Sunrise Landscape Designs

To give your landscape a polished look, a defined edge to the plant beds is very important. This makes the bed lines stand out nicely delineating the areas of lawn vs. plant beds. A permanent edge can be accomplished with aluminum edging or other materials.

Another option is to create an edge with a spade.
To cut the edge, I use a sharp shovel with a flat blade to make a crisp line outlining the bed. (Rounded shovels make this job a lot more difficult.) I push the spade straight down into the ground about 6″ deep at the edge of the bed. Then, starting about a spade-width of soil away from the first cut line, I cut at a 45 degree angle from the plant bed down toward the base of my first cut. I remove that excess soil so there is a trench around the entire plant bed. When I bark the bed, I fill that area with bark so no one will step in it and twist their ankle. If a heavy rain comes, this also helps to keep the bark from washing into the lawn or onto the sidewalk because the trench will first collect the excess water. This method is less expensive than using edging materials but it will need to be maintained once a year with a quick re-spading.

Is it ever going to stop snowing? We are all longing for the warmer, sunny days of spring but are you ready for it? To me, it seems like spring is the fastest season of the year! We need to prepare so when it finally gets here, we are ready.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN . . . Look outside at your yard right now. Do you have a four season landscape? In other words, does your landscape look good year round? Even though many plants are dormant right now, there are many beautiful plants and structures to decorate the landscape in the winter too.

Conifers are an obvious choice for winter interest and they come in many sizes, shapes and colors ranging from shades of green, blue, and yellow. Trees and shrubs can have decorative bark like the red or yellow twig dogwood. Some plants hold their ornamental fruit late into the season. Ornamental grasses also look beautiful standing up in the snow in the winter time.

Structures that can be left outside for the winter could include an arbor, gazebo, fancy bird feeder, water feature, boulders, or statuary. If your landscape is lacking appeal right now, plan to add some of these items to your area during the upcoming growing season.

Dust will fall onto any surface and indoor plants are no exception. Once a year I like to do a thorough job of cleaning off the plants leaves. If you have a large sink in an area that can get messy, you can spray water gently over the plant to clean it.

I don’t have an area like that so the method I use is with a sponge in each hand and a bucket of clean water. With wet sponges in each hand, gently glide them over the top and bottom of every leaf. Rinse sponges frequently. This job goes pretty fast using both hands. When finished, spray leaves with an Insecticidal Soap if you suspect mites or aphids. The plants are refreshed and will be able to photosynthesize better now.

Since we can’t easily fuss with our outside plants, this is a great time to look at our indoor plants.

Step 1: If the plant looks scrawnly and lousy, maybe it’s time to toss it out and start over. We hesitate to throw away a plant we have nurtured over the years but some of them may not be an asset to the home anymore.

Step 2: Stop fertilizing the indoor plants for the winter time. All plants need a time to rest and this is it. Give them 3-4 months off and resume feeding the plants in early spring.

Step 3: If a plant has grown too large for it’s container, repot it into the next larger pot size. Replenish with lots of fresh soil-less mix. Follow these easy steps and your indoor plants should look great.

Poinsettia plants can be tricky to water and to keep alive. A friend at the Courtland Township Christmas lunch told me to place 3 ice cubes a day, evenly spaced on top of the soil in the plants pot. Just let the the ice gradually drip into the soil. No additional water should be needed.

I highly recommend tossing the plant out after you have enjoyed it for the holiday season. Once a Poinsettia starts dropping leaves, it is very difficult to get the top leaves to color again unless you want to meet the plants fussy light needs. A long time period would be required for the plant to be sitting in a dark closet and gradually adding light at the right times. That just sounds like too much work. Let’s keep the greenhouse growers in business and buy a fresh Poinsettia every year.

We have had such a warm and sunny fall this year but winter is just around the corner. It is time to get those last chores done in the garden. Here is a short list of outside jobs to focus on.

1. Cut back to stubble the perennials that do not look good over the winter. (Leave the Butterfly Bush up until spring.)

2. Disconnect garden hoses from the spigots and drain the water from them.

3. Pack up any herbicides, pesticides, or other items that will be harmed if frozen. Store in a sealed container inside.

4. Put away any garden art that could be harmed with the colder temperatures.

5. If you have a water feature, remove the pump and store for the winter.

Get busy now while Mother Nature is still being kind to us!

Fall is here and its time to think about planting your spring flowering bulbs. With the welcome rains, the ground should be much easier to dig in. For healthier bulbs, add a little Bulb Booster into each planting hole.

Here are some universal signals that let you know its Fall bulb planting time:

1. Soil temperatures in your area are approaching 55 degrees F
2. Fall nighttime temperatures stay between 40 and 50 degrees F
3. The Fall foliage has moved just past peak.
4. The Fall striped bass run in on.
5. Squirrels are digging in acorns as fast as they can.
6. Birds start grouping.
7. The grapes are ripening on the vine.
8. Your allergies start kicking in.
9. The cat wants to take a nap in your lap again.
10. The dog stops lying in that round hole he dug in the garden, and moves to a sunny spot.

No doubt you’ve all heard the tale that you can predict the severity of the oncoming winter by observing the stripes of the wooly bear caterpillars. Is it just a myth, or is it true?

As the leaves turn to their fall colors, start checking the wooly bear’s bands of fuzz. The broader the black bands, they say, the colder will be the coming months. Since Colonial times, Americans gauged the bands as they stocked their larders and gathered fuel for the winter.

Scientists say the wooly bear caterpillar’s stripes are worthless predictors. There is no research to point out a connection between them and winter temperatures, but the fascination of the wooly bear weathermen endures. By the time real winter sets in next January they will be curled away, fast asleep, and nowhere to be found.

I recently received an interesting email from a garden tip reader that I thought would make an excellent garden tip. Pests in the garden are a common problem and we have tried every avenue to control them. Here’s an example:

Q: I was wondering if you can answer a difficult question?? A few months back, I replaced my mulched landscaping with black lava rock. Since then, my whole landscape is being dug up in the rock beds. And I mean all over the place. Are these moles and why all of a sudden is my landscape being destroyed? This never happened when I had mulch down. What can I do to get rid of this problem. Help before it’s too late!
-Renee

A: I sincerely doubt if the black lava rock has any influence on the problem but I guess I can’t guarantee it. First, we need to make sure it is really moles that are the problem. Raccoons and skunks love to raise havoc in plant beds too. Usually they prefer bark, but if you are seeing damage from above ground that may look like clawing damage, you might consider these critters as the problem.

You may have the type of ground moles that are leaving raised tunnels underground. This feels like you’re walking on marshmallows when you are crushing the tunnels. The moles make the tunnels to look for grubs to eat. I have a great mole trap that is working well for us. We have made a little adjustment to the trap and our success rate is growing! If you think this is the problem, I can pick up a couple of traps for you. The cost is $35.00 per trap. Just give me a couple of days to pick it up.

The autumn leaves are falling along with the fruits of many trees. If they are falling into your pond and creating a mess, it’s time to put a net over the surface of the water. If you want to order a net, send me an email and I’ll let you know the cost. If you need help putting the netting over the water feature, let me know and we’ll take care of it for you for a nominal cost. The effort of putting on the leaf net is well worth the time saved on cleaning the leaves out of the bottom of the pond later.