Privacy Landscaping

March Madness

2005-03-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a trip to Dallas, where it seems to be spring from November to April! It was nice to see trees with leaves, although a good number were still in their dormancy phase.

Back in my neck of the woods, the time since my last post in January has been spent watching the weather ping pong back and forth between relatively balmy winter days to deep freezes. Hopefully now the end of winter is in sight. Overall, it has been a fairly good winter with respect to animal damage to our plant material. The bunnies (so far, knock on wood) have spared the beech trees and viburnums from any serious damage, opting instead this winter to munch on the Snowmound Spireas. Thankfully, they were kind enough to prune only the backsides of the plants, leaving the front-facing portions relatively full and shapely.

I will be ordering my first rush of plants soon, continuing to build the castle wall around our property. More on that in the weeks ahead.

January Update

2005-01-22T15:59:00.000-05:00

It has been a strange month already as far as winter weather is concerned. A week ago is was +18C, now we have had a stretch of four or five days with temps nearing -40C at times. Serious business. One day of deadly freezing rain came (naturally) on the day I was supposed to go to the 2005 Landscape Ontario trade show. This is the big Canadian landscaping industry show open only to people in the trades. I really look forward to it each year. Fortunately I had some colleagues pick up information for me, but it would have been nice to have been there in person.

With these killer temperatures, I will certainly know in the spring if the newly planted borderline plant materials can survive temperatures and exposure of this magnitude. Of particular interest (as I have mentioned before) is the Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud) in front of our home.

In the meantime, I have been spending a lot of time this winter playing guitar and writing songs (and wordworking) -- my other interests. I am working with a young country singer named Alysha. She is quite good. Her Website is located at http://www.alysha.ca or http://www.alyshabrooke.com.

Happy New Year

2005-01-01T23:07:00.000-05:00

This is my obligatory Happy New Year post.

The new year came in like a lamb on the landscaping front. After an unheard of amount of snow one week ago (which allowed us to have a big tobogganing party on the hill in our backyard on Christmas Day), the winds of change brought unseasonably mild temperatures that promptly melted all of the snow (11C or somewhere around 50F). I took advantage of the big melt to survey the landscape. Nothing of great note, except a few stakes needed to be hammered a bit deeper into the soft earth. No bunny damage yet, so that's good.

Cold and Snow

2004-12-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

Not much to report on the day before Christmas. A week ago we had bone-chilling cold, with temperatures reaching -30C (-22F)! Yesterday it was a big snowstorm that made headlines by dropping about six to eight inches of snow in one day. But this ensures a white Christmas.

I never did get a chance to wrap my young Staghorn Sumacs (Rhus typhina) to protect them from bunny snacking. So, I'll have to wait and see if they get attacked. On the other hand, the forecast is calling for temperatures to go back up above freezing next week, so the seesaw weather continues. The bone-chilling cold temps were the first real test for my handful of borderline hardy specimens -- most notably of which is the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis). I am really hoping that that one makes it through the winter.

Winter's Setting In

2004-12-15T18:34:00.000-05:00

Slowly but surely, winter is starting to take hold in our neck of the woods. We have some persistent snow on the ground (maybe an inch or so), but it sure has been cold the past few days -- below zero on pretty regular basis. The pond has a thin sheet of ice on it, but the bubbler is keeping a section clear. No fish in there, so it's not as critical as it might be. There are a number of potted plants on the pond bottom, however, so I can't have it freezing solid.

This winter I will also be closely watching my Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud) to see if it survives the cold. It is right on its border here in Z5, so we are really pulling for it. It is such a nice tree and it is in a very visible front yard location. If it sadly does not make it, I will have to search for something similar to replace it.

The wind has been nothing short of brutal on a couple of occasions over the past month or so -- much worse than when we had the remnants of a few hurricanes blow through our area a few months back. Many people had many things blow over. In our case, a large and heavy cedar arbor bench that I built went down. This had the unfortunate side effects of shattering two lights that were on it and ripping in half the Dutchman's Pipe vines that were planted on either side. Fortunately they did not rip out of the ground, but they will be starting from about six inches tall next spring. I have weighted the arbor bench with some large bricks for the time being and when the ground thaws I will drive a couple of steel spikes into the ground behind the bench and attach the bench to the spikes so that this doesn't happen again. The vines will overgrow the stakes in short order and they won't be visible from the front regardless.

That's all for now.

Taking Stock

2004-12-06T08:20:00.000-05:00

The fall maintenance is now basically complete. I finally finished cutting down an acre's worth of wildflowers and brush with my brushcutter. Some of these plants, such as the Evening Primrose, can get very thick stalks -- easily close to one-inch thick. I generally let the cut plants lay where they fall as they will decompose fairly rapidly and add a surface to the otherwise bare soil.

A couple of things I noted while cutting down the brush: the first thing is that it looks like I may lose one of the young Austrian Pines that I planted this season. The top two-thirds of the tree (which is roughly five feet tall) looks like it's dead. Strangely, the bottom third looks green and healthy. I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens. The second thing I noticed is that there is a spot near the top of the big hill that is eroding and I will need to tackle that area (with rocks and ground cover most likely) in the spring.

Still left to do... wrap those darn Sumacs so the rabbits don't kill them by eating the bark and move a couple of 15' Black Poplars (which I planted bare-root in the spring, so it shouldn't be too difficult). I may have to wait until early spring (pre-bud-break) for that one.

Spring Planting List: Trees and Shrubs

2004-11-23T06:03:00.000-05:00

There's no time like the present to start planning for what to plant next spring. With the fall clean-up pretty much nearing its completion and with most of the leaves now fallen, it's a good time to take a look at your yard to determine potential locations in need of some planting attention.

Everything looks much more stark and barren at this point in the year -- unless you have done an excellent job of maintaining a high percentage of coniferous and evergreen material. In my case, that is an area that I will definitely be improving in the spring. So bearing in mind that my landscape objectives are privacy and a woodland setting, here is what I am currently looking at planting in the early spring of 2005:

- Robinia pseudoacacia (Black Locust), approximately 70 in the 5' to 8' range;
- Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian Olive), 10 shrubs in the 3' to 4' range;
- Acer campestre (Hedge Maple), five in the 10' to 12' range;
- Bamboo - nuda, 10 of these;
- Acer platanoides (Norway Maple), haven't picked the variety yet, but looking at 10 or so;
- Pyrus calleryana, probably Chanticleer, need 3 of these; and
- Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar), the species, at least 30 of these.

The bamboo will be a bit of a test for me. I'm curious to see how it takes in our conditions. The Black Locust and Eastern Red Cedar are my two main privacy plants and these 100 or so trees will primarily be going close to the perimeter of the property, to further aid in privacy landscaping and also to kick-start my woodland even more. Both of these are native and abundant in my area.

I am also planning on a large perennial area (75' x 125') so I will be working on plant selection for that in the near future.

Deer Mouse

2004-11-16T06:01:00.000-05:00

Our cat discovered a new mammal over the weekend. Usually she is quite adept at finding field mice (or meadow voles -- Microtus pennsylvanicus -- to be more accurate) and entering into the proverbial game of cat and mouse. But on Sunday when we were out for a walk, she came into the clearing with a different little animal in her mouth.

Okay. Some people may say that mice are mice. But I have to admit, this one was much cuter than the average field mouse. I checked in our animal book later and my suspicions were confirmed. What she had caught was a Peromyscus maniculatus, commonly known as the Deer Mouse. If you've seen a deer mouse -- with those big innocent eyes -- then you'll know what I mean when I say they're not your average field mouse.

Anyhow, this was the first time I had seen a Deer Mouse at out place. I had my suspicions that something unusual was up and she caught the mouse from within a cedar rail that was part of our cedar rail fence. Upon reading up on our little friend, I learned that Deer Mice like to nest inside old logs and things, so this made perfect sense (the voles she catches are generally on the ground, in holes or within their grasslike nests). Apparently they too can sometimes make their way into houses, but the book also noted that they are not as pesky as the average house mouse. What that means exactly, I am not sure.

Backyard Fire Pit

2004-11-15T06:09:00.000-05:00

So winter is getting nearer and the fall clean-up is coming along nicely. With a thin layer of ice on the pond this weekend, it got me to thinking that it wouldn't be long before we would be having some nice outdoor fires while tobogganing in the yard. I like fire pits. I have several of the portable store-bought kind, but last year I put in a good old fashioned outdoor fire pit. This is a permanent in-ground pit using curved landscape pavers as the surround. It is easy to make and inexpensive as well. To read more about how I made it, drop by my Website. I also have some photos of the pit posted there. Used wisely (don't burn trash), fire pits are a great addition to the landscape (plus, it helps me to dispose of the wood waste from my workshop).

First Snow

2004-11-08T07:20:00.000-05:00

We had the first snowfall overnight last night. Granted it was nothing much to speak of, but there was a dusting on the cars this morning and the ground was lightly covered. So technically, we have broken the seal on winter weather. As far as winterizing the landscape goes, I spent the weekend catching up on that. Still trying to get the mulch pile down -- probably have two or three yards left. As long as I get it moved before it freezes solid I will be okay.

I spent most of the time trimming down the wildflower/naturalized areas (which comprise just over an acre in total I would estimate). I am using my Echo brushcutter for this (basically a straight shaft trimmer with a solid blade that looks like a saw blade). It will cut through some decent sized brush (up to 3/4" at least). I basically move along in a sweeping motion, as if I using a scythe. It takes awhile (the brush is four to five-feet high), but I make good progress. I do it in chunks to avoid fatigue. This sort of task I can do even after the weather freezes up further, but it takes awhile so I needed to get started.

I also picked up some plumbing insulation wrap over the weekend. The Savio filter manual (for the pond filter) recommends wrapping the key joints and valves along the hose line with insulated plumpers tape. This I will get to before the big freezed sets in.

Rabbit Proofing

2004-11-01T06:45:00.000-05:00

November 1st is here, which means in these parts the snow and cold will be bearing down upon us soon enough. Last year, our friendly local population of Eastern Cottontails made a nice buffet out of certain plants on our yard. This happened in January, once the snow got deep enough to completely cover any of their otherwise natural local food sources. So this year I am going to be watching a little more closely to protect what I can.

I don't particularly mind the way they go about "pruning" certain shrubs. In fact, they eat the twigs and buds so nicely and neatly that it looks as though they were immaculately pruned on the 45. The giveaway, of course, is the neat little pile of round pellets that cover the ground around each shrub that has been cut back.

Given the large number of ornamentals I have planted, the Cottontail's selections are quite specific. Here is what they most preferred to eat on my property, in order of overall consumption. (You can see some photos of 1 and 2 on my site.)

1) Virburnum lantana (Wayfaringtree): Without question, their number one most-preferred-shrub.
2) Fagus sylvatica 'Dawyckii Purple' (Dawyck Purple Beech): A close second is this beech tree. I have three of them in a row and the bunnies took out a ring of buds and twigs on each one at the snow level. When the snow melted, there is now a bare spot two feet up from the ground for about 12 inches and then the tree continues in full leaf. It's sort of bunny topiary I suppose. Hopefully the snow is not at a drastically different level this year!
3) Viburnum lantana 'Mohican' (Mohican Wayfaringtree): Not surprising, they bunnies also like this cultivar.
4) Rosa rugosa 'Alba' (White Rugosa Rose): You'd think the thorns might deter them? Think again.
5) Syringa vulgaris (Common Lilac): Nibbles on a few cultivars, but no extreme damage.
6) Quercus robur 'Fastigiata' (Pyramidal English Oak): Again, this one was much less preferred than the top four, but they did sample somewhat.
7) Viburnum dentatum 'Blue Muffin' (Blue Muffin Arrowwood Virburnum): Similarly, they nibbled on this, but the damage was minimal.

Those were the big seven. Interestingly, they showed no interest in Viburnum trilobum (Highbush Cranberry Viburnum), which was only a few feet from both the Wayfaringtree and the Purple Beech trees.

The wild card in all of this is determining what devoured my Rhus typhina (Staghorn Sumac) last year? These newly-planted specimens had their bark stripped to the point that the shoots died. Fortunately, the Staghorns are tough nuts and they suckered nicely this year. My suspicion is that it might have been deer in this case, but apparently our cottontail friend will also eat bark. Just to be safe, I will be wrapping the main shoots with some burlap to give them a fighting chance to get established.

As for the other plants above, I don't plan to take any remedial action -- maybe the occasional spray of that rabbit-proofing mixture if things get out of control. We'll see if that works.

Fall Pond Maintenance

2004-10-29T06:46:00.000-04:00

I bit the bullet on Friday and decided to wade into the pond to begin the fall maintenance. I had been waiting for a warmer (or at least sunny) day, but at this point, who knows if we'll get either in the short-term. So rather than risk it, I started the maintenance on Friday, October 22.

The water temp was a brisk 46 degrees F (or roughly 8 degrees celsius), enough to give me a good shock and eventually complete numbness. The water is 30" deep and I was in there for about 15 minutes. Basically, the chores involves unhooking the tubing from the pond pump and removing the pump for the winter. Also, I cut down all of the perennial water plants and placed them into the deeper parts of the part where (hopefully) they will overwinter successfully. Reaching down to place the plants pretty much immersed my arms up to the shoulders, so that was fairly chilly to say the least.

After that, I removed the pump and removed it from its casing to clean out the algae buildup. It is now ready to enjoy winter in the basement. The next task will be to drain the external filter/falls and clear out the hoses as much as possible. I'll do this in the next week or two. I am also going to put some insulation around all exposed hose joints and contact areas to protect against the cold (this is recommended in the Savio booklet that came with the unit).

Since I only recently completed the pond, this is its first winter. So I will be nervously hoping it gets through okay. I am concerned about settling with respect to the backfilled falls area, so I will be monitoring that closely. I took a straight-on picture of the falls to capture how the rocks are placed at present. I'll take another from the same spot after the spring thaw to see how much movement took place. Even though I don't have any fish in the pond, I am going to use an aquarium pump and tubing to keep a small hole in the surface via simple bubbles from the tube. I used to do this at our old pond and it worked fairly well. I find that the pond de-icers don't work that well, as they tend to get lime covered and then their functionality is greatly reduced. That was my experience. I still have a couple of them, but doubt that I'll use them.

Fall Preparations

2004-10-22T11:49:00.000-04:00

Since my last post, I did indeed get 16 White Cedars (Thuja occidentalis) planted behind the privacy screen. These should help to keep people back somewhat from the property line. Fortunately, cool wet weather coincided with the planting of these trees -- exactly what the doctor order. Unfortunately, gale force winds came too, so I had to quickly get some stabilizing stakes and wires in place to secure the trees. All in all they seem to be holding well. Most likely they won't really get a good foothold until next spring, but at least they are planted (and hopefully content).

Before the winter weather sets in I have a lot to do in terms of property maintenance. Over the next day or two I will need to wade into the pond to remove the pump for the winter and to cut down the hardy water plants and place them on the pond bottom (in the deepest part). That will likely be a chilling experience. I also need to move approximately five more yards of mulch and a slightly higher volume of rocks. I will need to start trimming roughly one acre's worth of wildflower areas. I use my gas (Echo) brushcutter to trim everything to the ground to make way for next year's growth. I have a few (hundred) more bulbs to get into the ground (largely Muscari for naturalizing) and some perennial beds to tidy up. Beyond there there are many many more small tasks to tackle. With luck, I will get everything done by mid-November.

I am also in the process of retooling my Website at http://www.privacylandscaping.com. More about that in an upcoming post.

White Cedar, Swamp Cedar, American Arborvitae

2004-10-12T06:14:00.000-04:00

Three names for the same tree, that being Thuja occidentalis. These utility trees are very often sold in their basic form as near bare-root inexpensive trees. They are typically used for hedging. Their more showy cousins include the popular Emerald Green variety. But in its basic form the White Cedar is a decent choice when an inexpensive background hedge or privacy screen is desired.

I didn't think that I would be planting any of these on our current property, but, as the need for privacy continues in a couple of key locations, I have decided that the trusty Thuja occidentalis may be good for the job. I plan to plant a row of 12 to 15 trees directly behind the privacy trellises with the silk vines that I wrote about on October 4. The Thuja will provide both a visual screen and a physical barrier to stop people from coming right up to the fence and peering through (which happened again over the weekend). The only pitfall that I may have is that these trees generally like moisture and this location is not exactly a moist spot. That said, I have found in past experience that once these trees get established, they can become somewhat drought tolerant. So I will do my best to water them well in the early going. Since its fall, we should be getting a fair bit of rain soon, and then again in the spring. So this should give them a healthy kickstart.

Trellis Tip for Instant Privacy

2004-10-04T06:32:00.000-04:00

The thing about privacy landscaping is that nine times out of 10 we want the privacy to be instant -- we don't want to wait five years for the trees to fill in or grow taller. We want our privacy and we want it now. This has certainly been my experience specializing in privacy landscaping.

Just this week I came up with an idea that allowed me to get instant privacy -- or at least temporary privacy until the plant materials filled in. Here is the scenario...

At the top of the hill at the back of our home there is a public pathway. People occasionally stop there to take in the view, which also means that they stare down at us in our yard as if we are zoo animals. I have planted numerous trees that will eventually become a great screen, but I too wanted some form of instant privacy. There is a chain link fence there, so I decided that I would build four trellises each four-feet wide x seven-feet high and attach them to the fence side-by-side. By leaving a foot or so between trellises I was able to cover nearly 20 linear feet, which screened a good enough portion of the area. I planted several Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and Silver Lace Vines (Polygonum auberti), but naturally these will take a couple of seasons to fill in to any great degree. So to provide instant blockage, I attached some privacy lattice to the trellises.

It certainly achieved the privacy goal, but it was butt ugly. For the past few months my wife has been after me to take down the eyesore. She was right, of course. With that ugly panels of privacy lattice slapped up there, your eye is drawn to that spot 300 feet from the house. I knew this as well, but my need for privacy over-rode the landscape designer side of me. Still, I kept thinking of a way to achieve my goal in a manner that would also be aesthetically appealing.

It finally came to me last week. Artificial vines, outdoors.

It dawned on me that while waiting for the real vines to grow, I could simply attach silk vines to the trellises. So over the weekend I took down the ugly lattice and attached 20 six-foot silk vines to the trellises using cable ties. What a difference. From the street and yard, it looks great. In fact, your eye is no longer drawn to the spot. And if you do look, it simply looks like vines growing on a trellis. Eventually, the real vines will overtake their silk counterparts, which I don't even think I will need to remove.

So, my tip for instant privacy using a trellis is to try out some silk vines while waiting for your plant materials to grow. This will give you fairly good coverage instantly, without creating an eyesore.

Emerald Ash Borer

2004-10-01T06:28:00.000-04:00

I was a reading a local landscape trade magazine recently and it now has me worried about the approach of the Emerald Ash Borer. The USDA page on this pest is here. The Canadian info page is here. This pest was discovered here in 2002 and is killing ash trees (Fraxinus) at an alarming rate. Aside from the 25 or so ash trees that I have planted on my own property over the past two years, it is hard to imagine that an insect like this could (and probably will) wipe out all of the ash trees in Ontario. There are so many ash trees in the hardwood forests here, that it is hard to imagine what the forests will be like if the these trees are obliterated.

So far, the authorities are trying to contain the pest, but at this point it is within 100 miles of my home. It has destroyed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 ash trees in this county near my home. And the situation is worse in Michigan. All the info you need can be accessed via the linked pages above, but if you live in an area in the U.S. or Canada where the woodlands contain ash trees, familiarize yourself with this pest and alert the appropriate authorities if you see evidence of its presence. Perhaps there is a chance that we can win this battle to save these valuable trees.

Ash trees are one of my favorite landscape trees, with so many great qualities. Unfortunately, in the face of this new threat I will not be planting any more ash trees for a foreseeable future.

Sea Buckthorn: One Tough Shrub

2004-09-24T07:38:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year I mistakenly grabbed a shrub in a hurry one day at one of the local trade nurseries thinking that I was grabbing Silver Buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea). (Trade nurseries do not generally tag the plant materials.) Fortunately, this shrub was for my property and not a client's. It wasn't until later -- after I had planted it -- that I took a moment to really look at the shrub and realized that while it had some similar qualities to Shepherdia (silver foliage, thorny) it was not in fact Shepherdia. Since there are not too many silver foliaged shrubs, the next obvious choice would be Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian Olive). But the leaves were much skinner than Russian Olive and they were not arranged the same way. And since I already have both Russian Olive and Silver Buffaloberry on my property, it was pretty clear to me that this plant was neither one of those (unless it was some new or unique cultivar).

As a horticulturalist, I was somewhat stumped by what this was. As a landscape designer, I was mildly concerned, since the shrub was planted in a specific spot meant to be a drought tolerant screening plant -- for which either the Shepherdia or Elaeagnus would be ideal.

As summer progressed, I lost time to ID the plant properly, although I watched it progress nicely in its dry, neglected site. It was only this week, while picking up plants at another nursery, that I saw my mystery plant with a tag on it. Of course (as the title of this post says), it is Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). What a great plant this is -- and another silver-leaved plant for my landscape. Not only does Sea Buckthorn have great landscape value, a quick Web search unveils its numerous other beneficial uses in skin products and many health applications and fruit juice making. The list goes on and on. Do a search and you will see.

In the landscape, the range of use for this plant is huge. Its tolerance for extremes of both hardiness and soil conditions is nearly unmatched. Plus, it is valuable for erosion control in tough spots, or simply as an accent plant in a residential yard. My initial impression of Sea Buckthorn is that it is vastly underused in the residential landscape and retail landscape industry. I will certainly be giving more consideration to Sea Buckthorn in the appropriate applications and will definitely be planting more of it on my own property.

Fall Project Updates

2004-09-22T08:04:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day of fall, which means that there are fewer and fewer days left to get work done around the yard. Strangely, the weather has been more summer-like over the past week than it was for most of the summer. One thing is the same, however, no rain. Even though it's fall, I am still having to water fairly regularly in the warm weather to keep the newly planted materials on life support until it cools down. Hopefully next year will be a little wetter.

I will soon post some photos of the bridges that I built recently. Other than that, here are some of the projects that I will be working on this fall -- or possibly next spring -- and that I will document here. I will be building a small retaining wall near the top of the large hill at the back of our property. There is a small -- but steep -- section of slope that has been eroding over the past 18 months. I have a large number of leftover retaining wall blocks from our back patio that I plan to lug up the hill and put to good use in this spot. Should be interesting. I will also be installing steps up the hill at some point (probably in the spring). The run will be approximately 75 feet at a rise of perhaps 20 feet. I will be using a step-building method of timbers and pea gravel.

I also plan to build a combination shed and playhouse at the back of my property. This is a privacy landscaping feature that will also serve a couple of additional functions. Primarily, it will block any leering eyes from the public pathway behind our property (in addition to the numerous trees and shrubs that I have planted already). The "bunkie" will be 12' x 12' and will feature a five-foot covered porch with a couple of chairs.

Top 10 Trees for Small Yards

2004-09-20T06:17:00.001-04:00

Last week a friend of mine from my horticulture program days asked me what would be my top 10 recommended trees for a small yard. That was a good question. She recently moved into a new home in a new subdivision and is currently working on the hardscaping (patio, shed, sunroom, water feature...). As part of her landscape plan, she wants to plant approximately seven trees for privacy (a high number for a small 30' residential lot), so she wanted to bounce some ideas off a friend.

Coming up with a list of 10 trees was more challenging than I thought. There are at least twice that many that I would consider to be good choices for a smallish residential lot, but I was up to the challenge of trying to select my personal top 10 list.

Before posting the list, I have to say that there a hundred footnotes that go along with my top 10 list. First and foremost, every yard is different. Soil conditions, lighting conditions, exposure, hardiness zone, drainage etc. all play a part in the selection of plant materials. However, we can also generalize to some degree in a brand new subdivision, since in the majority of cases you are starting from scratch in a full sun situation. In terms of hardiness zones, we are in Z5-6 range.

All that said, here is my list.

Mike Belobradic's Top 10 Deciduous Trees for Small Yards
(In no particular order)
1. Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud)
2. Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer' (Chanticleer Ornamental Pear)
3. Syringa reticulata 'Ivory Silk' (Ivory Silk Lilac)
4. Cornus kousa (Kousa Dogwood)
5. Aesculus glabra (Ohio Buckeye)
6. Fagus sylvatica 'Dawyckii' (Dawyck's Purple Beech)
7. Maackia amurensis (Amur Maackia)
8. Prunus virginiana 'Schubert' (Schubert Chokecherry)
9. Koelreuteria paniculata (Goldenrain Tree)
10. Fraxinus nigra 'Fallgold' (Fallgold Ash)

Each of these trees would be an excellent specimen for a small yard -- or any yard for that matter. Each has one or more exceptional qualities and all of them are of reasonable size and stature for a residential property. Some of my other choices that were close but didn't make the list include Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura Tree), Acer platanoides 'Variegatum' (Harlequin Maple), Quercus robur 'Fastigiata' (Pyramidal English Oak), Fraxinus nigra x mandshurica 'Northern Gem' (Northern Gem Ash), Cornus florida (Flowering Dogwood)

Backyard Bridges

2004-09-16T06:08:00.000-04:00

A backyard bridge is great landscape feature that not many people use in their landscape design. A backyard bridge can add a lot of interest to your yard, but of course you need to have an appropriate place in which to place the bridge. While not many people use bridges, what makes the situation worse is that a good portion of those who do, do so in ridiculous ways. Too often have I seen one of those white plastic or aluminum bridges in someone's yard stuck seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Rule No. 1: If the bridge cannot actually cross over something, then you are best not to use one at all. This may seem obvious, but believe me, it is not to many people.

With that point in mind, remember that you do not necessarily need to have a naturally occuring location that requires a bridge. If you are putting in a pond with a stream, then you may have an opportunity for a bridge there. If you are creating a meandering dry river bed using beach pebbles, then this is another great opportunity for you to place a bridge in your yard.

A bridge is a great focal point and a great point of interest and intrigue. Everyone wants to cross over a bridge. People are drawn to a garden bridge like a magnet -- adults and children alike. Over the past week, I built two bridges for our property. A simple footbridge is easy to make with only a few tools and is not too costly.

In my case, we have a fairly deep drainage swail running through our property. It was difficult to cross and messy if it had rained (mud). So a bridge was both a functional and a design solution. Since I had recently built the boardwalk around the pond (see previous posts), I decided to build the bridges in a similar fashion. This would help to tie in the boardwalk with the bridges and add some consistency to the landscape design. There were two key locations requiring bridges: one to provide access to a cedar arbor bench that I built and the other to provide access to the privacy structure/bench that I built more recently (see previous posts).

I decided to build footbridges with no handrails. Handrails will make a bridge much more visible and dominant in the landscape. This may be exactly what you need for your situation. In my case, I wanted to the bridges to be more understated and to blend in with the natural surroundings -- particularly since I was building more than one. This is also why I chose to build a wooden bridge.

To build the bridge I started with two 2x10x8 pressure treated boards. I wanted the bridges to have a slight arch, so I marked out a curve through the middle section of the bottom part of one of the 2x10x8s and then matched the curve's flow on the edges of the board on the top section. If you can picture it, the board ended up looking similar to an open umbrella from the side view (although flattened substantially). I used a jigsaw to cut out the shape and then transferred the shape to the second piece of lumber. I cut out the shape on that piece so that the two shapes matched. These formed the bottom rails of the bridge. (I used pressure-treated lumber because these rails would be in contact with the ground.) I wanted my bridge to be 30" wide on top. So, to link the rails together I used three pieces of pressure-treated 2x4s cut to approximately 24" widths. I joined the two 2x10s together using these pieces: one on each end and one in the middle. Then, I cut four 5/4x6x8 cedar decking boards into 29-7/8" lengths and screwed these pieces across the bridge frame. I left 1/2" between slats. Where the slats went over top of the 2x4s on the ends and in the middle of the bridge, I also screwed the slats into the 2x4s. This provides the extra stability that stops the bridge from being able to move left to right.

The whole process to build these two cedar bridges took me less than two hours. Each bridge cost me less than $100 in materials. The bridges match the boardwalk I built and they look great in the landscape. If you have a spot that would suit a landscape bridge, it can be a simple, attractive and inexpensive addition to your yard.

Fall Planting

2004-09-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are in September, after what was reportedly one of the coolest summers on record everywhere in the world -- with the exception of the Pacific Northwest, from what I heard on the radio recently. Personally, I welcome the cool fall days. One of the main reasons being that, in my experience, fall is the best time of year to plant trees and shrubs.

Having had many years of experience in the landscape industry, I am basically busy planting all year long in any given year (well, from April to October at least -- or March to November in a really good year). This has given me a pretty good first-hand view of how plant materials perform when planted at different times of year. Consistently, trees and shrubs planted in the fall perform far better the following year than trees or shrubs planted in the spring of that following year. It would seem that the plant materials gain a good foothold from the fall planting and can hit the ground running much better than their spring-planted counterparts.

So what are some of the tangible benefits? For one thing, lack of stress. Fall-planted trees -- particularly deciduous trees planted after the leaves have fallen -- have already begun to shut down for the season. Since they've entered their dormant phase, they don't experience much (if any) transplant shock or related stress. So when they wake up from their long winter's nap, they are eager and ready to go. They leaf out nicely and fully and their watering needs are much less demanding I have found (as compared to the same tree planted in spring). In fact, fall planted trees perform much better even than spring-planted trees that are in the ground before bud break in the spring. That has been my consistent experience at least.

One note of caution: depending on where you live (zone), there are some general rules about deadline dates for planting certain types of trees -- particularly conifers. So check with your local nursery or landscape professional. Generally speaking, you can plant deciduous trees at any time. Although I would add one caveat that on the few occasions that I have planted deciduous trees into frozen solid ground (into December in holes that were dug earlier), these trees did not perform as well as other fall-planted trees.

So if you still intend to get a few more trees and shrubs in the ground this year (I know that I sure do as I build my green privacy wall), take some comfort in knowing that fall is among the best times of year for planting. Best of all, this is the time of year when most retail nurseries and garden centers have big sales on trees. So get out, enjoy the fall and get planting.

Backyard Boardwalk Photos

2004-09-07T07:56:00.000-04:00

As promised, today I am posting some photos of the backyard boardwalk project. (In case you missed it, full details on my construction techniques are outlined in my post of August 30, 2004.) The boardwalk is complete and my attention recently has been on tidying up some of the finer details -- the micro things, such as strategic rock placement and mulching the area around the pond area. I will be building some small foot bridges on the property to cross over the drainage swails. When I get to these, I will build them from similar materials to the boardwalk, to tie-in the look and feel of the structure and provide some continuity in the yard.

Photo 1: This is a shot of the boardwalk under construction. I had already laid the "tracks" and was beginning to screw down the decking boards.

Photo 2: I wrote about how I approached the curved sections of the boardwalk. This is a close-up of the slats that I cut to make the curve.

Photo 3: Here is the completed boardwalk running along the edge of the pond and linking two areas of the property. Once the plant materials fill in around the pond, this should be quite a nice scene.

Photo 4: The completed boardwalk from another angle. Here you can see the gazebo and the patio area next to the pond. I will be building another table and chair set to place on the mulch next to the pond and in front of the lounders.

Trees as a Sound Barrier

2004-09-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

One thing to remember about landscape design in general is that not only is your environment constantly changing, but as time passes, likely your landscaping needs will change and evolve as well. This is particularly true if you are in a new home in a new subdivision. While you or your landscape designer will do your best to assess your landscaping needs from the outset (and impelement a plan based on this assessment), it is only after you have lived on the property for a year or two (alongside your neighbors) that you will have a true appreciation and understanding of what it is you want to achieve. So your plan needs to be flexible and adaptable.

And so it goes with privacy landscaping. Take our home as an example. We are now two years into it. And with our most recent neighbors having moved in about six weeks ago, it's clear that our landscaping needs have evolved and the plan will have to be adjusted to address a minor noise concern. It is not anything extreme, but just enough that I want to do something about it through privacy landscaping.

The pond with waterfall was a good first step. Blocking sound completely in a residential setting is basically a landscaping impossibility. So there are two ways that you can address sound: 1) by masking it and 2) by buffering it. The calming sound of the water feature does a good job of masking background sounds. Your attention is drawn to the sound of the water close at hand and this distracts attention from any background sounds. When placed correctly, the water sound should be positioned between you and the source of the unwanted noise.

You don't have to build a pond to achieve this. There are, for example, a wide variety of patio fountains that are self contained and that provide the calming and masking sound of water. They come in many shapes and sizes at any garden center or home store. One of our favorites is the whiskey barrel with a hand pump attached to the top, so that it looks like the water is perpetually flowing from the handpump. We even planted ours with floating water hyacinths. We keep it back by the pergola to add a water feature to that part of the yard without installing at second inground pond.

In any event, back to the topic of this post, my next step will be to adjust my planting plan along the perimeter of the property to allow for some additional masking of sound by using trees as a sound barrier. I am already in the process of "building the castle walls," as I refer to it, by planting trees primarily along the perimeter of the property to act as privacy screens. This is the first phase of my planting plan. So far, I have planted approximately 300 trees and a similar number of shrubs (remember, this is a two-acre property that was clear of any vegetation, so 300 trees is a drop in the bucket in this case). However, the vast majority of these trees are deciduous -- probably somewhere in the range of the 80% to 85% -- and conifers are very good as all-season screens. So, I am already below the recommended 30% evergreen rule and this is a good opportunity to take up the slack.

Now that I know that our new neighbors tend to be somewhat on the noisy side, my plan is to plant a couple of loose rows of small conifers that will, over time, become a single large row of massive conifers that will act as a landscape muffler for any sound waves travelling in our direction. The reality of this is that it is smoke and mirrors to some degree. While trees do indeed reduce noise (or mask noise if it is the ruffling of leaves on a deciduous tree) a big part of all of this is our perception of the situation. Because the trees have the added benefit of providing a privacy screen and therefore blocking the noise source from view, our perception of the sound is also lessened. It's a version of out of sight, out of mind. Since you can no longer see the noise source, your perception of its loudness is actually reduced and it doesn't bother you as much.

So, my plan now is to plant conifers to dull the soundwaves and to provide additional privacy (which is always welcome). Due to our zone (5) and the exposure of the site, the two likely candidates for this job are Austrian Pines (Pinus nigra) and Colorado Spruce (Picea pungens). I already have several of each planted on the property and both species did well through the harsh winters we tend to have here. My goal is to plant trees with heights in the four-foot to five-foot range.

The planting location is at the top of a small incline on the side of our property, so trees of this size will give some immediate visual screening -- although their sound muffling ability will be minimal to start. Since the planting location is not that easy to reach with machinery, I will likely opt for potted Austrian Pines. Austrian Pines tend to be available as five-footers in pots in our area, whereas Colorado Spruce of this size are generally ball-and-burlap, if not wire basket. To move B&B trees, you need a bobcat at the very least, something that would damage my landscaping at this point in the game. So, I will likely go with the potted Austrians, which are easy to maneuver with a wheelbarrow and by hand. As a bonus, the Austrian Pines that I have already planted in this size range have put on between six inches and one foot of new growth per year so far, so that is an acceptable growth rate for my purposes. Now I just need to find 10 to 20 five foot Austrians in the CAD$50 to $60 range.

Boardwalk around the Backyard Pond

2004-08-30T06:44:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I managed to get a lot done on the boardwalk that I am building around/along one side of the pond. The boardwalk will act as a border/transition between the pond area and the turf area. It is also a unique addition to the pond area in general and gives the yard somewhat of a conservation-area feeling. I likely would have completed the project in one day if we hadn't received over two inches of rain in less than 12 hours. But since we haven't had much rain at all since June (less than two inches all summer before this), I won't complain about it. Also, the rain caused me to tackle a couple of other tasks that weren't scheduled. More on those a bit later.

The boardwalk is 32 feet long and 30 inches wide. It has three moderate curves, as it veers left over the course of its run. I will post some pictures in a day or two, but for now, here is how I built it...

For the base of the boardwalk I used 4x4x8 pressure treated lumber (fence posts). I basically laid these directly onto the ground so that it looked like railroad tracks running alongside the pond. I had to level the ground in only a few locations so that the lumber was flat and flush (and didn't feel tippy when you walked on it like a balance beam). There were four 4x4s on each side running end-to-end to make up the 32 feet. I connected each board to the next using simple galvanized lumber connectors and screws. Since the boardwalk is on a slight slope, I had to shim the "train tracks" in a few spot to ensure that the tops would be flush where one board met another. With the tracks firmly in place, it was time to put on the boards.

Before screwing down the boards, I wanted to be sure that nothing would be growing up from below the boardwalk. (Grass growing up between the planks would be rather unsightly.) Between the tracks I liberally applied RoundUp to kill the grass that was there. I then laid landscape fabric on top of the grass to further stunt growth and block any light that may sneak between the cracks. A 36' roll of fabric three feet wide did the trick. Finally, I scattered some small rocks and stones on top of the landscape fabric over the full 32-foot run to hold it in place. Now I was ready to start screwing down the boards.

For the walkway boards, I used 5/4 x 6 cedar decking lumber. I would not use pressure-treated lumber here. It makes sense for the base (which is in full and ongoing contact with the ground), but not for the walkway -- from both an aesthetic and safety (chemicals) standpoint. I purchased 20 10-foot 5/4 x6" boards and cut them into 29-7/8" lengths (the sawblade is 1/8", so therefore you can't get four 30" pieces from a 120" piece of lumber). It was then simply a matter of screwing down the boards one by one. I decided to leave a 1/2" gap between each board. This looked about right and will allow for sufficient drainage, snow melt etc. I secured each board with a total of four 2" cedar-friendly decking screws (two on each side of each board). I made a 1/2" spacer out of scrap wood to ensure consistent spacing and to make the job go faster.

Screwing down the boards using the spacer is fairly quick work. The tricky part comes in the sections where the boardwalk turns.

As a side note, I would offer that a boardwalk that is simply a straight line is not as visually appealing or interesting as one that has curves -- unless you are working within a very formal landscape plan. But if that were the case, then you likely wouldn't have a boardwalk in the first place, as they are not what I would categorize as formal.

So, as my boardwalk followed the curve of the pond (along the beach area, if you have viewed photos in my earlier posts), I ended up with three slight curves to the left. The first curve was the most pronounced...the second was moderately pronounced and the third curve was very slight. As a result, for the third curve I was able to follow the line of the boardwalk without cutting any special wedge-shaped cedar boards. I simply had to angle a few of the planks along the turn, maintaining the 1/2" spacing on the inside edge, and stretching the outside spacing to roughly 5/8". This wasn't the case for the first two turns.

For the first turn, I ended up having to cut three special wedge-shaped boards (like pieces of pie) that allowed me to make the slight left turn. This was simple enough. When I got to the spot where the turn was about to begin, I laid out three planks so that they overlapped one another, but so that they were placed appropriately on the angle to make the turn (they looked like a fan, or a peacock's tail). I then simply marked a straight line on each board where I would have to cut it so that this pattern would lay flat. This was basically the spot where the boards overlapped. I made a 1/2" allowance beyond this line to ensure consistent spacing with the rest of the planks. I then took the boards to the bandsaw, cut along the lines, and then sanded the cuts smooth and rounded over the edges to match the factory edges of the lumber. (A simple woodsaw will also do the trick.)

For the next curve, I was fortunate in that only one piece of pie was required in order to make the turn. I followed the same process as noted above. As mentioned earlier, the third turn required not special cuts.

A backyard boardwalk is a great addition to the yard and is relatively simple to build. If your yard's landscape design is suited to this type of feature, I would highly recommend that you consider installing one.

So now let's turn back to the issues I mentioned earlier -- those that came about as a result of the heavy rains. As the rain poured down, I remembered that I hadn't yet identified a low spot on the pond where overflow drainage would occur. So I took advantage of a 30-minute break in the storm to go outside and pick a low-lying area of the pond to become the overflow drainage point. The pond water was already higher than the maximum that I wanted to allow, so it was a good test for me. I picked the spot (which was the naturally low-lying area of the pond border) and removed the rocks and mulch I had placed there. I then dug a five-inch wide trench from the pond to the drainage swale -- which fortunately was downhill about four feet away. I pulled the pond liner down so that it was lying on the trench and water immediately began to drain from the pond. I lined the trench with some extra pond liner that I had and then filled the trench with rocks and stones. Within 10 minutes the job was done and looked like it had always been there -- cleverly disguised as a rocky outcrop. I can now rest easy during major storms and spring thaws.

Hummingbird Feeder Photos

2004-08-27T09:58:00.000-04:00

Awhile back I was writing about our new hummingbird feeder and wondering if hummingbirds would return after an initial glitch (there was air in the feeder that stopped the nectar from getting to the birds). In any event, the birds did in fact return and now feed regularly from the feeder. For the record, here are a couple of photos of the feeder in action.

Photo 1
Photo 2