Practical advice to help you make your landscape look it’s best.
In shade, consider planting oak sedge (a native woodland grass-like plant), epimedium, sweet woodruff, and creeping phlox. For a neater appearance, give the oak sedge a hard haircut on a warm day February or early March before the new foliage starts to grow. This is the same operation that you do for your ornamental grasses, …
The future of mulch, or what to do with barren soil in the landscape Read More »
What do you think happened here? This toppled tree is in the Deer Grove Forest Preserve in Palatine. Deer Grove is one of my favorite places to walk during the winter. When the ground is frozen and covered with snow I can venture off the trails without damaging the plants growing on the forest floor. …
Here’s how to get your irrigation system to work, and you aren’t going to like it one bit. But take heart, your landscape will love you for it. Here’s the problem: you think your irrigation system works like your furnace and air conditioner, but it doesn’t work that way at all. Although the two systems …
This is an interesting question. Maybe not as weighty as Hamlet’s, but nevertheless interesting in the world of landscaping.
When plants are dug in the nursery, burlap is tightly pinned, sewn, or tied around the soil ball so the ball doesn’t fall apart during handling. For large trees, this soil ball may be placed in a wire basket for added protection. If the tree is going to be above ground for awhile, some nurseries …
Practical Tree Planting Advice – Twine, Burlap, and Wire Baskets Read More »
These arborvitae were planted about 25 years ago. The plants were almost dead when I took the pictures. When the plants were dug from the nursery, plastic twine was used to hold the burlap around the soil ball. The twine was also tied around the trunk to keep the trunk from wobbling around in the …
You will be amazed, and I mean really amazed, at how much easier you can dig with a sharp shovel. Anything that will be used for digging or edging should get a sharp edge.
