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Ever wonder how spring flowering bulbs like crocus, daffodils and tulips get the energy to wake up and flower so early in the spring? They go to bed with a full “stomach” before the other flowers do.For this to happen, though, you have to plant bulbs in the fall. Those nice, fat bulbs are loaded with starch, the food that powers plants. And they’re all ready to go dormant as soon as the soil temperature tells them that winter is right around the corner. Meanwhile, they become acclimated to their new environment.Then, come early spring, the bulbs are well nourished, well rested and ready to begin poking their heads above the ground. Crocuses, for example, wake up so early that they often begin poking their heads up through the snow. Crocus’ short stature and early blooming schedule give you more planting flexibility than taller bulb plants that bloom later.You can even plant crocuses in the lawn. They should be finished blooming by the time you need to start mowing. If they’re still in bloom when you need to mow, they are short enough to not get cut off by the mower blades if the blades are set at the recommended three-inches.Spring flowering bulbs are arriving at area garden stores now. They are packaged in bags and boxes in a wide assortment of bloom colors, and are also sold individually in bulk. You’ll be happier if you decide on how many bulbs you need and in what colors before you go to the garden store. Take the plot plan, color list and quantity with you so you can refer to them when making your selections.When making your plot plan, remember that bulbs look best in mass plantings, rather than just individual plants. Bulbs are affordable enough that you can put on a spectacular show.You can plant your bulbs as soon as you bring them home. Lay the bulbs on the ground where you want them to grow. When you’re satisfied that they are in the right place, plant them by plunging a trowel into the soil and pulling it toward you. If you have one of those fancy bulb diggers, by all means use it.The hole should be about the width of the bulb and twice as deep as the bulb’s length. Drop the bulb into the hole right side up. The top is pointed and the bottom has visible root hairs. Backfill, tamp the soil down lightly and water well to get rid of any air pockets.Don’t worry about fertilizing the first year. The bulb is made up almost entirely of starch. This is enough to provide the new plant with sufficient food until it leafs out and begins making its own food through photosynthesis.With your bulbs planted this fall, you can go about your fall and winter life and forget all about them until that first crocus makes its quiet appearance in spring.
The simple answer is yes if you had to fertilize last fall and/or this spring. If you don’t have to fertilize on a regular basis, you probably won’t have to this fall, either.The job of fertilizing is, arguably, one of the most misunderstood aspects of horticulture, and it isn’t helped by those who refer to fertilization as plant feeding. The late plant physiologist, Dr. Alex Shigo, explained in his writing and during his speaking engagements that plants don’t have to be fed. They make their own food through photosynthesis.Why fertilize then? Fertilization actually “feeds” the soil. It replenishes nutrients that occur naturally in good soil. Fertilization can be compared more accurately to taking vitamin supplements than eating food.Soil is moved around and mixed with subsoil during residential construction, resulting in inferior soil. When topsoil is removed, the nutritional elements available for plants are only those present in the subsoil. When topsoil is mixed with subsoil, this, too, greatly reduces the nutrients available to plants.Once nutrient-bearing soil is removed from a piece of property, it’s gone forever. This means it has to be replenished constantly to grow healthy plants. Plants need a number of nutrients for good health, just as we do. The main elements plants require are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). Also necessary but in lesser quantities, is a group of secondary nutrients that includes calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulfur (S), and a group of micronutrients that includes boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Z). Non-mineral elements hydrogen (H), oxygen (O) and carbon (C) are also needed but they come from the air and water rather than the soil.Besides their presence in soil, essential nutrients have to be in a form that will dissolve in water, which is how plants absorb them. The best way to know if your soil is deficient in any of the essential nutrients is with a soil test. You can buy very basic soil test kits at garden stores but a more comprehensive, reliable test is best left to our plant health care professionals. They’ll take soil samples from your yard and send them to a lab for analysis. When they get the results, they’ll present you with recommendations specifically for the soil conditions in your landscape.We follow industry standards that advise us to fertilize only to meet specific objectives. The most common objective is to replenish specific nutrients. In some cases, objectives may be more exotic, such as acidifying basic soil to grow acid loving plants like azaleas and rhododendrons.
Organic mulch like wood chips does multiple duty. It protects the soil by moderating temperature and meters water absorption. It adds the finishing touches to a planting bed or a tree’s root zone. As it decomposes, wood chip mulch returns organic matter to the soil. That’s why mulch is an important part of your landscape.Earlier in the spring, I advised you to remove any extra mulch you had added last fall to protect your soil over the winter. You should have returned the mulch to a
depth of no more than three-inches.We had a lot of rain over the spring and this can speed up decomposition. Check the depth to see if that’s the case with your beds. If the mulch level is below two-inches, it’s time to add another inch or two.Most of our customers prefer buying mulch in bulk because it’s more economical. We’ll deliver and dump it in the driveway or any another accessible place you would like. It’s much less expensive to buy in bulk than to buy it in bags at the garden center. And, you know you’re getting a quality product and helping protect the local environment. If you don’t want to spread mulch, our crew will do it for an extra fee, which is better than lugging heavy bags from the garden center.The mulch we deliver starts as tree pruning waste, which would end up in landfills if we didn’t mulch it. After grinding into uniform chips, the mulch is aged until it turns the natural brown color we want.There are other types of decorative mulch but we recommend wood chip mulch, unless there’s a compelling reason to recommend a purely decorative material. Our purely decorative mulches include natural stone like river rock, white marble chips and ground brick.Mulching is the sure way to give your landscape a neat, finished appearance while helping to preserve the environment.
This summer has been very kind to our lawns. We’ve had plenty of moisture and very few scorching days, making it an ideal summer to grow grass. That’s a far cry from last summer when drought and heat damaged many lawns.Most homeowners repaired their lawns, or had them repaired, last fall or this spring. A few held out, hoping that Mother Nature would make the repairs. That happened for small bare spots but bigger spots didn’t fill in. If, however, you leave large, bare spots, they will fill in with weeds.After Labor Day, the days should remain warm but the nights will cool down. There should be plenty of rain, making it an ideal time to grow grass. The earlier it’s done, the more time it has to get established before going dormant for the winter.Take a small plug of sod to the garden center so they know what blend of seed you need. While there, pick up a bag of balanced fertilizer, too. The agronomists or horticulturists at the garden center should be able to advise you on the best fertilizer for the seed blend you’re planning to use.When you get home, start your lawn repair by removing any weeds that are growing in the bare spots. Rough up the soil in those spots with an iron rake. Sprinkle fertilizer and work it into the soil with the rake. Spread seed and rake it into the soil and water thoroughly. Rainfall should be adequate to keep the soil sufficiently moist for the seed to germinate. If we go a week without rain, water thoroughly as you did when you initially seeded. In a week or two, you should see little green leaves poking up through the soil.If you don’t want to go through the work of raking the dead grass, roughing up the soil, fertilizing, planting the seed, raking it into the soil and watering it in, our lawn professionals can take care of all the repairs for you.
As you sit on your patio surveying your kingdom (see last week’s post), check out the annuals you planted in the spring. Are the flowers still colorful and plentiful? They should be if you’ve kept them watered and deadheaded. Those that don’t look so perky can still be changed out for new plants.You may be able to find some spring/summer flowering plants to replace your faded annuals but most garden centers are starting to receive their fall plants, including fall-blooming annuals. Planting them now and watering and deadheading should keep your yard vibrant and colorful right up to the first hard frost.Chrysanthemums are, arguably, the most popular fall flowers, but they aren’t the only ones. Pansies like cool weather so they can be planted as fall bloomers, as can marigolds, fall blooming cabbage and kale, nasturtiums and violas. All of these annuals will grow just as well in containers as they do in the ground. As always, read the nursery tag to be sure the variety you’re buying is fall blooming.You might consider planting fall flowering perennials now, too. Your garden center may have a bigger selection of fall flowering perennials than annuals. They include aster, heather, anemone, sedum, toad lily, turtlehead, fall crocus and monkshood, to name a few.If you already have fall flowering perennials, you can divide them when the weather cools in September. This will enable you to increase the fall flowers in your beds without spending any money for new plants. If you don’t need any more flowering plants, you can share the divided perennials with friends so they, too, will have as colorful a fall landscape as you.
Patios can be so much more than a few folding chairs and a grill. Today, they are complete outdoor living rooms or three-season rooms. Check out home and garden magazines or television programs and see what’s going on in outdoor living.Today, patios are extensions of a home’s inside living space with complete kitchens and living rooms. Many also have creatively-designed bars, pergolas, fire pits and water features. Those that are three season rooms have retractable shelter that can disappear in the summer and reappear in the shoulder seasons when the evenings are cool.Outdoor kitchens have monster grills and refrigerators and, in some cases, wood-fired pizza ovens and even electric ovens for baking. Draft coolers for beer are also popular for those who like to entertain. The only limitations are your imagination and your budgetOutdoor living rooms have morphed into luxury areas with furniture that looks very much like your indoor living room. The furniture is upholstered and very comfortable. Some patios even have indoor/outdoor carpeting, sound systems and large, flat-screen TVs. Although the upholstery looks similar to that found in your indoor living room, it’s more rugged and treated to shed water. You’ll need a place to store this furniture in winter.Although we are already into July, you could still have an outdoor room for the remainder of the summer and into the fall. Our design/build process makes it possible for our installation professionals to begin construction while our designers are still completing design details, which saves you a lot of time and money.If you know, or even think, you want an outdoor living area, give us call to schedule an appointment with one of our designers. Their job is to make your ideas a reality. If you aren’t sure exactly what you want your outdoor living space to look like, meeting with a designer can help you decide. From their vast experience designing backyard oases, they have many ideas they will share with you to assure that your results are exactly what suits your taste and your budget.
You may have heard about aerifying and dethatching lawns. But what do those terms mean and is it something your lawn needs? Aerifying reduces soil compaction so critical water and oxygen can reach plant roots. Dethatching removes dead grass plants so new ones can grow in their place.Compact soils like clay have few spaces between soil particles for water and oxygen, which are essential for plants to live. Even roots have a difficult time growing through compacted soil. The fix for this problem is aerifying.A special aerifying machine pulls plugs of sod out of your lawn at regular intervals, providing “wiggle room” for the spaces between soil particles to expand and make room for nutrients and oxygen-laden moisture to reach the roots.Aerifying machines can be rented at rental stores for the do-it-yourselfer but most property owners prefer to call us than to spend a hot, sweaty Saturday wrestling with this cumbersome machine. A couple of tips for the would-be d-i-yer: If you decide to do your own aerifying, leave the plugs right where they are discharged. They will fall apart and the grass will decompose in a couple of days and return organic matter to the soil. Also, don’t succumb to the old wive’s tale that you can aerify by mowing your lawn in golf shoes. The spikes on the shoes don’t go deep enough and they won’t pull plugs out like the hollow tines on an aerifying machine.Dethatching is often mentioned in conjunction with aerifying. However, few lawns actually need dethatching. Many people believe thatch is mower clippings that fall to the ground and get tangled up in the grass leaves. Thatch is actually dead grass plants. Grass clippings will decompose rather quickly. Dead grass plants won’t decompose nearly as fast.If your lawn does need dethatching, consider having it done professionally rather than doing it yourself. Our lawn care professionals will check your lawn to be sure it really needs dethatching, and they’ll look closely to determine the cause of the problem and recommend the best way to repair it.Summer is a good time for both aerifying and dethatching if your lawn needs it. Give us a call to schedule a complete landscape inspection to determine if your lawn needs help.
When you see the results of May’s rain storms still being felt along the shores of Lake Ontario, it’s hard to believe that you’ll have to water your lawn and landscape plants this summer. However, you should be prepared to do so, especially if you have new plants.Rain water soaks deeply into the soil. Older plants, especially established trees, have no problem reaching down to the water. But younger plants have not yet developed roots that reach down that far. As a result, they have to depend on recent rain for their water. This means that, when Mother Nature turns off the faucet later this summer, it’s up to your to turn it onEven if you don’t have recently planted trees, shrubs or perennials, you probably have annuals and containerized plants, and they need watering to supplement rain.The best watering method for all your needs, except containers and grass, is the use of soaker hoses. You just snake as many hoses as needed close to your plants, connect to the faucet and turn it on a quarter-turn. Turn it on any more and it can blow major holes in the porous hose. Soaker hoses are the next best thing to a drip irrigation system.Plants need at least an inch of water a week, and it’s best to apply it all in one session. The water slowly “oozes” out of the soaker hose’s porous rubber, so it can take an hour or more to apply an inch.Many people are re-growing grass that was overseeded to repair the damage from last summer’s drought. New seeding has to be moist all the time. This often means daily watering, sometimes even twice daily. Soaker hoses are impractical for turfgrass so you have to rely on sprinklers. I suggest you water early in the morning or in the evening. If you sprinkle in the heat of the day, much of the water will evaporate before it reaches the ground.Hand holding a hose and nozzle isn’t recommended. It takes some time to thoroughly soak a lawn. You’ll get tired and sunburned before you apply enough water. Limiting your watering to a surface coating will result in grass plants with weak, shallow roots. If you apply enough water to soak into the soil, you’ll encourage roots to grow deeper and stronger.
Spring hasn’t been kind to trees any more than it has been kind to us. At least we had shelter but your trees had to stand out there enduring high winds, saturated soil and even flooding. This kind of weather also exposed your trees to all kinds of health problems. That’s why they should be inspected by one of our professional arborists. Conditions that may appear hopeless to the untrained eye may be repairable for a professional arborist.Out arborist will start with the obvious: Did any branches break off? If they did, was it caused by the wind, insects or disease? If the wind caused the breakage, the stubs that were left may have jagged ends that won’t heal. That’s just the opening insects and disease organisms are looking for. We can trim the stub off right at the branch collar to encourage healing. While in the trees, we’ll also check for branches that broke and are still hanging in the canopy. These are especially dangerous because they can fall at any time.Fungi are major concerns where trees were flooded or subjected to extended periods of “wet feet” from standing in soggy soil. We have specialized equipment and training to check tree roots, trunks and branches for cavities caused by decay. This will allow us to determine the extent of the rot and determine if the tree is still viable and for how long.The fungi doing damage are microorganisms inside the tree. If you see mushroom-like growths on trees, they are fruiting bodies that indicate that the fungi are well established.An inspection will also include a check of the root zone to be sure the tree is stable, a check for insect activity and a crown inspection to be sure there are enough leaves left to manufacture the food the tree needs to sustain itself.When we finish with our inspection, you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that your tree has come through the storms a survivor or you’ll know what action you have to take to make your property safe for your family.
Spring flowering trees and shrubs are nearing the end of their bloom cycles. Forsythia, one of the earliest bloomers, has completed its cycle and most of the yellow flowers have fallen. Many rhododendrons and azaleas are done, or soon will be. Lilacs are nearing the end of their blooming period, except for a few late blooming varieties.I recommend removing any limp flowers that remain so the shrubs can direct their energy to foliage growth and next year’s blooms, rather than wasting that energy producing seeds.Since last fall, I’ve been advising you not to prune spring flowering shrubs and trees until after they’ve bloomed. It’s OK to prune now, as soon as the flowers fall. This will give the plants plenty of time to begin the process of setting next spring’s flower buds.All the rules for pruning trees and shrubs apply now, just as they did last fall. Don’t top. Prune back to a junction rather than leaving stubs. Leave the swollen branch collar, which contain the chemicals that help pruning cuts heal. Don’t paint cuts. Don’t climb ladders. Call our arborists to prune your trees.Now is a good time to fertilize your spring blooming shrubs and trees to replenish the soil nutrients. Be sure you buy the right fertilizer for the plant. Rhododendrons and azaleas, for example, are ericaceous (erəˈkāSHəs), which means they like acid soil. Since most of our soil is neutral, select a fertilizer blend formulated specifically for ericaceous plants.Hydrangeas bloom later in the season but you can start having some fun with them now by controlling whether they bloom pink or blue. It depends on the soil pH. Hydrangeas bloom blue in acid soil and pink in alkaline soil. You can actually control the color by controlling the pH. If you prefer pink flowers, work lime into the soil around a hydrangea. For blue flowers, work aluminum sulfate into the soil. You can purchase both at garden centers and home stores.Plant growth is an annual cycle. You’ve enjoyed the spring color your shrubs and trees presented. Now it’s time to provide the care they need to prepare for next spring’s show. If you’d rather enjoy the show but leave the work to someone else, call us.
Perennials are important elements in almost every landscape design. Unlike annuals that grow for only one season or biennials that grow for two seasons, perennials come back season after season.Trees and shrubs are, technically, woody perennials that slow their growth or go dormant each winter but their branches and trunks remain intact. The above ground parts of many herbaceous perennials, however, do die in the winter.One reason often given for planting perennials is that they need no maintenance. This isn’t necessarily true. They may need less maintenance than, say, annuals but they still need maintenance. For example, those herbaceous perennials that die back each winter have to be cut back to ground level and composted. Be sure not to disturb the roots. They continue to grow until the ground freezes.Some perennials don’t like confinement. They like to spread out, sometimes choking out adjacent plants. The remedy is to split them. Dig up the whole plant. Lay it on a tarp and split the roots into four sections. Replant one of the quarters in the hole from which it came. You can replant the others in planting beds on your property, give them to friends or donate them to a charitable plant sale. Splitting can be done now, in the month of June, but not in July or August. Perennials can also be split in the fall.Other perennial maintenance tasks aren’t that different from what you will encounter with other types of plants. These tasks include deadheading to encourage more flowers. Then there’s weeding, fertilizing, and watering if you don’t have enough rain. The result will be beauty and enjoyment for many years to come.
This is the traditional time to plant annuals. Where, when and how many you plant depends on your tastes, time, ambition and, this year, the weather.Though short lived, annuals are among the most versatile plants. Your garden store has them in all shapes, sizes and colors. Most are small and sold in packages of six (commonly called six packs). Some of the larger annuals like geraniums are sold in individual pots.Planting options for annuals are endless. You can plant them in traditional flower beds, raised beds, window boxes and even decorative patio containers.Regardless of whether beds are at ground level or raised, you plant the same way you would a tree, shrub or perennial. Dig a hole about twice as wide as the root ball but only as deep. I usually squeeze the root ball to loosen the roots. Set it in the hole and backfill. Use your hands rather than your feet to tamp down the soil, especially for small annuals from six packs. When you finish planting all of them, water them well.To plant in window boxes or containers, fill the container with a good quality potting mix. Then dig holes about the size of the plant’s root ball but no deeper, place the plant in the hole, backfill and press down the backfill with your fingers. Repeat for each plant. When finished, water them well. Holes twice as wide as the root ball aren’t necessary for window box or container plants because the soil isn’t compacted as it is when planting in-ground.Larger annuals like geraniums can be slipped right into a decorative container while in their nursery pots.Annuals planted in the ground have to be watered only if Mother Nature doesn’t supply them with at least an inch of rain a week. You should also weed your planting beds on a regular basis.Containers and window boxes require a bit more watering. Water that isn’t absorbed by the plant roots filters right through the potting mix and out the drain hole. So, it has to be replaced more often than it does for plants in the ground.Deadheading extends the life of annuals. Their reason for existing is to produce seeds. That’s why they flower so profusely. If the dead or limp flowers are not removed, annuals will flower, drop their seeds and die quickly. If, however, you remove the spent flowers before they go to seed, the plant will produce more flowers. They will try a second or third time to reproduce. Purists refer to deadheading as pinching and believe that using your fingers to pinch off the dead flowers is the only way. I use a pair of small pruning shears and it works just fine.
June is the best month to prune your evergreen trees and shrubs, especially the conifers. Most have completed their new growth by now so it’s unlikely that you’ll have to repeat the process when more new growth appears.New growth is lighter green than the normal color. The needles are much softer, even on plants like spruce that normally have very sharp needles. And, new growth is only on the ends of the branches.If you want to be very sure the tree or shrub is finished adding new growth, wait a week or two before pruning.. Watch for the new growth to darken to the plant’s normal color and harden to the normal feel. The downside is that these branches may require extra effort to cut.The same pruning rules apply to evergreens as to deciduous plants. Don’t top. Cut branches back to a junction where other branches emerge from the one you’re cutting. Leave the branch collar when you prune a tree limb.The most important rule is to not prune your own trees, especially if you have to leave the ground. Tree branches can break unexpectedly and fall, injuring you or somebody on the ground. Conifer branches, with their very piercing needles, can also whip around and hit you in the face or another unprotected part of your body. Their springiness also makes conifer branches dangerous to stand on. Leave tree pruning – evergreen and deciduous – to our professional arborists.I’ve presented recommendations for pruning individual coniferous evergreens shrubs. However, some people plant evergreens like yews (Taxus) as hedges. This is also the time to prune them. Although using hedge clippers isn’t recommended, I know many people do because it’s the easiest way to have an even flat top and sides. I caution you, though, not to cut the sides too far back. Needles grow only in the first few inches of the branches. If you cut too far, you’ll remove all the needles and be left with the woody interior.This post has concentrated on coniferous evergreens. However, this is also the season to prune broadleaf evergreens like boxwood. Prune them the same way s you would coniferous shrubs.Prune evergreens now, at the beginning of summer, and you’ll enjoy their beauty all summer long.
As March exits like a lamb and April steps up to usher in spring, the time has finally come for you to, once again, step outside and begin waking up your landscape from its winter nap.April is when you should cut back your ornamental grasses and remove that extra inch or two of mulch you spread to protect plants from winter cold.This also a good time to cross a couple of the leftover fall tasks from your list. If you didn’t get around to dividing perennials, you can do it as soon as they appear above ground. If you split perennials now, you won’t have to contend with a lot of foliage. They are easier to handle when you only have the root and a little emerging foliage.This is also the time to arrange for a dormant oil application to your trees and shrubs. This is, arguably, the best all round insect control material with the least amount of environmental impact. Dormant oil can best be described as dilute petroleum jelly. Yes, like the stuff we put on wounds like burns.Many insects overwinter in trees. Some make tent-like structures and live inside all winter long. Others just hide in branch forks and other places on the tree as they hibernate for the winter. Dormant oil covers these insects and smothers them in their sleep.If you have only a few shrubs, you can buy dormant oil at your garden store and apply it yourself. If you have lots of plants, especially big trees, it’ll be more economical to call us. Our Plant Health Care professionals have the training and experience to know where the insects are overwintering and the high pressure equipment to reach the tops of tall trees.Many put off lawn repair from last summer’s drought until spring. You can begin that as soon as the soil is dry enough to walk on without leaving footprints. It’s a good idea to give your lawn a good raking even if you didn’t suffer damage last year. You’ll pull out any grass that may have died over the winter. Overseeding early will give the new seed a head start on spring while nature is still irrigating. Your lawn will be well established before Mother Nature turns her faucet down or shuts it off.
This year’s April showers left plenty of puddles in their wake. Perhaps puddle is an understatement. Rather, we had extensive flooding, which left a lot of standing water, and standing water is mosquitoes’ favorite breeding grounds. Besides being plentiful, entomologists expect an early hatch of these disease carrying insects. They carry everything from malaria to the zika virus.As mosquitoes suck human blood, they also transmit to their human hosts diseases they are carrying. You can actively help reduce the number of mosquitoes by getting rid of all standing, stagnant water. Clean and change the water in bird baths frequently. Keep swimming pools treated and circulating. Pump out puddles and stagnant ponds. When outdoors, especially in the evening, be sure everyone’s exposed skin is treated with mosquito repellent.Ticks also are expected to be bad this year. I urge you to take precautions now to protect you, your family, your pets and your home. Ticks carry serious diseases.Deer ticks carry lyme disease but they don’t live only on deer. The field mouse is one of its favorite hosts. Lyme disease doesn’t affect the animal hosts, but it does debilitate humans who may receive the disease organism when infected ticks bite them.Take precautions when outdoors. Protect yourself by wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts. Tuck pants into boots. Check children, pets and yourself frequently. Remove ticks as soon as possible using tweezers.Fleas can also be of concern, especially if you have pets. Fleas carry animal diseases like tapeworm. Pets can carry fleas into the house and these flightless insects can get into carpeting and furniture and then bite us.For the peace of mind of knowing that you’ve done everything possible to protect your family, call our Plant Health Care professionals. They’ll inspect your property for signs of these pests and take appropriate action if you have them. We can also take preventive measures like spraying the perimeter of your property for ticks and fleasAlso, be sure your pets are treated for these pests by a vet or with one of the home applied medications.Your landscape is a sanctuary for you to relax, enjoy the natural surroundings and the fresh air of outdoor living. Don’t let uninvited “guests” ruin your enjoyment and compromise your family’s health. Most of all, don’t let them turn your tranquil retreat into a stressful environment. Take the offensive and get rid of these pests and keep them away.
Plants made food right up until they went dormant, and lived on that stored food all winter. Now that spring has sprung, their new leaves will again begin making food. To do that, however, they need nutrients from the soil, as well as water and sunlight.The macronutrients plants need are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). They also need calcium (C) and magnesium (Mg), as well as several other trace elements or micronutrients. If any of these minerals are deficient or unavailable in your soil, then fertilization is necessaryWhile these minerals occur naturally in good, rich topsoil, many builders scrape away topsoil when building homes. They may, or may not, replace it. Or, they may bring in less nutrient-rich topsoil from another location.A soil test is the best way to know whether your soil has the minerals your trees, shrubs, lawn and other plants need. Not just a pH test, but a mineral content test as well. This test will tell you whether you need to fertilize or not. Our plant health professionals can conduct these tests.Following the standards under which professionals like us work, fertilizer should only be applied to meet a stated objective. This means that, if you had a soil test and it showed that your soil has all the necessary minerals for your lawn and landscape, you probably don’t need to fertilize this spring. If it showed a mineral deficiency, you should fertilize. Minerals are finite. If they are deficient when a soil test is taken, they will always be deficient, and the only way to replenish them is through fertilization. It can be compared to humans taking a vitamin supplement to replenish minerals deficient in our diet.The soil test will tell you exactly what nutrients are needed. That way, you can avoid the waste and environmental effects of buying one size fits all fertilizer. When a soil test indicates special needs, we are able to formulate fertilizer just for your application, and we apply it to trees and shrubs in liquid form injected right into the root zone.Often we also add beneficial fungi and bacteria, called mycorrhizae, to help roots find and absorb the minerals they need for good health.Fertilization, if you need it, is part of our lawn care and Plant Health Care programs.
For most of us, that weekly lawn mowing ritual has begun again. There are also other spring tasks that should be done now, and a few that shouldn’t.First the “Don’ts.” There are still people who pay good money to have their lawns rolled each spring. Most of our soil is heavy clay, and rolling only compacts the soil so there’s no space for water and air between the particles. The antidote is aerifying – pulling plugs of soil out to create spaces for water and air. A better investment would be to skip the rolling and go directly to aerifying.Another “Don’t”: applying lime. Lime is applied to acid soil to increase the pH, but most of our soil is neutral or alkaline already. Grass grows best in neutral soil. So, lime should only be applied if a soil test indicates that your soil is acidic.A soil test is actually a good idea for several reasons. Besides telling you the pH, a soil test will also tell you whether your lawn needs fertilization, and if so, which nutrients need replenishing. This can result in a substantial saving of both time and money.You probably don’t need to apply grub control, or have it applied, if your lawn was treated for grubs last fall. This results in an environmental saving, as well as a cost saving. By spring, grubs have grown big and strong, so more aggressive applications are needed to control them. In fall, they are newly hatched, so they are small and weak, requiring less material to control them.Now for some of the “Dos”. Be sure your mower blade is always sharp for a nice, clean cut, rather than a ragged cut. Sharpness should also be checked periodically during the mowing season.Set your mower height at 2.5” to 3”. Taller grass discourages weed growth, retains water better and is healthier.Last but not least, let your grass clippings fall to the ground, decompose and return nutrients to the soil. This practice is called Grasscycling.If you don’t want the cares and worries of maintaining your lawn’s health, talk to us about a lawn care program this season and let our professionals take the guesswork out of your lawn care.
Arbor Day is this Friday, April 28. Why not begin a family tradition that will brighten the lives of future generations?If you have to work on Friday and kids are in school that day, fear not. Observe Arbor Day on Saturday, Sunday or even the following weekend. It’s all about the trees, and they don’t care when they’re planted.The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska in 1872, thanks to journalist J. Sterling Morton. The prairie transplant looked out across the treeless plains and sought to change that bleak landscape. Other states soon began holding their own Arbor Days on dates that best suited their growing seasons. In 1970, President Richard Nixon declared the last Friday in April to be National Arbor Day. So, you see, Arbor Day isn’t bound hard and fast to a particular date.Regardless of the date your family observes Arbor Day, just make sure you do it as a family and that you get the kids into the act by letting them help, and explaining the significance of the observance and the proper way to plant.Proper planting begins with selecting the right tree for the spot you want to plant it. Be sure the growing conditions where you plan to plant correspond to the tree’s needs listed on the nursery tag. If in doubt, talk to one of the horticulturists at your garden center. Be sure there’s plenty of space for the tree to grow to its full height and width. Don’t plant a sun loving tree in the shade or a shade tolerant tree in the sun. If it likes acid soil, don’t plant it in basic soil.There’s an old saying, “Dig a $50 hole for a $5 tree.” This means the hole should be two to three times bigger in diameter than the rootball but only as deep. Place the tree in the hole and, while one of the children holds the tree plumb to the ground, backfill. Tamp the soil gently to eliminate air pockets and then soak the backfilled area.You’ll enjoy your new tree more if you follow these guidelines, and it will require less maintenance than an improperly planted tree. You won’t have to constantly have it pruned to fit the allotted space. As a strong, healthy tree, it shouldn’t need fertilization and will have fewer insect and disease problems.Arbor Day should be a fun holiday with memories that last a lifetime for the whole family…regardless of which day you plant your Arbor Day tree.
Last fall, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced that an oak tree in the town of Canandaigua had been infected with oak wilt disease, and an update was published recently in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.The DEC has established a “Protective Zone” (quarantine) around the infected tree. This severely restricts the movement of fresh wood into or out of the zone. Obeying this, and other quarantines, is important. This disease, like most fungal diseases cannot be controlled easily with a fungicide. Propiconazole, a fungicide that, if applied on a regular basis, will keep this fungus under control. Once use of the fungicide is started, it must be continued or the fungus will become active again, making diseases like this much more serious in the long term than insects. Off hand, I can’t think of an insect for which an effective chemical or natural predator was not found eventually.The fungus that causes oak wilt is Ceratocystis fagacearum, which develops in an oak tree’s water-carrying cells, called xylem. The water carried by the xylem contains life sustaining nutrients. These nutrients are essential to photosynthesis. Lacking water and nutrients, the leaves wilt and fall. Oak wilt kills red oaks in six month or less, while it takes much longer, often years, for the disease to claim white oaks.Insect carriers and root contact are the most common natural ways for oak wilt to spread, but the movement of wood and wood products like firewood have become become an increasing concern. This is why quarantines carry stiff penalties. It is believed that bringing infected wood into Canandaigua caused this outbreak.If you see oak trees with wilting and falling leaves or the top branches are defoliated, report them to the local DEC office so that action can be taken to keep the disease from spreading. Let’s not let it get a foothold in our area. Remember what fungal diseases did to the American chestnut and the American elm.Birchcrest arborists are working with the DEC to contain and eradicate the oak wilt in Canandaigua. Believe me, it’s painful to take down a majestic oak tree that has been growing so long that it witnessed much of the rich history of the Finger Lakes.
The warmer weather tells the emerald ash borer (EAB) that it’s almost time to crawl out of the tree they’re in and greet the big world outside. Since they hatched, these voracious pests have lived inside the trees where their mothers deposited their eggs, never seeing the light of day.It’s now time for them to morph into tiny, metallic green adults and dig “D” shaped holes to crawl out into the daylight. This generation of EAB is through eating. The adults’ sole task is to mate, scoop out indentations in ash tree bark and lay eggs so the scourge can start all over again.Some homeowners have just given up, certain that their valuable ash trees are destined to die from the emerald ash borer’s feast. Others are fighting back, determined to save their valuable trees.There is an effective preventive and treatment available to arborists. Before applying either, one of our plant health care professionals will inspect your ash tree(s) to see if the EAB has infested them yet and, if so, the amount of damage.A preventive should be applied every two years to trees that have, thus far, escaped the EAB. Trees hosting the EAB should be treated every year, as long 70 percent or more of the tree is alive. This material, as formulated, is only available to licensed, trained professionals, and we inject it directly into the tree trunk using special equipment..These treatments may appear to be a major investment at first. When you crunch the numbers, however, they represent a very cost effective insurance policy. Do-it-yourself products are not concentrated enough to be effective against this stubborn pest, so you would be wasting money to invest in them. Furthermore, professional treatments can be made for a good, long time for the cost of removing and replacing a stately ash tree. Doesn’t that look like a really good investment now?
An early lesson in gardening is that we shouldn’t prune spring flowering trees or shrubs until after they’ve bloomed. The reason is simple. These shrubs bloom on last year’s wood, which means that the flower buds formed last year. If you prune them before they flower, you can easily prune off these buds and you won’t have flowers this year.Spring pruning won’t hurt the shrub itself, only the flowers. If, during the spring, your shrubs develop stray shoots and branches that make them look unkempt, go ahead and prune out those untidy shoots and branches. Nobody will be the wiser, unless you leave unsightly stubs. Besides, there will be enough flowers on the remaining branches to still put on a spectacular show of color.Be sure to cut these errant branches at ground level if possible. If you can’t reach where the cut should be made with your hand pruners, use loppers. If ground level is absolutely out of reach when pruning shrubs, make your cuts at the fork between the branch you’re pruning and one growing out from it.. That way you won’t be leaving a stub, which becomes an entryway for insects and diseases.Like trees, shrubs should be pruned according to their needs, not because someone said they should be pruned at a certain time of the year. Some may not need an annual pruning. They may only need a snip here and a cut there. However, if you let them go for several years, they can become overgrown and need radical pruning to get them back into shape. This can lead to very unattractive shrubs until new shoots grow to fill the empty spaces.Unlike trees, shrub pruning can be a do-it-yourself job, but I don’t know why you’d want to. When pruning shrubs, it’s a good idea to wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants. Eye protection is essential, too. Shrub branches can scratch, poke and even spring and hurt you. Our professionals are trained on how to prune shrubs for shape, as well as health and safety – the shrubs’ safety as well as their own.
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First signs of Spring.[/caption]Bulbs are, arguably, the most carefree, low maintenance flowers you can plant in your landscape. However, there’s no such thing as a maintenance-free plant, just low maintenance.The little crocus will soon make its appearance as the harbinger of spring. Even if there’s snow on the ground, the flowers will pop right up through the snow. The crocus will be followed by daffodils, tulips and hyacinths. After giving us our first splash of spring color, these beautiful flowers will fade. Later in the season, their leaves will turn brown.As soon as the flowers fade, some enthusiastic gardeners cut these plants right back to the ground. Others just leave them and let nature take its course. The right thing to do is to meet those two extremes right in the middle. When the flowers die, remove them but leave the green foliage in place. The green leaves continue making food through photosynthesis. The food is stored in the bulb to sustain the plant through next winter. When the leaves and stem die and turn brown, it’s then time to remove them. The bulbs will lie dormant through the summer and will begin growing new roots in the fall.It’s not necessary to fertilize for the summer, but a light coating of mulch will help moderate soil temperatures. Check the mulch again in the fall to be sure it’s at least three inches deep. In fall, your bulbs might also like a balanced fertilizer, depending on how fertile your soil is naturally. Most bulb experts recommend mixing bone meal with fertilizer but I’ve found that bone meal is a magnet for hungry wildlife who eat the bulbs as well as the bone meal.With fertilization and mulching complete, you can relax and wait until color bursts on to the scene next spring to signal that your landscape is waking up from another drab winter.The only other thing you have to do in the fall is to plant more bulbs so your spring awakening will be even more spectacular. You can never have too many bulbs. These early risers provide you with plenty of spring color at a time when most of your other plants are still sleeping. Yet they ask so little in return.
Your deciduous trees’ leaf buds are swelling and getting ready to burst forth into a crown of green. Will the branches be able to carry the extra weight of all those leaves? One way to be sure is to have your trees inspected by one of our Certified Arborists and pruned, if needed, before they leaf out.It’s March and winter isn’t over yet. Besides having to protect tree branches from the weight of leaves, you may also have to protect them from the added weight of ice and snow, as well as the buffeting of high winds. This winter has been so unpredictable that I can only recommend preparing your trees for the worst case scenario.Pruning can be done anytime a tree needs it. However, late winter and early spring are excellent times to have it done. The tree’s skeletal structure is visible so the arborists can see which limbs might be prone to break under the weight of ice, snow or a bumper crop of leaves. The visible leaf buds will also let the arborists estimate the amount of weight leaves will add to the branches and determine which cannot handle the load and should be removed.One caution, though: Don’t prune trees like dogwoods that flower in the spring. The flower buds, as well as the leaf buds, are on the branches. It’s difficult for the untrained eye to distinguish between the two types of buds. As a result, you may prune off the reason you planted the tree in the first place – the flowers.If you pruned, or had us prune, your trees during the fall or winter, they probably don’t need pruning this spring, unless you discover a potentially hazardous situation. Then you should call immediately. Always remember that tree pruning is not a do-it-yourself job, especially if you have to leave the ground or stand under the tree to cut big limbs above you.Trees are the backbones of all landscapes. Losing one during a storm will leave a hole in your landscape that could be impossible to replace in your lifetime. That’s why it’s so important to keep your trees healthy. Besides, keeping your current trees healthy is much less expensive than removing and replacing them.
The recent wind beat up many of the trees in our region. Some handled it better than others. If your trees survived, you’re lucky. But that doesn’t mean your trees are invincible. It means that you shouldn’t press your luck. This wasn’t the first storm and it won’t be the last. In fact if you haven’t been outside there is snow accumulating in the trees right now.After the stressful couple of weeks that your trees have just experienced you should have your trees inspected by one of our Certified Arborists. Although your trees may still be standing, there could be damage up in the crown, in the root zone and inside the branches. If your yard is littered with broken branches they may have left jagged stubs, which are unhealthy. The jagged ends won’t allow the remaining stub to heal (callus) properly, becoming an entry point for insects and disease organisms. Not all broken branches may be in the yard. Some may still be hanging precariously up in the tree, where they could fall on somebody.During the inspection, our arborists will also determine whether the crown should be pruned to lessen wind resistance and uneven weight distribution. Most of the trees that fell in the last storm were uprooted. This is because tree roots spread outward rather than downward. Water pockets form below the roots and, as the water freezes and thaws, it can loosen the soil around the roots. Add to that hurricane-force winds and a heavy crown and the tree cannot help but fail.Some trees that suffered damage can still be saved with creative, professional pruning. I cannot emphasize enough that pruning and tree work is not a do-it-yourself job. It’s the most dangerous profession in the United States. Professionals are trained to work on toppled trees and those near power lines. Local hospitals treated many chain saw and other tree related injuries resulting from property owners trying to do their own tree clean up after the latest wind storm.When we inspect, we’ll check for rot that reduces the tree’s ability to withstand high winds. Mushroom-like growths, especially around the root zone, are the most obvious sign of rot. However, we also use instruments to measure the amount of internal rot and to calculate the tree’s chance of survival. We can then advise you on whether it should be removed and just monitored.We also look for radial cracking, especially in smaller branches. High winds or heavy loads on branches can cause them to break inside. The only obvious sign is droopy branches. If you cut a cross section, it will look like a sliced pie with cracks radiating out from the center but not quite reaching the edge of the branch. This cracking weakens the branch.An inspection and any repair work now can result in substantial savings after the next wind storm.
Green industry professionals have been throwing the mantra “Right Plant/Right Place” around quite liberally for the last few years. Ever wonder what it really means? When so many different people, all with different agendas, have jumped on the bandwagon, the true meaning can become rather clouded.The original meaning, and the one to which Birchcrest subscribes, is to analyze the growing conditions of the space in which you would like to install a plant and to select a plant that will grow happily in those conditions. The plant can be changed but the site can’t.Native plant advocates believe the only right plants in these parts are those native to our area. Others define the term to mean any plant that is suited to the growing conditions the site provides. That gives you the choice of native, exotic, introduced, nativar, even volunteer, as long as they are suited to the growing conditions. Remember, you can change the plant you select but you can’t change the growing conditions without a lot of work and dubious success.Plants at a garden center have tags on the plants or stuck in the container. They list the growing conditions that the plants require, including the amount and duration of light each day, the amount of water it needs and the amount of wind it can tolerate.Tags also list the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) hardiness zone for the coldest temperature the plants can tolerate. Knowing the temperature extreme is important because of microclimates. Although the Rochester, New York area is generally Zone 5 (-20 to -10), there are pockets that are Zone 5B (-15 to -10), Zone 6A (-10 to -5) and even Zone 6 (-10 to 0). Your yard may have microclimates caused by your house’s shape, positioning on the property or other factors.A major consideration when buying a tree is its ultimate height and width. These, too, are on the tag. If you want to plant the tree under electric wires, its maximum height, when fully grown, shouldn’t be more than 20 feet. If you’re planting near structures or the edge of your yard, the tree should be placed so that the crown doesn’t overhang a right-of-way or a neighbor’s property when fully grown.You’ll also need to contact a utility locating service before you begin digging the hole for a tree. They will come out and place flags where underground utilities are located so you can avoid them. Be sure the service also flags water and sewer pipes, especially if you’re on septic tanks. Tree roots can interfere with these pipes.You should also be aware of insects and diseases that are active in the area where you want to plant. For example, it’s not wise to plant an ash tree since the emerald ash borer is active in our area.What if you plant a wrong plant in a wrong place? The results can range from failure to extra maintenance work. Some plants, especially those exposed to light, water and wind conditions they don’t like, will not thrive and may die. Trees and shrubs that are too big for the site will require constant pruning to keep them in check.If you have our professionals design and plant your landscape, you won’t have to worry about the right plant being in the right place. This is a mantra for professionals as well property owners.
