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Have you noticed that weeds flourish in July heat? You haven’t noticed? Well take a look outside. Many of your desirable plants are showing stress from the summer heat. Leaves are shriveling, the grass is going dormant and turning brown, and flowers are drooping (unless you’ve kept everything watered). Yet the weeds look green and healthy.
Weeds may be the greenest thing in your lawn. And they are very healthy in your flower beds and vegetable garden as well. The first challenge is to define a weed. Weeds have been described as plants that grow in places you didn’t plant them and don’t want them.
Plants coveted as beautiful or delicious by some people are scorned by others as weeds. Consider the hated dandelion. While most of us labor to eradicate them, others harvest them to make wine or use as salad greens. Pulling out those tall Queen Anne’s lace with their big, doily like blooms is stress relief for most of us but florists actually buy Queen Anne’s lace to use in floral arrangements.
Getting rid of weeds as soon as you see them can reduce the number of seeds they drop, thus potentially reducing the number of weeds that will replace those you’ve just eliminated. There are only two ways to control weeds – pull them out or apply an herbicide. In summer, pulling out is the safer method. You’ll avoid collateral damage to your desirable plants.
The best time to pull weeds is right after a rain while the soil’s still damp. If it hasn’t rained lately and rain isn’t in the forecast, you can water the area around the weeds. Let the water soak in for a few minutes, then tug at the weed. Chances are it’ll be reluctant to come out without a fight. Insert a weed extracting tool or a sharp trowel into the soil at an angle to the root. Use the tool to cut the root at as deep a point as the tool can reach. At that point, you’ve won the battle. Just pull the weed out and go on to the next one.
If you decide to use an herbicide, be careful. If you choose a non- selective product, any overspray that gets on nearby plants will kill them as well. Use a selective product labeled just for the target weeds. Even though the product is selective, be careful to avoid overspray; it can still damage surrounding plants.
Protect yourself by wearing personal protective equipment to shield you from the sun and from any chemical that you’re using. That includes gloves, long sleeve shirt, long pants, eye protection, and a wide brimmed hat.
Weeds are the bane of most people but there actually are people who enjoy and find relaxation pulling weeds. Try it. You may find you’ll be one of them, especially during the summer if you aren’t finding relaxation mowing the lawn.
Professionals in the landscaping, lawn care and tree care industries are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) for safety. While the government doesn’t have specific mandates for individuals, wearing PPE for the job you’re doing just makes good sense.
Some PPE should be worn for health reasons whenever you are working in the garden. Others should be worn for jobs that present safety risks. When pruning shrubs for example, safety glasses will protect your eyes from twigs that may fly toward you when you cut them. Gloves can protect your hands from scratches and cuts from rough wood. Ear protection is encouraged when using power equipment, even your lawnmower. Hearing loss is progressive and creeps up on you, so getting in the habit of wearing earmuffs or ear plugs should begin right away.
Arborists are required to wear helmets when there’s a risk of being struck from above or even from the side and steel toed boots to protect their feet. Arborists also must wear chaps or special pants with Kevlar panels in the front of the legs when cutting wood to reduce chainsaw cuts. Compared to gloves, eye and hearing protection, helmets, chaps or Kevlar pants may seem like a major investment. It is but it’s worth it. But I have a better idea: don’t do your own tree work or use a chainsaw. Leave specialized work like that to the professionals who already have the equipment, along with the training and experience to do the job quickly, safely and correctly.
Although we welcome the sun, it’s also important to take precautions to protect your exposed skin and eyes from harmful UV rays. The problems caused by the sun this summer may not manifest themselves until decades in the future. Sun burn is dangerous at any age and, decades later, can result in trips to the dermatologist twice a year or more, often for periodic spritzes of liquid nitrogen or even surgery to remove skin cancers.
The most important protection from the sun is to slather exposed skin with good sunscreen before you set foot outside and touch it up while working. Always wear a wide brimmed hat. Be sure it keeps the sun from your ears, face and the back of your neck. All these areas are very sensitive to the sun. That’s why a baseball cap doesn’t provide sufficient protection.
Be sure you wear a good pair of sunglasses. They’re more than cool. They may save your vision. The sun’s UV rays can exacerbate cataracts and macular degeneration. Both are very common conditions that appear as people age.
Avoid dehydration. Be sure you take frequent rest/hydration breaks from your yard work. Find, or make, a shady place where you can take frequent breaks. Stock it with a cooler of water and drink every time you rest. Balance problems and lightheadedness are common symptoms of dehydration, and the inability to keep your balance can lead to falls. Something you don’t want to happen when you’re outside alone.
Whether you reluctantly do outside work or are an avid gardener, following these recommendations will help your experience be safe and healthy now and for decades to come. For us, it’s government regulations. For you, it’s just common sense.
Memorial Day is next Monday (May 30). Originally called Decoration Day, it began in nearby Waterloo soon after the Civil War, as a day set aside to place flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers. Today we honor all fallen military members.
Aside from the parades and ceremonies, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the growing season in upstate New York. It was selected because we can be relatively certain that we’ll have no more frosts or freezes. It’s when you can safely plant vegetables and annual flowers. In the interest of full disclosure, you can usually plant these safely a week or even two weeks before Memorial Day.
Why not use this three-day weekend to plant a flower garden, or gardens, in your yard? I think you’ll agree that color adds life to every landscape. These days you have more varieties of plants available and infinite ways to display them.
You can enhance curb appeal by planting perennial borders on either side of the walk leading up to your front door or on either side of the driveway. Hang baskets of annuals from the eaves or the front porch. Plant a border of annuals around the planting beds containing shrubs. Most of the spring blooming shrubs have finished blooming and this splash of color will add pizzazz to an otherwise monochromatic area.
Other beds can be dedicated flower beds with perennials, annuals or a mixture of both. These beds can be free form in shape. Make them big enough that you can plant enough of each plant to provide masses of spectacular color. Be sure to plant the taller plants to the back and progressively shorter plants toward the front. For planting beds that can be accessed all the way around, place the taller plants in the middle and the cascading look 360 degrees around.
Flower gardens can be any type you want. Consider a wildflower or cottage garden. Refer to some of my earlier blogs and thoroughly research these types of gardens before tackling them. All your flowers don’t have to be planted in the ground, either. Some can be planted in containers and window boxes. They can be planted vertically and in raised beds, too.
I realize that many of you are shaking your heads, thinking this is a nice idea but more than you want to tackle. In that case, I recommend a meeting with one of our professional landscape designers to share your thoughts and then let them demonstrate their creativity. Once you and the designer have agreed on the layout, we have professionals who can obtain the plant material and install your gardens for you. All you have to do is enjoy you landscape’s newfound beauty.
As you look at big, majestic trees, realize that you’re only viewing half of the tree. The rest is below ground – the root system. Without the below ground portion, the above ground beauty that we enjoy so much couldn’t exist. So, don’t be surprised when our arborist recommends a root excavation.
Contrary to popular belief, most trees don’t have a giant tap root that descend deeply into the ground. Rather, most roots are concentrated within the first few feet below the surface. And they spread out to the dripline (the extreme edge of the crown) or beyond. The job of some roots is to stabilize the tree while others have the task of seeking out and absorbing water and nutrients.
Roots share the subsurface world with a host of microbial organisms. Most of these are beneficial but a few are not. The latter can be lethal. I’m thinking specifically of fungi that cause root rot. If left unchecked, these microscopic organisms can, eventually, cause the tree to topple.
Beneficial soil borne organisms range in size from earthworms to microscopic fungi, called mycorrhizae, that colonize the roots, extending their reach. Worm waste, called castings, is rich in organic matter, which is returned to the soil. It’s like nature’s fertilizer. Some organic gardeners buy worms to raise in a controlled environment. They harvest the castings and work them into the soil around the base of their plants to provide natural fertilizer. It’s called vermiculture.
As fungi, mycorrhizae have no chlorophyl to manufacture food. Also, they’re below ground and have no access to the sun, needed to manufacture food by photosynthesis. So, they enter into a symbiotic relationship with the roots. The mycorrhizae extend the length of the roots and help them find water and nutrients and the tree allows them to partake of a portion of the food stored in the roots.
Much of the time when arborists diagnose stress in the crown, it’s associated with a root problem. The cause is mechanical, or abiotic. Girdling root is by far the major culprit. This condition is caused by the roots outgrowing the nursery pot or the planter not checking the roots to make sure they’re growing outward instead of around the tree. It’s very visible as one root grows over another, virtually choking it to death.
A girdling root can be corrected by a simple surgical procedure. However, it used to be more time consuming than it is today. We used to have to dig into the root zone with a trowel, being careful not to sever the many feeder roots. Today, we use a device called an air spade. This tool uses high pressure air to blow the soil on to a tarp, leaving the root structure intact. The soil is then put back in place after the procedure.
Compost is one of gardeners’ favorite materials these days. Garden writers and “experts” believe that every home should have the facilities to make compost. Some even refer to it as black gold. I agree with them, and one of the reasons I do is because compost is free. It’s made with waste products, diverting them from landfills.
Compost is easy to make. You can use almost any organic waste. The leaves that drop in the fall, landscape debris that you prune, flowers you deadhead are just a few of the materials you can compost. You can also add vegetative table scraps (no meat scraps), newspapers and even coffee grounds still in their filters.
Facilities to make compost can be as simple as a big wooden box you can make yourself to various types of commercially available composters. Using a rake, you’ll have to turn the material in a DIY composter. Many of the commercial composters can be turned by a crank. Commercial composters are available at home and garden centers, as well as online.
Compost is cheap fertilizer. It’s loaded with nutrients that plants need, which the compost releases as it decomposes. Compost also improves soil structure, which much of our soil needs. It’s a shame to throw that rich material into the trash and let it decompose in a landfill, when you can use it to grow spectacular plants with minimal effort.
There’s quite a bit of discussion on the internet about compost acidifying the soil. It won’t make our basic soil ericaceous (able to grow acid loving plants). Depending on what you’ve put into your compost, it can move the pH needle a little bit. Evergreen material like pine needles, or oak leaves is particularly acidic, as are citrus peels.
Part of compost’s job is to act as a buffer to keep soil neutral. Ideally, it’s pH should be between six and eight. So, don’t try to make compost do what it’s not intended. Its primary purpose is to return organic material to the soil. It’s a natural source of the nutrients your plants need.
Best of all, you can enjoy all compost’s benefits with almost no cash outlay and very little extra effort. Besides improving your landscape, you’ll also be doing a good turn for the environment.
Soon enough mowing your lawn will be a weekly task, so don’t rush it. Make sure it’s sufficiently dry before mowing. If the soil feels soft to walk on, you’ll not get a clean cut and you’ll leave tire tracks in the lawn.
That first mowing of the season should be viewed as the culmination of a series of tasks, rather than the beginning. Your lawn will look nicer if you pick up fallen branches and debris before mowing. If there are leaves on your lawn, waiting for them to dry before mowing will eliminate having to rake them. Instead, you can mulch them when mowing. This returns essential nutrients to the soil, nutrients that you would have to replenish with fertilizer. The first fertilizer of the season can be applied anytime after it’s safe to walk on the lawn. Otherwise, the spreader’s tires will leave track marks just as the mower will.
Weeding before the first mowing will assure that there’s still plenty of the weed’s broad leaves, which is helpful no matter how you go about the job of weeding. If you choose the manual method, the weeds will be easier to see than they will after you’ve mowed off the foliage. Also, you’ll have the leaves and strong stem to help you pull the weeds out of the ground. It helps even if you cut the roots with a tool.
For those opting for chemical weeding, broad leaves give you a good target for broadleaf weed killer. And, you’ll also have a good “handle” with which to pull dead weeds out of the ground. A word of caution though: be sure to use a product labeled specifically for broadleaf weeds. Anything else is probably a non-selective herbicide, which means that it will kill any plant it touches, even your grass.
Wait until after your first mowing to repair any winter damage. Rake out patches of grass that succumbed to the various winter fungal diseases. Then rough up these areas, as well as any other bare spots. Spread fertilizer or compost and seed on those spots, rake it in and water. Keep those spots well-watered but don’t flood them. You’ll probably start seeing grass poking up from the soil in seven to 10 days.
If digging weeds is difficult and the soil is compacted, consider aerating. This is best done before the weather heats up. A specialized machine, which can be rented from equipment rental stores, punches holes in the soil and pulls out plugs of soil. Soil can then loosen up, creating more pores for water and oxygen. This is a job that you may want to turn over to our lawn care professionals because the machine is heavy and cumbersome, and you will have to transport it from the rental yard to your yard and back.
One last tip: set your mower blade height at three to four inches. Your lawn will be thicker and healthier. This will discourage weeds and there will be more leaf surface for the grass to make food through photosynthesis. This length lawn is easier to maintain than one that’s putting green length.
Some gardeners have been using raised beds for years but they’re really just coming into their own. In fact, they’re becoming downright trendy for a variety of reasons.
Until recently, raised beds were used primarily for growing vegetables. Some were nothing more than railroad ties that raised the bed up only the height of the tie. Their primary purpose was to define the planting bed or to provide extra depth in which to add top soil or organic matter. Other utilitarian planting beds are simply large boxes made of plywood nailed to a dimensional lumber frame. Both styles did the intended job of providing a defined, enhanced environment for growing crops in the backyard.
As the gardening population began to age, raised beds began to be built waist high with a wide, flat top cap so the gardener could work standing up or sitting on top. Either position could be less painful for ailing knees and backs.
People have been planting flowers in window boxes for a very long time. They must have realized more recently that raised beds are like big window boxes that can hold a lot more plants. Now raised beds can be seen with all kinds of flowers, herbs, mixed plantings and even water and aquatic plants. The raised bed can be lined with rubber pond liner material and planted with water lilies and other aquatic plants.
Look through online garden supply catalogs and you’ll find raised beds on legs. Some even have wheels attached so you can roll them to different locations on your patio, deck, yard or garden. For the rural look, some people began using horse troughs for plantings and resourceful
companies responded by making troughs in various shapes and sizes, and marketing them through the garden supply outlets.
Whether they are on legs or directly on the ground, raised beds function like really big container gardens, giving you plenty of garden versatility. They can define borders, provide accents for in ground planting and even serve as a temporary garden if something happens to a permanent planting bed.
The photo, courtesy of bulb importer and distributor Brent & Becky’s Bulbs, illustrates the ultimate versatility of raised beds. These form a roof garden on their home in Virginia. Clever idea, professionally crafted.
If you think raised beds will be a good addition to your landscape but would like them customized, talk with one of our professional designers. They can create just what you’re looking for, and we have access to some of the most talented craft people in the area to build them and landscape professionals to install them. All you have to do is enjoy them. And glow in the satisfaction of being the first in your neighborhood to embrace the raised bed trend.
This Friday, April 29, is, arguably, one of the most underrated holidays on the calendar. There’s no gift giving or partying. Arbor Day is only observed by schools, service organizations and some communities. But what about families?
Unlike gifts given during popular holidays, giving the gift of a tree is literally giving a gift that keeps on growing, often beyond the giver’s lifetime. Trees can keep growing for hundreds of years. As they grow, they keep sequestering the carbon that’s said to cause global warming.
During their centuries of growth, trees give us the gift of life. They take in carbon dioxide (CO2) and use it in the food making process known as photosynthesis. The waste products given off by the tree are the oxygen we need to breathe and water. This alone should elevate the status of Arbor Day.
It’s fun to celebrate Arbor Day as a family. If you can’t do it on Friday, postpone your celebration until the weekend. Your celebration may be as simple as planting the seedling your child brought home from school or as elaborate as a trip to the garden center to select a tree and then bringing it home and planting it.
For best results, I suggest that you plant the seedling in an appropriate size pot and then transplant it in progressively larger pots for several years until it’s big enough to live on its own. Otherwise, it could get stepped on, eaten by animals or run over by the lawnmower. When the tree grows to the same size as nursery shrubs, then it’s safe to plant it in the ground.
Before going to the garden center to select your Arbor Day tree, select a planting site. When making your selection, read the nursery tags so you buy the right plant for the planting site. When ready to plant, involve the whole family. Dig a hole two or three times bigger around than the root ball but only as deep as the ball. Place the tree in the hole and have someone hold it straight while you backfill. Periodically, tamp the soil lightly as you backfill. This eliminates air pockets. Finally, water well. Don’t stake unless it’s planted in a very windy place.
Happy Arbor Day to you and yours.
Even before our pandemic, ash trees were suffering from their own pandemic. An invasive insect, the emerald ash borer (EAB), had arrived on our shores. It was hidden in packing material but soon made its presence known by decimating ash trees throughout Michigan.
Soon the emerald ash borer had spread to neighboring states. When it made its debut in our area of New York, we were ready. Over the years, we’ve treated thousands of trees. But the owners of thousands more chose not to treat. Most of their trees are firewood today, because that’s the only legal use for infested ash wood. What a fate for the majestic trees that helped make baseball America’s pastime. (Wood bats were traditionally made of ash.)
Your ash trees can survive. Trees not yet infested need to be treated every other year. Infested trees need a professional inspection to determine if they can be saved. If one third to one half of the canopy is still alive, the prognosis is fairly good if the tree is treated annually.
Now is the time to schedule an inspection and treatment for your ash tree(s). One of our Plant Health Care (PHC) professionals will visit your home, conduct an inspection to determine if EAB is present, and if it is, how much damage has been done. From there, they’ll make recommendations.
We use the same material as a preventive and a treatment. It has to be injected into the tree trunk annually as a treatment, every two years as a preventive. At the strength required to be most effective against this prolific pest, the material is only available to licensed professional applicators. We have tried all the products labeled for EAB control but found only the material we use provides sufficient protection.
One reason EAB is so hard to control is that it spends most of its life inside the tree. Soon it will be time for the adults to emerge and mate. The photo shows how small they are. The adults bore “D” shaped holes from which they emerge. The small holes are hard to see from the ground because the EAB lays its eggs at the top of the tree and works its way down in subsequent generations.
After mating, the males die. The females bore indentations in the bark, deposit an egg in each indentation and then die. Each female can deposit 60 to 100 eggs. When the eggs hatch in about a week, the new larvae begin boring into the tree, disturbing the tree’s vascular system that’s so vital to its life. Xylem transports water and nutrients from the roots to the crown where photosynthesis takes place. Phloem distributes the food made by photosynthesis throughout the tree.
Preventive treatments can be made for a good, long time before equaling the amount that it costs to remove a dead ash tree and replace it. That’s why I urge you to schedule an inspection and control.
Hopefully your spring is being brightened by gardens of beautiful crocuses, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths. If so, here are some tips for maintaining the plants so you’ll be able to enjoy an encore performance next year.
Plants from spring bulbs flower only once a year. When the flowers fade and die there’s a tendency to cut them off at ground level. Resist the temptation. Instead, just remove the dead flowers and keep the green leaves and stems until they, too, turn brown.
It’s best to remove spent flowers before they go to seed so the plant won’t waste energy on this process. It’s better that their energy be directed to the bulb where food is stored until it’s needed to grow again next spring.
Retaining the green leaves even after you remove the spent flowers is necessary if you want the bulbs to grow again next spring. The leaves continue to make food through photosynthesis, and sends it to the bulb, where it’s stored until it’s needed to bloom in the spring.
When it’s time to cut back the dead leaves. I suggest you leave an inch or two of the stem sticking up so you know where the bulbs are. Don’t worry about those stubs attracting squirrels and other wildlife. Any animal who wants to feast on your bulbs knows where they are regardless of whether there’s a marker sticking up or not.
New bulbs don’t need fertilizer when first planted. They have plenty of food stored in them but they’d appreciate being fertilized in subsequent years. Some people dig up their bulbs after the foliage dies and store them inside until fall. When you replant them, put a little fertilizer in the hole before you replant the bulbs. If you leave your bulbs in the ground year round, you’ll want to sprinkle fertilizer on the ground in the fall. Don’t use bonemeal fertilizer, however. It’s too much of an attractant for dogs. They probably won’t eat the bulbs but will dig in search of an actual bone where they smell the bonemeal.
If you are one of the few who have such good topsoil that you don’t have to fertilize your other plants, your bulbs shouldn’t need fertilizer either. The role of fertilizer is to replenish essential elements in the soil, not to feed the plants. Plants make their own food through the process known as photosynthesis.
Are you one of those people who does their best thinking when riding around on your lawnmower every week of the growing season? If so, you’re in the minority. Most people spend that time trying to think of ways to get out of that weekly chore.
Few of us would argue with the statement that the lawn is the most expensive, highest maintenance piece of your landscape. But most don’t do anything about it. Some because they like a lush, green, weed-free lawn. Others because they want their yards to fit in with the others in the neighborhood. And then there are those who just don’t know what alternatives are available.
The idea of going grassless hasn’t caught on in our area of the country, perhaps because we don’t have the number one problem that exists in many parts of the country – lack of sufficient water. We seldom have to irrigate established lawns.
In many parts of the country, property owners are replacing all or portions of their labor intensive lawns with alternatives that are attractive while requiring far less work. Those who want the look of a lawn without the work may plant groundcover or even evergreen moss. The more adventurous may opt for wildflowers or even annual or perennial beds. Front yards in desert communities often consist of stones with cactus and succulents, and possibly a few rocks for accents.
Depending on the species you select, ground cover or evergreen moss may never need mowing. Some species may need mowing once a year. Wildflower gardens need mowing once or twice a year. Annual or perennial bed maintenance varies with what plants are in them.
If you have children, planning your landscape without any lawn becomes a bit more complex. Natural lawns are good, safe playing surfaces for children. The soil usually has some “give” and the grass is soft. This doesn’t mean you have to have to give up on your idea of no lawns. Modify your plans. Only remove and replace the grass in areas where the kids don’t play. They usually play in the back yard, so why not keep that in grass and replace the front lawn?
Removing sod isn’t a particularly hard job but designing and selecting the best replacement for your situation can be intimidating. If this is a project you’d like to undertake but are a bit overwhelmed by the challenge, we have professional designers experienced in developing just what you’re looking for. They would be happy to work with you to create the perfect design, and our landscape professionals can handle the installation. Then all you have to do is enjoy your low maintenance, environment-friendly landscape.
Is your green thumb itching? Are you having a tough time resisting the urge to get outside and start working on your landscape? Well, it’s too early for most landscaping tasks but there are a few you can do now.
As long as the ground’s thawed, you might start by dividing overgrown perennials, if you didn’t do it last fall. Dig up the whole plant and lay it down on a tarp. Remove the soil to expose the bare roots. To keep your lawn or planting bed clean, keep the soil on the tarp.
The next step is to cut the plant into quarters. First cut the root in half and then cut each half in half. The tool you choose depends on the size and thickness of the root. If it’s thin and hairy, you may be able to use sharp, ratchet pruning shears or loppers. A thick, woody root may require a saw. The best choices are a pruning saw or bow saw. I don’t recommend that any untrained person use a chainsaw.
When you have the plant quartered, replant one section back into the hole where the whole plant once lived. Backfill with the soil on the tarp, tamp down the backfill and water. Plant the other three sections in other beds in your yard or give them to family or friends. Charity plant sales might also appreciate your contributing the other sections to them.
Another early spring task is to remove the extra mulch you spread for the winter. Three or four inches were fine for winter but you should only have two or three inches in spring and summer. Spread the excess mulch in another bed or compost it if you have no other place for it.
If you have ambition left, this would be a good time to rake or blow any leaves you didn’t get to last fall into the compost bin. Two other tasks you can do now are to clean up debris that blew into your yard and check your trees and shrubs for visible signs of insect or disease activity.
Plants that look less than healthy may be suffering from nutrient deficiencies in the soil. A soil test will give you the answers. Most DIY soil test kits available at garden centers only measure the pH – the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. Our Plant Health Care (PHC) and lawn care professionals send soil samples to a professional lab, which also reports on all the elements present in your soil. Our professionals use this data to prescribe a fertilization program, if necessary. They can also apply fertilizer at just the right time.
While testing the soil, our PHC pros can also inspect your trees and shrubs for insect or disease activity and present you with a proposal for managing any pests they find.
As the holidays come to a close for 2021, it’s time to look forward to Spring 2022, and one place you can spice up your life is to make your landscape more trendy. One good resource for finding out what looks as though it’s trending this spring is the annual Garden Trends Report (GTR), published by the Green Media Group. This post is an overview of the 2022 report and, in upcoming posts, I’ll detail how you can implement some of the trends in your landscape.
As it has in the past few years, the first third of this report deals with social issues. Namely, how the pandemic and quarantine has influenced how we view our homes, and how that has changed since we are able to get out more and do more things. I’ll move beyond that and share ways in which Americans are going to enjoy their landscapes in the future.
Starting at the entrance, people are creating zones, both inside and out, and appointing them with plants and hard goods that are appropriate for the use to which that zone of the property has been designated. Start with the front yard’s curb appeal and move to the backyard where you can divide the area into zones for entertaining, playing, a secret or meditation garden or any other space that will make your backyard your special place.
Many people took a new interest in their landscapes during the pandemic. And this trend doesn’t seem to be diminishing as we emerge from quarantine and isolation. It’s estimated that 18.3 million Americans took up gardening for the first time. Their interest is across the board, but many are welcoming birds, pollinators and all sorts of wildlife to their properties. To this, I caution: be careful what you wish for. Butterflies and birds are fun to watch. It doesn’t take much to satisfy their basic needs and they seldom leave any damage behind. Mammals, especially deer, aren’t so considerate. They may look nice in your backyard until they begin dining on your plants. If you really want mammals to visit, consider planting their favorite plants in a far corner where the damage won’t detract as much from the landscape. Then, hope they get the message.
Fresh, cut flowers sales skyrocketed last year and don’t appear to be subsiding this year. You can conveniently enjoy cut flowers in your home for at least three seasons of the year by planting a cutting garden this spring. When discussing bringing fresh flowers inside, it should be noted that the tremendous interest in houseplants in 2019 was sustained in 2020 and continues into 2021, and there’s no reason to believe it will slow down in 2022.
One in five of the world’s plants are at risk of extinction. Of those, 4,400 are in the United States. The trends report outlines ways that landscape and related professionals can help their customers save plants from extinction. It also has information on ways we can help with biodiversity, increase use of native plants and serve the needs of rare plant collectors. If you’re interested in any of these areas, we’d like to hear from you.
Last but not least, remember the color of the year for 2022 is…GREEN.
It’s a fact: We can love our plants to death. I’m not talking about the common practice of overwatering house plants. I’m talking about practices involving outdoor plants – trees in particular.
Most trees, even when newly planted, don’t need to be staked, unless they’re in the path of strong winds. Even then, the stakes should be removed after the first year. Stakes are like unnecessary crutches. As they’re getting established, trees should be developing tissue that will protect them from the buffeting of wind. Instead, staked trees direct that energy elsewhere, resulting in weak trees.
Another questionable practice is wrapping all trees and shrubs on your property in burlap for the winter. The only reason wrapping is recommended is to protect them from the spray of road salt or if they are near the limit of their hardiness zone. Tender plants you planted last fall may also benefit from wrapping but most evergreens will do fine with just anti desiccant protection, and deciduous plants protect themselves by shedding their leaves.
With the pending arrival of spring, it would be a good idea to schedule an unveiling of any wrapped plants. Give them a chance to grow and thrive on their own.
You can help your landscape plants grow on their own by providing them with an optimal growing environment. They need good soil loaded with the essential elements and teeming with the beneficial microbes to help plants thrive. To do this, add organic matter like compost. Fertilize if your soil needs mineral replenishment.
After adding compost and fertilizer, top it off with organic mulch. Mulch will moderate soil temperature and moisture. It serves as a gate keeper for plant roots, keeping the soil at an even temperature so the roots don’t get too hot or cold. When it rains, mulch holds water, releasing it over time. If mulch isn’t there to run interference, rainwater can just run off without soaking into the ground where the plants can use it. In other situations the ground can absorb water so fast that it drowns the plants. Mulch can keep this from happening.
The best way to minimize the need for such extreme measures is to plant the right plant in the right place. Do your research before you buy plants or work with one of our professional landscape designers for real peace of mind.
We always remind you to refrain from pruning trees and shrubs that flower in spring. Most of them flower on old wood, which means this spring’s buds were set last fall. You’ll probably remove those buds if you prune now. But what about trees and shrubs that bloom on new wood?
The ever popular hydrangeas top this list. Rose of Sharon and Buddleia (butterfly bush) are other examples. Although these can be pruned anytime in the fall after they bloom, they should be pruned by the time they begin putting out new growth in spring. Otherwise, the old dead canes will detract from the fresh, new growth, and the flowers won’t look as spectacular.
There are some varieties that bloom several times a year or even throughout the growing season. These endless summer varieties bloom on both old and new wood. Reblooming plants include Boomerang® lilac, Sonic Bloom™ weigela and Bloom-A-Thon® azalea*.
Don’t prune these in spring. Rather, prune them after each flush of flowers, cutting the stems to about half their length. This will encourage them to put on new growth, including flower buds. Give these plants a final pruning, cutting their stems in half in the fall, after their last blooms have faded.
Plants that bloom only on new wood should be cut back to four to six inches at this time if you didn’t do it last fall. This may seem like radical pruning but you want to keep them growing in the shape nature intended, rather than spread out with new canes and flowers mixed with long, dead canes.
If you want to enjoy the blooms of these prolific plants without having to do the maintenance that goes with them, our landscape professionals would be happy to identify your varieties and prune them at the proper time to assure you of maximum blooming. The first pruning should be made quite soon so it’s imperative to act now.
* Trademarks and Registered Trademarks of Proven Winners.
As March dawns, winter begins to loosen its grip as spring pushes its way in. For many, the tan or gray of ornamental grasses poking their seedheads above the snow was the only thing breaking up the endless expanses of white in our landscapes. Those seedheads have done their job; now it’s time for the next generation to take their place.
It’s time to give your ornamental grasses their spring trim. This is one of the earliest landscape tasks of the season because the new year’s new growth will soon begin appearing in between last year’s stalks. Wait too long and you’ll remove new grass right along with the old. That means no seedheads giving your landscape that bit of color you’ve come to expect next winter.
The tool to use is whatever’s comfortable for you. I’ve heard of people using hedge clippers, loppers, chainsaws and even pruning shears. For most plantings, hedge clippers are, arguably, the easiest and safest, especially if they’re new, lightweight models with geared pivot points.
Ornamental grasses should be cut as close to the ground as possible without cutting new growth. If you cut them back very soon, you should be able to trim them back to within a couple inches of the ground. Later in the season, you may have to trim higher to avoid cutting the new growth. The best way to know how high to trim is to begin low from the outside. If you begin seeing green among the brown, raise the cut so it’s above the new growth. When the new growth reaches its mature height, you won’t be able to see where you changed height.
Getting rid of the clippings can be a problem if you don’t compost. Check with your trash hauler to see if you can put them out for pickup. If not, check with your town. Some pick up landscape waste during spring clean-up. If you’d rather not worry about trimming height, disposing of the debris or timing, we have landscape professionals who would be happy to handle the whole job for you.
Winter isn’t usually thought of as a time to spray your plants. As spring approaches, though, two come to mind – anti desiccant and dormant oil.
When we enjoy enough warm winter days, your evergreens may need an anti desiccant touch-up. When the temperature rises up into the 50s, the sun can melt anti desiccant. It’s a wax like material designed to melt off in the spring. When spring teases us with previews of what’s in store, the temperature rises sufficiently to melt the anti desiccant.
If you applied anti desiccant yourself last fall, just repeat the procedure now. You probably don’t have to apply it as heavily as you did the first application. We have crews out touching up those applications we made. So, if you want us to revisit your plants, just contact our office.
The second application is dormant oil. Although it’s a little early for applying this material, we’re beginning to take requests for this service. Like anti desiccant, there’s a small window of opportunity for dormant oil. So, we’re planning our routes so we can serve as many property owners as possible who want this service.
Dormant oil is a horticultural oil formulated to smother overwintering insects while the trees, shrubs and insects are dormant. The target insects wake up just before the plant leafs out. Target insects include such common pests as aphids, adelgids, mites, lacebugs and mealybugs.
This product is like diluted petroleum jelly that is used on burns and other human wounds. When sprayed on a plant, it covers the plant and the sleeping insects. Since the target insects breathe through their skin, or exoskeleton, the dormant oil coats them and they don’t wake up.
The window of opportunity for applying dormant oil begins when temperatures rise to 40-50ºF and stay there for 24 hour periods and ends just before the plant’s leaves break bud. Spraying dormant oil on leaves can have the same effect as it does on the insects. It clogs the leave’s stoma (pores) and interrupts transpiration.
Like anti desiccant, dormant oil is sold in spray bottles at garden centers. Also like anti desiccant, these are fine for a couple of perennials, small shrubs or dwarf conifers but you can get very tired using this application method on all the plants in your landscape. Also, you can’t reach to tops of tall trees. This is when professional application is preferred. Besides being kinder to your body, it’s also more economical than buying all those bottles at retail.
In winter, you have to depend on your local florist for the cut flowers to add fragrance, color and beauty to your home. Those flowers were flown in from someplace warm and then transported by truck from a wholesaler to your retail florist. That’s hardly sustainable for the environment.
When planning your landscape improvement projects for the coming growing season, why not include a three-season cutting garden? Then you’ll only have to go to your backyard for your flowers. It’ll save you time and money but, better yet, it’ll benefit the environment, rather than use valuable resources.
A cutting garden may look like one of your annual, perennial or bulb bed but there are subtle differences. Your flower gardens should be for beauty to be enjoyed in place. The plant heights should also be nearly the same or tiered so the highest plants are in the back and grow progressively shorter so they make an attractive array.
A cutting garden is a production garden. You are producing as many flowers as you want for decorating your home. That may include only enough for a centerpiece on the table each night for dinner or you may want to include bouquets throughout the house. High production and low maintenance should be your goal. One way to do that is to plant close together to discourage weeds.
Cutting garden designs are as varied as any garden design. You may want it to blend in with your other beds or you may want a more utilitarian design. Regardless of your design, it will look nicer if you plant separate beds for flowers that bloom in spring, summer and fall. This way you’ll be harvesting from one bed per season. It’s best to select plants that produce long stem flowers that all grow to approximately the same height. That makes arranging bouquets much easier. You can always cut off some stem, if necessary, but you can’t add to it.
Utilitarian beds can be laid out similarly to an edible garden. A nice, neat design defines each bed with a border of railroad ties, dimensional lumber like 6x6s, bricks or pavers with stone or paver paths between them. Raised beds can make maintenance and harvesting even easier. When designing your beds, whether raised or at ground level, make them only as wide as you can reach from the paths. You don’t want to disturb plants that haven’t bloomed when trying to harvest those blooming in the bed’s interior.
A wide range of options for selecting plants are available. If you are confident of your plant savvy, select the individual plants yourself from your garden center. If you have doubts, garden centers and online garden supply sites sell seed mixtures, so you just have to plant the seeds and wait for a nice selection of flowers to grow. If you’d rather confine your efforts to cutting the flowers, our landscape design and installation professionals would be happy to select the plants that best suit your taste, construct the garden and plant the seeds.
As for winter, the only alternative to buying flowers from your florist is a greenhouse, and we’d be happy to work with you to design and build one of them.
The term winter weeding might appear, at first blush, to be an oxymoron. Why would one have to weed in the winter? Because weeds are adventitious plants. They take advantage of any opportunity.
Weeds, particularly dandelions, begin growing long before grass or desirable flowers. Before dying off last fall, weeds dropped seeds, which lay dormant all winter. When the temperatures begin to rise and the days start getting longer, these factors will trigger weed seeds to germinate.
Weeds will take advantage of the grass and other plants’ extended dormant period to hog the light and water. Their roots will binge out on available nutrients, enabling them to spread. They’ll spread across the ground, overshadowing the still dormant plants until they take over the lawn or planting bed.
The most basic, and thorough, way to rid your landscape of weeds is to pull them out by the roots. It’s also the most labor intensive. Take a garden stool or five-gallon bucket to sit on and a weed digger or trowel out to confront the weeds. Plunge the weed digger or trowel into the root zone as deeply as you can. Your goal is to get the tool beneath the root and pull the entire root system out. Dandelion roots grow deep, so dig at an angle. This will enable you to cut the root as necessary.
Applying a weed killer is less labor intensive than pulling weeds. However, you have to deal with getting rid of the dead weeds by pulling them. If you decide on weed killer, pick a broadleaf weed killer formulated with both a preemergent and post emergent compounds. There will be more weeds from last fall lurking in the soil just waiting to take the place of those you’re getting rid of. The preemergent will reduce to number of seeds that germinate.
Be careful and seek the assistance of a knowledgeable person at the garden center when buying weed killer. Know where you’re going to apply it. Some products can be applied to the lawn and kill only broadleaf weeds without harming the grass. Others will kill anything green. You have to be careful to choose the right product when you declare war on weeds in your flower beds and around trees and shrubs. You’re apt to have expensive collateral damage.
The safest, most thorough weeding method for flower beds or around trees and shrubs is hand pulling. You may see some people using their string trimmer on those weeds but this is only a temporary fix that you’ll have to repeat next week.
One way to reduce the number of weeds in your flower beds is to install the plants really close to each other and then mulch well. This will discourage the weeds by giving them less space to grow and requires them to grow through several inches of mulch. Remember, weeds are adventitious plants. They want to grow where it’s easy.
You don’t have to worry about weeds when you’re on a lawn program with us. We apply the proper material at just the right time.
We Americans do most of our outdoor living in our backyards. Yet most backyards aren’t divided into specialized activity areas like the indoor space is. Until now, that is. People are now starting to dedicate sections of their backyards to specific activities.
Entertaining has been the one activity with dedicated space. We usually find the grill, table and chairs on the patio or deck. Some are very basic while others are an extension of indoor entertaining space, complete with television.
Another area can be dedicated to children’s activities. It’s best to design this area to be flexible. Kids’ interests change as they grow, so making modifications easy will save both time and money when the time comes for the kids’ area to be updated.
You’ll want playground equipment for young children. A playground set, a sandbox and a safe space for them to drive electric vehicles. As they grow into their tween, teen and young adult years, they’ll probably prefer sports equipment. A basketball hoop, a soccer goal, a baseball or softball pitch back or, possibly, a lacrosse net.
You’ll need different surfaces for the various activities. The safest surface for the playground set is rubber mulch or specially designed rubber mats. Rubber mats could also be installed under a sandbox. Grass will be best for some athletic areas, such as soccer, baseball, softball or lacrosse but a basketball court requires a hard surface. To keep this area flexible, consider artificial turf where grass is recommended.
Many families opt for a pool that will become the family recreational area. If that’s likely to happen soon, take that area into account when designing your backyard rooms. Then you won’t have to “steal” a little bit from the existing areas in order to retrofit the space with a pool.
A Secret Garden would be a nice rest area for the adults. This could be a small area where you could get away from the hustle and bustle of family life to read, think or meditate. It could be completely enclosed by high shrubs, except for the entrance. Inside, a comfortable chair, a small table and a container of seasonal annuals would make a fitting décor.
Your Secret Garden may be a good place to meditate. But if you prefer to walk as you meditate, consider a labyrinth, if you have the space. The space set aside for a future swimming pool could be made into a temporary labyrinth until it’s time for the pool to occupy that space.
I realize that these are a lot of ideas to consider all at once, but they’re presented so you can pick and choose those that’ll be best for your family, and so you won’t be surprised when the backyard needs to be modified to accommodate the needs of your growing family.
Winter is a good time to begin thinking about how to divide your backyard so it will serve the needs for your family now and well into the future. For help from the initial formulation of your plans to committing your desires to paper and right trough installation, our landscape professionals are here to serve you.
Wondering what an ornaveggie garden is? It’s a single garden with both ornamentals and vegetables planted in it. Who said you have to plant only ornamental plants in beautifully designed and tended flower beds that are closest to the house? And that your vegetable garden had to be relegated to a plain rectangular plot in the far corner of the backyard? Nobody!
You can design your landscape any way you want but so many landscapes are merely an extension of their neighbors’ landscape. If you want to be adventurous this spring, integrate your edible plants in with your ornamentals. You may want to do a little research or work with one of our landscape designers this winter. It’s important to integrate plants in such a way as to keep compatible plant together. For example, combining corn and pansies in the same bed probably wouldn’t be too attractive but corn among sunflowers or tall ornamental grass would be fine.
Ornamental plants aren’t the only plants that flower. Vegetables do, too. Most may not be as showy as the ornamentals but they flower just the same. The big difference is that the seeds that result from vegetables are tasty for humans rather than only to wildlife.
Besides being a head turner, you won’t have to walk so far to harvest. You need a tomato or pepper for tonight’s dinner? Just step outside the front door and pick the bright red tomato or shiny green pepper. How about integrating fragrant herbs in a container with flowers that either live on your deck, patio or back stoop.
When laying out your ornaveggie garden, decide on whether you want to start your garden from seed or buy plants in six packs at your local garden center. If you wan to start your vegetables from seed and buy your flowers in six packs or containers, I suggest you invest in a seed starter kit and start your seeds indoors during the late winter or early spring. Your goal is for both ornamentals and vegetables to grow together. To do that, they have be approximately the same size when you plant them outdoors.
Raised beds are becoming increasingly popular. They make ideal environments for your ornaveggie garden. However, you might want to concentrate the flowers in the center of the raised bed and the vegetable plants toward the edges. Conventional wisdom would dictate that you do just the opposite – bury the veggies in the center and surround them with attractive flowers. If you do that, you’ll have to reach into the center to harvest your crops, and you can damage the flower plants or miss some veggies. If you plant the veggies on the outside, harvesting will be easier and more complete. Visually, it’ll look like colorful flowers sitting on a bed of green foliage. And, the color of the year for 2022 is green! The only downside might come when you have to deadhead the flowers but a pair of loppers will ease the job.
When buying, building or having your raised beds built, make them look like pieces of outdoor furniture, rather than just a plywood box. Make them so they blend in with the landscape. If you make them almost waist high with a wide, flat top, you can work either standing up or sitting on the top piece. Finish them with either paint or a clear coat of preservative.
A garden is for tending not for toiling. The ideas presented here will let you do that while enjoying a garden that’s unique to you rather than just an extension of your neighbor’s landscape.
By this time in December, your three-season outdoor paradise is, undoubtedly, secured for the winter. This means you’re spending most of your time indoors where it’s warm. But what about your trees?
This is the ideal time to schedule tree care. That includes pruning, cabling & bracing and other work on the above ground portion of deciduous trees. Why now? Here’s why:
• Deciduous trees are dormant. Making pruning cuts now is far less traumatic than making the same cuts when sap is flowing and the tree is foliated. Then the leaves are actively making food through photosynthesis.
• Our arborists can see the tree’s skeletal structure. With the leaves gone, our arborists can stand back and inspect the tree’s structure and determine which branches need to be removed for health and aesthetic reasons. When in leaf, the leaves cover up problems and may present a different shape.
• Pruning cuts provide pests and pathogens with easy access to the interior of trees but many insects and disease organisms are dormant for the winter. Pruning now will give the wounds plenty of time to callous over before the insects and disease organisms become active again.
• Frozen ground lets us better position equipment. A tree in the middle of your front or back yard may be difficult to reach with our bucket trucks. In spring, summer and fall, we’d have to physically climb such trees. In winter, though, when the ground’s frozen, we can often maneuver closer to the tree and prune it faster and safer.
• Faster, easier clean up saves money because less debris falls by the wayside as we drag it across a snow-covered lawn. (Less friction)
You may feel sorry for arborists having to work outdoors in harsh winter conditions. They dress for the weather and take extra precautions on slippery surfaces. They’re used to it and trained to avoid hazards. However, there are some days that the weather is just so bad that even we can’t work. Scheduling now better assures you of a time that’s most convenient for you, and gives both of us plenty of options should we have to postpone.
As always, I urge you not to attempt to prune your own trees. It’s dangerous in the best weather and even worse in inclement weather. If the tree’s a flowering tree, you may unwittingly remove flower buds. Most spring flowering trees and shrubs bloom on old wood, which means this spring’s flower buds are already on the branches. To the untrained eye, they’re indistinguishable from the new leaf buds. However, our arborists are trained to identify both types of buds.
Most families live in their back yards so that’s where they concentrate their landscape efforts. Consequently, the front yard often consists of a rather boring mix of lawn and foundation plantings. That could be changing, according to the 2022 Garden Trends Report by the Green Media Group.
The report notes that there’s renewed interest in curb appeal. Homeowners are making the approaches and entrances more welcoming to visitors. Perhaps the months of few visitors during the pandemic has made people so eager to share their space with friends and family that they’re showing their appreciation as soon as someone pulls into their driveway.
Some sources are suggesting paving driveways with material other than blacktop – specifically concrete or pavers. The same sources suggest planting the borders with perennials. In our upstate New York climate, though, they would have to be very hardy perennials to withstand snow being piled on them. It would also be a good idea to install curbing between the pavement and plant border to keep your shovel, snowblower or plow from damaging the plants.
If you don’t have any trees in the front yard, consider a shade tree. Select a deciduous tree rather than a conifer. The crowns of deciduous trees are above the line of sight from the street. The foliage on most conifers extends all the way to the ground, obscuring your ability to see the street. Under overhead wires, the only tree to plant is an ornamental that grows no more than 20 feet tall.
Obscuring line of sight presents two concerns. The first is security. Blocking the view gives potential burglars cover to do their illegal activities, and it could be disastrous for your family. The other concern is that you would be blocking the view of your house and yard, reducing the curb appeal that you’re striving for.
Front porches also are trends. People are going back to the tradition of sitting on the front porch. Those with porches are rejuvenating them and many without our building them. Be sure plant material is part of your plan. Place containerized plants on the porch, attach hanging baskets of annuals from the porch and/or install window boxes to the porch rail.
The same plants as suggested for a porch can be part of the curb appeal even if you don’t have, or want, a porch. Two large containers, one on either side of the front door, would be your first opportunity to welcome guests. Baskets can be hung from the eaves and window boxes can be installed under the front windows. Remember, though, that you’ll have to water these plants more often than those in-ground.
How about giving your front door, shutters and any woodwork a fresh coat of paint to complete your front yard makeover? Some people are even installing curtains on their front porches for privacy and shade.
If your home’s curb appeal needs some attention and you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, we have landscape designers who can help you with the planning and landscape installation professionals who can help you with the planting and hardscape construction.
As the depth of winter approaches, I get asked how to deer proof trees. The answer is that you can’t completely deer proof a tree. A hungry deer will eat any plant when snow makes it impossible for them to reach their favorite food sources. However, you can make it more difficult for them to reach your trees.
The best advice may come from your neighbors. Different remedies work in different areas. What works in my neighborhood may not work in yours. So, start by asking your neighbors what they use to discourage deer and how effective is it.
Perhaps the best deterrent is to plant deer resistant plants. The most complete list of such plants that I’ve found is on Warren County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s website (warren.cce.cornell.edu) under the Gardening & Landscaping section. It lists plants that are rarely, occasionally and frequently damaged by deer.
Boxwood is one of the plants in the rarely damaged category. One of my customers has a beautiful weeping Japanese red maple in the center of a triangular planting bed. It’s surrounded by boxwood on all sides and has never been damaged by deer. (I hope I didn’t just jinx him.)
Some people have had success with wrapping their trees and shrubs in deer fencing, hardware cloth or burlap. It needs to be installed at least eight feet tall. Ten or twelve feet would be even better. Other people have been successful installing netting over small trees and shrubs.
There are also repellents, which can be purchased or made using household items, and deer resistant plants like herbs. Deer love tulip bulbs but not daffodils. There’s also the old method of stuffing socks or panty hose legs with human hair and suspending them over the plants you want to protect. Strategically placed motion activated lights may also work.
Deer are the wildlife that draw the most attention as they browse on our valuable trees and shrubs in winter but sneaky rodents may actually kill your plants. Mice and voles like to burrow down in snow or mulch piled against the trunk and chew on the bark. Rabbits do it right out in the open. If they chew all the way around the trunk or stem, they will sever the tree’s vascular system, causing it to die.
The best way to combat hungry rodents is to wrap the trunk with hardware cloth. Hardware cloth is flexible screening that can be found at hardware stores and home centers. To be safe, wrap the trunk all the way up to the first branch. Some barrier directions say to offset the hardware cloth out from the trunk with wooden or PVC frames. Plastic pipe or tree wrap can also be used but it’s important to remove any wrap in each spring so the tree can grow.
Anti desiccant is the best winter protection you can provide for your evergreen trees and shrubs. Besides keeping them from drying out from winter winds, this wax like material also lets you enjoy your plant’s beauty and color against the season’s white background. Best of all, it’s economical and easy to apply.
There’s a good biological reason for applying anti desiccant to your evergreens. In winter, both conifers and broadleaf evergreens slow down their life functions. It could be compared to animals like bears hibernating. Unlike deciduous plants, evergreens don’t go completely dormant.
Evergreens’ leaves or needles continue to manufacture food through the energy trapping process of photosynthesis. That process requires water, which is normally absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves by the plant’s xylem. Water, also a byproduct of the process, is given off through the leaves. This is called transpiration.
When the ground is frozen, the roots can’t absorb water, so the plant reabsorbs transpired water and recycles it during photosynthesis. This is fine until the wind blows. Wind picks up transpired water and carries it away before it can be reabsorbed. When this occurs, photosynthesis shuts down and the affected leaves, needles and branches die.
Desiccated leaves and branches turn brown. Rarely does the whole plant die. It just has ugly brown patches, and the only remedy is to cut out the deadwood. This affects the aesthetics of an otherwise graceful, beautiful evergreen.
Before anti desiccant was introduced, wrapping the plant in burlap was the only protection available. Instead of islands of green punctuating the sea of snow, drab brown stood out like shrouded statues. There’s still a need for burlap wraps but only for plants affected by salty road spray, young trees and shrubs that are still getting established, or tender plants that may be near the limit of their hardiness zone.
Garden centers and home stores sell anti desiccant in spray bottles. The most familiar brand is Wilt Pruf, and it’s in easily recognized green bottles. Buying one or two of these bottles to apply to a couple of evergreen shrubs is a good DIY project. Buy any more and your hand will let you know how hard it is to squeeze those spray triggers.
For properties with many or large evergreens like towering conifer trees, it’s more economical and efficient for one of our Plant Health Care professionals to apply anti desiccant. We buy it in bulk, which is considerably less than buying those consumer-size containers at retail, and you don’t have to worry about properly disposing of the empty containers. Our PHC pros apply anti desiccant with backpack sprayers that have enough pressure to reach the tops of tall trees.There’s a relatively short window of opportunity to apply anti desiccant. The temperature needs to be consistently near 40ºF but not down to freezing. If it’s too warm, it melts, too cold and it coagulates. If we get sustained warm spells during the winter, additional applications may be necessary. Nothing needs to be done in spring. The anti desiccant just melts when the weather warms up.
