MENUThis winter has been typical for a La Nina winter, according to the TV meteorologist I like to watch. He said that we would have our share of ups and downs – periods of cold and snow followed by periods of mild weather. If this weather pattern continues, it will, you can use the mild thaws to get outside and improve the look of your landscape.I don’t mean to imply that you should go out and start major renovations or upgrades. However, there are routine maintenance tasks you can perform that will keep your yard looking nice and clean. Checking on your landscape from the outside will also afford you the opportunity to identify potential hazards early and have them taken care of before they injure people or damage property.When you take these strolls around your property, inspect your overwintering plants, especially those you planted last fall. Be sure they’re still healthy, secure in the place you planted them and not under stress. If the weather is well above freezing and no cold spell is predicted for a few days, give your fall plants a good watering.Frequent freezing and thawing causes frost cracks. These are vertical cracks in the bark of trees, especially smooth bark trees. Be sure to also check the base of trees and shrubs – both young and old – for rodent damage. While looking at trees, look up, too. Check for broken branches. We’ve had some high wind this winter, so there may be some branches that are broken and hanging.If your trees and shrubs appear to have any problems, call us. Remember, our arborists work year round. You don’t have to wait until spring to have that broken branch removed or steps taken to discourage rodents.As you walk around your property, pick up any leaves and trash that blew in. Not only will your property look nice for the rest of the winter, it will also reduce the chance of lawn diseases. Best of all, you won’t have as much clean up work in the spring.Finally, use these opportunities to take note of where you need new plants or some need to be replaced. You can also sketch out the projects that you budgeted for after last week’s blog. Then you’ll be prepared to start these projects as soon as the lawn is firm enough to walk on. Speaking of firm lawns, be sure yours is dry enough to support you during your walks around the property. If it’s not firm enough, limit your walking to the perimeter.This winter is certainly a gift, unless you’re a winter activity person. Make the most of it. While you are able to keep a closer eye on your landscaping, you’ll also get outside in the fresh air. And that sure beats sitting inside staring at your landscape out the window.
Winter is the perfect time to prepare for spring landscaping and to make your wish list of updates you’d like this season. You aren’t rushing like you would be once the season starts, and our landscape designers have more time to spend with you.Last week, I wrote about budgeting for this season’s landscaping. Once you have a budget, your wish list and your reality list, the next step is to meet with one of our designers. Our expert designers will take the information from your discussion and put your dreams on paper. This will allow you to see what it will look like and to make easy alterations to fit your preference and budget. Before meeting with our designer you should review nursery catalogs (either paper or online) to gather ideas.During the winter, our designers are only concentrating on creating plans for the growing season. Once the season starts, in addition to creating plans, they have to visit job sites to supervise installations. So during the winter, they are able to work closely with you to share ideas and design just what you have in mind.Once you finalize the design and sign off on it, your designer can order plants and hardscape items for delivery early in the spring. This will allow for installation as soon as the snow melts and the ground thaws. If you’ve ever experienced previous springtime crunches, I know you’ll be pleased with the lower stress levels that result from early planning.
Time to shed those winter blues and start thinking about the landscaping projects you want to complete when the weather breaks and the joy of working in the yard begins. Start by establishing a budget in order to ensure that you can complete those projects you really need to get done. How much do you want to spend and how much can you afford to spend on your landscape this season?If you have no idea where to start, begin with your 2016 receipts. You’re probably pulling your records together for your income tax return, so put landscaping receipts aside as you come upon them. After you’re finished with your taxes, look over the landscaping receipts to determine how much you spent last year and what you spent it on.This can serve as your baseline for 2017. Then, list the projects that are definitely required this year and those that you’d like to do this year, and estimate the cost of each project. You can price out do-it-yourself plants and other materials on the internet. We’d be happy to give you estimates on the projects you prefer that a professional complete.After assigning costs to the items on each list, you can make informed decisions. Can you afford everything on both lists? If not, subtract the total of the must-do projects from the total amount that you have budgeted for landscaping. This will give you the amount you have available for the projects you’d like to do. Then prioritize the projects on your wish list. Plan to do as many as possible this year and schedule the rest for future years.Once you know how much money you can spend and the projects on which you’ll spend it, you can begin preparing for the start of the spring landscaping season. Next week, I’ll offer some tips on how you can prepare early for spring to get the most value for your dollar.
Pigeon holing people into specific generations – Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials – seems to be the fad these days. Much of this has to do with marketing but some has to do with changing needs. A landscape trade magazine recently ran a story on how to help aging Baby Boomers enjoy their gardens and landscapes even as their needs and capabilities change.People have had anecdotal knowledge for centuries that green plants, colorful flowers and fresh air have a positive effect on our health. Recent studies have validated it. Researchers have found that gardening and just being outdoors can reduce stress, and the increased physical activity is very productive exercise. The trouble is, the physical aspect of gardening often limits seniors.If you’re planning to renovate your landscape to accommodate age-related limitations, here are a few considerations, whether you’re retaining a professional designer or doing it yourself:• Safety should be your number one concern. Fall-prevention should be part of every design decision. Falling can cause more serious injuries for seniors than for younger people.• Landscapes for seniors should include plenty of shade and seating. Most seniors have to take frequent breaks, so be sure you have a cool, shaded place to sit down and rest. Direct sunlight is not good for the skin, even with sunscreen, and it isn’t good for aging eyes, either.• Learn labor-saving techniques so you can make the most of your energy and mobility. If you’re a perfectionist, lighten up. Learn to accept imperfection. “Gardening for a Lifetime, How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older,” a book by Sydney Eddison, has a chapter on this subject.• Raised beds, trellises and terracing can all decrease the impact on your back and legs. Raised beds should have wide caps so you can sit on them and tend your plants. Trellises and other vertical planters let you garden from a standing position. If your property is hilly, have the hills terraced. Gardening on terraces will reduce strain on your back and legs and will reduce the chance of falling.• Prioritize. Don’t try to do everything at once like you used to. Do what absolutely has to be done first and put the rest off for another day.• Think ahead. As we age, we may eventually find ourselves using a motorized scooter or wheelchair. Wide, smooth, paved paths with no stairs are essential for navigating with these aids. They will even benefit you as your legs begin to show wear, and will reduce the chance of falling. Failing eyesight is another fact of aging, so good lighting is important if you want to be able to enjoy your landscape in the evening.• A low maintenance design will reduce the frustration you’ll experience as weeding and other work get more difficult. It will also save you money when you have to hire someone for these tasks.• Include bird and butterfly-attracting, as well as, edible plants in your design. The thought of nice, juicy tomatoes and other produce can be a great incentive to keep going when your body would prefer not to. Between tasks, sitting and resting while you watch birds and butterflies fly around can be especially relaxing.• If your landscape design calls for containerized plants, use lightweight plastic or fiberglass containers rather than terra cotta or ceramic. Placing them on wheeled platforms will let you move them around easily.What I’ve just covered is a gardening overview of a movement called “aging-in-place.” Its practitioners advocate bringing needed services to seniors instead of forcing them into various stages of assisted living, This allows them to stay in their homes for as long as possible. Garden aging-in-place, and horticulture therapy help extend that time by allowing seniors to spend time outside gardening and enjoying their landscapes and the benefits they provide for people of all ages.
You may not always be able to see your lawn under the snow but this is the time you should begin thinking about the work that has to be done to it this spring. What did it look like last fall? Were there big bare spots that didn’t spring back from the summer drought? If you didn’t renovate, or have it renovated, it should be at the top of your spring landscaping to do list. If there were thin spots that need overseeding, that, too, should be at the top of your list.Repairing your lawn first thing in the spring will let you take full advantage of spring rains to get it established before precipitation levels off or disappears for the summer. This means less watering on your part, resulting in cost savings and time saved from not having to monitor the sprinkler.You may need to do some repair work on your lawn even if you had renovated the drought damage. How early or late in the fall you made the repairs will govern how strong the new grass was before the weather turned cold and the lawn went dormant.The more time your repaired lawn had to become established, the better it will be able to withstand the fungal diseases that can attack even healthy lawns in the winter. If big patches of grass appear brown or gray, possibly forming rings, you’ll have to renovate these areas. Those are signs of the fungal diseases that can disfigure lawns over the winter.Your renovation schedule will be governed by how quickly the soil dries out in spring. Since you have to rake up the dead grass and rough up the soil and then rake the seed into the soil after you spread it, the soil needs to be relatively dry, especially near the surface. Mud doesn’t rake well.By monitoring the lawn throughout the winter, you’ll know when the soil begins to dry up and be ready to renovate on the first suitable day.If you don’t want to monitor your lawn throughout the winter or 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, call us and have our lawn professionals take care of all the renovation tasks for you.You should plan ahead even if you are having us renovate the lawn for you. Then you can be scheduled early in the spring. We’ll need enough time for one of our lawn care professionals to visit the property between snowfalls to examine the extent of the damage, present you with a price quote and still be able to place you on the early schedule.Another benefit of professional repair: our pros can look at a lawn and know what variety of seed they need to match what you have so it won’t look like a patchwork quilt. That alone is worth the cost.
Winter landscapes are often depressing. They are pure white when there’s snow on the ground and rather gray when there’s no snow. You can change that and actually add excitement to your winter landscape.If you want to get right into making your drab winter landscape more welcoming, invest in some colorful hardscapes and accessories. They don’t have to be fancy. Colorful Adirondack chairs can make a bold statement. A photo of a snow-filled yard with snow-covered conifers in the background and a single, red Adirondack chair in the middle of the yard was one of the inspirations for writing this piece.The other inspiration was sharing with you some of the plants that provide color and textural delight the year round. Ornamental grasses are the workhorses of winter interest plants but they’re over used. Since the planting season is finished, however, you’ll have to be content with ornamental grass or colorful Adirondack chairs this winter. Then add more plants with year round interest this spring.Consider expanding your deciduous trees to vary the bark texture. Supplement those already in your yard with trees with other types of bark. If you now have a mixture of smooth and furrowed bark, add something with exfoliating bark like river birch or shagbark hickory. My favorite is paperbark maple (Acer griseum). Some trees and shrubs also have different color bark. Red twig dogwood is an example, as is barberry shrubs with their deep red bark.Evergreens also provide year round color, and it doesn’t have to be green, either. The leaves on some broadleaf evergreens turn color as their metabolism slows for the winter. For example, I’ve seen PJM rhododendron leaves decrease in size and turn a dark burgundy color in winter.Witch hazel flowers remain on the branches into winter, as do some perennials like hellebores and dianthus.Finally, there are the trees and shrubs that display berries in winter. The most common is holly. Remember, though, that you need both a male and female holly to produce berries. One holly species is actually called winter berry. Its botanical name is Ilex verticullata. Unlike the more common hollies, winter berry is deciduous so the berries will really stand out in winter. Cranberry bush viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) berries often persist through the winter, too.The leafless trees and shrubs and the variable weather this winter will give you time to consider the plants that will best add winter interest to your yard and exactly where they should go. If you would like help with the design, call our offices for the professional help our designers can provide. By using winter wisely to decide on how to freshen your year round landscape, we can also procure and plant your selections early in the spring so they can become well established through the spring, summer and fall. Then, next winter, you can look out your windows and see a landscape as beautiful as it is the other three seasons.
Our holiday wish is that you’ll be able to spend this wonderful season with family and friends; that you’ll be able to enjoy the traditions that make you who you are; and that 2017 will be the happiest and most prosperous year you’ve ever had.The entire Birchcrest family thanks you for your business and the confidence you’ve placed in our professionals. Their commitment to you is to continually grow professionally by earning new certifications and maintaining their current certifications through professional development.Together, let’s make 2017 the best year yet for all of us!Thank you and Happy Holidays!
As we enter the new year, I’d like to share with you some landscape trends to help you plan for the 2017 growing season.Many of these ideas are courtesy of Dr. Allan Armitage. Many of you are familiar with Dr. A, as he is known to his students. He’s a retired horticulture professor from the University of Georgia. In his retirement, he’s a writer, lecturer and plantsman. He was in Canandaigua last fall to headline an event at Sonnenberg Gardens. The night before, he spoke at Finger Lakes Community College on “What’s Hot, What’s Not and What’s Upcoming.”Living spaces are changing, he explained. Although we haven’t seen much of this in suburban Rochester, we have seen it in the city where many buildings are being converted to lofts and apartments. As a result, those who embrace this lifestyle may have no more than a balcony or windowsill for plants. Even in suburbia, some are opting for smaller homes on smaller lots, and even townhouses, for the sake of easier maintenance.This downsizing has resulted in a growing (no pun intended) interest in containers. While the artisans and production facilities that make containers are booming, so are the nurseries and greenhouses that breed plants for containers. Dr. A mentioned one whimsical new offering called Grafted Ketchup & Fries™. It’s a cherry tomato plant grafted to a potato root stock. It actually yields tomatoes above ground and potatoes below. Go ahead, look it up on the internet. It’s there.Dr. A went on to say that we’ve become a society of decorators rather than gardeners. We know how we want our landscapes to look but would rather hire professionals to make it happen. A few years ago, this was a fad. Today it’s a trend. Dr. A noted that a fad becomes a trend which then becomes the norm.As we add to our present landscapes, animal resistance is foremost on peoples’ minds, especially deer resistance. Dr. A said that some garden stores are actually selling deer resistant plants with special, yellow tags identifying them as such.While water shortages aren’t typically a concern in our region, last summer has started property owners thinking about drought resistant plants and converting all or some of their lawns to groundcover.Foodscaping is emerging from the fad stage to the trend stage, too. More and more people want to grow their own food but lack the space when they downsize. The popular answer today, Dr. A said, is to plant fruits and veggies as landscape plants, sometimes integrating them with ornamental plants.Eco-awareness continues to be a concern. How can we assure the survival of pollinators like bees and butterflies? Will wildlife that depends on a specific species of native plant also feed on nativars? Nativars are cultivars of native plants. Dr. A’s answer to that question was that there has been no scientific indication that they will not.Rochester is well known for its conservative approach to trends. We aren’t expecting any major changes in our customers’ landscape styles but we are prepared. If you want to become a trendsetter, we’re ready to help you make that move.
We all love Charlie Brown but that doesn’t mean your Christmas tree has to stand as a tribute to him. Read these suggestions before buying a cut tree and you won’t be confused with the Peanuts comic character.The first thing you should do is decide where you’re going to buy your tree. The freshest tree is one from a local Christmas tree farm. At many, you have the choice of cutting your own tree or having farm staff members cut it for you. Even the pre-cut trees at a local farm are usually fresher than those sold by sellers who pop up on street corners or in vacant lots. Those vendors buy their trees from growers who may be miles away and cut their trees months ago.Make tree shopping a family affair. Before you go, though, do some research on the available species. Fir, spruce and pine are the three most popular Christmas tree species in this area. Douglas, balsam and fraser fir are the main Christmas tree species. Firs have soft, flat needles with rounded tips. Norway, white and blue are our popular species of spruce. Spruce have short, sharp needles that grow thickly on the branches. The most popular pine is white pine. This has long, soft needles that grow five to a cluster. Scots pine, another popular tree, has stiff, short needles that grow two to a cluster.Before leaving for your Christmas tree outing, it’s also important to measure the space where the tree will go. Measure the available floor space, but also measure the floor to ceiling space. When determining how tall your tree can be, include the angel at the top and the height of the stand in your calculations. Also measure the diameter of the opening in your stand. Reducing the trunk’s diameter to make it fit the stand can damage the tree and shorten its life.Unless you cut the tree yourself, put it through this battery of tests to check its freshness:
Be sure the trunk is straight or its lean will look funny when you put it in the stand. If you fall in love with a tree that isn’t straight, ask the tree farm if they are able to fix it. Some have a jig that they place the tree in and then drill a hole in the base. You’ll need a special stand that they can sell you. It has a pin in the bottom that fits into the drilled hole to keep the tree straight. There is also a tree stand on the market whose base can swivel to make a tree look straight.Be sure the workers at the tree farm bale your tree to protect it on the way home. When you get it home, cut a half-inch off the bottom and place the tree in a bucket of water. Keep it in a cool, sheltered place until you’re ready to bring it indoors. Put it in the garage a few days before you’re planning to take it inside so it can acclimate to the warmer interior environment.I like to buy my tree early so I can take care of it, rather then leaving its care to the tree farm people. Don’t be too hasty taking the tree indoors. The warmer temperature could shorten its life.
As Fall continues to envelope us, it’s obvious that winter is not going to pass us by this year. It’s just taking its own sweet time and giving us an opportunity to extend our outdoor season.If you’ve done all of the winter preparations I’ve shared over the past few weeks, everything should be secured and you are ready to relax and begin planning for spring. Or are you? Have you inspected your big trees, or had one of our Certified Arborists inspect them? This is one task that’s free from weather restrictions. Tree inspections can be done in anyweather.Even if you want us to inspect your trees, a glance up and down and all around your tree(s) will give you an idea of what to expect. Then the results of our professional inspection won’t come as a complete surprise.The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) has published this checklist to guide you:
This self examination is like a self examination for your own health. If you answered yes to any of the questions, it’s time to call our professionals. Our arborists work throughout the winter, so their season isn’t over. They actually prefer working in winter when deciduous trees are leafless and they can see their structure.Our arborist may recommend pruning the tree to remove dead or dying branches, or branches that are damaged in some other way. If more than one branch is growing from one point on the trunk, cabling and bracing may be the best treatment. We install threaded rods in the trunk near the point where the multiple stems grow out from the main trunk and cables up in the crown to reduce wind stress and the added weight of snow and ice. We’ll check the root zone for such problems as girdling room and correct that surgically.In some cases, such as trees with significant rot, we may have to recommend removing the tree for your safety and that of your neighbors.After a tree inspection, you can enjoy the winter with the peace of mind that you’ve done all you can to assure that your valuable trees will be less apt to cause any damage to themselves or their surroundings.
Do you have someone on your holiday gift list who’s hard to buy for because they have everything? If “everything” includes a well-maintained landscape, or they wish they had a well-maintained landscape, we have an idea for the perfect gift – a Birchcrest gift certificate.Whether they have a well-maintained landscape or wish they did, this gift certificate is the most thoughtful gift you can give. Those with well-maintained landscapes obviously carve time out of their busy schedule to devote to this task. A gift certificate will free this block of time, hopefully relieve stress and give them time to do something they really want to do, or really should do. Our people don’t even mind if their idea of relaxing is to kibitz, as long as they do it safely.A beautiful landscape that isn’t well maintained indicates that the owner hasn’t been able to carve out the block of time needed to give it the TLC it deserves. Or they have an illness or infirmity that prevents them from maintaining the property properly. Whatever the reason, it has to be stressful for them, and taking that burden from their shoulders will surely be helpful.We can provide you with a gift certificate in any amount and it can be used for any of our services. All you need to do is contact our office and our people will do the rest, and you won’t even have to come in. The recipients? They’ll be happy that their landscape maintenance will be in the hands of the area’s leading tree, landscaping and lawn care company.
Nothing beats the sound of running water to rinse away stress or to cool a back yard on one of the hot summer days we just experienced. Now, the weather has cooled down and has even dropped below freezing. And, we’ve gotten our first real snowfall.If you haven’t done so, it’s time to winterize your water feature. The extent of your winterization depends on the type of water feature you have. If it’s a free-standing fountain, for example, you can empty the water, unplug the pump and put it away with your other hardscape items. If it’s a permanent pond, you have to consider the needs of the fauna and flora that live in it.Your main goal is to prevent the pond from freezing solid. Those with no fish or plants can be covered with an insulating material. If you do have fish and plants, place one or more floats in the water, as many people do with their swimming pools. This will lessen the chance of ice damage. You may also need a floating deicer.It’s important to keep fallen leaves out of the pond. This can be done with a pool skimmer or by covering the pool with netting. A layer of rotting leaves on top of the pond depletes the oxygen and inhibits its replenishment. This can kill fish and water plants.You’ll need to disconnect the pump, filter and clarifier. It’s recommended that you store them indoors for the winter. You may also have to store tender plants and even warm weather fish indoors. Hardy plants can survive with only a cut back. Hardy fish can survive, too, as long as the pond is deep enough to provide sufficient warmth and the pond isn’t frozen over completely.This may seem like a lot of work, but all you have to do is remember the soothing sound of water and the cooler summer temperatures that your water feature provides.
The woody plants on your property are, arguably, the most valuable plants in your landscape. Trees and shrubs are big, so we assume they’re strong. Some shrubs seem to bounce back, almost miraculously, from trauma. This makes us think that nature takes care of our trees and shrubs.There are those who point to forest plants as examples of self-sustaining plants and use that as an excuse for not performing certain maintenance tasks. The truth is, however, that individual forest plants aren’t self-sustaining. They depend on the forest ecosystem to sustain them. There’s great synergy in the forest.Landscape plants do not have the same support system as forest plants. They often stand alone and defenseless in the yard. Shrubs usually have neighboring shrubs in the same planting bed but they were selected for their aesthetics rather than their synergy with surrounding plants. That’s why landscape plants need our tender, loving care.Few landscape plants are true species. Most are cultivars or varieties that were bred in a nursery for specific traits. They are about as close to a forest plant as your dog is to a wolf or your cat to a cougar.That’s why we need to prepare our woody landscape plants for winter. I discussed in previous blogs about adding extra mulch to protect plant roots from temperature swings and wrapping trees to protect them from bitter wind, hungry wildlife and road salt spray.If you’ve applied anti-desiccant to your evergreens in the past, you know how this treatment protects plants from winter burn. I swear by anti-desiccant. If you only have a few evergreens (both broadleaf and needled), you can purchase this product in spray bottles at garden stores. The most common brand is Wilt-Pruf. If you have lots of plants that need anti-desiccant, it’s more economical to call us. We buy it in bulk and one of our technicians will apply it with a backpack sprayer.Evergreens don’t go completely dormant in winter like deciduous trees and shrubs. Their natural functions just slow down. When the ground freezes, the plants can’t absorb water and nutrients from the soil but they still transpire water through their leaves as a byproduct of photosynthesis. The wind often blows the water droplets off the leaves before the plant can reabsorb and reuse the water. This dries out the leaves and they turn brown. Anti-desiccant is a clear, wax-like material that coats the leaves to prevent the wind from blowing the water off them while still letting sunlight reach the leaves.Finally, your trees should be inspected each fall to be sure they can withstand the rigors of winter. This inspection will determine whether the tree will be safe while being battered by wind and coated with ice and snow. The inspection will also identify weak, broken, dead or dying branches that should be pruned before they can cause personal injury or property damage. We will also check for any root damage, insects, diseases or other hazards.Going back to the pet analogy above, you are responsible for the behavior of your landscape plants just as you are for the behavior of your pets.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve written about keeping your various landscape plants comfortable this winter. Today, I have a suggestion for keeping yourself and your family comfortable.Nothing beats a nice, cozy, wood burning fire on a cold, winter night. The dancing flames, the crackling sound, the aroma… they all tell you that the cold weather is here. But you don’t have to be cold. Not if you have a wood burning fireplace or stove.At Birchcrest, we have plenty of firewood, and it’s all well seasoned hardwood. I recommend calling and having your winter supply delivered now, before winter sets in. That way, you can have it safely stored away before it gets soaked. Even more importantly, you can be sure you’re getting seasoned wood. All firewood dealers will begin running out of seasoned wood soon. Some will begin substituting green wood and softwoods.Seasoned hardwood burns clean and leaves very little soot and virtually no creosote on the inside of your flue or chimney. Hardwood burns slower than softwood and gives off more heat for greater comfort.Green wood contains more water than seasoned wood. Even if you can get the fire lit, all the water has to evaporate before the wood begins burning. That’s the hissing sound you hear when green wood is trying to burn. Besides its inefficiencies, green wood also gives off water vapor that can corrode the iron or steel parts in your fireplace or stove. As this vapor escapes up the flue or chimney, it can corrode sheetmetal flues and liners, even if it’s galvanized.Soft woods are loaded with creosote and water. As this material is drawn up the flue or chimney, creosote is deposited on the walls. A sufficient build-up can easily catch on fire. To be safe, you’ll need to have your chimney cleaned more often.There are some simple tests to determine if the wood you are buying is seasoned or green. Seasoned wood is a grayish color while unseasoned wood is tan. A second test is to hit a piece on a rock or something else that’s hard. Seasoned wood should bounce off and sound almost hollow while green wood will just make a thud.Our delivery includes dumping the wood in your driveway. For a slight bit more money, our crew can stack it in your garage or another accessible place. Don’t wait to order, though. Our seasoned hardwoods are going fast.
It would be easy to just go into winter mode at the first sign of fall because the snow will soon cover your landscape and you won’t have to look at it until spring. You may not like what you see in spring, however, and it’ll probably cost you money as well.Last week, I touched on how brutal winter can be on trees. It can also be brutal on patio furniture and other hardscape items. So be sure to tend to the hardscapes. Move them under shelter or cover them.Resist the temptation to let leaves overwinter where they fall. When the snow melts, they’ll still be right where they fell so you’ll have to rake them up when they’re saturated with snow melt. And, you won’t like the look of the lawn underneath. Leaves left on grass trap water between the leaves and grass and this is the environment that fungal diseases love. When you pull the leaves away in spring, you may be greeted with big patches of brown or gray dead grass. The only fix is expensive, time consuming renovation.Waiting until all the leaves fall before raking or blowing them can lighten your fall workload. If you rake before all the leaves are off the trees, you’ll only have to do it again after the last leaf falls.In addition to removing leaves from your lawn, cutting the grass short for the last mowing of the season will reduce conditions that lead to fungal diseases. We advocate mowing at a cutting deck height of at least three inches during the growing season. For the last mowing, however, you should lower it to two or two-and-a-half inches. Higher grass tends to matte down under the weight of snow and it holds water like a sponge, creating the perfect environment for fungi.I wrote about winter mulching a couple of weeks ago, so you know that I’m a big proponent of applying up to four inches of double ground wood chip mulch to help insulate the roots of your trees, shrubs and perennials.Finally, if you didn’t get around to planting that tree or shrub you wanted, take heart. There’s still time. You can plant until the ground freezes. You can also plant spring flowering bulbs right up until the ground freezes.Do all of the things proposed above and you can enjoy the winter season secure in the knowledge that you won’t be burdened with held-over tasks next spring. You can do normal spring clean up of debris that has blown into your yard over the winter, remove excess mulch and tree wraps, and then go right into your normal spring routine.
During our hot, dry summer, I advocated mulching your landscape to help insulate the soil against the heat. Insulation, however, is a two-way street. It can also insulate against the cold. So, I’m now advocating mulch for winter.Mulch can also regulate the amount of water reaching your plant roots. Mulch absorbs some of the water from rain and melting snow and then releases it into the soil over time.Spread up to four inches of organic mulch around the base of your plants. If you spread two inches for the summer, add a couple more. If you spread three inches, just add another inch.Remember last week’s blog about closing down your critter café? I warned against letting the mulch touch tree trunks and shrub stems. In particular, don’t pile the mulch up the trunk in a mulch volcano. Mulch provides the perfect picnic pavilion for little rodents like mice. Also, mulch touching trunks releases its water on to the trunk, rather than into the soil. Any crack, cut or break in the bark can create a perfect environment for rot and other microbes.When I talk about the benefits of mulch, I’m referring only to organic mulches like wood chips and pine bark. In addition to moderating soil temperature and regulating water absorption by the soil, organic mulch also decomposes and returns nutrients to the soil. Inorganic mulches like stone chips are only decorative and don’t provide any environmental benefits.I’m particularly partial to double ground hardwood mulch because it’s made from recycled debris from tree trimming operations. Recycling this material contributes to plant health while reducing the stream of waste going to landfills.If you spread four inches of mulch for the winter, don’t forget to remove an inch or two in the spring. Four inches are too thick for the growing season. Measure the mulch depth before removing any in spring. Some may have already decomposed.You can buy bags of mulch at garden centers and home stores but that’s expensive, especially for large areas. We can deliver it in bulk much less expensively. We can either dump it in your driveway for you to spread or one of our professional landscape crews can spread it for you.
Fall color is one of the scenic attractions to our area. However, leaves aren’t our only fall color. Flowers provide us with fall color as well. The chrysanthemum, or mum, is the first plant that comes to mind.Mums are beginning to arrive at your favorite garden center, and everywhere else that sells plants. They’re available in a rainbow of colors and sizes. The color palette includes fall colors like orange, brown and purple. Cultivars are available in different shapes and sizes, too. You can buy them in nursery pots for transplanting into the ground, or you can buy them in hanging baskets and in decorative patio pots.The original annuals you planted at the beginning of summer are probably long gone. In fact, you may have had to change them out at least once during the summer, especially if they fell victim to the hot, dry weather we just experienced.Mums are long lasting. If you keep them watered and deadheaded, you could enjoy flowers all the way to the first killing frost. There are hundreds of cultivars. For our area, however, it’s best to choose those that are labeled “Hardy Mums.” These can be planted in the ground or in containers and, as long as you keep them watered and deadheaded, you’ll continue to enjoy flowers.Mums like full sun and well drained soil. They like plenty of water but not wet feet. In some places, mums can be grown as perennials. Here, most are treated as annuals. One reason may be that areas of full sun aren’t sheltered in winter. If you want to try growing them as perennials, fertilize them with a high phosphorous (middle number) fertilizer and spread up to 4 inches of mulch.Those mums growing in containers need special preparations for winter. They can be brought inside or, if you don’t have room for them in your home, try overwintering them in a cold frame with mulch around the container to help keep the roots warm.Mums are very versatile plants. Having been hybridized since ancient times, you have so many sizes, shapes and flower colors to choose from that you can take advantage of their versatility to maintain a colorful garden right up until winter.
If you emerged from last winter’s doldrums excited to get reacquainted with your landscape only to find that the wild animals had a feast at your expense, now is the time to take action before this winter.For the most part, our uninvited dinner guests are rabbits, mice and deer. These pests may stop in for a quick snack in the spring, summer and fall, but they’re regular visitors in the winter when their other food sources are in short supply.Your first step is to identify your unwelcome diners and then take appropriate action to deter them. Field mice eat tender bark around the base of trees and shrubs. They’re attracted to smaller, younger plants because they are most tender. Mice have been known to kill plants by girdling all the way around the trunk or stem.Mice don’t like dining in public. They burrow under the snow when possible. When that’s not possible, they often dine at night. Rabbits, on the other hand, aren’t quite as paranoid. They’ll stand on top of the snow and eat bark and twigs. While they, too, tend to be nocturnal, they can also be seen dining by daylight at times.Deer are probably the most serious problem. They’ve become so bold that they’ll rise up on their hind legs if necessary to reach a tender tree branch. When they’re hungry enough in winter, they aren’t fussy about their diet. They’ll even eat plants you wouldn’t think they could swallow – plants like holly and barberries.There are a number of ways to discourage mice and rabbits. The most basic deterrent is to keep mulch and snow away from the trunk and stems. This open space will eliminate a hiding place so the animals (mice in particular) feel vulnerable dining at that restaurant. Barriers are popular and directions for making them are all over the internet, The easiest barrier can be made by wrapping the trunk with hardware cloth, plastic pipe or tree wrap. Some barrier directions say to offset the hardware cloth out from the trunk with wooden or PVC frames. There are also many chemical and natural sprays that you can apply. My personal choice is pulling snow and mulch away from the trunk and wrapping the trunk with hardware cloth.Deer are more difficult to discourage. People try all kinds of deterrents but there’s no one technique or product that is near foolproof. With nature, nothing is foolproof. Fencing may be the most effective but it has to be at least eight feet tall. Netting is said to work on shrubs and small trees. There are also repellents, which can be purchased or made using household items, and deer resistant plants like herbs. Deer love tulip bulbs but not daffodils. There’s also the old method of stuffing socks or panty hose legs with human hair and suspending them over the plants you want to protect. Strategically placed motion activated lights may also work.This is just a sampling of remedies. There is no one size that fits all. One deer deterrent may work for your neighbor but not for you. You’ll just have to experiment. If you find a way to control rodents and deer, I’d like to hear about it so I can share it with others. Send it to me in the comments section below.
Ever notice how certain weeds like dandelions pop up in spring before almost anything else? Nature has equipped these plants with a very simple mechanism for doing that. They produce seeds late in the season, which fall to the ground and lie latent during the winter. They’re all ready to germinate as soon as weather conditions are just right in spring.You can short circuit that cycle by killing these weeds and their seeds this fall. Apply a broadleaf weed killer before they go to seed. To be sure there are no latent seeds lurking in the garden or on your lawn, also apply a weed preventer. Some products include both a weed killer and preventer in the same package.Be careful of what product you buy and how you apply it. Herbicides may be selective or non-selective. Selective products will kill only the weeds for which they are labeled. Non-selective herbicides will kill any green plant. Products like Glyphosate (Roundup) are non-selective so you have to be very careful applying it, especially in flower beds. Spot treat in flower beds by applying the material only to the target weeds. Glyphosate can also be purchased in a formulation that includes a weed preventer.If you prefer not to use a chemical pesticide, there are natural products on the market. They contain active ingredients like clove oil and vinegar. These products don’t provide long term control, however. They only kill the leaves because the material doesn’t make its way to the roots. There are also recipes on the internet for making a natural herbicide using salt, vinegar and dish soap.As with any pesticide, it’s important to read the label carefully and follow its directions and warnings to the letter.If you want to eliminate the fuss and bother of having to read all that tiny label print, you can call us and one of our Plant Health Care professionals will be happy to check your property and take appropriate action to get rid of the weeds and keep them away.
A few weeks ago, I reminded you why fall is for planting. Fall planting includes transplanting, and dividing overgrown perennials qualifies as transplanting. Most perennials, especially woody perennials, exhibit the characteristics that makes fall the preferred planting and transplanting time.The same weather conditions that make this such a good time to plant or transplant tree and shrubs also make it a good time to divide perennials and give each new perennial that you create an opportunity to become well established before winter sets in.If you’ve never split perennials before, it’s easy. Dig up the whole plant with as much root as possible. Shake the soil from around the root on to a tarp. Lay the plant on its side on the ground and, with a sharp tool, cut it in half and then quarters. The tool you use is a personal preference but be sure it’s sharp.Replant one quarter in the hole from which the plant was dug. Backfill and water the same way you would a nursery-fresh plant. Plant the other three quarters in nursery pots and give them to friends for their gardens, plant them in different gardens on your property or donate them to a plant exchange.If you have lots of perennials that need splitting but don’t have the time or interest in digging them up and splitting them, give us a call and one of our professional landscape technicians would be happy to do the job for you.
We’ve just been through a summer that was difficult for us and for our plants. Now that the temperatures are starting to moderate and the rain is returning, it’s time for me to remind you that fall is for planting. If you’re planning to add trees, shrubs or perennials to your yard, many are best planted in fall. Besides weather conditions that plants prefer, fall planting also gives them an opportunity to become established in their new location before they have to withstand an unpredictable winter.There are only a few trees and shrubs that would prefer that you wait. That list includes some slow to establish species, like bald cypress, American hornbeam, ginkgo, larch, magnolia, hemlock, sweetgum, tulip tree and willow. Also, broadleaved evergreens, such as rhododendrons, and narrow-leafed evergreens, such as yews, prefer spring planting. In general, plants with shallow, fibrous root systems can be planted easier in the fall than those with fewer, larger roots. The fall planting list includes pines and spruces as well as most deciduous trees.I can assure you that Fall is for Planting is sound plant biology, not a scheme by the nursery industry to get rid of their nursery stock that suffered through the hot, dry summer. Many nurseries and garden centers order new plants for fall planting. This year, you should have no trouble differentiating the new stock from the old. If you’re looking for a bargain, you may be able to negotiate deep discounts on the survivors. Personally, I don’t like to do that. I rather pay list price and get new stock.Right Plant, Right Place, the other arboricultural axiom, holds just as true for fall planting as it does for any other time of the year. You also plant the same way as I’ve discussed in past blogs, all of which are listed by month and year on the right sidebar. If you don’t want to select the plants, haul them home and plant them yourself, call us. We have landscape professionals who will do it for you.
After the hot, dry summer we’ve just endured, it’s hard to imagine that cold, bleak days of winter are just around the corner. By February and March, we’ll be scanning the snow drifts for the first color of an approaching spring, and the appearance of colorful crocuses pushing up through the snow can signal that spring is coming soon.Daffodils, tulips and hyacinths will make their appearance soon after the crocus. While these are all spring flowering plants, their bulbs need to be planted in the fall. Fall planting allows bulbs to become acclimated to their new home before the ground freezes and to get a head start on spring.Garden centers now have displays of every color and variety of bulbs. You can buy mixed packages with different colors, packages in a single color or even single bulbs so you can plant them according to your own design.It’s a good idea to sketch out what you want your bulb garden to look like before shopping for bulbs. This holds true regardless of whether you buy packages or single bulbs. If you don’t have a plan, you’re apt to be disappointed with the results.Leave the bulbs in the ground and they’ll re-bloom spring after spring. If you’re disappointed with the garden design after the first blooming, however, you can dig the bulbs up and replant them. Your plan will direct you to where you planted each color. When you replant them, sketch out another plan to show each bulb’s new location.All you really need to plant bulbs is a trowel, although garden stores also have fancy bulb planting tools. Just thrust your trowel into the ground and pull it back toward you until you have a hole about the diameter of the bulb and twice as deep as the length of the bulb. Drop the bulb into the hole and backfill. You don’t have to put any fertilizer in the planting hole. Bulbs are made up almost entirely of the starches the plants need to live through the winter, push through the soil, leaf out and flower next spring.Be sure to plant the bulbs right side up. The root side (flat with small hair roots) faces the bottom of the hole. After backfilling, tamp the area lightly to eliminate air pockets and then water the newly planted bulbs.You can plant right up until the ground freezes but I recommend planting bulbs as soon as you buy them, giving them the maximum amount of time to acclimate.
You can help your trees take shape by having them pruned properly. Proper pruning helps them grow into the shape you want, especially when trees are young.It takes a basic understanding of tree biology to prune trees in a way that promotes and maintains their health and structure. Proper pruning also improves the tree’s economic contribution to your landscape.How tree branches are pruned influences how they stand up to gravity, wind and even dangerous ice and snow storms. Too much cutback creates stress in trees, so it’s important to exercise caution and a little common sense. You should consider two questions before pruning;Why prune?Trees are most commonly pruned as a corrective or preventative measure to remove dead branches, crowded limbs and potential hazards.When to prune.Routine pruning can be done at any time of the year. However, the benefits are maximized if trees are pruned now, as summer fades into fall.The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) has published these points to consider before pruning a tree:
Pruning large trees can be dangerous. It usually involves working above the ground and using power equipment like chain saws. It’s important to consider your safety, and that of your trees. That’s why your cardinal rule of tree ownership should be when you have to leave the ground, call in our professionals. Our arborists have the experience, equipment and special training to properly prune any size or species of tree.
A good offense is the best defense. That’s why I’m offering my annual reminder to check for lawn grubs. Even if your lawn is greening up beautifully after its summer dormancy, grubs may still be at work beneath the surface.Grubs are the larval stage of the European chafer or Japanese beetle. They are crescent shaped and white in color with a brown head, and their favorite diet is turfgrass roots.In June and July, you may have seen big, brown insects flying around. Most people first notice them when they fly into their closed windows and make a big noise for such a small creature. These are the adult European chafers and Japanese beetles. When they hit your window, they’re actually flying around looking for a mate. After mating, the female lays her eggs in turfgrass. As soon as the grubs hatch, they burrow into the ground and begin feeding on grass roots.Grubs are quite small at this stage of their lives, and relatively easy to control chemically. However, they will soon grow as big as two inches. As the weather gets colder, they burrow deeper into the ground. The bigger grubs grow and the deeper they burrow, the more difficult they are to control. This is why I recommend checking for them now, while they are still small and vulnerable.As I wrote last week, the way to check for grubs is to cut 12 inch squares of sod at various spots in your yard. Roll back the sod to see if there are grubs present just under the surface. If they are present, count them. Six or fewer grubs won’t hurt the lawn enough to warrant treatment so just put the sod back in place. If there are seven or more, plan to treat your lawn for grubs now. Don’t wait until spring to treat or the grubs will have grown too big over the winter for treatment to be effective.Garden stores carry several brands and formulations of grub control material. Check the labels to be sure they aren’t harmful to birds or bees. Birds feed on grubs, so you definitely don’t want to use that material. The same holds true for those master pollinators, the bees.If you would rather leave this task to the experts, call us and one of our lawn care professionals will come to your home, check for grubs, make recommendations for controlling them, and apply the control material for you. The time to act, though, is now.
Now that August is here, our hot, dry summer should soon begin to wane. Rains will return and your lawn should green up. But what can you do if there are brown spots?First of all, don’t panic over a few brown spots. Let the rest of the lawn green up completely. As the lawn rejuvenates itself, the smaller spots will probably fill in by themselves, and some of the larger spots may fill in by the natural spreading of grass plants.Brown spots that remain after the grass has returned to its natural condition will have to be repaired. Before repairing, however, you may want to check to be sure the grass was killed by the drought and not grubs. To check for grubs, cut a 12-inch by 12-inch square of sod on each side of the bare spot and fold it back. If there are zero to six grubs present in any of the squares, the damage was probably caused by the dry weather. If there are seven or more, grubs probably caused the damage and should be treated before repairing the lawn.Begin the repair by raking out all of the dead grass using a steel rake. Use the same rake to loosen the soil and rake it level. You can choose one of several methods for the next step – traditional seeding; sodding; or a mixture of mulch, fertilizer and seed that’s similar to hydroseeding.To seed. buy a seed mixture that’s close in color and texture to your original grass. Spread seed and fertilizer in the prepared areas. With your iron rake, scratch the mixture into the soil, smooth it out and apply a spray of water. If the sun is hot, cover the freshly seeded area with burlap or straw.To sod, cut a square that extends about an inch beyond the damaged area and remove the old sod. Dig out soil to the depth of the new sod. If you usually fertilize your lawn, or have it fertilized, spread some fertilizer in the prepared area. If you have compost, you can use that instead. Then, just lay the sod in place and walk on it so it makes good contact with the native soil. Finally, water the repaired area.If you decide to use the repair kit containing seed, fertilizer and mulch, follow the directions on the package.Whichever method you choose, you’ll have to keep the area well watered until the grass is established.For those who don’t want to personally perform any of the repair tasks described above, our lawn care professionals can make the repairs for you.
