- Eco-Friendly Gardens (3)
- Uncategorized (6)
- Working with a designer (5)
- 24. August 2008: Fall is For Planting: Plant Smaller Perennials Now for Better Value
- 17. August 2008: Stormy Weather
- 3. August 2008: The Problem With “New"
- 22. June 2008: Eco Design Standards and the Middle Road
- 26. May 2008: Whose Designing Your garden?
- 18. May 2008: Sustainable?
- 11. May 2008: How Do You Balance Budget & Vision?
- 27. April 2008: Grouping Plants by Need
- 21. April 2008: The Right Plant in the Right Place
- 13. April 2008: Why is it so Important to Have a Master Plan?
Fall is For Planting: Plant Smaller Perennials Now for Better Value
24. August 2008 by admin.
bare root 4 inch pint quart gallon
In summer design meetings, people often ask “should we wait until the spring to plant this garden? And the answer more often than not is No. In fact, with the exception of a small group of trees that are a Fall Hazard to plant, many plants will do better planted in the fall.
Regular readers of this column have heard again and again and again that fall planting allows plant material extra months of root development. Planting in September and October will not only give your plant material a jump in the spring as planted material start developing roots well before new plants are available, but they will also get a couple of months of fall root development.
The great news however, is that you can plant smaller plants in the fall, and they will have developed into much bigger plants by the spring. For example, planting pint sized perennials in early September will get you plant material in May that is close to the size of 1 gallon material you might purchase at a nursery or big box store. Pints are a third to half the price of gallon material so the savings can be tremendous. If you’re really looking to be frugal as we all are with the price of gas and food being what it is, plant bare root or four inch perennials now for pint sized value in May 2009.
With this August having been so unseasonably cool, soil temperature is much lower than it normally would be this time of year, soil temperature is one of the prime determinants in when roots start developing. This means, that barring a September heat wave, you can plant perennials now for real value.
Before you dig, the usual guidelines apply: test the soil and first, and amend to meet the needs of the plants you are selecting, for healthier soil, feed and emend organically, and work in as many natives plants as possible to encourage and support the local ecosystem. Plant smaller perennials as if they were bigger plants, keeping in mind what their mature size will be (generally space perennials 8”-12” on center). Check the mature heights of the plants to determine location in the garden. I can’t tell you how many “professionally” planted gardens I have seen this year that had smaller plants placed behind larger ones so that they were lost and not visible. Group plants by soil and water needs, and always use drip irrigation for these areas, don’t count on lawn sprinklers (which are designed for grass) to water perennials and shrubs.
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Stormy Weather
17. August 2008 by admin.
Last week, we experienced fierce thunderstorms coupled with hail in lower Westchester County New York. The immediate result of the hail which was about one eights of an inch in diameter is that almost all trees, shrubs, and flowers were damaged. Soft leaved plants like hydrangea and perennials like rudbeckia were shredded. Some tougher leaved plants escaped damage, but some like sedum plants were squashed by the pelting hail stones.
Leaves form trees were torn out of their branches blocking up some drains in streets and adding to the flooding that was already in progress in lower lying areas, like under train overpasses for example. Cars stalled in flooded streets, a police car was pushed out of a small lake that had been wolfs lane twenty minutes earlier, by a higher riding SUV.
The bad news is that due to global warming, weather forecasts for our region over the next ten years call for an increase in this sort of thunderstorm activity and a reduction in slower steadier rains that were once the norm. In towns with lower lying areas, the implications are that sewage systems will have to be upgraded to accommodate increased storm water runoff from the more intensive storms whose steady increase in occurrence have been predicted and are coming to realization.
Other means of managing storm water issues are encouraging greenroofs wherever possible. Greenroofs, a thin layer of plantings that cover a rooftop for energy savings, extended roof life, and many other environmental benefits, also absorb 80% of the water that lands on them. Introducing permeable surfaces wherever possible will also help with mitigating storm water runoff. For example, brick crosswalks that are not mortared will allow some water to be absorbed by the earth below. Paver sidewalks are another possibility, and perhaps paver streets in our shopping centers, which though more expensive to install, have greater longevity making them less expensive per year and having the added benefit of again allowing water to seep between them into the earth below.
Point being, design and planning, whether it be for a property, a village, or a town, cant occur in a vacuum. Eco-friendly landscape design demands that planning for the property consider the wider impact of choices made. Maybe a greenroof is not appropriate, but mitigating storm water, and hopefully even re-using it is always appropriate. Stormwater needs to be considered bothfrom the stance of how it effects the property, as well as how it effects the immediate vicinity and the region.
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The Problem With “New”
3. August 2008 by admin.
Working with a new client, they asked us to try a pre-fabricated deck system they had found. We were excited because it was all FSC certified wood and seemed relatively inexpensive. We priced the labor like any other modular deck installation and set to work.
The installation was relatively smooth, the interlocking pieces clicking together, everything going in as designed-terrific design on our part. Then the problems started. Because the wood was thinner than what we usually use (.5 inches versus 1.5”) and the deck was resting on supports instead of flat on the ground, we started to see warping and see-sawing. The only solution, to take it all up and create a level platform under the deck to prevent the stresses of heat, air flow, and irregular support.
The question of course is who eats the cost? In order to make the customer happy, the company should in theory, except the client requested this material specifically. To eat the cost is the equivalent of making all your clients who worked with tried and tested materials pay for the material specified by a client who was trying to save money by using a less expensive product in a manner different than manufacturer specification.
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Eco Design Standards and the Middle Road
22. June 2008 by admin.
At a recent conference, I was speaking with a friend in the lawncare industry (ancient enemy of all eco-friendly) who also has a PHD in agronomy. I had asked him how he got into the lawncare business with his PHD and farm background. He proceeded to tell me all about the merits of traditional composting, and how he had come across a technique that married the best of old world composting and crop rotation with the use of chemical fertilizers.
Now I happen to trust this fellow, I did mention I consider him a friend, and I dont have many of those nor do I use the term lightly. It was that relationship that preserved me from my standard knee jerk eco-friendly reaction which is the solid belief that anything chemical is evil, and that chemically produced nitrogen kills live topsoil.
So it was gently explained to me that a) only certain kinds of chemically produced nitrogen have this effect, b) how much nitrogen is applied makes a huge difference regardless of the type, and c) chemically produced nitrogen in the right quantities introduced at the right time in the composting process will actually jump start the composting process and biological agents will thrive under these conditions.
Now if you consider what happens when any organic material is laid down on top of live topsoil, we all agree, chemical advocates and organic advocates, that mulch for example, will actually pull nitrogen from the soil to begin its composting process. The mulch pulls available nitrogen, nitrogen already processed and absorbable, and does not care whether this nitrogen came from an organism, or a factory. This would prove the argument conceptually at least.
Regardless of whether you agree with the example or not, the point is, that we in the eco-friendly/sustainable landscape world have a tendency to believe all that is old school is good and that all western produced chemicals and techniques must be bad. Is it possible, that there is a middle road here? Could it be that there is use and strength in western science that we are ignoring?
We in the sustainable landscape movement need to get deeper into testing and proving what we claim, otherwise we are reduced to using home remedies vs. cutting edge. If you go to less developed nations, and someone has a toothache, they are walking around with a big rag wrapped around their head with some herb laden poultice against their face while their teeth are rotting out. Here in the United States, even the most eco-conscious individuals accept having cavities cleaned out and filled, being injected with novacaine, laughing gas, whatever. We blindly accept it because the prospect of having our teeth rotting out is not a pleasant one, and these techniques are proven.
What do we want in our landscape design and practices? home remedies that may work (or may not) or scientifically grounded technique? Do we want to practice mythology or fact?
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Whose Designing Your garden?
26. May 2008 by admin.
Getting Help With your Landscape
Richard Heller, CLP, CLTDuring a design consultation, I asked a client how they selected their landscape gardener. “He’s very honest” she told me, “ and he’s reliable, he comes every week and cuts the grass”. That sentiment is very common, and though honesty and reliability are important qualifications for any contractor, a little knowledge and expertise are helpful as well. This particular individual had been caring for a lawn that was all weeds and it was evident that despite his reliability and honesty, he was doing little to build the soil, and remove the weeds.When selecting landscape help, consider what your needs are first. The landscape industry is divided into three basic categories, and though there is often overlap between the areas of specialization, for the most part, quality landscapers operate within specialized niches. These are lawn care, landscape maintenance, and landscape design and build. Often, landscape companies will perform well in two of these areas well, but rarely all three.Distinguishing between landscape contractors can be difficult. Price and location are often the motivators for many people’s choices, and this can be a mistake. First, you want to know what perspective landscapers do best. If they say “everything” doubt it immediately. There are very few landscape companies on the face of the earth, much less in
Qualified landscapers will have positive answers to all these questions. Landscapers who are members of associations, have some landscape education, and have attained some level of certification, are registered and insured, will also tend to be honest, reliable and knowledgeable. These are individuals and companies that have proven their commitment to the industry and have proven their integrity.
If your not sure where to find qualified individuals, contact the Plant Landacare Network or PLANET, which is the national association of landscape and lawncare professionals. They have thousands of landscapers listed on their web site along with information regarding their areas of specialization, certifications, and the PLANET website can be searched by city and state at www.landcarenetwork.org. Also try the New York State Turf and Landscape Association at www.nystla.com. The NYSTLA will have listings of companies that are certified organic lawncare specialists.
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Sustainable?
18. May 2008 by admin.
One of the reasons we at Greener by Design have slowly wiped the word sustainable out of our vocabulary, is that this word takes on a completely different meaning in the garden. The word sustainable in association with technology implies technologies that are minimally damaging, if not supportive, of the environment. Landscapes, on the other hand, are of nature. Yes, there are invasive plants and non-natives etc. but left on its own, ecosystems adapt, while the damage done by technology is much harder to cope with. Because landscapes are “green” by definition, sustainable comes to imply something more. “Sustainable” landscapes would tend to themselves more or less, with minimal intervention by man if any.
Sidestepping the invasive plant issue, let’s focus for a moment on what a sustainable landscape would look like; a sustainable landscape, would be one that would support the local ecosystem, adapt to available light, water, and soil conditions, and whose plants reproduce and replace themselves. It would by definition be sustaining itself. In fact, every ecosystem in the world has or had sustainable landscapes before to much human interaction.
Considered in that context, the gardens of man are sheer arrogance and waste. Our gardens require constant maintenance and care, regular interventions in the form of feeding the soil, providing water, pruning and cleaning. Many of the materials we use are not hardy and could never survive in the climates we plant them in without human intervention. Worse yet, the invasive plant issue, pesticides in the ecosystem, fertilizer in our waterways, these are all the result of our ignorant efforts to sustain our gardens and create spaces that are unique to who we are.
Given that perspective, in order to be a landscape professional, one by implication would have to be very arrogant. Though there may be some truth to that view point, most landscape professionals revere nature and the diversity of plant material within nature. Though are landscapes may not be sustainable, they can be environmental enhancements that not only beautify, but soften the impact people have on the environment. Greenroofs for example, are a fabrication of man, taking plants and growing them over rooftops as a living roof cover. Fabrication or no, they contribute to bio-diversity, save energy, reduce stormwater runoff. Basically, they mitigate a good deal of the problems created by removing all those trees and plants that were sustaining themselves, and slapping a building in their place.
Greenroofs, organic garden practices, utilizing natives, banning invasives, recycling rainwater, utilizing drip irrigation, these are eco-friendly, if not sustainable practices and so we toss out sustainable when talking about landscapes and focus on eco-friendly.
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How Do You Balance Budget & Vision?
11. May 2008 by admin.
Structural elements like pergolas, arbors, and trees would be next, Irrigation and the basis for lighting would be followed by shrubs, perennials, garden ornaments, water features and finally annuals and pots would fall on the end of the list.
Of course some of these elements can be interchangeable, but always think structure first, detail second. In breaking the basic elements of a garden down into pieces, the budget can be more manageable and spread over years.
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Grouping Plants by Need
27. April 2008 by admin.
One of the four legs of a healthy garden is the availability of water. In nature, ecosystems and plant life evolve around the availability of water and the ability of the soil to retain moisture. Trees shrubs and wildflowers actually assist in water retention by providing organic material (in the form of dead leaves and branches) to compost, nurture the soil, and the plants. Clearly a component of moisture retention is the presence of organic material, and another component is how much water actually lands on the ground. In nature, plants don’t survive that can’t live with what’s available. Most American gardens are not designed with available rainfall in mind and require supplemental water. It is the varied needs of the plants we yearn for, and our lack of awareness of these needs that lead to much of the disease and loss of plants in our garden spaces.
Every plant evolves in a unique ecosystem comprised of, amongst other thing, specific soils, water availability, humidity, light, and air. Soils can vary tremendously from one location to the next in the ratio of sand, clay, stone, organic material, humus (topsoil), level of acidity, levels of phosphorous, nitrogen, potassium, and trace minerals and elements. The make up of the soil, and the topography of the land, severely impacts moisture retention, and where water goes when it lands. Knowing the needs of the plant material you are working with, and amending the soil to the needs of the plant are the first steps to making sure the plants needs are met. Grouping plants by soil preferences would be the next, for example, acid lovers with their own kind, wetland plants together, drought tolerant plants in another group, always with consideration for light needs of course.
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The Right Plant in the Right Place
21. April 2008 by admin.
When selecting plants for a garden space, the conditions of the garden have priority over any other consideration. Though this may sound backwards in a culture based around “I want what I want when I want it”, it makes perfect sense when put in context. An extreme and perhaps obvious example: I may want an orange grove, but if I live in New York City, unless I have the space and am willing to employ the tactics of Louis the Fourteenth, bringing the trees into an arboretum every winter, I just don’t have the weather conditions to make that happen. Therefore, most garden design will be predicated on existing conditions and whatever we can do to influence the so that the plants we select will thrive. If we want a chemical free garden, and save the expense of constantly replacing fading plant material, the plants must thrive.
The basic conditions to be monitored to sustain plant material are water, soil, light and air. The two elements we have the most influence over are soil and water. Light and air not so much, though global warming may be evidence to the contrary on a wide scale. The primary test of any landscape designer, landscape architect or landscape maintenance company is whether they bother to soil test. Any designer who does not consider existing soil conditions and moisture is not worth their salt. For that matter any lawn care, or landscape maintenance company that does not soil test at least once a year should be replaced immediately. Amending soil without testing is like a nutritionist recommending a diet without exploring what a person eats and what their physical condition is.
Once you have an assessment of soil and moisture conditions, you have the basis for plant consideration. The next priority is what do you want? Presumably, anyone reading this text will have environmental considerations near the top of the list. Minimal, water efficient plants or even xeriscaping may be next, and certainly the inclusion of native plants if not a completely designing with natives will be high on the list, as local ecosystems have been built on and are sustained by, the presence of native plants.
If you must have a lawn, try to keep it simple and restricted to where it actually will be used by children and visitors. Large areas that had been dedicated to lawns in the past are better served by native wildflower collections from an aesthetic and environmental stance. The sheer energy it takes to care for lawns make them undesirable from an environmental stance
The look of the garden to some extent will be determined by the architecture of the home, and whether the home is in an urban, suburban, or country setting-the surroundings will determine what kind of transitions the garden space will need to make to “belong” or look like it fits in. Again, there may be limits to what you can have versus what you want. If you live in a cold climate and want a tropical look, you will be working hard (like Louis the Fourteenth and his ilk) to get it, and the energy and effort the garden will need to be sustained.
Soil can and should be amended organically to help sustain the plants, and irrigation and drainage adjusted to this end as well. Water can and should be recycled from rooftops, impermeable surfaces, and grey water either into the garden, back into the home, or both as water is and will be a more precious commodity.
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Why is it so Important to Have a Master Plan?
13. April 2008 by admin.
As long as people have been creating, there has been a debate regarding whether spaces should be designed intuitively or with a master plan in mind. The beauty of the intuitive, do what feels good kind of creating, is you just do it and because it is a creative process, you the creator are mostly happy with it until you outgrow it. However, some of the most lasting creations architecturally and in landscaping, were not created with this approach as the basis. Almost all great gardens and spaces were at least structurally laid out with great forethought and planning.
If a space is to take all the varying needs of the surrounding architecture, the preferences of the user(s), efficiency of execution (and therefore lower cost), the needs of the ecosystem and the need to have as minimal negative impact as possible, than balancing these varying needs will require a great deal of thought and planning.
A real life example; a home that has an existing garden and layout that worked for the client for years needed to be redesigned. The whole property needed to be more usable by creating a unique play space for a five year old, an enlarged outdoor living room in which to entertain, and a dog run with in ground composting for dog waste. On the eco-friendly side, the property needed rainwater recycling added to an existing irrigation system, a space for kitchen composting that won’t be vermin ridden, and the property needed to be made safer through the removal of some poorly rooted trees. Of course, all this had to be done within a limited budget and without ripping up to much of what is already on site.
Though it would be possible to execute this project piecemeal, without a long term plan, it could not be done efficiently and within budget. The trees were in tough locations that needed to be accessed with a cherry picker, the property was only a third of an acre. The need to locate the tanks for rainwater storage, deal with the dogs, and get the play area built before the child grew up all demanded at least an understanding of how the different “rooms” would relate to each other once completed if not taking care of the high priority work first.
Very much like decorating the interior of a house, the place for intuitive creativity comes in the details of each room once the boundaries and priorities have been defined. As the spaces come together, this is where the designer (and the client) can really have some fun, and get out of their heads a little. Each room can be redesigned once the structure is in place as well, and the garden spaces will hold to the eco-sensitive and architecturally sensitive principles that were behind the original layout.
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