10. May 2009 by admin.

Deep Root Feeding

I was talking to folks at the Junior League’s “There’s No Place Like Pelham” evening event Friday night and was asked about deep root feeding for large, hardwood trees. By the way, this event was a lot of fun and hats off to the Junior league for all their hard work! For those of you who are unaware, deep root feeding is a process where nutrients are pumped directly into the root zone of large trees by means of a metal spike inserted in the ground. This can be done with a larger spike and mechanical pump, and there are also smaller, manual versions of this system available.

The question was is deep root feeding really necessary, particularly at the high rates that some tree companies charge for this service? To answer the question one needs to consider where these trees occur in nature. Generally large trees grow in forests which are enclosed eco-systems of their own. The soil is rich with live organisms and fungi that explicitly nurture these trees. The tree’s roots connect and touch. A forest is literally a community, and through their roots, they communicate with each other chemically, share moisture, and condition the soil to meet their particular needs, as well as support other plants that are beneficial to the community.

Trees in habituated areas lack the support of the forest. This can mean that they are not getting their nutrient and water needs met, particularly if they are surrounded by lawns which have very different needs than shrubs, perennials, and trees. Because many of our lawns are chemically cared for, often the soil around trees in our communities is dead and inert. Trees in these conditions will need supplemental nutrition of some kind, and if they have not been fed in some time, deep root fertilization may be just the thing.

However, in the long run, homeowners can feed their trees themselves and without deep root feeding. Two products I highly recommend are from Plant Health Care. These are PHC 27-9-9 and PHC 11-22-22. Like most fertilizers the numbers refer to Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium levels in the fertilizer. These two products are part of the new line of chemical/biological hybrid or bridge products that are on the market. They contain chemical fertilizers in low enough doses to support the biological agents that they deliver as well. The 27-9-9 product is high in nitrogen and for spring use, the 11-22-22 is much lower and for fall use. The key element in these products is mycorrhizael fungii. Mycorrhizae are beneficial fungi that help trees digest nutrients. By applying these products to your  trees regularly, you can optimize the health of your trees and reduce or eliminate the need for deep root feeding. Many trees in suburban areas are struggling for nutrients so consider ways to feed these valuable assets today!

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19. April 2009 by admin.

A Blueprint for Feeding Your Lawn and Garden:

Healthy gardens and lawns have one major component in common, that is healthy soil. Healthy soil is soil that breathes, and is alive. Healthy soil has twenty to forty percent organic content (composted material, peat moss, etc). Healthy soil is alive with fungi, microbes, and worms that feed on the organic material and convert it into a form that plant life can absorb. Healthy soil both absorbs moisture and drains once saturated. It is made up of inorganic materials of varying densities ranging from fine particles like clay and  silt, to sand, and even some gravel/aggregate (but not too much, and not much denser than 1/8^th of an inch.

Though you can engage in extensive and expensive testing to find out exactly what your soil is made up of, including live microbial activity for example, it is simpler to stick with basic soil testing (through the Cornell Co-Operative Extension) to find out how acid/alkaline your soil is and what the ratios of Phosphorous, Nitrogen, and potassium are. The results of this testing will tell you what special amendments you need to add to get the right nutrient balance which is your baseline.

Soil density, organic and microbial content should be amended regularly throughout the year. In a basic program, compost tea (a tea brewed using live compost as the base material) should be applied at least 3 times a year, in April, June, and August. Compost tea is rich in trace minerals, live microbes, and beneficial fungi and will help re-invigorate your soil. The soil should also be fed with corn gluten in March/April to both give it a nitrogen boost and inhibit weeds from germinating. In soil that needs more vigorous attention, compacted soil with low organic content, aeration and addition of composted material is highly recommended. In a lawn this is also an excellent time to over seed, making sure the seed is lightly covered with the composted material.

With the presence of certain weeds, diseases, and insects, it becomes evident that the soil may be low in calcium, or over acidic. Liquid kelp, and/or fish emulsion are very high in calcium and will nurture the soil and the lawn, as well as reduce the occurrence of certain infestations.

Stay away from chemical fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides whenever possible. Though these will yield short term results, in the long run, they kill every living organism in the soil and weaken the root systems of your lawn and plants.

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5. April 2009 by admin.

Landscape Services in the “New Economy”

Its spring and all of us are shopping for lower prices and better value in the new economy. The question is, in any service you are shopping out, if the price is lower, are you getting better value? Many of us in know approximately what we are paying for landscape services, but are a little fuzzy on what we are receiving.

The bad news about the new economy is money is much tighter than it was not too long ago. The good news is there is a lot more competition. Companies that emphasized service, knowledge, and reliability at a higher price are willing to be much more competitive. Look at any commoditized industry, like automobiles for proof of this, you can get much better value and financing on any car today than you did a year ago. This is certainly true in landscape services as well. The question  is are you comparing apples to apples? In a commoditized industry, this is often easier to measure than in a service industry. You can drive an Infinity, for example, and feel the difference between it and another car immediately. In services like landscape, it can be more difficult because a good deal of the experience happens over time.

Here are a few things to look at right off the bat. How easy is it to get a hold of the company and how responsive are they to your needs? When you call during business hours, do you get a person or do you get voicemail? How fast is your call returned and do you feel the people you are talking to really care about your landscape and your needs, or are they gruff and defensive with you? Do they have an office you can walk into and meet with them if need be? When folks come to your property to meet with you, do you feel they are really educated about plants, soil, and ecology? Are they willing to adjust their price to be competitive? If not, are they delivering higher service and/or quality, and can they work with you somewhere else? Are they honest with you about the condition of your property or will they say anything to close the deal? What do their current clients say about them? Is there anything  that distinguishes them from the pack in terms of expertise? Do they have training programs and/or certified professionals on staff or do they use day labor of questionable legality? Are they insured and registered with the county? How long have they been in business?

When you are comparing the cost of services, make sure you are comparing the same things. For example, basic services are: soil testing (this is vital) and soil development or fertilization (plants need healthy soil to help nurture them), lawn cutting, edging beds and walkways, aeration of lawns, over seeding, weed and insect management, tree, shrub, and perennial care, mulching and weeding, and water management. Additional services may be important to you like landscape design, landscape planting and construction, irrigation and lighting expertise,  gutter cleaning and snow removal for example. You may also want to consider the environmental impact of the services you are receiving as well.

It is never too late to reconsider your landscape services and the current economy is ideal for either getting the services you have for a lower price or getting environmentally superior services at a similar or lower price than you have been paying. Even though this is a great time to shop around, remember the adage “you get what you pay for”, meaning make sure you know what you will get for your dollar and be willing to negotiate for what you want whether it be better services or lower prices.

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8. March 2009 by admin.

The Basis of Organic Garden Care

Many Westchester county residents are turning away from chemicals in their daily landscape care as concerns about continued exposure to children and animals, as well as issues regarding chemical run off into local bodies of water come to the fore. However, stopping the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides alone will not gain you healthier happy plants and grass. Local soils need to be rejuvenated and brought back to life for the health of the garden to revive.

In a natural setting with little or no human intervention, soil processes organic material and turns it into a form that plants can digest. Soil acts as the intestines of the plant world, and very much like human intestines, does this with microbial activity. Most soil in populated areas has less “live stuff” in it than one would find in a forest for example, due to stripping of topsoil in construction etc. If the soil has been treated repeatedly with chemical fertilizer and other chemicals, there is probably little or nothing left in the soil that will aid in the digestion of organics since chemical fertilizer, used at the recommended rates, feeds plants directly at the expense of killing microbial activity in the soil.

In order to create or lawn or garden that can digest organic material more effectively, it is necessary to re-introduce microbial activity. One sure fire way to do this is through regular addition of composted material, and compost tea.

Partially composted material will draw nitrogen from the soil and briefly drain plant material of nutrients so beware. Composted materials, like leaves, mulch, and green waste from the kitchen, must be composted down to the point where you can’t tell where it came from. At this point it is rich in nutrients and microbial activity. Compost tea is made from fully composted material. Basically, as the name implies, a tea is brewed from mixing composted material with water. This tea can be applied to the soil to re-introduce active microbes into it as well as nutrients and trace minerals. Gradually, the ability of the soil to process organic material will increase and plants will be healthier and deeper rooted as long as organic material and active microbes are added to it, very much like eating yogurt adds active enzymes to the human intestines.

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15. February 2009 by admin.

Poison ivy, oak and sumac  can be very hard to get rid of. The three choices are mechanical remove (by hand), use of an herbicide, or suffocation .

 Interestingly, these plants are native plants, and therefore considered desirable by many environmentalists. By native, I mean they and the local ecosystem are very well adapted to each other and support each other. Removing these plants altogether from the region would actually disturb the ecosystem and limit bio-diversity! (more on this on the Garden Web forum: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/natives/msg051448464442.html )That said, I myself am highly allergic to all three of these plants and will not tolerate them around my property (1/3 of an acre). Let them have the woods, but please not in my back yard.

Though highly allergic, I will physically remove poison ivy in the winter and summer when it is least virulent. Of course, covering yourself with long pants, long sleeve shirt, elbow length gloves, and possible a bandanna over your nose and mouth help a lot as well if you are allergic. Remembering to immediately removal all these accoutrements (wash them), and wash your arms and face thoroughly with Tech-Nu (a great product for preventing allergic reaction to these plants) limits the chance of an outbreak thereafter. These plants are at their strongest in higher growth periods like spring and fall, so avoid them completely in these seasons. You can hire one of the non-allergic elite to do this for you,  but studies show that repeated exposure will lead to the development of the allergy over time.

Though most herbicides are designed and proven to break down within 24 hours of exposure to light and air, they not only kill plants, but also kill live soil bacteria. However, if applied selectively, on a plant by plant basis, the environmental damage is minimal as long as you avoid getting the herbicide on the soil or surrounding plants (more on this at http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-218.pdf). This is a trade off of course, some folks are plain anti-chemical (except when it comes to termites, roaches and rodents). Other folks will stretch it to poisonous plants. For myself, I believe that careful, selective use of herbicides is a tolerable risk. In my mind, herbacides which kill the plant through the root zone, are more reliable than mechanical removal wherein if you don’t get all the roots, the plant comes back and one may have risked another rash for nothing. If the plant comes back, hit it again until it does not.   As long as you are working composted material into your soil on a regular basis, you will counteract  any damage that a very limited quantity of “round-up” or “brush be gone” might have done.

Last of all is the pond liner solution. This works for any plant by the way. Get some heavy epdm pond liner and put it on top of the plant for three to four weeks in active seasons, or as much as seven weeks in the winter. This will suffocate the plant and anything else under the pond liner. It also suffocates the soil with the same repercussions to topsoil as herbicides.

Note: NEVER BURN THESE PLANTS. Inhaling the fumes will cause outbreak in unimaginable places!

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