Design Is Not Opinion

What Does 'No Maintenance' Mean?

Bird of Paradise

Is Anything No Maintenance?

Are there any plants that could be called 'No Maintenance'?

No.

These are growing and living things. They need fertilizer. Leaves and flowers are spent and must be removed.

It's just true that a fine garden takes effort. But we can be smart about it, can't we?

Let's talk realistically about the amount of maintenance and maintenance expectations required in your own gardens. Some plants are necessarily fussy, and they do have a place. But it's also true that sometimes your conceptual design can be resolved with more than one type of plant. Why not include maintenance as part of your plant criteria when you are building a plant list?

Height Matters

Start here:  It's useful to call any plant that never needs trimming for height 'No Maintenance'. Examples abound:

• Any of the ferns: N. Biserrata, Macho Fern; Polypodium scolopendria Wart Fern;
• Dianella tasmanica, Dianella;
• Strelitzia reginae, Bird of Paradise;
• T. asiaticum, Asian Jasmine.

Each of these plants will establish at a given height. Some spread more than others. But there's no routine height adjustment needed, so let's call them 'No Maintenance'.

What's left? Are all of the others high maintenance? Not at all! We have an entire category of shrubs that I call

Hamelia patens

'Low Maintenance': they need trimming no more than once per year, and some less frequently. Some examples:

• Hamelia patens, or Hamelia glabra, Firebush;
• Plumbago capensis, Plumbago;
• Ficus microphylla 'Green Isle', Green Island Ficus.

And now you know.

Michael's Garden Column, 7.27.2012

 

Cats At Home in the Garden

Cats are among the things in life that truly interest me. And it's a good thing, as I seem to be some sort of 'cat-magnet'.

 

Anyway, this week an indulgent editor allowed me to go off the reservation and talk about our little 'pride' of felines and how they came to live here at Peace and Plenty.

As always, here's the PDF, Download 7.27.2012 Cats, as it appears in the print edition. And here's the copy, along with the faces of some furry beings.

A weekly column is a wonderful thing, giving structure to the week. On Friday, when readers see the latest, I am thinking about the next piece, often when I am in yoga class and should be concentrating on my breath.

Trees Even More Beneficial Than We Knew

And now a report from the American Chemical Society about the effect of trees in an urban environment

ACS Reports Trees Clean Better Than Thought

supports what I think we knew all along: trees and shrubs clean the air. But according to this report, the efficacy is more than we knew

Trees, bushes and other greenery growing in the concrete-and-glass canyons of cities can reduce levels of two of the most worrisome air pollutants by eight times more than previously believed, a new study has found. A report on the research appears in the ACS journalEnvironmental Science & Technology.

There's more research to be done, clearly. For example, I wonder exactly which trees or shrubs are the most efficacious? Does it matter where they are planted– in rows, in groups, or? 

More broadly, what happens to the pollutants that enter these living systems? Are they all fully hydrolyzed or in some other way made into simple molecules? Is there a threshold of pain for the living material–how much pollution is too much?

Nonetheless, this report from a prestigious source is an important tool for Landscape Architects.

The report is here.

Michael's Garden Column, 7.20.2012

Trees Below the Ground

More about trees, particularly what happens below the surface. And there is much more to say on this subject, so stay tuned.

Next week's column topic is already determined– how to use bromeliads–but I want to do a piece of Street Tree 'Also Rans'. Soon. I swear.

As usual, you can download a PDF:  Download 7.20.2012 Trees Below the Ground, 1.6M. And the text is here:

Tangles? Not So Much

See that big, beautiful tree?  Do you imagine a humongous tangle of roots extending ten feet down and dozens of feet away from the tree? Does your mind’s eye imagine a spider’s nest of roots causing all sorts of mayhem?

There are serious charges against trees, mostly because we find them planted close to improvements in our crowded neighborhoods. This tree density is partly the result of Code requirements.

Roots and Curbs

 

Mahogany Roots and Type D Curb

Speaking of trees and tree roots…the universe sometimes jumps up and provides, doesn't it? Yesterday I was headed to Ft. Myers to an Obama campaign rally. Regrettably, the awful events in Colorado required Mr. Obama to become Mr. President, and while the crowd was 'Fired Up! Ready to Go!', Mr. Obama did what Presidents do: comfort the family, and the nation.

Still, quite nice to be in the same room with the President.

I noticed a very long row of Mahogany (Swetenia mahogani) on Fowler, a main street in town, and south of Winkler (look approximately here). These trees have been in place since at least 1974, and they are planted as close as about 6' from a Type D concrete curb; notice the heavy surface roots stopped completely by the curb.

I bring this up simply to bolster my column of 7.20.2012: surface roots, even of the largest tropical trees, can be managed.

 

 

Michael's Garden Column, 7.13.2012

Is there anything less controversial than a shade tree? Well, wouldn't you think.

This week, in Part 1 of a two part story about street trees in southwest Florida I talk about the woefully-short list of available trees here and describe why.

Here's the text, or you can download the PDF, as usual:  Download 7.13.2012 Trees, 1.7M.

SW Florida Street Trees

Imagine a neighborhood street, with houses on both sides of the street. Driveways lead to garages. There is no on-street parking. Traffic is limited to local residents only. With time, trees extend large, leafy branches over the street and into one another. This is a leafy, shaded street appealing both to residents and to pedestrians using the street or the sidewalk. 

How does a Landscape Architect specify which type of tree to plant?

By matching the vision- or concept- to available materials, of course. We want to search the available trees, looking for the right combination of appearance and habit that will yield the desired look and feel. Space won’t permit a deep exploration of every tree, but I can give the reader a sense of what’s available, and some of the primary issues with each one.

What’s A Street Tree?

Before launching forward, keep in mind what is meant by ‘street tree’. These are the lions of the plant kingdom, huge, woody beasts, soaring to 50’ or so, with sufficient strength to reach across a residential street. They are the apex of this planting ecology and as such must be carefully chosen indeed. These are the plants that stand the test of time, that can be row-planted along a street, perhaps 30 to 50 feet apart and will dominate the street for half a century or more, watching human residents come and go.

Michael's Garden Column, 7.6.2012

Michael's Naples News Column 7.6.2012

How many times do I have to tell you that there is no such thing as a 'favorite' plant? This isn't exactly correct, of course, but there's a point to be made. Planting design isn't a method to re-home your favorites. It's a way to narrow all plants into a manageable list that is horticulturally correct.

There are some plans, though, that are so difficult to use that they can hardly be called team players. 

And here are a few of them. Download 7.6.2012 Odious, 1.4M.

Michael's Garden Column, 6.29.2012

Took the week off…

Michael's Garden Column, 6.22.2012

Naples Daily News Column 6.22.2012

The Naples Daily News did a very nice job this week, showcasing my piece on summer flowers. Here's a PDF of the piece as it appeared in the paper.

Here's the two-page column: Download 6.22.2012 Summer Flowers.

Michael's Garden Column, 6.15.2012

Ever wonder about Landscape requirements?

Wonder no more. Four your perusal:  Download 6.15.2012 Landscape Codes