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I am pleased to announce that Certified Arborist Jorge Obando is the top tree climber in New York State. On June 18, Jorge was crowned New York State Tree Climbing Champion by the New York State Arborists, ISA Chapter. This is Jorge’s fourth win and the twelfth for a Birchcrest arborist.Jorge didn’t actually receive a crown. Rather, he won climbing equipment worth more than $1,000 and a chance to match his skills against the top climbers from all over the world. In August, Jorge will represent the state ISA chapter at the Stihl International Tree Climbing Championship at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. The international event will be held in conjunction with the International Society of Arboricluture (ISA) annual conference in the nation’s capital.The daylong state championship was held on Long Island at the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. Jorge and the 24 other entrants had to compete in five events. Each involved one or more skills that climbers use every day in their work. At the end of the qualifying round, Jorge had one of the top three scores, which qualified him for the Masters Challenge.The Masters Challenge combines all of the skills from the individual events in the qualifying round into a single climb. The person who scores the highest in the Masters Challenge is the champ. I’m so pleased that Jorge won for our region of the state. His two Masters Challenge competitors were from Albany and Carmel.Congratulations, Jorge (second from the right in the photo) and good luck in Washington.
Meteorologically, July is the hottest month of the year in our area. Now that August has arrived, the 90º days should fade to just a memory. The rain will return, the grass will grow and we’ll be back to our weekly lawn mowing routine.Don’t be too quick to begin mowing again. Remember, your grass has been through a difficult period. What your lawn has gone through could even be described as traumatic, so be sure it’s thoroughly greened up and let it get some growth before you mow.The lawns that took the worst beating were those that were cut short. Those that were mowed at three inches or higher fared better. If your mower was set below three inches, I recommend that you raise it to at least three inches before you mow again, and wait until the grass grows to at least four inches before mowing.Continue to mow at three inches until the last mowing of the season. Then drop the mower deck down to two inches. Mowing at three inches exposes more green leaves to the sun so the plants manufacture more food through photosynthesis. More food means a healthier, thicker lawn, and this discourages weeds. If you mowed short, you probably noticed that weeds continued to grow during the dry period. However, mowing short for the last mowing will reduce the risk of an attack by winter turf diseases.It’s best to be sure your lawn is well on its way back to normal before mowing. You don’t want to leave wheel tracks in the grass. This will happen if you mow while the lawn is wet or before all the grass has greened up.Our lawn care professionals had to suspend many of their July treatments due to the dry conditions. They were only able to treat those lawns that were watered and remained green during the dry spell. We’ll work hard to make those postponed applications as soon as the weather returns to normal.Even if you weren’t on a lawn care program, you can call us for individual lawn care services like fertilization, weed control and grub control. Who knows; you may like the service so much that you’ll want an all-season lawn care program next year.
As if the word soil doesn’t have enough of a negative connotation, our slang term is dirt. What could be more negative? Yet, soil is the supporter of all life. It’s the medium in which plants grow. Animals eat the plants and wind up on our dinner table. And, the circle of life goes on thanks to soil.How does soil, or dirt, sustain life? It holds the nutrients and minerals that all flora and fauna need to live. Many of the minerals plants need are tied to the atoms of other minerals to support them in a form that can be absorbed by plants.When we think of soil, we usually think of it first as the anchoring medium for plants. That’s because we dig a hole in the soil, put the plant in and backfill. The ecosystem beneath the soil surface is unknown to us because we can’t see that subsurface life going on, other than digging up worms for a fishing trip.If we could see what’s going on beneath the soil surface, we’d see billions of creatures, including fungi, bacteria, worms and more, all working together to break down fallen leaves, dead plants and other organic matter.Most of these subsurface life forms are in the top few inches of soil – the layer we call top soil. When we remove that layer and don’t replace it with soil of equal quality, the balance of nature is disturbed. The plants that we install to make a landscape can’t absorb minerals that aren’t there or aren’t available to plants because there are no microbes to convert them into a form useable by plants. Fertilizer is one of the ways in which we reintroduce essential elements to soil. We also replenish microbes in the soil by adding mycorrhyzae.Some people refer to fertilization as feeding plants. The late plant physiologist, Dr. Alex Shigo, said that plants make their own food through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the complex chemical reaction in which carbon dioxide, water and essential elements are converted by sunlight into carbohydrates in green plants. So fertilization is actually soil conditioning rather than plant feeding.Summer will soon morph into fall, and you’ll be faced with the decision of whether to fertilize your landscape plants. One way to make that decision easier is to have your soil analyzed. Our Plant Health Care professionals gather soil samples and send them to a lab where the soil is analyzed, and we receive a report showing the level of all essential elements in your soil. From that we can determine whether your soil needs fertilization and the amount of each essential element that you need.
Remember last summer? It was rainy enough that Mother Nature took care of our irrigation for us. From the long range forecasts I’ve heard, that will probably not be the case this summer. The forecast is for excessive heat and little rain, although you wouldn’t know it from the weather over the past week.There are several question you need to ask yourself as you plan for your landscape’s survival.
Out west and in some parts of the south, an automatic irrigation system is essential to the survival of any landscape. Here, it’s a luxury that can make life easier but is not essential to the survival of your landscape. There are much less expensive ways to irrigate.Certainly the most basic irrigation system is a garden hose. To be effective, however, the hose should be attached to some sort of irrigation device – a sprinkler for lawns or soaker hoses for trees, shrubs and perennials. Hand holding a hose is a waste of time. Most people don’t have the patience to hold a hose long enough to apply an inch of water and that’s what your landscape needs. Spraying for a few minute a day barely wets the surface, encouraging weak, shallow roots. You want nice, deep roots. That requires that the inch of water be applied all at once or in no more than two applications.If you don’t want to go into debt to the water authority, you need to prioritize the plants you water based on their importance to the landscape, drought tolerance and value. Trees are the most valuable plants in your landscape. Newly planted trees and those still establishing themselves should be your top priority. Established trees have a root system that can seek out and find water. Shrubs are the next most valuable plants. If they start looking stressed, they should be watered. Perennials should be next and annuals last. Annuals are the least expensive plants and you may change them out several times during the season anyway.Some of you might argue that your lawn represents a bigger investment than your trees and shrubs. However, nature has given turfgrass a defense mechanism. When dry, turfgrass goes dormant and turns brown. When the rains return, it greens up again.If you use your grass a great deal, then you may want to irrigate it. If your family seldom plays on it, your irrigation budget would be best allocated to those plants that are valuable and may not bounce back after the rain returns. If you opt not to irrigate your lawn, it’s best to stay off it during a drought. When you step on brown grass, you’ll hear it crunch under your feet. That’s the sound of crispy blades of grass breaking.In answer to the third question above, I recommend soaker hoses for irrigating your trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. These are porous hoses made of recycled tires, so the water oozes out.Soaker hoses can be laid on the surface or buried in the mulch close to the plants you want to water. You only open the faucet about a quarter turn, otherwise the water pressure will cause the soaker hoses to burst. Because the water flows slowly, you have to leave soaker hoses on for several hours. I refer to soaker hoses as drip irrigation on a budget.If you opt to irrigate your lawn with hoses and sprinklers, here’s an easy way to determine how long you need to sprinkle to apply an inch of water. Put a low, wide-mouth container in the spray stream and time how long it takes to fill the container to an inch. Each time you move the hose and sprinkler to irrigate another section, you only have to watch the clock.They say you can’t fool Mother Nature, but she can fool us. Maybe she will be giving us enough moisture so that we don’t have to irrigate. However, it would be best for you to protect your landscaping investment by preparing for a hot, dry summer, and then be pleasantly surprised if you don’t need to water.
Mulch provides your landscape plants with many benefits. The most obvious is the finished look it gives your landscape. Its most important benefits, however, occur below ground.Mulch retains moisture and releases it over time, and it also moderates soil temperatures. These are important considerations this summer. Remember the prediction that this will be a hot, dry summer. That prediction began to play out even before summer officially started. We had a 90º day in May and two in June right before the Summer Solstice. We’ve also had very little rainfall in June.Wood mulch acts like insulation or a heat sink. By spreading it loosely on the soil surface, the many voids between the wood chips and fibers trap heat before it can be absorbed by the soil. The mulch then releases the heat back into the atmosphere and into the soil much slower than the soil would absorb it without mulch.When it does rain or you irrigate, mulch will absorb water and then release it into the soil over time. This is important in heavy rains. Much of the rain falling directly on bare, dry soil in hot weather will either evaporate or run off before it can be absorbed by the soil and benefit plant roots.I recommend wood mulch for several reasons. First, it’s biodegradable; as it decomposes over time, essential nutrients are returned to the soil. Non organic mulches don’t degrade. Second, it benefits the environment. The raw material is wood we prune from trees. That waste would go into a landfill if we didn’t recycle it.Mulch should be spread 2 to 3 inches thick and level. Don’t let the mulch touch the plant stem; pull it back an inch or two from plants. Resist the temptation to pile it up against tree trunks into mulch volcanoes. This practice can kill the trees.I don’t recommend colored mulch. The color is simply a dye that’s added. The color of the mulch doesn’t affect its decomposition rate or the return of nutrients to the soil. However, you can get the dye on your shoes and it can leach on to sidewalks, patios and driveways. That’s why we use only natural brown hardwood mulch.We can bring bulk mulch to your home and dump it in the driveway for you to spread, or one of our landscape crews will be happy to spread it for you. Either way, do consider keeping your plant roots cool this summer because it’s apt to be a hot one.
As the summer tourism season gets into full swing, don’t be an unwitting spreader of the “Green Menace” known as the emerald ash borer (EAB).This pest is now in 21 states and two Canadian provinces. This means you have an excellent chance of encountering EAB, especially if you’re camping or doing something near forests or parks. You may bring this tiny insect home without even knowing it until it attacks the ash trees in your yard and your neighbors’ yards.Here are a few precautions you can take as you travel this summer:
Scientists say those ash trees destroyed by EAB create a damaging effect on the eco-system and can even impact your property value. The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) says that EAB destruction has already cost municipalities, property owners and the green industry tens of millions of dollars.
Your landscape may be home to insects that don’t attack your plants but do attack you, your family and your guests. Mosquitoes and ticks come to mind because they’ve been in the news lately.Mosquitoes are carriers of numerous diseases, including malaria, West Nile virus and, most recently, the Zika virus. As they suck human blood, these pests also transmit to their human hosts diseases they are carrying. You can actively help prevent mosquitoes by getting rid of all standing, stagnant water. This is where they breed. Clean and change the water in bird baths and fountains frequently. Keep swimming pools treated and circulating. When outdoors, especially in the evening, be sure everyone’s exposed skin is treated with mosquito repellent.Ticks carry some nasty, serious, human diseases like lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. These pests are carried by various mammals. Deer ticks, for example, carry lyme disease but don’t only live on deer. The field mouse is one of its favorite hosts. This disease doesn’t affect the animal hosts, but it does debilitate humans who may receive the disease organism when infected ticks bite them.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.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.For the peace of mind of knowing that you’ve done everything possible to protect your family, call our Plant Health Care professionals. They can 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 fleas.Also, 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.
You invested money and effort in a colorful landscape. For maximum return on your investment, deadhead.In this context, deadheading has nothing to do with a 60s rock band. It has to do with removing spent flowers from your plants before they can go to seed. The practice is also called pinching. Some gardeners believe that you have to pinch the flowers off in order to encourage more blooms, but I use a pair of bonsai pruning shears and it works just fine.Deadheading works on both your house plants and those in your outdoor beds. After flower buds break, they display their color to attract pollinators. When they are pollinated, the bloom begins to fade and start to shrivel up. This means that it’s developing its seeds. That’s the time to remove the spent flowers. The plant can then direct its energy to producing new blossoms rather than seeds.Annuals are especially good candidates for deadheading. These plants’ main role in life is to reproduce. When the flower seeds are scattered, their job is done. They may stick around as foliage plants, but they also may die right away. Deadheading encourages them to make more flowers instead. You can then enjoy color longer before you have to change those annuals out for fresh plants.Perennials don’t die after blooming. They just become foliage plants until next year. Deadheading many perennials will result in new blooms, thus extending their colorful season. Some may be encouraged to bloom for nearly the whole growing season.The lifecycle of a plant is dictated by such stimuli as light and temperature. Removing flowers before they can go to seed is another stimulus that tells the plant that its effort to reproduce wasn’t successful and to try again. Besides extending the plant’s bloom time, this practice also gets you out in the garden, enjoying your plants close up and personal.
This is the time of year when some landscape plants have a bad hair day every day. This is especially true for shrubs and hedges. This is a good time to give most of them a haircut, or even a new hairstyle.I say most shrubs and hedges because some haven’t bloomed yet, and you should wait until after they’ve bloomed to avoid cutting off flower buds. If they’ve leafed out, check the branches to see if there are any more buds. If there are, you may want to hold off to see if they burst.We are just coming into the season to trim conifers like yews (Taxus) that are so popular as hedges in our area. Be sure that the new growth is finished. Premature trimming means they’ll need a second trimming after the new growth is finished.Most people trim shrubs to reduce their height, girth or both. It’s easy to identify these plants. They’ve outgrown their space. They’ve grown so tall that they interfere with a view, or they just look straggly and unkempt. Look closer, however, and you may see bark chewed off, especially around the base. This is an indication that your valuable shrubs doubled as the local restaurant for varmints, probably field mice and rabbits. If twigs are chewed higher up the branches, they may have provided deer with their winter sustenance.Trim shrubs in the same way as trees. Use pruning shears or loppers where practical. Use a hand pruning saw for branches that are too big for loppers. Don’t leave stubs. Cut back to a fork or just above a leaf. If a branch collar is visible, leave it. Cut just outside the branch collar like you would a tree.You need to use a different technique for trimming hedges. Hedges are planted for screening, defining boundaries or other specific purposes. They are pruned to maintain their form so they can continue to do that job. Ideally, pruning shears should be used. But they are rather slow and tedious. So, most people use hedge trimmers. Hedge trimmers may leave stubble, but it’s much finer than the branch stubs of trees. It isn’t as damaging to the plants, either, so we aren’t as fussy about leaving this stubble on hedges. Be warned, however, it will look like a bad haircut for awhile.If this sounds like more work than you want to tackle, trade your loppers for golf clubs, but call us first. We can tame those shaggy shrubs and overgrown hedges into shape. Whether you prefer a formal look or a more natural one, we can make it happen. And if those shrubs are in need of rejuvenation, we can help get them back to their original beauty.
If you’ve never looked into using a lawn care service, this year would be a good time to do so. Even though it’s May, there’s still time to apply the complete program.You may have always applied your own fertilizer, weed control and grub control. Have you ever added up the cost of materials? Then added in how many hours it takes you to complete the applications? Then factor in missing applications because you were too busy or just forgot. Finally, compare all of your costs to the price of a lawn care service.Your time is an important consideration. Time constraint is one of the reasons why many gen Xers and Yers, as well as millennials, are hiring out all of their gardening and landscaping work. Members of older generations are also looking at younger adults and deciding that they might be on to something.Choice of control material is another good reason to leave this type of yard work to the pros. This applies to both lawn care and tree & shrub care. While a material may be legal, there could be environmental reasons not to use it. Before starting to write this, I read that one major chemical company is dropping a whole class of pesticides because the active ingredient is harmful to pollinators, especially bees. This is information that doesn’t always make the daily media.We are concerned about the environment. For this reason, we make each lawn applications at the time it will work best on your lawn and won’t adversely affect the environment.If you want to just sit and watch your grass grow this season, rather than putting forth all the effort needed to help it grow, give our office a call for a quote on a professional lawn care program.
Over the past few years, I’ve written a lot about the emerald ash borer (EAB). Although it sometimes seems as though it’s the only insect devouring our trees, just the opposite is true. The EAB, though voracious, only attacks a single genus of tree – Fraxinus. There are plenty of other insects out there, as well as tree diseases, that aren’t as fussy about their diets.The pests attacking our trees range from common aphids and scale to numerous beetles, moths, leaf miners and...I could go on all day. The point is that the EAB is predictable. We know its life cycle, its host tree, how to prevent it and how to treat it. Many other pests out there aren’t nearly as predictable. The only sure way to identify those pests is for a Plant Health Care professional to examine your trees and look for signs of their presence. The signs will also let the PHC pro know the stage of the infestation, which will help him/her determine the most appropriate treatment.The only way our PHC pros can visit your property is by your invitation, and the only way they can apply any treatments or preventives is if you are on a Plant Health Care program. Even though we have begun treatments for the season, we can still create and implement a PHC program for you.Sure, you can call us when you see insect activity, but many signs of insect activity can only be seen by the untrained eye after damage has begun. Control at this point requires more aggressive treatment, which is also more costly and less environment-friendly. Our professionals have the education and training to identify early signs of pest activity. They can then take less aggressive action since the insects are smaller, weaker and less resistant to control material.Early treatment often means that we can use natural and organic treatments that are effective but have less of an environmental impact. When you are on a PHC program, each treatment costs less than individual treatments on an as needed basis. You also have that priceless commodity called peace of mind.Insects and diseases aren’t going away. It’s impossible to get rid of them completely. However, they can be controlled, and the best way to control them is with a Plant Health Care program that transfers the responsibility from you to our professionals.As you can see, I’m passionate about this subject. I hate to send a crew out to take down a stately tree that has lived for a century or more only to succumb to the appetite of a tiny insect.To learn more, please contact our office.
At one time, it was taught that tree roots form a mirror image of the crown. We now know that isn’t true. Very few trees have deep tap roots. Most trees’ root zones are concentrated in the first foot or two below the surface, but they spread out considerably further than the dripline (the outer edge of the branches and foliage). Knowing this, and combining this knowledge with new equipment, allows us to keep the roots of your trees healthy without cutting or damaging the tender feeder roots by excavating with a shovel.Today, we use a pressurized tool, called an Air Spade. The Air Spade “gently” breaks up soil clumps and deposits the soil on a tarp. I put “gently” in quotes because our Air Spade operators have to wear heavy gloves to keep the jet of air from taking the skin off their hands, but it’s much gentler on the soil and roots than digging.Air excavation gives our arborists access to tree roots so they can inspect them visually, as well as using electronic instruments to test them for diseases and rot. We also use this tool to loosen compacted soil so that water and oxygen can reach tree roots or when too much soil is piled around the root collar. Too much soil around the root collar, burying the root flare, indicates that the tree was planted too deeply. Removing excess soil with the Air Spade gives trees suffering from this fate a new lease on life.We use the Air Spade most often for the identification and removal of girdling roots. A girdling root occurs when one root grows over the top of another until it strangles the root and cuts off circulation. Girdling root is caused by planting trees in too small a hole. It’s usually suspected when a tree shows signs of decline on only one side. We excavate, beginning with the affected side, until we find the offending root. We then cut it out surgically and replace the soil.Other uses for this handy tool include vertical mulching and to remove trees for bare-root transplanting. Vertical mulching is a procedure in which holes are bored into the soil and filled with fertilizer and other amendments to help severely declining trees.Diagnosing and treating your own tree problems is like diagnosing and treating your own health problems. It doesn’t make sense and doesn’t even save money in the long run. It goes back to the old saying, “Pay me now or pay me later.” Believe me; it will cost a lot less for us to nurse your tree back to health than to remove it.Our arborists are truly tree doctors who have access to all the modern diagnostic and health care equipment. Call our office and let’s get to the root of your tree problems.
Mulching and edging your planting beds can feel like a punishment you have to endure in order to enjoy the pleasure of planting colorful annuals. As we approach Memorial Day next week, which is the traditional time for planting annuals in our area, some of us put off the planting to avoid the necessary prep work.Over the winter, the crisp edges around planting beds tend to break down and fill in. Grass may even jump the groove you created last year and begin to fill in the beds. This should all be cleaned out and the edges re-cut to separate the bed from lawn or sidewalk. Then, using a flat blade shovel, a half-moon shaped edging tool or a power edger if you have access to one, cut a groove up to three inches deep all around the perimeter of the bed. Push the tool toward the bed so the cut is “V” shaped and smooth out the soil on the bed side so it forms a gentle slope. This is called a spade edge. If you want to install a more permanent edging material, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing it.After planting your annuals, cover the entire bed with 2-3 inches of ground hardwood mulch. Be sure it doesn’t touch the plants. Ground hardwood mulch adds essential organic matter to the soil while conserving water and giving your planting beds a more finished look.If I’ve convinced you of the wisdom of edging and mulching your planting beds, but not motivated you to do the job, we can help you out. Instead of having to lug big bags of mulch from the garden store or home center, we can deliver bulk mulch. Of course, you’ll still have to load it into wheelbarrows and haul it from your driveway to your planting beds. Or, you can call us and have one of our landscape crews handle the whole edging and mulching job for you. If you want us to plant your annuals for you, we can even do that. Welcome spring from your patio or porch while we do the work.
Theme gardens are becoming more and more popular. I shared information on building a cutting garden a few weeks ago. Today, I’m suggesting that you build a pollinator garden in another bed.We’re being told today that there’s a pollinator crisis. Bees, one of the best pollinators, are dying off and scientists have yet to identify the cause. The monarch butterfly population also is suffering. Scientists believe this is caused by a reduction in the number of milkweed plants, Monarch butterfly caterpillars’ only food source.Many of our plants – both food producing plants and landscape plants – need pollinators to reproduce. Bees, butterflies, other insects and hummingbirds all pollinate in the same way. They are attracted to plants by the nectar the plants produce. As they drink the nectar, the pollinators pick up pollen from the flower’s anther (male part). Pollen can cover a pollinator’s body, its feet, wings and antennae. The pollinator then flies to another plant to drink more nectar and deposits the pollen on to that flower’s stigma (female part).Some plants depend on the wind or water to move pollen but most depend on insects and birds.Here’s how you can help restore the pollinator population in your environment:
A pollinator garden is an inexpensive way to assure the sustainability of your personal environment. It will also contribute to improving your community and even the world’s sustainability. If, however, you don’t want to make the plant decisions, prepare the bed or do the planting, just give us a call. We have a landscaping crew eager to do it for you. Also, call us if you have a pest problem that requires IPM expertise.
Early spring is a good time to divide perennials. Dividing them now will give each section plenty of time to recover and begin growing and you, or whomever you give some to, will have the whole season to enjoy them before the plants fade this fall.If you want to get out in the garden on a nice spring day, make a list of the perennials that need dividing. How will you know which ones to divide? You’ll know. They’re the most crowded. As you look at them, imagine what they will look like in summer if they’re crowded now.This isn’t a job that you need to accomplish all in one day or tucker yourself out doing. Prioritize. Start with those that are encroaching on one another or that look like they have a bald spot in the center. Begin with the worst offenders and put the rest off for another day.Daylilies, irises, hostas and grasses are among the perennials that are best divided in spring. Some gardeners suggest that you mark the clumps you want to divide with flags now and start by dividing the biggest clumps. Divide the rest at another time this spring or, if you don’t get around to it, save the rest until fall.Don’t put too much work off until fall, though. Your spring work will yield a nicer looking landscape all through the summer and into the fall.To divide perennials, just dig up the whole plant and lay it on its side. Then divide the roots into four equal sections. The size and thickness of the root dictates the cutting tool you should use. Some may be sized so you can use loppers., others a sharp shovel and still others an axe or saw.Return one section to the hole from which you just dug it, backfill and water. Plant the other three sections in other gardens on your property, give them to friends, or donate them to a garden club plant sale. Be sure you keep the roots wet until you replant these sections.If you want this done professionally or the roots are too big, bulky and heavy to handle, call our office. One of our landscape crews will be happy to do the task for you.One last thing. Document your work in your journal or compile a photographic history. It will be most helpful when planning your landscape’s future needs.
In our area, ornamental grasses are the plants of choice for winter color and a break from the sea of white that surrounds them. Birds like these grasses for the yummy seeds they produce. Beyond that, these plants are virtually forgotten. In the other seasons of the year, their green blends in with the other green plants and the colorful flowers of spring overshadow these hardy workhorses.Ornamental grasses are relatively maintenance free. However, they have one annual need that is essential to their health and good growth. That maintenance procedure? They have to be cut back every spring, and now is the time to cut them back.The brown sheaths of grass you see above the snow each winter is actually dead – or more accurately, spent. Last spring, those sheaths were nice and green as they grew to their extended height. Seedheads then formed on the tips and the mature seeds dropped to the ground. So, you are actually making way for new growth when you cut them back.Grasses should be cut back to just inches from the ground. The tool you use is up to you. I’ve used manual hedge clippers, electric hedge clippers and even pruning shears. If the snow pack has caused the grasses to flop over, tie them back upright with rope or twine before cutting them.Don’t wait too long to cut your ornamental grasses back or you may cut off some new growth. You may not be able to see new growth through the old growth, but small green leaves are starting to push up through the old sheaths. Once trimmed, you’ll be able to see the new growth in the remaining stubble.One footnote. The reason I’ve used manual hedge trimmers is that I received a pair of ratchet shears as a gift, and cutting ornamental grass with them is like cutting butter. Although I don’t promote specific brands of tools here, mine are the brand that’s orange and black.
If you have an ash tree in your yard that’s still alive, you need to take action now to save it from the dreaded emerald ash borer (EAB). I raised this warning here about a month ago, but read on and you’ll see why I am raising it again.I’ve visited Michigan, where this pest first jumped ship after its trip here from Asia. I couldn’t believe the destruction, and I didn’t want to see a similar fate befall our local trees. But now I’m seeing even more extensive destruction.Except for certain isolated pockets where the EAB has gotten a foothold by hitching a ride in illegally moved firewood, the pest is moving across New York State from west to east. I’ve seen magnificent ash trees on the west side of Rochester turned into little more than expensive firewood. The damage on the west side of Monroe County is worse than that in Michigan where these bugs were destroying trees before entomologists were even able to identify them.This spring is the last opportunity for ash tree owners in eastern Monroe and adjacent counties to save their trees. Trees can be saved by having them treated with preventive treatments before they are attacked, and then retreated every two years. Failure to have a preventive applied is a sure death sentence for those trees.Once the EAB attacks an ash tree, the tree typically dies within three to five years. However, trees on Rochester’s west side have been dying faster than I have seen anywhere else. Treatment may be effective after a tree is attacked if two-thirds of the tree is still living. These treatments have to be made annually.All treatments, including preventive treatments, are systemic, which means the material has to be injected directly into the tree or into the soil around the base of the tree. Only systemic applications are effective because the EAB lives most of its life inside the tree. The most effective treatment material is restricted to use only by New York State Certified Pesticide Applicators.Soon, the metallic green adults will bore “D” shaped exit holes, emerge and mate. The females will make indentations in the bark high in the tree and lay an egg in each indentation. As soon as the larva hatches, it bores into the tree and begins feeding on the food that is being distributed throughout the tree in the phloem. Next winter, the larvae will pupate inside the tree and that generation of adults will emerge next spring to continue this cycle of death.From a purely financial standpoint, preventive treatments can be made for a good, long time for the amount that it costs to remove a dead ash tree and replace it. That’s why I urge you to call now to schedule a preventive treatment. If you want to see the destruction resulting from this insidious pest, take a drive through established neighborhoods in Greece, Gates, Chili and the other western suburbs.
The arrival of spring is often accompanied by a big surprise when the snow melts and the grass is visible once again. Needless to say, there were few surprises this year due to the lack of snow. Some lawns, however, may have still suffered winter damage. This damage can range from fungal diseases to snow plow mishaps.Fungal diseases are characterized by discolored grass. It may be brown or gray. It may be large or small patches, or it may even be ring shaped. There is no treatment, only repair, regardless of the disease. When the grass and soil dry out, the disease goes away.To repair affected patches, rake out the dead grass using an iron rake. If the bare patches are small, they may fill in as the grass around them spreads. If they are large, however, you’ll have to reseed the bare spots.An easy way to reseed is to scratch the surface of the bare spots with an iron rake. Mix grass seed with soil and cover the bare spots with the mixture. Water the patches well and continue to water until the new grass begins to grow.This is also a good time to apply a pre-emergent weed killer to your whole lawn, before weeds begin to appear. This will give you a jump on the weeds that may otherwise plague you for the rest of the season. You can find a number of pre-emergent weed killers at your local garden center of home store.Applying a pre-emergent weed killer will cut down on the weeds that sprout up in your lawn but will probably not eliminate them completely. The pre-emergent that you apply will prevent those latent seeds that overwintered from sprouting. However, there is nothing you can do about weeds that spring up in the yards of neighbors who don’t treat. The wind can blow weed seeds in from those yards and nearby fields. You’ll need to apply post emergent weed killer to these.If you are on a lawn care program, our technicians will check for weeds each time they visit your property and treat for them using the most environmentally sensitive materials and application methods.If you find pieces of sod dislodged from the edges of your driveway resting further into the lawn, you may be able to piece them together in their original position. Just place each piece of sod in place and then walk over it to assure contact between the sod and soil. If re-sodding isn’t possible, seed the bare spots the way you would a bare spot anywhere in the lawn.Please contact our office if you would like to leave all of this work to our professionals. Our lawn care staff will be happy to discuss what the program entails at all levels. After visiting your property, our technicians will advise you if your lawn also needs aerification, renovation or other special procedures.
Lawn mowing season will be here before you know it. Will you be ready?Last fall, I gave you some tips for preparing your mower to overwinter. Now it’s time to get the mower ready to operate once again. If you followed my advice last fall, you only have to pull it out and crank it up. If you drained the fuel, you’ll have to fill the tank, of course. Be sure to check the oil, too.If you didn’t follow our advice, you should change the oil and spark plug(s), and clean all the old grass from under the mowing deck. If you haven’t changed the air filter recently, this would be a good time to do that, too. If you want details, refer back to the fall blog. It was posted November 25.If you have a riding mower, check the maintenance requirements in the owner’s manual. These machines may require grease at various points. Yours may also need a transmission oil change or, if it is hydro-drive, the hydro-pumps may need maintenance. Many owners take these machines to a dealer or service outlet for spring maintenance.If you performed the maintenance I recommended for your string trimmer, cultivator, hedge trimmer, blower and other outdoor power equipment, the only spring tasks might be to change the spark plug and check the air filter. Spark plugs tend to get dirty faster in a two-stroke engine than in a four stroke. They are inexpensive enough that you should change them at least once a year. Then be sure you have fresh gas/oil mixture and you’re ready to go.If you didn’t perform maintenance on your hand held power equipment, refer back to the November 25 blog. When in doubt about any maintenance procedure, consult the owner’s manual, especially if the product is still in warranty.
Spring clean up is one of the most important landscaping functions, yet it isn’t high on most people’s priority list. Why? I think one reason is that people take the name too literally and approach the task from an aesthetic perspective. However, there’s also a biological reason for cleaning up your yard in the spring.Sure, cleaning trash the wind blew into your yard, leaves that didn’t make last fall’s clean up and other debris makes your yard look nicer but it also makes the plants healthier. Leaves and other debris left in a wet environment host fungus, mold, rot and other pathogens. These are just part of the decomposition process.Fungus and bacteria are fine in your compost pile. You want them to do their thing there, but not in your planting beds. When they’re finished digesting the scraps in the pile, they have nothing more to eat and the heat of decomposition destroys them, leaving clean compost for your planting beds.Don’t be in a hurry to remove winter mulch or to turn the soil and plant. Let the soil warm up and dry to the point that it isn’t muddy. However, if there are weeds peeking through the mulch, carefully pull them up before they become established.Also clean up any dead plants that are still in the beds. You may not have had a chance to trim away dead herbaceous perennials. If that’s the case, remove them during your spring clean up so that the perennials can regrow this year. If there are any annuals left in the beds, pull them up and put them in the compost pile.If you don’t have a border around your planting beds, edging is another spring clean up task. Using either a manual or power edger, remove soil that has migrated from the bed into the lawn, or grass from the lawn that has grown into the bed. Start the season with nice, crisp lines separating the planting beds from the lawn.Unless you like a natural look, you might put installing edging material around beds on your list of spring and summer jobs. There are lots of edging materials available, including wood, stones, pavers, metal, plastic and rubber. This will discourage the merger of planting beds and lawn.If you have a fountain or water feature, it will surely need cleaning, and there’s no time like the present. If you have fish, you, hopefully, have been keeping the water feature clean all winter.We know that spring clean up isn’t the most satisfying garden or landscape task, but we know it’s important, as you may have gathered by reading this. So, we offer spring clean up service. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us.
The lower branches on your shrubs and ornamental trees are especially susceptible to winter damage. This damage could be from wind, snow or animals. These branches are the food that sustains deer and a variety of rodents, including field mice and rabbits.Now that spring is beginning to appear, it’s time to prune out any dead or damaged branches. Once again, however, I urge you to only prune branches you can reach from the ground. Leave any climbing to the pros. That means no ladders either; pruning branches from a ladder is especially dangerous. And, watch out for falling branches. If you have a hard hat and safety glasses, wear them.Springtime is the right time to prune some shrubs and the wrong time to prune others. However, anytime is the right time to prune broken or damaged branches. A clean cut can heal, or callus, better than the ragged edge that results from breakage or animal damage. Plants like hydrangeas and butterfly bushes that flower on new wood are examples of species that should be pruned in spring. Removing old canes allows the plant to direct energy to new growth and leaf and flower buds.Lilacs and forsythia are examples of shrubs that shouldn’t be pruned now. Look at the buds on the branches. Some are flower buds and some are leaf buds. Distinguishing between the two requires a trained eye. So, you could be pruning off the very flowers for which you planted the shrubs.Ericaceous plants like rhododendrons, azaleas and mountain laurel also should not be pruned now. While these plants may look dead, they probably aren’t. The leaves will rebound once the weather warms up. As mentioned in an earlier blog, broadleaf evergreens’ brown, droopy leaves are their winter defense mechanisms. These shrubs also bloom on last year’s wood. Look at the big buds on the ends of the branches. They’ll blossom forth with beautiful flowers soon. Like all evergreens, June is the best month to prune these shrubs.If pruning shrubs and ornamentals is a job you’d like to leave to the pros, our arborists would be happy to do your pruning. Contact us and an arborist will visit your property and advise you on which plants should be pruned in early spring and which should wait until after they bloom. When you give us the green light, we’ll schedule pruning at the appropriate time.
If you have ash trees on your property, leaving them untreated is a death sentence. Emerald ash borers (EAB) have established a beachhead in our area and won’t be satisfied until they have devoured every ash tree.Your ash trees can be saved. If your trees are not yet infested, we can apply a preventive treatment. If they are infested, we can apply a treatment to kill this insidious pest if a sufficient amount of the tree is still living. The same material is used in both instances. The biggest difference is that we only have to make an application every two years as a preventive. We have to apply every year to rid your tree of this pest.This isn’t a do-it-yourself task. All applications have to be made systemically (i.e. injected directly into the tree or applied as a soil drench around the base of the tree). Very few products are labeled for EAB, and only one is labeled for consumer use. The rest are restricted to state licensed pesticide applicators. In its over the counter formulation, the product labeled for consumer use is not strong enough to be effective. I’ve used them all and found that only one product is really effective, so this is the one we use.Right now, the EAB larvae are still active inside infested trees. Soon they will pupate and morph into small, metallic green adults. The adults will chew a D-shaped exit holes and crawl out of the tree. They will then mate. When the female is ready to deposit her eggs, she will chew an indentation into the bark of an ash tree and deposit one egg in each indentation. When the larva hatches, it begins chewing into the tree and, for the better part of a year, spends its time devouring the tree’s food as is travels through the phloem just beneath the bark.From a purely financial perspective, it costs more to remove and replace a mature ash tree than to treat for EAB for a decade or two. Spring is the best time to protect your ash trees against the emerald ash borer, so call now to schedule an appointment. One of our tree health professionals will inspect your tree to be sure its chance of survival is sufficient to warrant treatment. We perform a complete health check for such things as other insects and diseases, root problems, decay, weak limbs and any hazards. From this prognosis, you can make an informed decision on whether to treat or not.
I’ve written several times recently about the blending of indoor and outdoor living. The emphasis has been on moving the indoors out, But it works both ways. This week, I’d like to suggest bringing the outdoors in.Blending the outdoors with the indoors doesn’t involve heavy lifting or high costs. There’s no expensive furniture to acquire or move. All you have to do is design a cutting garden into your landscape and plant it this spring. With a little planning, you can have fresh flowers on the dining room table and throughout the house every day of the growing season.A cutting garden is a garden set aside to grow flowering plants for decorating your home’s interior. The concept of a cutting garden was brought here by British colonists. Their cutting gardens were set up like vegetable gardens – just straight rows of flowering plants. This tradition has lasted down through the centuries. Why?A rectangular garden plot with straight rows is so boooooring. Why not design a garden that will blend in with the rest of the back yard landscape? If you choose to plant in the ground, cut the bed the shape of the other beds in the back yard. If it’s large enough for several different plants, mix them in together for variety. If it can’t accommodate all the plants you’d like, make several beds.I suggest restricting your cutting garden to the back yard. When the plants have finished blooming for the season, you’ll have foliage plants to enhance the back yard, while the front yard remains pristine and colorful.When buying plants for your decorative beds, buy generously and you’ll have extras to plant in the cutting garden. Beside the possibility of saving some money, you’ll also truly bring the outdoors in since the cut flowers in your house will match the flowers in your outdoor beds.If you don’t mind doing some construction to save wear and tear on you back and knees, you might consider making raised beds for your cutting garden. That way you won’t have to bend over or kneel down to cut flowers or work in the garden. To make selection easier, you might even consider one raised bed for each variety you plant.If this is your first experience with a cutting garden, here are some tips, courtesy of Horticulture magazine, for keeping your flowers fresh longer after they’re cut:
Last week, I presented some ideas for adding winter-interest plants to your landscape in such a way that they provide four-season beauty, and introduced you to some new evergreen varieties. This week, I’d like to introduce you to some new plants that can add color and texture to your landscape, even in winter.Plants that add color include…
Plants that add texture include…
Even if you don’t select these specific plants, I hope reading about them will give you inspiration to add more winter interest to your landscape. Most of these plants are new varieties of species that have been around for a long time.Here’s hoping you have a nice, peaceful, yet productive winter. Please don’t put your green thumb away. Keep it active this winter thumbing through gardening books and magazines, and meeting with one of our landscape designers to create a beautiful four-season landscape next year that you will want to sit by the window admiring and enjoying it.
Last week, I shared a number of hardscape trends for 2016 as outlined in a Garden Design website story. There are as many exciting things happening in the plant world as well.The trend that I like best is that landscapes will be more plant-centric. This means more emphasis will be placed on plants than on hardscape. The second trend that I like is that native plants, drought tolerants, container and edible gardens are no longer a trend but are here to stay. This doesn’t means that those who were wed to native plants will rip them out and plant introduced plants. But it does mean that they’ll be more flexible when choosing new plants.We can expect to see more subtle flower colors, monochromatic gardens and plants selected for their delicate branching patterns. One designer said that homeowners are starting to “get more in tune to early and mid fall gardens.” She mentions branching on bare plants, grasses that flower late in the season and even leaf color, which we have appreciated for some time (until it comes to raking them).The one thing that’s not coming back into style is maintenance. Manageable maintenance is an important 2016 trend. This means choosing plants with their maintenance in mind. This consideration may limit the plant palette and the number of individual plants for some people.Closely tied to the maintenance issue is sustainability. Sustainability is like beauty. It’s in the eye of the beholder. Because there is no hard and fast definition of sustainability, everyone views it differently. The interviewee in the story equates sustainability with functionality and then notes that function and aesthetics are not always on the same page. This means that we have to strike a balance between functionality and aesthetics, rather than being a slave to functionality.Designing gardens with a purpose also ties in with sustainability. This could mean growing plants to attract pollinators. Or it could mean growing food. Some people may have poles and lines for drying clothes in their landscapes, and don’t be surprised to see a compost bin in the back corner.Layered landscapes were mentioned but we do that already. It simply means planting so the shortest plants are in front and the tallest in back. That just makes sense.We’ve given you a lot to think about over the last two weeks. If you would like to incorporate some of these ideas into your landscape but don’t feel you have the time or the creativity to get it done, our landscape designers would be happy to work with you to give you just the look and feel that you want. After all, the people who were interviewed for the story from which I gleaned these trends were all professional landscape designers.
