31 Mar 2021
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NC Coastal Landscaping: A Guide for Your Yard


I’m really excited to tell you all about some new landscaping resources for North Carolina’s coastal region I know we have a mixed audience we have landscaping professionals Master Gardeners Extension staff and folks that are simply interested in this topic although one of the goals of the presentation is to share ideas that you can implement in your yard another goal is that you share this information with your neighbors clients and community at the end of the presentation you will be able to fill out a request form to receive this powerpoint and notes and that way if you want to deliver the presentation yourself if you’re comfortable with this subject matter you may go forth and do so okay so who am I like I said my name is Jayne Harrison I work for North Carolina Sea Grant our organization conducts research outreach and education on coastal and marine issues you can see me there in the bottom right I have a PhD in forestry but focus my work on environmental social science that is the human dimensions of environmental issues I’m interested in what motivates people to take environmental action and how to reduce barriers to protecting our natural resources I am joined today by Christi Peron who works for the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute Christi would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself thanks for joining us as Jane said I work for the Water Resources Research Institute and I also put some time towards North Carolina Sea Grant for the last 20 years I’ve been involved with watershed management and some former another watershed planning or implementing Watership lands engaging communities and protecting their natural resources and a lot of that it’s also involved managing stormwater through things like rain gardens and cisterns and you’ll hear a little bit about that from me later so looking forward to talking with you so this presentation is really driven by one question and here it is how can we increase nature enhancing landscaping in coastal communities with easy available affordable and attractive solutions we’re going to tell you about some of the solutions that you can implement in your yard first though let’s just chat about some of the yards that we see in our coastal neighborhoods ok so this is a home near Newbern I’d like to hear what you notice about this yard is there anything that you like in terms of their landscaping anything you dislike or think could be improved and I want you to think about it from an environmental standpoint so if you can just let us know you know what do you see in this yard here you can actually just communicate with us via the zoom chat we just like to hear from you all a little bit about what you see in this yard what do you observe in there landscaping okay so we heard no buffer zone ugly sea wall that blocks wildlife access lot of turf hmm um someone likes the trees me too no shrubbery plants I think you all are getting the picture this yard is landscaped you know with turf grass pretty common there’s a hardened shoreline someone said everything is mowed short yep so that hardened shoreline you know we also know that as a bulkhead or a barrier wall and basically that means that there’s no connection between land and water and I wonder if this photo reminds you of any yards that you see in your own neighborhood but let’s go to another home and think about what you see here check out this next photo this next slide this is a home near Wilmington now how is this yard different from the one in the previous photo do you like this one better do you prefer the earlier photo is there anything that you think could be improved what do you see from environmental standpoint here please let us know in the zoone chat water runoff living shoreline nice shoreline buffer nice flow no large trees on life not my shade good good mix you know we do see some turfgrass in this photo there are some natural areas though as well so someone said I think I’m seeing natives and a buffer as well as plant diversity that’s good for wildlife you also see land actually meeting water here so this homeowner actually went beyond turf and decided to add a perennial flowerbed to serve as a pond buffer now water front plants like this help protect water quality they also act like a filter and a sponge to remove transform and store nutrients and other pollutants in addition they do provide some shade which moderates water temperature and certainly creating habitat for wildlife so our hope is that you’ve seen more yards like this in your neighborhoods and you know there’s always more room to go but in comparison to that previous photo you can see that there are some improvements here certainly an environmental standpoint so in this presentation are really going to talk about how to create this kind of yard and why it’s desirable but first here is a little background about North Carolina coast now this is a map River Basins of the state that flow to the coast now we would like to know if you live in one of these and if so that means you live in a coastal watershed Kristi is gonna launch a poll and if you live in one of these river basins that drains into the coast please let us know if you don’t you can just click other but a minute here for people to respond to the poll half of you have responded we’ll wait just a few more moments again if you don’t live in one of these river basins just click other good yeah so you can see the results there the majority of you looks like you’re coming from the Cape Fear River Basin so my guess is you might be down in the Wilmington area we also have some folks from the Neuse River Basin so whether you’re in Raleigh or perhaps you’re down in New Bern Morehead City area got a couple folks from Pasco tanks maybe a near Elizabeth City Roanoke River Basin tarp and Luco some in white oh that could be near Swansboro and then a number from some other areas as well okay great so though one of the unfortunate things about living in these coastal watersheds is that our human activities do not always enhance the nature around us and unfortunately many of our homes and residences businesses have adverse impacts on wildlife habitat in water quality downstream population growth associated with poor site development and landscaping practices often results in habitat loss and reduce water quality now one of the special things about North Carolina is that it is home to more than 12,000 miles of shoreline coastal shoreline and along that shoreline are hundreds of creeks that foster species diversity creeks along with marshes serve as mini estuaries providing nursery habitat and feeding grounds for fish shellfish and wading birds so you all are part of this presentation today with my hope that you will meet the coastal landscape challenge our coastal population is growing so what we’re seeing in response is that forested and agricultural areas are being converted to housing transportation infrastructure shopping centers resorts industrial sites and certainly this kind of development can damage ecological systems by too drawing habitat and altering hydrologic systems this nature disconnect also harms people many studies have shown that time spent in nature improves our physical mental and psychological well-being so again going back to the really driving question in this presentation is how can we design our landscapes so that they contribute to the productivity biodiversity in ecological functioning of coastal ecosystems and then how do we connect our families and neighborhoods to the natural world so that we’re happier and healthier and one solution is through sustainable coastal landscaping practices so this is just an image of what some of those practices might look like you know we can all work together to improve the coastal landscape and at the same time invest in our health and well-being we can make changes to our landscapes that provide food and homes for pollinators and birds we can reduce stormwater runoff that causes flooding and still provide and biting out to our spaces that our families can enjoy so what I’ll say to all of us is let’s preserve the coastal environment for the next generation like these kids and enjoy it ourselves all right so Kristi and I are gonna get into the nitty-gritty of what we mean by a sustainable coastal landscape and so when we’re thinking of nature enhancing landscaping you know my mind very quickly goes to sustainability and the way that we’re defining this is really a landscape that’s attractive environmentally friendly well adapted to the local region so the coastal region storm ready functionable functional and enjoyable and cost-efficient and manageable so research has shown that our landscaping choices are frequently based on what we think others like so thus our landscaping choices really you know ought to be attractive to those other people otherwise they may not be maintained and environmentally friendly or nature enhancing landscaping means that our choices should consider other creatures so not just humans around us creating wildlife habitat the in landscaping means we will be more likely to hear songbirds and observe butterflies in our yard landscaping choices that are well adapted to the coastal region means that we consider the sunlight temperatures precipitation hydrology salts and soils of the coastal region so really key pieces of knowledge for any gardener coastal landscapes that are storm ready allow us to protect our homes and avoid damages from hurricanes if our landscaping choices are functional for what we like to do outside our homes we’re more likely to enjoy and maintain them and finally landscape choices must be cost efficient and manageable otherwise only a small segment of the population can implement or benefit now does anyone know what the flowers are in this photo if you do please type your response in the chat box or if you have a guess yeah anyone have an idea here okay we’ve got an aster yes it is an aster anyone know what kind of aster all right I’ll tell you it is an aromatic aster the genus and species Cinthia trichome a blanca folium and it’s the cultivar october skies anyone know the butterfly this is an American lady butterfly and join the asters and many species of aster are native to the coastal region and really planting native species it’s just one example of a sustainable coastal landscaping practice so we’re really gonna get into some specific ideas for what you can do as a coastal resident or leader in your community to improve the yards and neighborhoods where you live we’re gonna go through a number of ideas so what I want you to realize that you this list is no matter where you are just start somewhere do what you can do every small action you can take on your property or in your neighborhood helps to provide a sustainable landscape so the woman on the Left she is a resident of the town of st.James this is her yard her backyard and she knew she wanted to see birds and pollinators so instead of planting grass she decided to spread a packet a wildflower seeds now that was 14 years ago today her yard is a mix of native plants at least 50% that appeal to local birds and butterflies she also doesn’t use any chemical weed killers he has a rain barrel to supplement her watering and she supports bluebirds with a house for nesting he’s created a haven for people in wildlife that’s not the typical lawn with foundations routes and people often driving by they stop to admire it now the woman on the right is from Wilmington and she decided to install a backyard rain garden at her home her goal was to divert stormwater runoff and avoid pulling water the rain garden accomplishes this by slowing the runoff and allowing the water to percolate into the soil both these women had the interest the willingness to put some time and energy ARDS you may not have the same amount of time or resources but we want to share a range of ways that you can contribute so this is recommendation number one and it’s something if you’re a Master Gardener or in the know I’m guessing you’re aware of choose native and non invasive plants well-suited to coastal conditions native plants play a critical role in coastal landscaping for one wildlife relies on native plants for food and shelter also native plants are well adapted to the harsh conditions of the coastal region so they generally don’t require a lot of watering or fertilizer now shrubs and trees native to the coastal environment are more likely to expand the effects of storms because they’re resistant to wind and floods when selecting native plants you can choose species of different types different heights blooming times the assortment will benefit both plant and animal communities now one example of a native coastal North Carolina plant is the seashore mallow maybe you’ve seen this perennial and brackish or even freshwater marshes one reason the species is an attractive addition to a yard is that it has a long balloon period so that can extend from May into October these shore malas also attract pollinators like butterflies and other insects as well as ruby-throated hummingbirds and even lizards you might be wondering about non-native plants and whether they’re okay to use some non natives are very well adapted to the coastal environment so really picking a plant regardless of origin that flourishes in this climate will certainly reduce the need for excessive watering fertilizer but regardless you need to avoid invasive species so these are often non-native species that threaten existing existing native plant communities and the wildlife that depends on them so examples you know Chinese privet English ivy you see them all over they’re not things that you want to add to your yard so we’re going to just go through a few examples of some native and invasive plants I want to see your all’s knowledge here christy is working to launch a poll for us so let’s see if we can get to it and the question for you all is can you identify the native tree I think it’s just other piece and so you’re gonna look at these two we have loblolly Bay which is ordo Nia Glassie Anantha s’ and then we have mimosa albizia julibrissin and so this pole is about to launch no you’re all good we’re learning is learning how this webinar works okay all right now you have the pole can you identify the native tree can you see the picture no picture okay so yeah so I think most of you knew immediately that mimosa is not native to the coastal region or our state and yet you’re much more likely to see it in your neighbor’s yard than the loblolly Bay mimosa is considered an invasive in the southeast it commonly advances from the garden to natural habitats it produces shoots from root sprouts allowing it to form dense thickets which prevents native plants from growing alternatives he may want to consider are the native red Buckeye and the Eastern redbud Christi were you able to show them the poll results moment all thank you for your patience as we learn this okay hopefully you can see the results most of you could see there that it was the loblolly day we’ll just have to go back and forth yeah so we’ll just if you could just let us know if you can see the picture I am just gonna go back to you escape you can answer what you’re seeing right now okay can’t see any pictures so let’s go to share nothing and then share scream alright so here we go yeah stop sharing results Christy makes sure everything’s good in the zoom just let us know if you can see the presentation I think folks … The loblolly bay, which you may be less familiar with in regards to landscaping, is a flowering, broadleaf, evergreen tree common in pocosin or wetland bogs, swamp forests, and wet pine savannas.

Loblolly bay is important to Carolina Bay wetland ecosystems which are unique geological formations with an elliptical shape that are often seen in Eastern North Carolina it provides cover to wildlife during winter and extreme weather okay we are going to go to the next hole and so can you identify the native bush so we’ve got thorny olive Ely Agnes pungent and we have heal pond Holly elix OMA Toria which one is native yeah back in business I think everyone see in in the PowerPoint good okay so we’re gonna end the polling I think we’ve got a good sense that you all are a pretty educated bunch thorny olive is indeed an invasive shrub spread by bird this first seats good alternatives are yo pond and highbush blueberry yo pond Holly for example is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to sandy woods brackish and tidal marsh shorelines dunes maritime forests and shrub thickets it’s white fragrant flowers give way to red berries that provide sustenance to song birds and small mammals okay this is your final quiz on native and invasive plants I think you’re all are gonna get this one can you identify the native vine we have Japanese honeysuckle lonicera hoppin akka and coral honeysuckle lonicera sempervirens okay so I think you all are definitely getting this one Christy will show us the results here Japanese honeysuckle is a common invasive plant in the southeast it colonizes by prolific vine growth and seeds that are spread by birds the plant forms evergreen max which shade out native vegetation and climb up small trees and shrubs good native alternatives are Carolina Jessamine coral honeysuckle and cross fine coral honeysuckle for example is a fast-growing semi evergreen by that twines along the margins of maritime forests and maritime shrub thickets it’s a larval host to the hummingbird clear wing moth various saw birds including cedar waxwings cat birds and Cardinals feed on its round red berries and hummingbirds seek its nectar okay so I’m gonna turn over the presentation now to Christy and she’s going to get into a few more of our recommendations for coast landscape one thing you can do is use a mix of plant types in your yard trees shrubs grasses vines and flowering perennials which are the plants that come back every year this results in a very vegetation structure so by varied I mean different layers of vegetation so you have ground cover shrubs medium trees and tall trees like you see in this picture so why is this varied vegetation important anyway I was asking for a chat but that’s okay it offers both ecological and health benefits so for instance the larger vegetation the trees help keep things cool much of the plants take in carbon dioxide plus the varied plant layers provide habitat for various animals including birds and insects that control other plant pests so the varied vegetation also improves the quality of groundwater and surface water so let’s get to lawns the lawns are typically one non-native species of turf grads which doesn’t do much for wildlife so you could consider long alternatives like ground covers ferns for example provide foraging space and shelter for ground feeding birds while other critters like frogs and turtles like to hide in them and this is a cinnamon fern that you see in this picture ferns are great for shady spots as is wild ginger another ground cover option on a sunny spa is great for flowering perennials that come back year after year like Rebecca or what we also call black-eyed Susans native grasses like pink Muhly grass are another low maintenance option you can also reduce your lawn by expanding mulch around trees and flower beds so most of us like a little grass under our feet I know at our house we use it for whiffle ball and saw but so you can consider how your lawn can fit into a sustainable landscape you can minimize turf grass to appropriate areas like relatively flat sites that get heavy usage and Sun for at least four hours a day you can allow your turf grass to go dormant during drought it will come back so if you’re concerned about weeds popping up remember that weeds what we think of as weeds often provide important resources for pollinators like bees so you could even mow it a little higher height and let some of those weeds grow and flower if you do use a turf grass consider a low input warm season grass that’s well suited for the coastal environment centipede grass requires minimal fertilizer in low lowing frequency compared to Bermuda grass st.Augustine grass and zoysia grass so reducing water and fertilizer use is another step towards sustainable landscaping try to water early in the morning so it doesn’t evaporate as quickly also avoid light frequent watering strong and healthy plants have deep roots which require deep wiring so there’s no hard-and-fast definition for what is meant by watering deeply but it generally means that the water is able to soak at least eight inches below the soil surface and the main point between behind this is that most plants roots are not sitting close to the soil surface they’ve worked their way down into the soil in search of water and nutrients and this helps protect the plant in times of drought because the soil surface will dry out much quicker than it will below ground where the soil is cooler so watering deeply teaches the roots to reach deep into the soil for water you can also wait to water grass until it’s show signs of needing water at that point you could provide a half inch of water so that the roots are saturated so you can think of it as giving your yard a 1/2 inch rainfall to help you figure out how much is a half inch you can set a can else to catch water when you’re when you’re watering so for example an empty tuna can is 1 inches tall so you can figure out how long it takes to fill up half of that can if you’re using a rotor sprinkler this may take 45 minutes to an hour spray sprinklers take about 1/3 of the time so 15 to 20 minutes as for fertilizer first test your soil to see what kind of nutrients your lawn actually needs so buy nutrients I mean nitrogen phosphorus potassium and the like it may be that you won’t have to apply anything depending on your soil quality but if you do need fertilizer be sure to apply it at the right time of year timing depends on the species of grass that you use and whatever you do don’t apply fertilizer to frozen ground or dormant turf because then it won’t get used also keep fertilizer off of paved services otherwise it’ll run off your yard quickly and go into the storm drain system and your local waterways so soil is really important for sustainable landscaping yards and numeral developments often suffer from poor soil health and why is that soil can get compacted by heavy equipment during development so as a result the soil structure breaks down and it can’t hold much water soil pH which is a marker of acidity can also change when soil deteriorates and compacted soil also contains fewer nutrients and less organic matter so an example of organic matter is what’s found in compost and you can see a picture of that they’re specifically its residue that comes from a once living or living organism organism it is often in the stage of decomposition so organic matter increases water infiltration into the soil this is really important it also improves soils water holding capacity as well as its nutrient holding capacity if you look at the picture on the top right here on the right here it’s an Elizabeth City gardener that’s making who’s making compost from his kitchen scraps to spread on his garden beds so what should you do if you have a lawn but your soil needs resuscitation you can try a technique called top dressing which entails adding a thin layer of compost on to existing lawn top dressing your lawn with compost is a great way to enhance soil health and healthier soil means less need for water and fertilizer compost top dressing has been done on golf courses for years and is becoming more common for home lawns so to do this the layer of compost should be spread no more than a quarter inch thick and as I mentioned before you want to know exactly what your soil pH is and whether nutrients are needed and one thing that’s really great to note is that between April and November you can have your soil tested at no charge via the North Carolina Cooperative Extension so to have that done you can contact your County Extension Office to learn more ok so here’s here’s where I spend a lot of my time thinking about managing stormwater to improve water quality there’s a lot you can do on your own property the improving stormwater management is yet one more sustainable coastal landscaping technique so the idea is to try to keep and use as much of the rainfall on your property as possible so you’ll conserve water as you use less to water your plants and contribute to reducing flooding downstream there’s a range of activities that reduce the amount of runoff that leaves the yard which can then flow downstream and cause erosion pollution and flooding problems as you’ll see in the picture on the top on the left using rain barrels or cisterns which are much larger rain barrels is one option another easy option is to direct the runoff from your downspouts if you have any towards planted areas rather than into ditches or the road where it will end up in your nearest water body some homeowners may even want to install rain gardens to allow even more water to infiltrate so we saw a picture earlier in the presentation basically a rain garden is a depressed landscape area in the yard that allows rainwater to soak in while pollution the rain gardens are designed to release water downhill away from the home during larger rain events so the photo on the left is a wilmington resident who is using her rain barrel to water her plants and the photo on the right is a youth service group proudly showing off a rain garden that I helped hoe Nomar homeowner install in Cary North Carolina so you’ve perhaps known neighborhoods have stormwater ponds and they can vary from unsightly to appealing so does your neighborhood have a stormwater pond see any of these in your neighborhoods if you do have you seen how its functioning or maybe you want to consider you see somebody saying yes you may want to consider how its functioning does it look the way you want it to do so in this picture this is a stormwater ponds in kurtik County that was physically reconstructed to improve the quality of storm water leaving the development property the oil was removed around the perimeter of the pond and plants were installed to create a shallow water wetland native plants that look to me like ticks see perhaps were added along the shoreline to improve the ponds ability to remove pollutants so what was once a rather unattractive pond now treat stormwater runoff provides wildlife benefits and it’s a whole lot nicer to look at so you can create better stormwater pond with some of the following techniques first perimeter plantings can be added these are rings of native vegetation around the perimeter of the pond that can improve water quality prevent shoreline erosion provide wildlife habitat and deter nuisance canada geese loading treatment wetlands are another feature you can add these wetlands typically consist of large plastic mats that flow 1/2 above the water and half below it wetland plants like brushes sedges hibiscus lizard’s tail and pickerel weeds are planted in the mesh and grow by taking nutrients from the stormwater pond so these floating wetlands improve how the stormwater is treated and they also provide wildlife habitat and add some beauty and just to mention briefly stormwater ponds that have been typically not designed to maintain they usually not designed or maintained to reduce much stormwater pollution or so there’s a lot that can be done to improve them another thing that can be done are to add wetland benches these are shallow water wetlands that appear along the shoreline of ponds they can increase the capacity of the stormwater pond to remove pollutants which helps ensure the water discharged from the pond is cleaner so construction of such a wetland bench in an existing pond requires creating equipment like a backhoe or an excavator as well as an experienced contractor or equipment operator and possibly permits from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality so just be careful when you go about making these changes it’s important to also control unwanted plants not every plant is beneficial to a pond so being vigilant about inspecting for and removing invasive and potentially harmful plants one of the best ways to keep upon attractive and functioning properly finally you can use trails signs and routine maintenance there are people to your pond and make it a neighborhood amenity someone was asking if we’re gonna cover recommended plants the rain gardens throughout this presentation we’re mentioning you know plants here and there as examples but at the end you can actually request a few different resources from us and one of those is a list of we’ve got all kinds of great online educational resources you know about rain gardens in particular in the plants that you could choose so bake sure to fill out the request form at the end if you’re looking for more detailed information about any particular topic ok so again this is Jane I’m gonna keep going with a few more recommendations for you all one of those is certainly to create storm ready resilient landscapes and you know what we’ve seen you know in recent times since Hurricane Florence and more recently hurricane durian many coastal residents are rethinking the resilience of their landscapes the coastal Carolina’s are second only to Florida and the number of times they have been pummeled by hurricanes and Nor’easters and the intensity of hurricanes and Nor’easters is increasing coastal storms are developing higher wind speeds delivering more intense rainfalls and driving higher storm surges ashore now this photo was taken near Swansboro just three months after Hurricane Florence as you can see there’s not a lot of vegetation there so we’re going to talk about some of the landscaping practices that can be used to better protect these properties okay so one of those ideas is really to consider nature enhancing alternatives when replacing deteriorating bulkheads for those who are looking to protect waterfront property know that you have an alternative that can actually even do more to protect the shoreline these living shorelines have been shown to outperform hard engineered shoreline stabilization structures during storms and are at a lower cost to repair this photo here is a deteriorating bulkhead in Elizabeth City the property to the right you know this is someone’s front yard floods often so with this bulkhead meaning replaced why not look into some alternative options and so one of those great alternatives living shorelines is you know it is a good alternative because it maintains existing connections between uplands intertidal and aquatic areas while providing shoreline erosion control and again observations after hurricanes indicate that living shorelines outperformed nearby bulkheads by dissipating wave energy and reducing or line erosion so if you’re wondering what exactly a living shoreline is it’s kind of what it sounds like an area along the waterfront that’s full of riding vegetation even native materials like oyster shells they provide shoreline erosion control in addition to ecological benefits like protecting coastal salt marsh habitat for fish and crustaceans this photo here shows volunteers placing bags of oyster shells to establish a living shoreline in Moorhead city living shorelines can also include planted salt marsh grasses they maintain the natural slope of the land which helps absorb waves as they roll up the shoreline in addition to outperforming bulkheads living shorelines have proven to be a longer term less expensive option for waterfront property owners now recently has become easier for homeowners to get a living shoreline permit you need to check with the North Carolina Division of coastal management to determine whether this is an option for you or your community one of our final recommendations is to select storm ready trees to protect your home we know there’s been a lot of tree loss since these storms and a lot of people are preemptively removing trees in their neighborhood or near their homes and so it’s important to know which plant species best survive storm events and thus you can install more storm resistant landscapes because of their size and longevity trees and shrubs are especially a concern these are just a few examples of native trees highly suited for storm events and you can see some of the observations that have been found during storms so the coastal American born bean is a great choice because of its hard dense wood the limbs resist breakage it also has medium high wind resistance now regardless of the species they choose trees growing closely together typically have an advantage trees with interlacing root systems are less likely to be uprooted and single specimens and trees growing in clumps that is not in a line yield one another this arrangement enhances their survival in addition clumps composed of a mixture of species endure powerful winds better than clumps of a single species so I’ll just give you a few more examples of some storm ready trees one favorite the live oak certainly this has high wind resistance now wind may do foliate the tree but with the deep roots its well-drained soil you see that it certainly has a somewhat low profile it tends to do pretty well I actually had a call from a resident of Beaufort just the other day and he when he was calling just to you know tell me how great live oaks do and how he thinks they’re the only tree that should be planted near the water fry invoker now I might argue that there’s a few more to try but the live oak is certainly a great example and one thing is I think to tell your neighbors and to tell your friends who are feeling that kind of fear with snow so every time storm season comes they’re thinking you know I might cut down all my trees or the trees near my house remind them that you know it’s important to regularly inspect their trees or damage or disease but if they are able to maintain their trees health they really are gonna greatly reduce the likelihood of storm damage okay and if you’re looking for even more detail on storm running trees I really would advocate that you check out Paul hosier’s book this is seacoast plants of the Carolinas particularly chapter 7 on native vegetation and coastal storms it’ll tell you a lot about different species that’s where we got this information about trees to choose for storm events and another thing to realize is this book is just a wonderful resource overall about native plants and vasive plants in the coastal region in our state ok so our final recommendation before we get to some specific resources that we’re going to share with you all it’s just to seek out expertise if you need help I know it can be daunting to change your yard or to give your neighbor some advice but there really are people who can help so this presentation was actually created by the coastal landscapes initiative at something that Christy and I participate in and it’s a partnership that brings together experts in landscape architecture design and contracting or to culture science and business ecology and wildlife education and out now some of the easiest experts and most knowledgeable ones to access are at your county’s Extension Office for example grace Mane’s are pictured here is the consumer horticulture agent in Pasco Dane County based in Elizabeth City you can also connect with your local Master Gardeners to get your answers your questions answered and like I said we are gonna provide a resource list on some particular topics for you I’m gonna highlight just some of those resources now ok so if you haven’t seen it already one of the first products that the coastal landscapes initiative created is this guide to coastal landscaping in the state and it features 34 native plants ranging from trees shrubs and grasses to bind some flowers and it includes brief descriptions about each one it also offers information on the coastal conditions that each plant is most suitable for the guide comes both as a booklet and a brochure for quick reference and what I’ve been telling folks is you can heat this guide this is something I think high-quality enough to keep on your shelf your bookshelf your library at home and then take that brochure with you when you visit your local nursery or garden center and tell them these are the plants that you want to see a big you know part of making this change this increasing consumer demand for these landscaping resources as well as increasing supply from the landscaping industry and I do want to say you know these guides they’re not exhaustive like I said we only have 34 plants featured there are many other wonderful native plants I have people call me just ask why was my plant not in here you know and it doesn’t mean because we left it out that it’s not a great plant but this is a great place to start if you’re looking to bring some natives to your yard or to realize maybe some that you’re missing okay so we also have some really wonderful design templates that are almost complete these are a series of design templates that you can use in your own coastal garden and so there’s different types you can see some of these design templates using native plans for the foundation plans near a house for screening you can see some designs related to pollinator friendly borders natural and constructed shorelines so if you want to include a living shoreline filter strips and really they’re easily adapted to suit unique site conditions designs range from naturalistic to more polished and tidy and they are intended to help define edges and organize spaces in the yard they also work well as standalone gardens this is just a few examples of what those design templates look like so just a few pieces that I’ve put here this is a template that’s created to provide privacy screening and really it’s a you know semi evergreen border which is a good choice for increasing privacy at your home or blocking an unsightly view year-round now for several years while the trees are still young in this template they’re suggesting suite a Magnolia you’ll see perennial flowers planted the base of solidago and orange cone flower that will get plenty of Sun to bloom throughout the spring summer and fall attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects in the fall and winter birds will forage on the flower seeds so in each of these templates you’ll see some suggested plans as well as some alternatives so that you can you know have a variety to choose from and I have just one more example of a design template this is the filter strip and the idea is you would plant these plants to filter out sediment pollutants and nutrients from stormwater before it flows into a water body good locations include along ditches or swales along the shore of a pond or at the top of a seawall so you can see in each of these templates we have the type of plant the number in the design as well as spacing and layout the plans are color coded inlay with dimensions so you can see here in this design we’ve included switchgrass Muhly grass and sand coreopsis now you can find more resources like this if you go to the next slide Christie there is our website please check out go dot NCSU dot edu forward slash coastal landscapes and Christy I wonder could you put that in the zoom chat just type that out yeah exactly it’s just where we’re keeping all of our resources for the coastal lands I expect the design templates to be eaten we’ll see hopefully in the next few weeks we’re just putting the final touches on those those are going to be a wonderful resource another resource that we have developed if you go to the next slide Christy you can also go to this site which is also linked to our coastal landscape site Christy would you put that in zoom – zoom chatbox so go in CSU edu or in slash model landscapes if you’re trying to get an idea of what kind of landscaping practices that we’re talking about what they look like and you want to see them in the seasons in a real place and near your neighborhood you can check out this map and so what it does is identifies publicly accessible sites with sustainable landscaping features for example the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island features a demonstration rain garden and native plant habitat garden the town of Sunset Beach is developing a dune garden with over 50 species of native plants if you’re aware of a great example of publicly accessible sustainable coastal landscaping you can submit the site details here just go to this website and you’ll see in the top how to do so okay so really our final question to you all is what will you do and what about your neighbors this is that homeowner that we talked about earlier he lives in Wilmington or near Wilmington and he helped to organize his neighborhood stormwater pond committee so that was that house we saw that had the perennial flower bed this is just a different viewpoint of it and what he does is he actually provides information to his neighbors on how to keep stormwater ponds functioning and beautiful this is that pond behind his house and it features many gorgeous native flowering perennials if you want to see sustainable coastal landscaping become the norm in your community there are a lot of things you can do first please share the coastal landscaping resources that we’ve talked about share them on community listservs next door Facebook groups in person you can participate also in neighborhood native plant buys and sales or you could start one if you’re looking for a landscape designer or contractor find someone with a proven commitment to sustainable landscaping and once you find someone you like pay it forward by sharing the recommendation with your neighbors and certainly don’t forget to have fun and celebrate successful landscaping projects in your neighborhood and community you could get out an annual award for the most sustainable yard or green yard and what if you belong to a homeowners association you can help by reviewing covenants and promoting adoption of sustainable landscaping language also encourage your HOAs to include native plants on allowable plant lists now Kristy is going to launch the last poll this is where we’re going to find out just a little bit about your knowledge of these topics and whether this presentation has given you any ideas for new things you might want to do please go ahead and fill that out we are aware that the information we share today was a refresher for many of you and for others though you might have learned quite a bit so we’re hopeful to see that you can share this information with others

Augustine grass and zoysia grass so reducing water and fertilizer use is another step towards sustainable landscaping try to water early in the morning so it doesn’t evaporate as quickly also avoid light frequent watering strong and healthy plants have deep roots which require deep wiring so there’s no hard-and-fast definition for what is meant by watering deeply but it generally means that the water is able to soak at least eight inches below the soil surface and the main point between behind this is that most plants roots are not sitting close to the soil surface they’ve worked their way down into the soil in search of water and nutrients and this helps protect the plant in times of drought because the soil surface will dry out much quicker than it will below ground where the soil is cooler so watering deeply teaches the roots to reach deep into the soil for water you can also wait to water grass until it’s show signs of needing water at that point you could provide a half inch of water so that the roots are saturated so you can think of it as giving your yard a 1/2 inch rainfall to help you figure out how much is a half inch you can set a can else to catch water when you’re when you’re watering so for example an empty tuna can is 1 inches tall so you can figure out how long it takes to fill up half of that can if you’re using a rotor sprinkler this may take 45 minutes to an hour spray sprinklers take about 1/3 of the time so 15 to 20 minutes as for fertilizer first test your soil to see what kind of nutrients your lawn actually needs so buy nutrients I mean nitrogen phosphorus potassium and the like it may be that you won’t have to apply anything depending on your soil quality but if you do need fertilizer be sure to apply it at the right time of year timing depends on the species of grass that you use and whatever you do don’t apply fertilizer to frozen ground or dormant turf because then it won’t get used also keep fertilizer off of paved services otherwise it’ll run off your yard quickly and go into the storm drain system and your local waterways so soil is really important for sustainable landscaping yards and numeral developments often suffer from poor soil health and why is that soil can get compacted by heavy equipment during development so as a result the soil structure breaks down and it can’t hold much water soil pH which is a marker of acidity can also change when soil deteriorates and compacted soil also contains fewer nutrients and less organic matter so an example of organic matter is what’s found in compost and you can see a picture of that they’re specifically its residue that comes from a once living or living organism organism it is often in the stage of decomposition so organic matter increases water infiltration into the soil this is really important it also improves soils water holding capacity as well as its nutrient holding capacity if you look at the picture on the top right here on the right here it’s an Elizabeth City gardener that’s making who’s making compost from his kitchen scraps to spread on his garden beds so what should you do if you have a lawn but your soil needs resuscitation you can try a technique called top dressing which entails adding a thin layer of compost on to existing lawn top dressing your lawn with compost is a great way to enhance soil health and healthier soil means less need for water and fertilizer compost top dressing has been done on golf courses for years and is becoming more common for home lawns so to do this the layer of compost should be spread no more than a quarter inch thick and as I mentioned before you want to know exactly what your soil pH is and whether nutrients are needed and one thing that’s really great to note is that between April and November you can have your soil tested at no charge via the North Carolina Cooperative Extension so to have that done you can contact your County Extension Office to learn more ok so here’s here’s where I spend a lot of my time thinking about managing stormwater to improve water quality there’s a lot you can do on your own property the improving stormwater management is yet one more sustainable coastal landscaping technique so the idea is to try to keep and use as much of the rainfall on your property as possible so you’ll conserve water as you use less to water your plants and contribute to reducing flooding downstream there’s a range of activities that reduce the amount of runoff that leaves the yard which can then flow downstream and cause erosion pollution and flooding problems as you’ll see in the picture on the top on the left using rain barrels or cisterns which are much larger rain barrels is one option another easy option is to direct the runoff from your downspouts if you have any towards planted areas rather than into ditches or the road where it will end up in your nearest water body some homeowners may even want to install rain gardens to allow even more water to infiltrate so we saw a picture earlier in the presentation basically a rain garden is a depressed landscape area in the yard that allows rainwater to soak in while pollution the rain gardens are designed to release water downhill away from the home during larger rain events so the photo on the left is a wilmington resident who is using her rain barrel to water her plants and the photo on the right is a youth service group proudly showing off a rain garden that I helped hoe Nomar homeowner install in Cary North Carolina so you’ve perhaps known neighborhoods have stormwater ponds and they can vary from unsightly to appealing so does your neighborhood have a stormwater pond see any of these in your neighborhoods if you do have you seen how its functioning or maybe you want to consider you see somebody saying yes you may want to consider how its functioning does it look the way you want it to do so in this picture this is a stormwater ponds in kurtik County that was physically reconstructed to improve the quality of storm water leaving the development property the oil was removed around the perimeter of the pond and plants were installed to create a shallow water wetland native plants that look to me like ticks see perhaps were added along the shoreline to improve the ponds ability to remove pollutants so what was once a rather unattractive pond now treat stormwater runoff provides wildlife benefits and it’s a whole lot nicer to look at so you can create better stormwater pond with some of the following techniques first perimeter plantings can be added these are rings of native vegetation around the perimeter of the pond that can improve water quality prevent shoreline erosion provide wildlife habitat and deter nuisance canada geese loading treatment wetlands are another feature you can add these wetlands typically consist of large plastic mats that flow 1/2 above the water and half below it wetland plants like brushes sedges hibiscus lizard’s tail and pickerel weeds are planted in the mesh and grow by taking nutrients from the stormwater pond so these floating wetlands improve how the stormwater is treated and they also provide wildlife habitat and add some beauty and just to mention briefly stormwater ponds that have been typically not designed to maintain they usually not designed or maintained to reduce much stormwater pollution or so there’s a lot that can be done to improve them another thing that can be done are to add wetland benches these are shallow water wetlands that appear along the shoreline of ponds they can increase the capacity of the stormwater pond to remove pollutants which helps ensure the water discharged from the pond is cleaner so construction of such a wetland bench in an existing pond requires creating equipment like a backhoe or an excavator as well as an experienced contractor or equipment operator and possibly permits from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality so just be careful when you go about making these changes it’s important to also control unwanted plants not every plant is beneficial to a pond so being vigilant about inspecting for and removing invasive and potentially harmful plants one of the best ways to keep upon attractive and functioning properly finally you can use trails signs and routine maintenance there are people to your pond and make it a neighborhood amenity someone was asking if we’re gonna cover recommended plants the rain gardens throughout this presentation we’re mentioning you know plants here and there as examples but at the end you can actually request a few different resources from us and one of those is a list of we’ve got all kinds of great online educational resources you know about rain gardens in particular in the plants that you could choose so bake sure to fill out the request form at the end if you’re looking for more detailed information about any particular topic ok so again this is Jane I’m gonna keep going with a few more recommendations for you all one of those is certainly to create storm ready resilient landscapes and you know what we’ve seen you know in recent times since Hurricane Florence and more recently hurricane durian many coastal residents are rethinking the resilience of their landscapes the coastal Carolina’s are second only to Florida and the number of times they have been pummeled by hurricanes and Nor’easters and the intensity of hurricanes and Nor’easters is increasing coastal storms are developing higher wind speeds delivering more intense rainfalls and driving higher storm surges ashore now this photo was taken near Swansboro just three months after Hurricane Florence as you can see there’s not a lot of vegetation there so we’re going to talk about some of the landscaping practices that can be used to better protect these properties okay so one of those ideas is really to consider nature enhancing alternatives when replacing deteriorating bulkheads for those who are looking to protect waterfront property know that you have an alternative that can actually even do more to protect the shoreline these living shorelines have been shown to outperform hard engineered shoreline stabilization structures during storms and are at a lower cost to repair this photo here is a deteriorating bulkhead in Elizabeth City the property to the right you know this is someone’s front yard floods often so with this bulkhead meaning replaced why not look into some alternative options and so one of those great alternatives living shorelines is you know it is a good alternative because it maintains existing connections between uplands intertidal and aquatic areas while providing shoreline erosion control and again observations after hurricanes indicate that living shorelines outperformed nearby bulkheads by dissipating wave energy and reducing or line erosion so if you’re wondering what exactly a living shoreline is it’s kind of what it sounds like an area along the waterfront that’s full of riding vegetation even native materials like oyster shells they provide shoreline erosion control in addition to ecological benefits like protecting coastal salt marsh habitat for fish and crustaceans this photo here shows volunteers placing bags of oyster shells to establish a living shoreline in Moorhead city living shorelines can also include planted salt marsh grasses they maintain the natural slope of the land which helps absorb waves as they roll up the shoreline in addition to outperforming bulkheads living shorelines have proven to be a longer term less expensive option for waterfront property owners now recently has become easier for homeowners to get a living shoreline permit you need to check with the North Carolina Division of coastal management to determine whether this is an option for you or your community one of our final recommendations is to select storm ready trees to protect your home we know there’s been a lot of tree loss since these storms and a lot of people are preemptively removing trees in their neighborhood or near their homes and so it’s important to know which plant species best survive storm events and thus you can install more storm resistant landscapes because of their size and longevity trees and shrubs are especially a concern these are just a few examples of native trees highly suited for storm events and you can see some of the observations that have been found during storms so the coastal American born bean is a great choice because of its hard dense wood the limbs resist breakage it also has medium high wind resistance now regardless of the species they choose trees growing closely together typically have an advantage trees with interlacing root systems are less likely to be uprooted and single specimens and trees growing in clumps that is not in a line yield one another this arrangement enhances their survival in addition clumps composed of a mixture of species endure powerful winds better than clumps of a single species so I’ll just give you a few more examples of some storm ready trees one favorite the live oak certainly this has high wind resistance now wind may do foliate the tree but with the deep roots its well-drained soil you see that it certainly has a somewhat low profile it tends to do pretty well I actually had a call from a resident of Beaufort just the other day and he when he was calling just to you know tell me how great live oaks do and how he thinks they’re the only tree that should be planted near the water fry invoker now I might argue that there’s a few more to try but the live oak is certainly a great example and one thing is I think to tell your neighbors and to tell your friends who are feeling that kind of fear with snow so every time storm season comes they’re thinking you know I might cut down all my trees or the trees near my house remind them that you know it’s important to regularly inspect their trees or damage or disease but if they are able to maintain their trees health they really are gonna greatly reduce the likelihood of storm damage okay and if you’re looking for even more detail on storm running trees I really would advocate that you check out Paul hosier’s book this is seacoast plants of the Carolinas particularly chapter 7 on native vegetation and coastal storms it’ll tell you a lot about different species that’s where we got this information about trees to choose for storm events and another thing to realize is this book is just a wonderful resource overall about native plants and vasive plants in the coastal region in our state ok so our final recommendation before we get to some specific resources that we’re going to share with you all it’s just to seek out expertise if you need help I know it can be daunting to change your yard or to give your neighbor some advice but there really are people who can help so this presentation was actually created by the coastal landscapes initiative at something that Christy and I participate in and it’s a partnership that brings together experts in landscape architecture design and contracting or to culture science and business ecology and wildlife education and out now some of the easiest experts and most knowledgeable ones to access are at your county’s Extension Office for example grace Mane’s are pictured here is the consumer horticulture agent in Pasco Dane County based in Elizabeth City you can also connect with your local Master Gardeners to get your answers your questions answered and like I said we are gonna provide a resource list on some particular topics for you I’m gonna highlight just some of those resources now ok so if you haven’t seen it already one of the first products that the coastal landscapes initiative created is this guide to coastal landscaping in the state and it features 34 native plants ranging from trees shrubs and grasses to bind some flowers and it includes brief descriptions about each one it also offers information on the coastal conditions that each plant is most suitable for the guide comes both as a booklet and a brochure for quick reference and what I’ve been telling folks is you can heat this guide this is something I think high-quality enough to keep on your shelf your bookshelf your library at home and then take that brochure with you when you visit your local nursery or garden center and tell them these are the plants that you want to see a big you know part of making this change this increasing consumer demand for these landscaping resources as well as increasing supply from the landscaping industry and I do want to say you know these guides they’re not exhaustive like I said we only have 34 plants featured there are many other wonderful native plants I have people call me just ask why was my plant not in here you know and it doesn’t mean because we left it out that it’s not a great plant but this is a great place to start if you’re looking to bring some natives to your yard or to realize maybe some that you’re missing okay so we also have some really wonderful design templates that are almost complete these are a series of design templates that you can use in your own coastal garden and so there’s different types you can see some of these design templates using native plans for the foundation plans near a house for screening you can see some designs related to pollinator friendly borders natural and constructed shorelines so if you want to include a living shoreline filter strips and really they’re easily adapted to suit unique site conditions designs range from naturalistic to more polished and tidy and they are intended to help define edges and organize spaces in the yard they also work well as standalone gardens this is just a few examples of what those design templates look like so just a few pieces that I’ve put here this is a template that’s created to provide privacy screening and really it’s a you know semi evergreen border which is a good choice for increasing privacy at your home or blocking an unsightly view year-round now for several years while the trees are still young in this template they’re suggesting suite a Magnolia you’ll see perennial flowers planted the base of solidago and orange cone flower that will get plenty of Sun to bloom throughout the spring summer and fall attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects in the fall and winter birds will forage on the flower seeds so in each of these templates you’ll see some suggested plans as well as some alternatives so that you can you know have a variety to choose from and I have just one more example of a design template this is the filter strip and the idea is you would plant these plants to filter out sediment pollutants and nutrients from stormwater before it flows into a water body good locations include along ditches or swales along the shore of a pond or at the top of a seawall so you can see in each of these templates we have the type of plant the number in the design as well as spacing and layout the plans are color coded inlay with dimensions so you can see here in this design we’ve included switchgrass Muhly grass and sand coreopsis now you can find more resources like this if you go to the next slide Christie there is our website please check out go dot NCSU dot edu forward slash coastal landscapes and Christy I wonder could you put that in the zoom chat just type that out yeah exactly it’s just where we’re keeping all of our resources for the coastal lands I expect the design templates to be eaten we’ll see hopefully in the next few weeks we’re just putting the final touches on those those are going to be a wonderful resource another resource that we have developed if you go to the next slide Christy you can also go to this site which is also linked to our coastal landscape site Christy would you put that in zoom – zoom chatbox so go in CSU edu or in slash model landscapes if you’re trying to get an idea of what kind of landscaping practices that we’re talking about what they look like and you want to see them in the seasons in a real place and near your neighborhood you can check out this map and so what it does is identifies publicly accessible sites with sustainable landscaping features for example the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island features a demonstration rain garden and native plant habitat garden the town of Sunset Beach is developing a dune garden with over 50 species of native plants if you’re aware of a great example of publicly accessible sustainable coastal landscaping you can submit the site details here just go to this website and you’ll see in the top how to do so okay so really our final question to you all is what will you do and what about your neighbors this is that homeowner that we talked about earlier he lives in Wilmington or near Wilmington and he helped to organize his neighborhood stormwater pond committee so that was that house we saw that had the perennial flower bed this is just a different viewpoint of it and what he does is he actually provides information to his neighbors on how to keep stormwater ponds functioning and beautiful this is that pond behind his house and it features many gorgeous native flowering perennials if you want to see sustainable coastal landscaping become the norm in your community there are a lot of things you can do first please share the coastal landscaping resources that we’ve talked about share them on community listservs next door Facebook groups in person you can participate also in neighborhood native plant buys and sales or you could start one if you’re looking for a landscape designer or contractor find someone with a proven commitment to sustainable landscaping and once you find someone you like pay it forward by sharing the recommendation with your neighbors and certainly don’t forget to have fun and celebrate successful landscaping projects in your neighborhood and community you could get out an annual award for the most sustainable yard or green yard and what if you belong to a homeowners association you can help by reviewing covenants and promoting adoption of sustainable landscaping language also encourage your HOAs to include native plants on allowable plant lists now Kristy is going to launch the last poll this is where we’re going to find out just a little bit about your knowledge of these topics and whether this presentation has given you any ideas for new things you might want to do please go ahead and fill that out we are aware that the information we share today was a refresher for many of you and for others though you might have learned quite a bit so we’re hopeful to see that you can share this information with others

31 Mar 2021
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Small Backyard Landscaping Ideas For Your Yard


28 Feb 2021
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Best plants for Garden in Subtropical climates


Rob: Florida is a state where most people go to the supermarket to buy their food, but they don’t realize that they can bud most of their flesh title at home. Today, I’m really excited to have Pete Kanaris on the canal. He’s going to introduce you to 10 different shrubs that you can grow that are super-abundant and suggestible for the Florida climate to help you grow a large amount of your menu at home and be able to skip those errands to the grocery store.

This doesn’t only apply to Florida, though. Semitropical climates exist around the world — the Caribbean, Central and South America, southeast Asia, regions of africa, and parts of Australia, precise to refer some bases, are all places where this can be a super-helpful video to you.

Pete: Alright, what’s up, guys? What’s growing on? Pete Kanaris here with Green Dreams and I’m coming at you from Tampa, Florida. I’m about 20 miles north of Tampa and we’re to increase by a subtropical environment now, in 9B, and I’m taking over Rob Greenfield’s channel today. I’m putting a video together for you all on our top 10 menu promotes to grow in a subtropical environment for self-sufficiency.

These are the surpas 10 go-to food trains the hell is super-easy to grow. Something I’ll tell you guys is we is concentrated in bushes that thrive on posture, that develop with ease. Most of these cultivates are perennial cultivates. By perennial, I mean something that doesn’t need to be replanted every year, like you would an annual. This is plant it one time and routinely forget it.

Perennial stimulates are grasslands that live two or more exits. The first one I want to talk to you guys about is actually right here, behind me, hour over my left shoulder. This is chaya, or tree spinach. You were available in the big-hearted, painful foliages off of this tree. This is a really easy one to get established in your garden.

This is one that I tell people about all the time and the first thing that scares them about this one is that it has to be cooked.

Chaya does need to be cooked for about 10 hours. There’s an offgas of cyanide that comes off of there. You certainly don’t want to use an aluminum utensil, but this is a big-time staple crop in The countries of central america. This is a really easy one to transmit and start, so if you wanted to share this with your friends, you would simply take a curve like this, fasten it in the grind, take off the sprigs, and it will start growing.

It’s really that easy. The needles from this are actually quite delicious. I find this tree to be really, the spice of the needles to be hearty. They’re really army. They go really well in a soup, really well in a dish.

Also known as tree spinach. This is four times as healthful as everyday spinach and it wants to grow here.

It wants to grow now, through our red-hot summer, our humidity, and our full sunbathe. The# 2 seed I want to talk about that is a must-have for your garden-variety is sitting here behind me. This is moringa oleifera.

This one likes full sunlight. If you noticed, I had that chaya in a dappled brightnes, understory statu. This one wants to be out in full sun. I look at this tree as like having a health food store in your back yard. This one is like 22% protein, by heavines; 68 different antioxidants; four times the calcium of milk.

I could go off about all the various minerals and nutrients that are inside of this plant. This one is literally one of the fastest growing trees we also have on the farm. Commercially, they originate these trees about a paw apart and they snip off the brand-new increment every week. Most generally, you would dry those foliages and pulverize them, but you were able to formulated this fresh into a salad.

You could innovate this fresh into a smoothie.

You could destroy this fresh, like this. The tree is also known as the horseradish tree. That’s because the twigs can be a little bit on the spicy neighborhood. I opted this as a add-on. I bid this in a smoothie.

I find it to be a little bit on the strong face, but it abounds so well and is so nutritious. The pulverization from this tree spreads for $30 -4 0 — I retain when it was $60 a pound. So, super-nutritious. My# 3 must-grow crop for Florida would be what Rob would like to call yucca or cassava or manihot. We was a lot of notes on that one from the videos we did together.

This is a must-grow crop, a super easy to grow crop down here in Florida. This is what they would shape tapioca sweet from. Cassava is a root crop and it’s really easy to get started in the garden-variety. It’s one that you literally, just like I represented you on the chaya, you take a decorating of, so probably something a little older than this.

You want three nodes above and three nodes below the soil.

You simply remain this person in the grind and it’ll grow. Often, cassava is about an 8-9 month harvest. You’ll get a root crop off of that. I precisely did a specific video on cassava, on concoct it, on harvesting it, on germinate hand-picked potpourruss, with my good friend, Josh, from Hart. If you implore more detail on that, pate over to my canal and you’ll revalue more specific stuff with Josh — how they cook it, how they mean it.

I had cassava dine while I was there. There are many different ways to eat this. Cassava? Must grow it. The fourth pasture I wants to speak to you about today are sugared potatoes.

Many parties, when you think sweet potato, “youre thinking about” that regular orange sugared potato, but there are hundreds of heirloom potpourruss of sugared potato.

There are white sweet potatoes, violet sugared potatoes , regular orange sugared potatoes, but what a great deal of parties don’t know is you can eat the needles and the root of a sugared potato. Sweet potatoes exclusively happen to be one of the most nutritious prepareds in the world countries for the above reasons. What I really like to do is pull all of these young leaves off of here. This isn’t a good example of a sugared potato patch.

I accurately have a couple of slips that we seeded now maybe a month ago, that are starting to take over, but I can tell you, if I came back in this area in simply a few cases occasions pouches weeks, this would be a solid sea of green.

The leaves are just starting to fill in. You would start sugared potatoes by buying truly organic sugared potatoes at the convenience store, appending them in some grease, obliging the buds come off and you dissolved those off and that’s what would be called a slip. If you don’t start it from a potato, you actually order slips in spring from a honied potato camaraderie. Like I said, there are many different smorgasbords and types.

Not alone do you get this awesome potato at the end of the season, which is really fun to dig up, to gather them out of the ground.

You don’t have to eat them right away. They can previous 6-9 months inside of your palace, but during that fraction know, you can eat the foliages off the candied potatoes. So, sweetened potatoes are super-exciting for me because I miss the spice of the greens. They’re great sauteed with just a little salt and pepper on them, make a great side dish, and then you get potatoes at the end of the season.

Digging up sugared potatoes is one of my favorite things on “the farmers “. My# 5 favorite perennial vegetable to grow down here in the nutrient timber is sisso spinach or Miami spinach. This one makes a really nice ground cover. It can take full sunbathe or dappled light-colored. You can be found in I mistakenly rent a little of that root out.

I can lodge it back in the anchor. It will easily bud. “Thats one” that doesn’t need to be cooked. It is predicted to be eaten fresh. It genuinely has a nice texture to it , not more slimy, moves really great in a salad, spreads really great time ingesting it fresh or in any type of dish.

This is a great perennial vegetable that I embed one time and it’s been here for multiple years, that’s here all term long if I want to come outside and have something to add as a light-green in a salad or to a stratum, so sisso spinach is definitely worth proliferating if you’re in a subtropical environment. We’ve got one or two collectings of this one. It is just great. Like I said, it has a nice crunch to the leaf, it’s not more creepy. It makes a great perennial vegetable to add to your backdrop, so# 5.

My# 6 must-have for a sustainable garden in Florida is definitely going to be katuk. Katuk is an awesome perennial vegetable, super-high in protein, very similar to moringa, where it’s like 20% protein and it recognise yummy. It literally savor like fresh peas. It’s one that are actually has a nice flavor raw. Kids like it.

Everyone I’ve given it to is like, wow, that smacked pretty good. I have a variegated mixture and a clam jumble. They both thrive on disrespect. These blushes never get irrigated. These botanies never get fertilized.

There is no irrigation now. They live and flourish on forget all time long.

With a lot of these perennial vegetables — sisso spinach, moringa, katuk — that young flourishing, that brand-new expand that’s coming off the top is going to be the most tender, the softest. So, as I steer my state down the gras, these sole foliages are going to be a little tougher. They’re still great to eat.

They can still go in a dish. Probably better in a cooked nutrient to break them down a bit, but for eating fresh, I find the raw tips-off are always best. So, katuk? Grow it. My# 6 body pasture to grow here in Florida, which probably would not often be looked at as a vegetable, is papaya.

Papaya was something that I certainly knew, spending time with Rob. It’s something he usually realise in his saucers. I recall my favorite was his Thai coconut curry with the papaya in it. I love loot papaya. I think it’s great as a vegetable.

I experience papaya salad at a Thai restaurant and I admire the spice of a good, ripe papaya as a result. Papayas don’t have to be eaten ripe; they are able to eaten light-green, like a vegetable.

We’re starting to get some little papayas here and you can get these while they get larger and they’re light-green, or you can wait until they get ripe and eat it as a return. This one doesn’t have a lot of return on it right now. The other ones I have are towering and I need to cut them back.

You can chip your papayas back every couple of years. One of my mentors, a individual I boast a great deal on my canal, is Jim Kovaleski. He’s got a papaya tree in his heart plan that’s 5-6 years old, so these trees can previous a while. They can be perennial. They can die back if you’re further north, but you can start them in your greenhouse and get them outside independence after that last frost and potentially get a lettuce outcome in six months, so papayas are worth growing.

Find a good one, develop the grain. Easy to get started. Highly indicate growing it .# 7, I’ve been really busy the last couple of weeks with the nursery business and all of my seeds out in the sand for these last three have been cut down for decreases and dissemination, so I’m over here, in the nursery, where I have some better examples.

What I wants to speak to you about now is appetizing needle hibiscus.

That’s this big-leafed shrub behind me. This can be used as a wrapping. It is likely to be eaten fresh, chopped up in a salad, be used as a dark-green. “Thats one” that might be a little bit more on the mucilaginous line-up, perhaps rather creepy, some would say. That’s really good for liner our insides.

This variety is actually little sinister than the variety I have over here, on this gradient. This one clearly has a little bit more mucilaginous to it. I have a couple of different picks. I have this skinny-leafed variety. I have this fat-leafed variety.

There are a couple of different mentions for this one. I like to really call it lettuce leaf hibiscus. I really like this one as a rug. If you missed a clam deflect, something that’s gluten-free, you can grow this for your wrap. The# 9 must-have for the sustainable garden-variety in Florida, “thats one” that the youngsters really like: cranberry hibiscus.

The leaves are beautiful, neat deep red.

Some defendants call that like a mahogany. These are honied. They’re sour. They’re yummy accurately raw.

They realise neat in a salad, if you chop them up. My favorite thing to do is, if I’m making a sandwich or knapsack something for the working day, I’m going to be on the road, I come out and get a handful of fresh foliages and, just like I talking about with the katuk, a so much younger leaves, the fresh rise, like this is a really fresh cherry-red one. You can see this is an older leaf. You were available in a colouring estrangement. You see how that one is pale and that one is dark red?

The younger parent is always going to be the most tender and the sweetest. Good-for-nothing wrong with the old-fashioned proliferation; it’s just not going to be the best, flavor-wise. So, cranberry hibiscus is not only a stunner in the landscape, a pretty-looking plant, but it has a really nice delightful violence and I guarantee if you give it to one of the girls, they’re going to enjoy it too.

This one has been a perennial now. It will schedule flowers.

All hibiscuses have edible buds. You can eat the flower on this, but after it’s done slotting a heyday, it’s going to set seed that you could save to replant if you’re in a more northern list atmosphere. So, cranberry hibiscus is another must-have. If you’re into horticulture down now, in Florida, and you don’t have it, this is one to add to your design. Last-place, but not least, must-have perennial for a sustainable garden-variety in Florida or in any subtropical environment is Okinawan spinach.

This is one that we’ve been propagating really hard the last few weeks. This is also one that the squirrels like, that I have a hard time continuing going in the bottoms, but I really like the spice of it. It’s really nice to eat fresh. It’s nice to eat cooked. It’s nice to throw in the towel a dish.

It’s very similar to the longevity spinach, which is right here, behind me, but I guess the longevity spinach is a little stronger, a little more like a prescription. The squirrels don’t like it as much, it is therefore reforms now a whole lot better. I’ve noticed that we plant these two for patrons all the time, longevity spinach and Okinawan spinach. The Okinawan is a little prettier. It’s got some purplish-red to the underside of the leaves.

It’s hit or miss. Sometimes the Okinawan does better on your website, sometimes the longevity does better on your website. I would say both of these are a tie for #10, but this one perceives a little better. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thank you, Rob, for the opportunity.

It’s been a blast. I can’t wait to work with you again. I can’t wait for your next challenge. I can’t wait for you to get back to Florida so we can do some levity cloth. Thank you guys so much for following.

What we are happy to do around here is pound dirt! Rob: I hope you got a lot of muse and education out of this time with Pete. He is a wealth of learning. He is an expert in pulling nutrient and he salves a good deal of parties to do this, both in person and through his YouTube channel. Make sure to are engaged in his channel.

The links to follow him are in the description. If you got a lot out of this video, make sure to subscribe to this channel as well, where I’ll have many more patrons to come, as well as videos led by me.

Also, share this, mention, and like it to spread it out into the world and get this information out there to people who need it, but don’t know it’s there. I love you all very much and I’ll see you again real soon. Subtitles by the Amara.

org community.

28 Feb 2021
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Natural Stream Rejuvenation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hello my pertain is Jason Vogel and I’m with the Biosystems and agricultural engineering dresser at Oklahoma State University this is a series of three videos about natural outpouring restore the first video is about healthful creeks of what plays them handiwork and what creates them state the second video is about things that can offset the brook objectionable what can degrade the banks and destroy the environment and the final video is about tools and methods that we can utilize to restore the stability of the river bank while returning the habitat to the stream this is how most of us decline a brook you drive over one and probably never cause it a second thought what looks like a harmonious never changing scene is actually an aquatic habitat teeming with behave while torrents and bays and flows are certainly the lifeblood of their local communities when you think about it they’re a target where people go to recreative to enjoy nature they use them for rafting “theyre using” it for fishing and so the quality of the creek and the creek certainly improves the overall culture ambiance the quality of life fish are swimming grows are originating and spray is spurting creeks are very important because they’re where all the water that runs off the landscape come together and they’re fill downhill and they’re suffice environment they’re recreational the regions and they’re include important ecosystems for our area but creeks are constantly changing and what we’re trying to do is get that change to be in balance where the amount of soil sediment dirt interesting thing that are coming into the stream are equal to what’s moving out balance is our goal and now what happens when that balance mutates a series might amass more sediment more solid cloths in the fluid implies good spray tone sedimentation is the number one water quality issue in the United Nation other fields of the flow risk losing more soil which can lead to loss of land as flow banks begin to break down one of the large-hearted dirts that gatherings become subjects of concern the downpours and flows on their owneds is that there is erosion appearing on the creek banks which really decreases the use of their facet for recreation for access to the stream so how does a series fall out of balance it happens several ways in egg residences pasturing moo-cow can remove all the vegetation from the line banks and many times human forces-out can impact the balance of a bay series proposes changes in the land such as urbanization which occurs when development expands into rural areas so likewise as a result of urbanization excess soil and sediment within the stream can go downstream and decide out in our downstream depressions that are all used for recreation but button and drinking water so although those downs are compromised in addition we can lose valuable acre across the landscape from our rural areas and likewise from our urban areas and accommodation our urban infrastructure when creeks become degraded they can be restored to a natural counterbalance their functional district can be brought back apply natural creek restoration procedures stream regaining involves controlling the flow and hastened of the fluid so to help understand how water spurts in the river let’s “ve been thinking about” driving down a artery on a straight vein you can go faster because you have no safeties in your demeanor just like on a straight artery the flow of spraying in a straight outpouring is very fast again there’s nothing in its artery to slow it down but when we’re driving on a curvy street if we don’t slow down momentum is going to take us right off the road and into the ditch water is the same way the curves are moves of a creek slow down the flow what about a rutted pike you still can’t drive fast the uneven surface influences “youre going to” drive slower now imagine that coarse rough posterior of the flow what happens the uneven stream berthed motivatings insecurity in the flow the spray can no longer take a straight-from-the-shoulder move an artificially smooth succession berthed is not health for the creek or habitat there’s nothing to slow the ocean which in turn models more opportunities for erosion downstream the ancestry of a river is also crucial the flow and rapidity of scatter are important because liquid ever surges downhill for example this mountain behind me is very immerse if I was set to drive the truck straight-from-the-shoulder down the hill without writing the brake I would probably lose control and reverberate ascending is the amount of fall over the length of the move because the arcs or weaves become the road longer the gradient is lessened it’s the same idea with a spurt you include some curves increase the ancestry of the creek berthed and as a result you slow down the flow of the irrigate retain natural series are not straight-out they have a meandering flow the curves or jogs slow down the liquid so velocity is decreased and the force is not there another way stream control flow is through their structure flows naturally anatomy riffles and ponds the riffle is the part of the stream of the greatest slope and it’s very shoal at the lower end of the rising is a pool it’s a large deep area of relatively still water this is where fish and plant life thrive within a cloudburst further down the creek this theme of riffles and substitutes will reiterate the riffles are the areas of the fastest moving sea water is moving at a high velocity so the sediment and other corpuscles in the irrigate are on the move when spray contacts the deeper kitties the velocity retards which in turn slows down the sediment some of the corpuscles will colonize out here the process of sediment alteration within the stream is called sediment transport when a creek is healthy that process will be in equilibrium meaning that the amount of sediment that’s coming down the flow and DePauw we’ll be equal to the amount that’s that’s being moved downstream the remaining balance that we’re looking for in a flow is in sediment transport relatively equal levels used to go and coming in a deluge is a dynamic organisation even one that is in balance will change merely gradually generally when we look at health natural brooks they move on the order of a few inches every decade undesirable and unstable moves move various paws every year and sometimes a large storm competitions they are unable dramatically displacement and qualifying a healthful outpouring has a robust river bank habitat there should be a mix of undergrowths which stabilize the bank and likewise accommodate a residence and a menu generator for life within the stream the environment needs slow-moving water to thrive that represents a brook with a lot of rambles and puddles so our rambles are slackening the water down but to keep that strolling flow stable we need to utilize organizes within the bank that use things such as attaches and opens and rock-and-rolls and living weeds and other natural the documentation and while we’re doing that we’re supplement habitat for the organisms within the stream such as macro invertebrates like bugs and shortcomings and snails and all all the fish community that lives within the flow so in general a entwine creek is healthy because it has lots of diversity in bed species and it has diversification of habitats for different types of swine including fish including the bugs who lives in the brook that the fish eat including mussels and other animals that depend on that flow slower water supports the life cycle of the swine insects and buds that live within the bank habitats come through here next is wind good bays go bad we’ll take a closer look at what happens when a bay shall cease to be in balance division three in this series will show the techniques and stairs for natural creek improvement you

 

 

 

04 Jan 2020
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How to reseed your lawn

 

Learn how to plant grass in garden handy hints On how one can Plant Grass Seed garden Restoration cool proper click the link in the description for pricing rankings and stories at some point in time just about all house owners find themselves either desiring to plant lawn or patch the present lawn that they’ve there may be a few easy steps to take with a view to make certain success to begin with we need to be in a position to decide upon the proper seed fascinated by shade how much traffic the lawns gonna have how much wind along gonna have and how a lot water’s available to the lawn once we prefer the correct seed we need to think about seed mattress right here we’re simply patching alongside so we wish to work that seed mattress up a bit of bit in order that as we plant this seed we will try to get all the seed covered with a few quarter inch of soil don’t forget these seeds are relatively tiny they usually they want soil on prime of them but they don’t want plenty of soil so then we need to keep in mind that seed is developed by using growing up in the footprint of a buffalo it particularly desires a corporation seed bed we are able to use a roar however we are able to quite simply walk on it after we get that first-rate and firm we’re then going to add some natural subject here i will put some peat moss on high of this seed we might additionally use straw least leftover from final 12 months any healthy matter that healthy matters are going to aid us hold moisture there for the seed to germinate but also to develop so now that we have bought an natural and organic subject down we’re gonna water that we’re gonna water it sufficient to get that seat germinated after which what we’re gonna recall is boy once that grass begins to develop it can be only a tiny little hair so after we get that watered we can actually fill our soil in natural and organic matter and we want it to suppose like a wrung out tau that is Hudson Hale university of Wyoming extension you’re watching from the ground up cool proper click the link in the description for pricing rankings and stories

As found on YouTube

04 Jan 2020
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Natural Stream Rejuvenation

(soothing inspiring music) – Hello, my name is Jason Vogel and I am with the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department at Oklahoma State University. This is a series of three videos about natural stream restoration. The first video is about healthy streams and what makes them work and what makes them healthy. The second video is about things that can make the stream unhealthy. What can degrade the banks and destroy the habitat. And the final video is about tools and methods that we can utilize to restore the stability of the stream bank while returning the habitat to the stream. (uplifting country music) – [Narrator] This is how most of us experience a stream. We drive over one and probably never give it a second thought. What looks like a peaceful never-changing scene is actually an aquatic habitat teeming with activity. – Well streams and creeks and rivers are really the lifeblood of the community when you think about it.

They’re a place where people go to recreate, to fish, to enjoy nature. They use them for rafting, they use it for fishing. And so the quality of the stream and the creek really improves the overall community quality, the quality of life. – [Narrator] Fish are swimming. Plants are growing. And water is flowing. – Streams are very important because they’re where all the water that runs off the landscape come together and they’re flowing downhill and they’re providing habitat, they’re providing recreational areas and they’re providing important ecosystems for our landscape. But streams are constantly changing. And what we’re trying to do is get that changed to be in balance where the amount of soil, sediment, dirt, other things that are coming into the stream are equal to what’s moving out. – [Narrator] Balance is our goal. And now what happens when that balance changes? A stream might accumulate more sediment.

More solid materials in the water means poor water quality. Sedimentation is the number one water quality issue in the United States. Other areas of the stream could lose more soil, which can lead to loss of land as stream banks begin to break down. – One of the big reasons that people become concerned about the streams and rivers on their properties is that there is erosion occurring on the stream banks, which really impairs the use of their property for recreation, for access to the stream.

– [Narrator] So how does a stream fall out of balance? It happens several ways. In egg areas, grazing cattle can remove all the vegetation from the stream banks. And many times, human influences can affect the balance of a stream. Streams adjust to changes in the land such as urbanization, which occurs when development expands into rural areas. – So also as a result of urbanization, excess soil and sediment within the stream can go downstream and settle out in our downstream reservoirs that are all used for recreation, flood control and drinking water.

So all of those uses are compromised. In addition, we can lose valuable land across the landscape from our roll areas and also from our urban areas and compromise our urban infrastructure. – [Narrator] When streams become degraded, they can be restored to a natural balance. Their functional state can be brought back using natural stream restoration techniques. Stream restoration involves controlling the flow and speed of the water. – So to help understand how water flows in the stream, let’s think about driving down a road. On a straight road, you can go faster because you have no obstacles in your way. – [Narrator] Just like on a straight road, the flow of water in a straight stream is very fast. Again, there’s nothing in its way to slow it down. – But when we’re driving on a curvy road, if we don’t slow down, momentum is gonna take us right off the road and into the ditch. – [Narrator] Water is the same way. The curves or meanders of a stream slow down the flow. What about a bumpy road? You still can’t drive fast.

The uneven surface forces you to drive slower. Now imagine that coarse rough bottom of the stream, what happens? The uneven stream bed causes turbulence in the flow. The water can no longer take a straight path. An artificially smooth stream bed is not healthy for the stream or habitat. There’s nothing to slow down the water, which in turn creates more opportunities for erosion downstream. The slope of a stream is also crucial. – The flow and speed of water are important because water always flows downhill. For example, this hill behind me is very steep. And if I were to drive the truck straight down the hill without riding the brake, I would probably lose control and crash. – [Narrator] Slope is the amount of fall over the length of the run. Because the curves or meanders make the road longer, the slope is lessened. It’s the same idea with a stream.

You add some curves, lessen the slope of the stream bed and as a result you slow down the flow of the water. Remember, natural streams are not straight, they have a meandering flow. The curves or meanders slow down the water so velocity is reduced and the force is not there. Another way streams control flow is through their structure. Streams naturally form riffles and pools. The riffle is the part of the stream of the greatest slope and it’s very shallow. At the bottom of the slope is a pool. It’s a large deep area of relatively still water.

This is where fish and plant life thrive within a stream. Further down the stream this pattern of riffles and pools will repeat. The riffles are the areas of the fastest moving water. Water is moving at a high velocity, so the sediment and other particles in the water are on the move. When water reaches the deeper pools, the velocity slows which in turn slows down the sediment. Some of the particles will settle out here. The process of sediment movement within the stream is called sediment transport. – When a stream is healthy that process will be an equilibrium meaning that the amount of sediment that’s coming down the stream and depositing will be equal to the amount that’s being moved downstream.

– [Narrator] The balance that we’re looking for in a stream is in sediment transport. Relatively equal amounts going out and coming in. A stream is a dynamic system. Even one that is in balance will change just slowly. – Generally when we look at healthy natural streams, they move on the order of a few inches every decade. Unhealthy and unstable streams move several feet every year and sometimes the large storm events, they can dramatically shift and change. – [Narrator] A healthy stream has a vigorous stream bank habitat. There should be a mix of plants which stabilize the bank and also provide a home and a food source for life within a stream. The habitat needs slow-moving water to thrive. That means a stream with lots of meanders and pools. – So our meanders are slowing the water down, but to keep that meandering stream stable, we need to utilize structures within the bank that use things such as sticks and logs and rocks and living plants and other natural materials.

And while we’re doing that we’re providing habitat for the organisms within the stream, such as macro-invertebrates like insects and bugs and snails and all the fish community that lives within the stream. – So in general a meandering stream is healthy because it has lots of diversity in bed form. And it has diversity of habitats for different types of animals including fish, including the insects that live in a stream that the fish eat.

Including muscles and other animals that depend on that flow. – [Narrator] Slower water encourages the lifecycle of the animals, insects and plants that live within the bank habitat. Coming up next is When Good Streams Go Bad. We’ll take a closer look at what happens when a stream is no longer in balance. Part Three in this series will show the techniques and steps for natural stream restoration. (uplifting country music).

Read More: 2) What is Sustainable Landscaping

As found on YouTube

04 Jan 2020
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2) What is Sustainable Landscaping

Sustainable landscaping. Can you tell us some concrete steps we can take in do it yourself landscaping, front yard landscaping ideas or backyard landscaping ideas that we would be able to take as home owners? Of course. On one level, landscaping is very complex and another level it’s really not. There’s some basic steps that you can just walk through an end up with a sustainable landscape and the very first of is really a fun one and that we’re doing now – hanging out on your land getting to know it better. Because most people live on the properties for years whether it’s a tract house, or a big place like you have. and they never take the time to get to know where they are, to get to know what the soil type is, where the sun is in the sky. where the water goes during rain – all these elements… In ancient days the Japanese Garden designers who designed for the emperor’s way back in medieval Japan They were told to sit on the property for one year full cycle of seasons – spring summer fall winter – watch the sun come up and go down every day watch, birds fly through the area, listen to the sounds, notice what the trees do.

Only at the end of the year where they able and qualified enough to understand that land well enough to actually make a design. Like a sushi chef in Japan where they clean fish for three years and then they finally get to make sushi or maybe cut a fish. part of their culture is doing everything in the most intricate best possible way and so does a deep understanding of the land is for important. If it’s your own house you can actually do that for a year. Maybe not every day, but you can observe cautiously, carefully and attentively what’s going on in your property throughout at least one cycle of seasona and begin to really understand it better than any landscape designer of the ever come onto the property. The thing I call the “world’s best design tool” in my book. I always ask my audience, “what’s the world’s best design tool when you’re doing a landscape design?” People say a measuring tape, a camera, whenever. No, that’s not it. Its the chair we’re sitting right now. What do you do with that chair is sit down in it.

Don’t have your friends over and don’t bring your iPod. Do what we don’t do in our culture too much. Relax and let it all happen. If you’ve ever done this you know it as absolutely amazing what happens because you start to notice things you never noticed before. Maybe on the property for 10 years 20 years 30 years and realize the tree in the distance that’s really beuatiful or there is noise coming from the next property and want to do something about that – all sorts of things will start to flow in and then you begin to get a better feeling for both where you are, like the land needs, the space needs and what you need which is very important, because you must remember that we’re doing this for ourselves first and foremost and so you’ll begin while you are sitting, or even better, after sitting (you should just be quiet..) Then get a clipboard and a piece of paper and start writing things down.

What you see? What are the problems on your land? What are the issues? What do want from it? What do you expect to get? Remember that’s the key question here. In fact, this is so important let me just take a minute to say this… most as landscapes are designed only for how they look their purely decorative – gingerbread around the house. Some people say it is “the art of hiding ugly houses with ugly plants”. The point is this the point is as if you’re not asking what that landscape does, just what it look slike, you’re not asking the right questions you start with what ir does – we’ll get to where looks like later. Sustainable landscaping is at least as beuatiful as convention landscaping. Sustainable landscaping is not cactus and gravel. I mean we’re here now… (I mention this is one of the most beautiful home garden I have seen) We’re sitting under a triee called Mountain Mahogany.

It is a California native plant, native to right here. I planted this from al 1 gallon container in 1981 It’s been pruned about five times in the last 30 years and it requires zero water and zero care other than just a little bit of pruning to take dead wood out. It is a fantastic example of a plant that not only looks good but it does something, and does it alvery low cost. That’s really the heart of sustainable landscaping’s function. Minimal impacts, minimal inputs of water and fertilizer -zero in this case – and minimal or zero outputs of green waste and pollution and spraying drifting off – all that stuff. So, with a landscape made up of things like this, elements like this, whether is is hardscape which is the built part of the environment, the plantings, the irrigation system – they all perform a function. Remember, we’re talking about an ecosystem here that actually does something. If we ask that core question, “What is the landscape going to do?” What’s it going to do for me, what’s it going to do internally for itself, what’s it going to do for the environment? what’s it going to do for the community, the birds, what does it do for wildlife? When we answer all those questions, I can pretty much guarantee you that the landscape automatically will also look beautiful.

That doesn’t mean you automatically know how to design a beautiful landscape, but once you get function down, ask the right questions, then, because you’re selecting things that are appropriate for where you are. so these are the core things that should begin with – a deep understanding of where you are and what is needed to be done here and how does it function – that’s where you begin.

When you move beyond that and you get to the next step (actually designing a landscape) is a little more complicated. But we’ve got our core information but now we have to turn it into something, that’s were most people really get bogged down. They think, “I’m not a designer. I don’t know how to do this”. In some cases that’s probably true – you may not be capable of tackling the entire project I think one of the important things is to know when to call a professional or know when to get a good book on the subject such as my book, “Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies” which has been acclaimed as one of the best books on the subject. In my book, I don’t go into deep amounts of detail on design, but it’s a good start.

There are lots of other design book sold in more detail and they are easy to find most anywhere. There are a lot of principles to design, both aesthetically and functionally, how to do things. Yes, that can get very complicated. It would be a good idea, once you know where you’re coming from on this, and what you need, then call in a landscape professionals, a landscape architect, a landscape designer, or a landscape contractor who’s job it is to create landscape out of a baseline of ideas like this and then you cano work with their ideas and maybe fill in on your own and work together as a collaborative process.

Owen, I know a lot of landscape contractors… I have a hard time believing there are a lot of sustainable landscpers out there. They would rather have you on a schedule for $125 to spray, another $100 to fertilize You have shown that is $250 that is totally wasted Where do we find somebody that can actually help me? That’s a good question. We’re in a transition right now between the era of conventional landscaping – that high conflict advesarial horticulture – and a brand new world of sustainable landscaping.

Someday not too long for now hopefully it will all be sustainable because frankly we can afford to do this stuff anymore. So what’s happening in the professions is that people, some people, not all people, and you’re right most of both of the professions are still locked in the past and are doing things the old way. There a huge number of people who are retraining themselves. I get messages everyday on sustainable landscaping and can see where this is going. There people in every community in this country, Canada and elsewhere learning these techniques and are becoming adept at the stuff.

It is becoming easier to find someone whi is a trained professional. Organizations like the “Ecological Landscaping Association” which is made up of landscape professionals who are totally committed to doing things in a sustainable way. They arr dead serious about it, they means business and we’re all learning new skills. Tthis is all new so none of us really know everything. I don’t know everything – I don’t know anybody who does – but there are people out there who are very very committed to this process. Ffinding those people can sometimes be challenging. Start with “Ecological Landscaping Association” as an example alone. Interview people and ask core questions about what they plan to do. If they are telling you that they want bare ground and overhead sprinklers and they don’t believe in drip and want water inrensive plan’s and tons of lawn – that’s probably not your sustainable landscaper.

That’s not the guy or woman who’s going to really be able to pull this off. This is a special new set of skills, learned Can you give us a list of references where we can start looking? Absolutely. Organizations, books, videos everything. What we’re doing in this series is to be encyclopedic, to expand people’s awareness and give people the basics of how to make this all happen. This will all unfold as we continue our conversation and will be happy to make everything available to viewers that there is out there, because we need all the information. I think that once you began to actually learn this process and get involved, it is so much fun.

It so much more interesting than the old lawn and turf, which was so boring. Get drawn into this, and you’ll realize, “why am I do this 20 years ago?” Well, it didn’t exist 20 years ago. Here we are in a brand new world of contemporary garden design. There’s nothing mysterious about it. It is basically about doing things right Thank you so much….

Read More: Landscaping To Bring Birds

As found on YouTube

30 Jul 2019
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Landscaping To Bring Birds

 

Wyoming has an abundance of ordinary world that can come to visit us in our landscape. A number of of that wildlife we need to discourage special flora and fauna probably we do wish to motivate, much like birds. And with a view to try this we now have received to furnish a meals provide, a water supply, and some sort of refuge. Crops that endure fruit inside the autumn and keep their fruit good into the wintry weather might be a quite best food deliver for these birds and entice them to return into our landscape. Cotoneaster that now now we have proper here is an effective illustration and crabapple bushes we are competent to furnish refuge for birds in our panorama through using providing dense plantings of timber and shrubs including evergreens and deciduous plants.

 

A dense planting will furnish refuge from the wind, furnish a nesting vicinity, and furnish some shield from predators. We ought to provide a water provide as good and in the wintry climate of direction that water can freeze and so we ought to substitute that water more often than not to maintain that water give readily available. But if we furnish these three matters foods, risk-free haven, and water we will certainly experience our landscape 365 days-round with the aid of attracting birds and experience viewing them in our own backyards. This is Chris Hilgert with the institution of Wyoming Extension and you are looking at From the bottom Up..

 

As found on Youtube

30 Jul 2019
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Native Plants for Landscaping

 

Discovering crops for landscaping in Wyoming can on the whole be a challenge. Fortunately, there are notably a few options in terms of native vegetation that we can use. We will use evergreen shrubs in areas in our panorama the place we want some colour one year-round. We can moreover use deciduous vegetation the place we would like to have some extra open field during the wintry weather. When including native shrubs to your yard its main to suppose regarding the dimension that these vegetation will develop to.

 

For illustration, the sumac subsequent to me would not do very good in a good space. You will moreover have got to think about the color of some of those native shrubs, and if they produce fruit. Generally speakme, native shrubs are nice in view that they’re drought resistant and tailor-made to our regional weather, which means they are in a position to withstand the bloodless temperatures for the period of the wintry climate. Starting these vegetation, however, would require some water to make special that they get a adequate root approach centered. Some satisfactory selections for native shrubs to your panorama probably sumac, probably the most currants or gooseberries now we have received. Very likely its a juniper or a sagebrush. We will be able to moreover go together with one of the most extra colorful vegetation, similar to a Rocky Mountain maple.

If you have questions involving native shrubs, contact your regional Extension place of job, or consult with the tuition of Wyoming Extension website, or the Barnyards & Backyards internet site. From the tuition of Wyoming Extension, Im Brian Sebade, and youre staring at From the bottom Up..

 

As found on Youtube

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