban living has led to a dramatic interest in houseplants among apartment and condo residents. Young urbanites even call themselves “Plant Parents,” and there is a company by that name that offers plant care services when owners are away.Full scale landscaping of city residential lots can be a creative and fun endeavor. We have some impressive, small space city landscapes here in Rochester but you have to know the owners in order to arrange a tour. If you are considering moving to a home on a small city lot, you should meet with one of our landscape designers during the winter. They have countless creative, small garden design ideas. If you’re looking for more ideas and want to see what’s possible, visit some of the garden shows and tours available throughout western New York. One of my favorite places to learn about these events is gardensbuffaloniagara.com. A visit to Buffalo the last weekend in July for Garden Walk Buffalo will introduce you to creative designs with plants that are appropriate for our hardiness zone. Hundreds of people open their private gardens for this free tour. A considerable number of the most spectacular landscapes are concentrated in several adjacent city neighborhoods. I recommend the cottage district tour, which is comprised almost entirely of small space landscapes.Regardless of where you live, sustainability is expected to be an important consideration. Green walls, edible plants, native plants and good stewardship are being emphasized. The idea of the circular economy promoting repair, renew, reuse and recycle that began several years ago is starting to really take hold. Planned obsolescence and our throw away mindset are giving way to restoration and renewability.Regenerative gardening is a new movement within organic gardening. Its objective is to preserve our precious topsoil and stop the land damaging practices that have already claimed a third of this growing medium. Regenerative practices include the use of compost, planting native plants to attract pollinators and beneficial insects, and regenerating habitat for frogs and other endangered amphibians, If we disregard all these warnings, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warns that our topsoil could all be gone by 2050.Last but not least, the report suggests that fungi may be the saviors of the world. Mushrooms have been found that can eat plastic and then be eaten by humans.Oh yes. What will the color of the year be in 2020? The garden trends report says it will be indigo, so be sure to include plants with blue flowers in your landscape this spring.Happy New Year!
I’ve just finished reading about a trend that leaves me aghast! Robert Hudson Westover, with the USDA Forest Service, wrote a story, entitled “Brown Furniture is the New Green.” In the story, published in the December issue of Tree Care Industry magazine, he describes a trend away from wood furniture by young people. This trend extends to new wood furniture, too.Much of this unwanted heirloom furniture is being burned or ending up in landfills. Besides losing pieces of history, we are also adding to our environmental problems. Wood is a carbon bank. Carbon is the primary ingredient in wood and, while living, trees use the carbon dioxide that we exhale in the process of photosynthesis. As trees grow, they store more and more carbon and they hold it until they are burned or decay. The stored carbon is then released back into the atmosphere, where we don’t need it.
I suspect that much of this aversion to wood is because some people have bought into the misguided myth that cutting down trees – any trees – is a bad thing. The truth is that trees are crops just like grain, fruit and vegetables . They aren’t going to stop eating bread because the whole wheat stalk was cut for the kernels at the top because wheat is a renewable resource. Farmers plant more seed, which yields another crop. Trees are also a renewable resource. When forest or woodlot owners cut one, they plant one or more new ones.If we save the furniture and other wood products that we own, that wood continues to store carbon. The new trees that are planted then begin storing carbon, too, carbon they will carry with them until they are burned or decay.The alternative materials for furniture – metal and plastic – are not renewable resources. Once metal is mined from the ground, it doesn’t grow back. Once petroleum or other materials are converted to plastic, they can no longer revert back to their natural state. There goes the environmental argument.If young people are turned off by the size, weight and style of classic and antique wood furniture, many lighter weight, simpler, modern, wood furniture is on the market. Those who eschew the classic designs of wood furniture for environmental reasons can still embrace clean air by acquiring modern wood furniture. And, there is a market for the antique and classic furniture. They can literally have their cake and eat it too.
Snowplows are a necessary evil in our corner of the world. After a snowfall, the sounds of snowplows are welcome to those who want to travel, but not for landscapes.
The snowplow operator’s job is to clear the road or driveway, piling the snow wherever there is room. Unfortunately, that is often on top of landscape beds or against trees. Knowing that snow removal is a fact of life in the Rochester/Finger Lakes area, your best recourse begins at the planning stage when you can avoid putting landscaping in areas where snow is thrown.My observation is that most suburbanites refrain from placing a lot of landscaping in the tree lawn between the road and sidewalk. Most landscaping in the municipal right of way (usually about 35 feet from the center of the road) is limited to replaceable annuals planted around the mailbox or hardy plants around underground utility transformers. The trees in the tree lawn belong to the municipality and they are usually very hardy.Occasionally, a less hardy tree or clump of shrubs will be planted too close to the road. But the more prevalent problem is when plantings are too close to driveways.Plows can damage plants in a number of ways. The highway department plows can pile snow against trees that are too close to the road. Occasionally, they can hit a tree but that’s rare. The worst hazard for plants, even if they are further back from the road, is salt or other deicer that can be toxic to plants. These problems, except for deicer spray, also apply to driveway plowing.Snow piled against a tree places a significant amount of pressure against one side of the trunk. Over time, this practice could cause lean. It could even topple a tree with weak roots. Snow piled up against the trunk can also provide a hiding place for critters who want to dine on your tree bark. If you have trees only on one side of the driveway, you can ask the plow operator to pile as much snow as possible on the other side. That may work or it may not.It’s easy for plows to pull up grass that is unseen under the snow. Municipalities and private plow operators may come in the spring and plant new grass seed where they ripped it up. If not, you can either seed those areas yourself or collect the pieces of sod that appear after the snow melts and piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle.The take away from this post is to keep your most valuable and vulnerable plants as far away from the direct or indirect path of snowplows as possible. If you have repeated damage to a tree, wrap it with burlap as you would a tender new tree or put a snow fence around it. For damaged planting beds, move the bed and plant grass there, and plan on reseeding the grass targets every year. It’s a small price to pay for cleared roads and driveways.
Both landscape care and tennis are strenuously physical. Whether mowing your lawn with a walk-behind mower, spreading mulch or compost, weeding planting beds, or playing a game of tennis, you use muscles that you don’t normally use. To prepare for such activities, experts recommend doing warm up exercises before starting and cool down exercises at the end.Experts in both gardening and physical fitness urge exercise before and after starting your main activity. They point to Olympians and athletes in other televised sports going through an exercise routine before taking to the field, ice or court? They must be on to something.When working on your landscape, you use muscles that you may not use in any other activity, especially if you’re sedentary in your day job. That’s why it’s good to stretch those muscles and limber them up with light exercise before starting the real exertion. It’s the same reason why athletes warm up before their performances. Often, you’ll see our professionals, especially our tree climbers, go through an exercise routine before starting a job.Some of the exercises need to stretch shoulder, arm, neck and leg muscles. Others should help your breathing, especially if you have shortness of breath when mowing, stooping or even kneeling.If you belong to a gym or have a personal trainer, you may have warm up and cool down exercises that are part of your routine. Ask if they are right for your landscape activities, too. If not, the gym or trainer may be able to give you a routine. Or, you can always check the internet.I Googled “Exercises before gardening” and got more than 42 million results, including some YouTube videos. If you want to go even further and make gardening part of your fitness program, Google “Gardening exercise” and get even more results. As always, we can’t vouch for the accuracy of all that information on the internet. But, if you find exercises that interest you, discuss them with a trusted professional to see if they are right for you.Researching and developing a pre and post landscape or gardening exercise routine is a good winter activity. Use your downtime to do your research and practice the exercises in the warm comfort of your home before the season starts and you’ll be all ready for a fit start to the 2020 growing season.
Nothing can warm a cold winter day more than enjoying a festive holiday celebration with family and friends. This year, two major winter holidays are celebrated at the same time. Hanukah begins Monday (December 23) and Christmas is celebrated next Wednesday (December 25). The celebration of both holidays includes light to brighten the darkness of long winter nights. Winter begins this Saturday (December 21).It is the holiday wish of the 130 member Birchcrest Tree & Landscape family that light will add to your holiday cheer, regardless of whether the light is twinkling on a tree or glowing on a menorah.The following Wednesday (January 1), the holiday seasons all culminate in a common crescendo as we usher in the year 2020. That number reminds me of perfect vision. I hope that perfect vision prevails as we make decisions that affect the health and welfare of those we love and for whom we are responsible. Happy New Year!
There was a time when jobs were separated only by blue collar and white collar. Then came the pink collar jobs, which are those held, predominately, by women. Now we’re hearing about green collar jobs. These jobs are just now being identified by a separate collar category.Green collar workers include those working in traditional tree, landscape and lawn care positions, those who work for nurseries and garden centers, and even those working on farms and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) cooperatives. According to Garden Media’s 2020 Gardening Trends survey, horticulture jobs outnumber graduates two-to-one.If discussions about a fence-sitting high school student’s future plans comes up at holiday gatherings, you might suggest they look at green collar jobs. The survey notes that many high school students are looking for opportunities that allow them to avoid the student debt that’s strangling so many graduates today. I’m pleased to report that many top level green collar jobs only require an associates degree, vocational training or even on-the-job training.There are plenty of educational opportunities right nearby. Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua has a very good horticulture program. Many of the SUNY two year colleges offer agriculture and some, such as Cobleskill, offer horticulture as well.My alma mater, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), offers excellent four year courses in a wide variety of majors. A five-year landscape architecture program is also offered. ESF is in Syracuse, adjacent to the Carrier Dome. Students enjoy many Syracuse University amenities while paying SUNY tuition.Once a person has begun working in one of the green industry fields, they can take examinations for the certification credentials that are offered by trade associations and professional societies. Two very prestigious credentials are Certified Arborist, which is offered by the International Society of Arboriculture, and Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional, offered by the New York State Nursery & Landscape Association.Finally, the green industry is diversified. There are opportunities for women and men in all positions.. The first women were admitted to ESF (then SUNY College of Forestry) in 1956. Today it’s ranked as one of the best colleges for women.There is renewed interest in all that has to do with nature, healthy eating, beautiful landscapes and saving the planet. We just need people to step up and make it their purpose in life. And, we will reward them for their work and passion.
With the holidays right around the corner, many of us are racking our brains for gift ideas. For some reason, people who spend a lot of time working in their yards in the summer get dubbed as the person who has everything. Just because they like to garden, operate power equipment and get their hands dirty doesn’t mean they have everything. There are plenty of thoughtful gifts you can give them.
The two biggest things you have to consider are what the gift recipient likes to do in the yard and how much you want to spend. What you get depends on the extent of their involvement in the care of their yard. Are they satisfied doing the basic lawn mowing and weeding? Or are they full fledged gardeners?For the basic yard maintenance person, may I suggest a Birchcrest Tree & Landscape gift certificate? This can be applied to any of our services, which can range from a Plant Health Care or lawn care contract to a complete landscape design and installation.If your Saturday lawn mowing friend lets the sun beat on their head or just wears a baseball cap, you might present them with a wide brimmed hat to cover such vulnerable areas as their ears and neck. Or maybe one of those fancy water bottles for them to keep hydrated.For the avid gardener, the choices are endless. They include hats, gloves, tools, decorative plant containers, or a Birchcrest gift certificate so we can do the maintenance work and they can do the fun stuff. If your gardener friend is also an indoor gardener who enjoys house plants, you might consider a beautiful house plant. Not a seasonal plant like poinsettia but one that will provide pleasure all year long.Other gift ideas may include a gardening book or magazine subscription. These are gifts you can buy online without even leaving home, and the recipient can begin using your gift right away, without having to wait for spring.I hope we’ve given you some good ideas for gifts that the gardener would like. Now, instead of trying to decide what to get your outdoor person, you’ll have to decide which of the many possible gifts would be most appreciated. Who knows; when you begin searching garden supply websites, you may find something that you can’t live without, either.
This Thursday, we Americans will take a pause from our daily routine to gather with family and friends to observe a day of Thanksgiving. Early in our education, we all learned about the history of the holiday, beginning with the Pilgrims feasting with a New England tribe of Native Americans, who taught them how to survive in this unfamiliar land. After our feast, we will adjourn to a nearby television set to take part in a much more modern tradition – watching football.I can’t help reflecting on a bit of horticulture history that has come full circle. It’s believed that the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow what they called the “three sisters.” The three sisters are three late season vegetables that are easily preserved through the winter. The three are corn (maize), winter squash and beans.Corn grows tall, providing the beans with stalks to climb. Beans are legumes that return nitrogen to the soil to keep it fertile. Squash leaves creep along the ground, providing cover so the soil doesn’t erode away. The rough surface of the leaves and stems discourage foraging animals from harvesting the beans before the people can. And all of the produce can be preserved without refrigeration.The modern twist on the three sisters? Today’s sustainable gardeners are planting corn, beans, and squash, except that they call it companion planting.At their Thanksgiving dinners, many families serve corn (often the only vegetable young children will eat), beans (the ubiquitous green bean casserole) and squash. What a teaching moment!On behalf of the Birchcrest Tree & Landscape family, I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.
When herbaceous perennials finish flowering for the season, we naturally want to cut them back, often to the ground. This year you may want to leave some intact for winter interest. Sure, they may be brown but brown contrasts with white snow.
Herbaceous plants are those with leaves and non-woody stems. Herbaceous perennials are those that die back to the ground every year but grow back the next spring. Their roots stay alive, though dormant. Hostas are good examples. Other perennials are woody shrubs like lilacs and viburnums.Some perennials grow so low that they won’t be seen above the snow. Others, however, grow taller so they will protrude out of the snow banks. Before the snow flies herbaceous perennials that have died back may not be particularly attractive. , After a snow fall, these plants can provide a nice break from the endless sea of white outside our windows. As the photo shows, even brown plants can add nice texture to a winter scene.Before cutting back perennials, I suggest that you look at them not as dead pants but rather whether they can add winter interest to your otherwise monochromatic (white) yard. Leave those that will show above the snow and cut and compost the rest.There are a few winter blooming perennials that will grow in the northeast. Pansies are perhaps the best known but hellebores, snowdrops and some varieties of phlox will also add color to your landscape on those drab days of winter.Woody perennials (trees and shrubs) won’t die back to the ground but the deciduous plants lose their leaves and go dormant in winter. Only a few, witch hazel for example, may flower in winter. Others add winter interest in other ways. Dogwood shrubs show off their red branches in winter while holly shrubs display their red berries. Holly plants are dioecious, which means male and female flowers are on separate plants. So you need a male holly plant nearby to have red berries on the female plants. Monoecious plants have both flowers on a single plant.Don’t prune flowering shrubs like lilacs in the fall. They’ve already set their flower buds for next spring, and you may cut them off when pruning. Most shrubs do flower in spring but a few flower later in the season on new branches. Buddleia (butterfly bush) is an example. The rule of thumb is to wait to prune all woody plants until after they are finished flowering.
Our Plant Health Care and lawn care customers have received their contract renewals for 2020. If you are one of those recipients, I urge you to read it carefully, sign it and send it back.Note the paragraph that describes the early bird discount. If you choose to pay for the season in advance, we discount you an amount that covers our costs for preparing individual invoices and processing each payment. This can amount to a significant saving, Maybe even enough to buy a loved one a holiday gift. However the offer is good only through the expiration date printed on the contract.You’ll still receive a document in a plastic bag, hung on your front door knob, after each application. It tells you what services we performed that day but there will be no “amount due.” And you won’t have to write a check after each service call.If you’d like to place the care of your valuable trees, shrubs and lawn in the hands of our trained professionals, there is still time to sign up for a Plant Health Care and/or lawn care program in 2020 and enjoy the early bird discount. One of our tree and landscape consultants will be happy to visit you, check the size of your yard and the plant material that you have. We will then make recommendations for an all inclusive program to meet your needs and the needs of your plants.After that, there’s nothing left for you to do, except enjoy your carefree landscape. Our professionals arrive at the proper time and perform the services for that visit. You don’t even have to be home. What a great holiday gift for your landscape.
As fall descends into winter, there are a number of last minute ways to protect your valuable landscape from the damaging effects of snow, ice and cold temperatures.[caption id="attachment_1259" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Inexpensive, portable, folding cold frame for overwinterting containerized plants.[/caption]Recently planted trees or shrubs should not be forgotten when preparing your landscape for winter. They may need to be wrapped in burlap for the winter. This is especially true for those planted close to the road where they can be damaged by spray from road salt. The wrappings can be made from easily obtained materials, specifically wood poles and burlap. Be sure to keep the top of the “tents open and don’t let the burlap touch the plant.Add extra mulch around trees and in planting beds so it’s 3 to 4 inches deep but don’t let it touch tree trunks or shrub stems. And, make a note to remove the extra mulch in the spring.Recently planted trees and shrubs may also need fertilization in the fall so soil has the nutrients needed to sustain them through the winter and when blooming and foliating in spring.If you have containerized plants on your deck, patio or elsewhere in your yard, remember that only the very hardy can survive the winter outdoors. To be safe, it’s a good idea to wrap insulation around the containers left outsode or put them in a planting bed and pile much around them.Containerized plants that are cold hardy but can’t survive wind can be overwintered in a cold frame. You can build one from scratch or buy kits or pre-fabricated cold frames from some home or garden centers or from garden supply websites. Your more tender containerized pants should be taken inside for the winter.Finally, there’s still time to apply anti-desiccant to your evergreens and both pre and post emergent weed killer to your weeds. This year, fall has arrived later than usual. Some deciduous trees haven’t even turned color yet. Trees that have turned color are still hanging on to their leaves. Most lawns still need mowing. However, I wouldn’t wait too long to get this work done. When the weather decides to turn cold, it’s apt to do it very quickly.If these are jobs you’d rather not do, we have the Plant Health Care professionals who can help you with any or all of these tasks.
Owning trees can be compared to owning pets. They are both enjoyable to have and life wouldn’t be the same without them. But with the pleasure they provide comes risks and responsibilities. We’re all familiar with pet risks like dog bites and cat scratches but do you know the risks trees present?
The most obvious is the chance that wind, snow, ice and age may cause branches to break and come crashing to the ground, resulting in personal injury or property damage. Some trees produce surface roots that can cause tripping accidents. Like pets, trees can also contract diseases or be infested with unfriendly insects.While accidents do happen, you can manage tree risks to minimize the chance of them occurring. Some of the precautions that you can take include:• Moving possible targets like sandboxes, playground equipment, picnic tables, cars and any moveable hardscape features to prevent them from being hit by falling tree parts.• Having the tree pruned to remove dead, dying, crossing, rubbing or rotting branches.• Cabling and bracing to provide support for weak branches and limbs. While this procedure isn’t a guarantee against failure, it does reduce the odds of a catastrophic failure.• Providing the routine care that mature trees require. Routine maintenance includes water, mulch, fertilization and pruning.• Removing the tree. If none of the preventive remedies work, high risk trees should be removed. This will not only reduce the hazard they present but will also give you peace of mind.Ideally, removed trees should be replaced to maintain the environment they’ve created.. Removing a large tree can leave a hole in the landscape. Shade tolerant plants may be growing beneath the canopy. Or they may be growing in the shadow cast by the tree. Removing the tree will leave these plants in full sunlight, which will stress them to the point that they may not survive.Tree work is not a DIY project. For safety’s sake, leave tree work to the professionals. More than 100 people are killed each year and many more are seriously injured performing their own tree work. I don’t want you to become a statistic. Serious injury or death isn’t worth it. Besides having the specialized training and equipment to repair or remove your large tree(s), our professional arborists possess the knowledge and education to inspect a tree and determine if it presents a hazard to your family, visitors and property.You wouldn’t hesitate to take your pets to the vet when they are sick, or even for regular check-ups. So, don’t take a chance with your trees. Have an annual hazard inspection, but don’t wait for your annual inspection if something appears to be wrong. Having repairs made as soon as you see a problem can save lives.
When checking your fall to-do list, be sure anti-desiccant is on it. This wax-like spray-on material is the most economical, effective protection for winter vulnerable evergreens.
If you’re not familiar with anti-desiccant and the way it protects your evergreen trees and shrubs, here’s a quick introduction. Deciduous trees and shrubs (those that drop their leaves in winter) go dormant but evergreens (both broadleaf and needled) simply slow down their life functions. This means the leaves continue to produce food through photosynthesis all winter long.In the process of photosynthesis, plant roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil and transport them to the leaves or needles. The leaves/needles also absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), much of which we exhale when we breathe. In a complex reaction with the sun and green chlorophyll in the leaves/needles, water and CO2 are converted to sugar (glucose) that feeds the plant.Water and oxygen (which we breathe), the waste product of photosynthesis, are given off through the leaves/needles in a process called transpiration.. In the winter, however, the ground is frozen so the roots can’t absorb water. Instead, the leaves/needles, reabsorb the transpired water and recycle it. The problem is that winter winds can blow the water droplets off the leaves before it can be reabsorbed. Anti-desiccant forms a protective barrier that reduces the chance of transpired water being blown from leaves and needles.As temperatures rise in the spring, they thaw the frozen soil so roots can again absorb water. At the same time, the warm sun melts the anti-desiccant so the leaves/needles can again transpire water normally. If we have an especially mild winter, the warm sun may melt the anti-desiccant prematurely, in which case you’ll need a second application.Several brands of anti-desiccant are sold in spay bottles at garden centers. The best known brand is Wilt-Pruf. Applying anti-desiccant to one or two evergreen shrubs is easy. If you have a number of evergreen trees and shrubs, however, applying it yourself can be exhausting, especially for the hand you are using to pump the sprayer. Buying a number of small spay bottles can also get expensive. In that case, it’s easier and more economical to have one of our Plant Health Care professionals apply it using a powerful backpack sprayer that can reach even the treetops.Anti-desiccant’s one restriction is that, regardless of whether you are applying it yourself or professionally, it has to be applied before temperature drops below freezing.
Everyone loves the beauty of a tree. Joyce Kilmer even articulated his love of trees in a famous poem, entitled simply Trees. Beauty is the main reason we plant trees, but nature’s giants reward us multi-fold for this gesture.
We learn in school that trees provide us with the oxygen we need to breathe and remove the carbon dioxide that we exhale. Carbon dioxide is needed, along with sunlight and water, for the photosynthetic reaction that results in the food that plants need to survive. Water and oxygen are given off, or transpired, through the leaves. That’s the oxygen we breathe.As part of this process, trees sequester, or store, carbon. Since there is so much carbon in the atmosphere from vehicles and industry, as well as people and animals, removing and storing it helps the environment. Trees remove other pollutants from the air as well.Trees’ root systems form an underground web that helps prevent soil erosion. This web also filters water runoff, further protecting our waterways from pollution. You can help reduce the water runoff even more by mulching the root zone of your trees. The mulch will hold rain water, releasing it slowly so the tree roots can use it, rather than losing it to runoff.Strategically placed trees can reduce your energy bill. Deciduous trees, planted to the south and east of your house, can shield the house from the sun in the summer and let more sunlight shine on your house in winter. This can keep your house cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Conversely, conifers planted to the north and west of your house can block some of the winds that typically come from those directions. This same principal works for large, paved areas, which absorb a lot of heat. Trees, planted in parking lot medians help to reduce the pavement temperature.Trees provide us with a major building material – wood. While still standing in forests, they may become wildlife habitats. That may also be true for trees planted in our yards. However, they increase property values as well as providing habitat for wildlife.Trees also play a role in shaping our attitudes and making us feel better. Research has shown that trees have a healing and calming effect on us. They also mark the seasons for us. We know spring is here when trees flower and leaf out and that fall has arrived when the leaves turn color and drop. Bare branches can also contribute to our winter doldrums. That may also be one of the reasons we began bringing evergreens into our homes for the winter holidays.Physically, trees can help shade us from harmful ultra violet (UV) rays from the sun. And, of course, fruit and nut trees provide us with food. Organisms that give us so much certainly deserve lots of love and care in return. We domesticated trees for our own enjoyment and the benefits they can provide. In return, we have the same responsibilities as we have to the animals we domesticated as pets.If you have a spot in your yard that would make a nice home for a tree, or trees, remember that Fall is for Planting.
Your winter view out the window doesn’t have to be a bleak sea of white. In fact, winter landscapes can be quite beautiful. Creating such a scene, however, has to be a cooperative effort between you and Mother Nature.
Mother Nature will provide the icing but you have to provide the cake. When planning your landscape, think four seasons rather than three. Imagine what your yard can look like after a snowfall and choose both plants and hardscape with winter in mind. You may have to move a few things around between seasons but that’s a small price to pay for winter interest.Snow will probably not cover evergreens completely so imagine them with a dusting of snow. Check the big arborvitaes at the left in the photo and the junipers on the hill. They have just enough snow to give them that Currier & Ives look. In the center, two dwarf blue spruces peek their heads out from the snow.The deciduous trees have also retained a dusting of snow on their bare branches. But, imagine them glistening in the sun after an ice storm. Each branch looking like an icicle. The ornamental grasses in the background are planted in no small part to add their wheat like color to the winter landscape. In spring, they’ll be cut to the ground to make way for fresh, green stalks to begin the cycle again.And then there’s the hardscape. Most of the furniture is of a southwest design so the colorful mosaics peeking out from around the snow provide a hint of bright color to contrast with the white of the snow. In the background, wind chimes tickle another sense every time the wind blows. The igloo shaped domes of snow on the tables add a touch of whimsy, as does the juxtaposition of a Mexican clay chiminea with snow covering its openings.This is one person’s idea of an attractive winterscape. Yours will depend on the layout of your landscape and the direction that the wind blows the snow. You might want to take photos now and again after a snow storm to help stimulate your creative juices. The substrate that your autumn landscape provides may look like the perfect cake. But, when Mother Nature adds the icing, you may want to add more plant material, or move some around. Or the hardscape placement may need some tweaking. You can make hardscape adjustments between snowfalls. Keep doing it until you’re happy. Then take more pictures so you know where to place everything next winter.If you’d like professional help selecting plant materials, our professional landscape designers would be happy to help you determine what plants will be best for the spots you have in mind, and our installation professionals can take that responsibility off your shoulders. All you have to do is enjoy winter rather than staring at a flat sea of white.
Who rakes fallen leaves in a forest? The answer: Nobody. They just fall to the forest floor and decompose. This decomposing organic material is called humus or duff. As they decompose, the fallen leaves return organic matter to the soil to be used by the plants. This is nature’s compost.Letting leaves decompose naturally in the landscape isn’t practical. They fall on the lawn, in planting beds and even swimming pools and gutters.. Instead, most people rake them up, or blow them into piles. And they get rid of them by the most expedient means. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction in which you live, you may bag leaves and put them at the curb or you may be able to just rake or blow them to the curb and the town will pick them up.When the town comes around with a giant vacuum and sucks leaves into a truck, chances are they will be taken to a municipal composting facility and piled into windrows. Windrows are long piles of leaves left out in the weather to decompose. Because the windrows generate heat, they are turned periodically. This not only keeps them from catching fire but also evens out the decomposition process.When the leaves are completely composted, the municipality uses the material to add organic matter to the soil in parks and other public gardens. If there is any left over, it may be offered to residents. Some municipalities give compost free while others charge a nominal fee. But you have to go to the composting facility and get it. This means your leaves are handled by numerous people before they are returned to you. That hardly fits the definition of sustainability.I suppose that’s OK if you don’t want to be bothered with the turning and other work involved in making compost. However, if you want to really be sustainable, you’ll make your own compost. Cordon off a far corner of your yard, one that isn’t too visible, and build your compost facility there.A compost bin can be built with a little work and some lumber and nails or wire. Just build big boxes to hold the leaves. You’ll be able to work the compost easier if you leave the front off the boxes. You can also buy kits for wood or wire compost bins at home stores or online at garden supply sites. They even have various size plastic bins that you can turn simply by turning a crank.Leaves will compost faster is they’re crushed into small pieces. The most efficient method of crushing them I’ve ever seen was when the host of a TV garden show filled a garbage totter with leaves, donned safety glasses and plunged a string trimmer into the totter like an immersion blender that’s used in the kitchen.When making your own mulch, you’ll need to check the temperature in the middle of the pile and turn it when it gets hot. Turning also allows the leaves to compost evenly so you’ll have nice, dark, finished compost by spring. If you don’t have a composter with a crank tumbler, just use an iron rake.
Has fall cleanup become a scheduled part of your annual landscape activity, or is it hit and miss – you go out and do what needs to be done when you feel like doing it? Fall can be a beautiful season or it can be a depressing season as you look forward to winter. However, the leaves will fall, plants will still need to be winterized and those last fruits and vegetables still need to be harvested. Scheduling the various tasks can take some of the stress off you when the time comes to do the work.Last fall, I posted this list of fall cleanup jobs. Hopefully, you saved it for this year but if you didn’t or are a new reader, here it is again:
• Clean up all trash that has blown on to your property.• Remove dead stems and leaves from perennials and toss them onto the compost pile.• Divide perennials.• Rake, blow or mow fallen leaves for mulch or compost.• Apply grub control if your lawn needs it.• Lower your mower blade to 2”-2 ½” in early October and mow at that height until the end of the season.• Prepare your lawn mower and other power tools for winter storage, following the manufacturers’ instructions.• Put your deck or patio furniture in storage.• Bring your containerized plants indoors or place them in a cold frame for the winter.• Finish harvesting veggies from your vegetable garden.• Apply anti-desiccant to evergreens.• Wrap tender young trees.• Critter proof trees and shrubs.• Mulch trees, shrubs and planting beds.• Fertilize as necessary• Have us inspect your trees and remove any hazards.Fall cleanup has a number of benefits. Your property will look better if we have low snowfall this winter. It will also look tidy in the spring, even before you do your spring cleanup. Cleaning up leaves and papers can protect your lawn from holding too much moisture that can lead to winter fungal diseases. You’ll protect your valuable plants when you winterize those that need extra care, and you’ll protect people and property when we inspect your trees and remove any hazards. And finally, getting out on brisk, fall days and getting some useful exercise will make you feel better about the arrival of winter.
As you begin planning for winter’s cold and the cozy fires you’ll enjoy in your wood stove, fireplace or even your fire pit, I want to remind you of the restrictions on the movement of firewood and the consequences of ignoring those restrictions.
The federal government and many states have quarantines in place to restrict the movement of firewood in and out. Plus, there’s a law that prohibits the movement of any wood 50 miles or more from its origin without a permit. Permits are granted only when a wood dealer or transporter has taken the necessary steps to guarantee that the wood is free from contamination by insects and diseases.There are any number of dangerous insects and diseases that can be imported in wood. That’s how they came to our shores in the first place. They include the emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, gypsy moth, spotted lanternfly, Dutch elm disease, and the list goes on.These pests successfully hitchhike here in or on firewood because they are often invisible to the untrained eye. They may be living inside the wood like the emerald ash borer. Or they may be in egg form like gypsy moth and spotted lanternfly. Once the wood is in your yard, these pests emerge or hatch and go looking for new food sources– i.e. your valuable trees and shrubs and your neighbors’.Any savings that you realized by buying illegal firewood, and a lot more besides, will be lost in having your infested trees and shrubs either treated or removed and replaced. So that perceived saving is only false economy.The answer to the dilemma is simple. Buy firewood only from a reputable dealer. Ask the right questions like where they acquired their firewood. If it’s from the guy down the road with a woodlot, you can either trust that he’s telling the truth. If you don’t trust him or believe he bought it from someone more than 50 miles from his lot, ask to see the paperwork showing that his source had the proper permit to bring firewood into your area.You may consider this attention to detail unnecessary. You may not realize the importance even if I told you how many thousands of trees are lost each year to invasive pests. I certainly hope it doesn’t take a hitchhiking, invasive pest destroying one or more of your valuable, mature trees to drive the seriousness of this problem home.
