Summer. In the next issue: A Closer Look. Fall. Two Common Lawn Diseases. Fall Container Ideas. Holiday Decor. Preparing for Winter.

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1 September 2014 Landscape Artisan Summer 2014 A Closer Look Two Common Lawn Diseases Landscape Artisans June 2014 Landscape Artisan Dollar Spot 1. Small circular spots 1-5 inches in diameter that can merge to form irregular areas 2. Dewy grass will display a white cob-webby fungus and blades of grass will display a straw-colored lesion. 3. Can appear when days are warm with high humidity and nights are cool. Disease also likes high nitrogen applications in fall and neutral or alkaline ph balances. 4. To prevent, reduce shade and improve soil aeration and drainage. Avoid excessive fall nitrogen applications, improve soil ph to , and water deeply and infrequently. Red Thread 1. Pink web of fungal threads bind grass blades together. Look for pink crusts projecting from leaves, known as sclerotia. 2. This disease likes mild temps and extended periods of leaf wetness. Nitrogen deficiency and drought stress are contributing factors. 3. To prevent, apply adequate nitrogen which can keep red thread under control and provide adequate air circulation. Water to prevent drought stress by utilizing nighttime irrigation (to avoid leaf wetness during the day) and do not water in late afternoon or early evening. In the next issue: Landscape Artisans Landscape Artisan Fall Container Ideas Landscape Artisans Fall Holiday Decor Preparing for Winter Published by: The Schumacher Companies, Inc. Corporate Address: 392 Pleasant Street West Bridgewater, MA Cape Cod Address: 93 Stony Hill Road Chatham, MA info@dschumacher.com tel: fax: Summer All Rights Reserved

2 What s Trending? Lawn and garden spending is up for 2014 and bold colors, comfortable spaces, and value are at the top of our shopping lists. our cookout and the game on, too. Throw in a beautiful outdoor rug, some garden art and ornaments, and even a water feature and we can build a room that can t be found anywhere inside our homes. Not only are we selecting outdoor furniture and accessories based on their value, we re also choosing our plants this way. According to the US Dept. of Agriculture, the sale of perennials has increased over the last decade whereas the sale of annuals, which need to be replaced seasonally, has decreased in that same amount of time. This isn t to say that annual use is disappearing, only that we are finding more value in perennial use. For instance, many designers are using woody shrubs as centerpieces in containers. Hydrangea, This patio reflects many of today s trends: comfortable and stylish furniture, flower pots filled with bold and vibrant colors, and a water feature to provide a visual and auditory experience. Note the additional seating area in the background. Opening the french doors essentially makes this patio an extension of the indoor spaces. An outdoor fireplace, like its indoor counterpart, provides warmth and a focal point to any living space. Since its chimney allows it to direct smoke up and away from guests, it is a better option than a fire pit in windy locales. According to the Garden Media Group s study on consumer spending last year, North Americans spent more on their lawn and gardens ($58 billion) than on their pets ($53 billion), weddings ($42 billion) or casinos (36.4 billion). Fueling this spending is our desire to extend our living spaces outside into our gardens and patios. We are spending more time outdoors and, as a result, are decorating our outdoor spaces with as much care and thought as our interiors. And we are looking for the same comfort and quality in our lawn and garden purchases as we are in our interior choices. Outdoor furniture and accessories are being sold at record levels and leading the way are items that are comfortable, fade-resistant, and durable. Developments in all-weather fabrics and corrosive-resistant materials mean our furniture can be left outside almost year-round without losing its quality and value - no more bringing in the cushions when the sun goes down. And more and more of us are installing fire pits, outdoor fireplaces, exterior heaters, and lamps. We re spending more time outdoors and more of that time at night, socializing with family and friends. Consequently, we re also enhancing these spaces with the same technology and decor we enjoy inside our homes. Wireless technology is bringing high quality audio to every corner of our properties, and we re even installing all-weather televisions so we can have This large container displays a spring planting. Note the use of the holly as a centerpiece. When this pot receives a summer rotation, the holly will be removed and used in a foundation planting next to tghe building. 1 2

3 Summer 2014 boxwood, rhododendron, and Japanese maples are just a few of the plants that can be placed in a container and then be transplanted into your garden at a later time. And although annual flower sales are down, current design trends are ensuring that we are getting as much visual impact as ever. Current annual color sales are being dominated by bold, vibrant, and even neon colors. Variegated foliage and bicolor flower sales are also higher than they have been in years. Massed into large non-circular shapes, these bright colors have a visual impact that surpasses their numbers. varying sizes can be grouped together on a patio to create a generous flower display where a flower bed could not exist. Outdoor design trends are showing us how to create rooms outside our homes that can delight, comfort, and entertain. As we create rooms outside without walls, we are commingling our homes with nature. As Mexican architect Luis Barragan believed, I don t divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one. Green Walls Developments in hydroponic technology are allowing architecture and nature to commingle in new and exciting ways. Trends in container design are also dominated by this desire for value and impact. Containers are now made from a variety of materials and items not just your classic round ceramic pots. For instance, numerous pots of varying sizes can be placed on an old ladder or in an old wagon. In many cases, the old wagon itself is used as a container. Additionally, three similar pots of Left: Bright, variegated leaves provide a large visual impact in a small container. Top: Flower pots arranged along this seating wall provide color to this expansive patio with firepit. Bottom: This outdoor kitchen provides all of the accessories necessary to prepare a meal. including ample counter space for food prep and casual dining. St. James Park Boston, MA Vertical gardens Pericón Square Málaga, Spain Facade of Les Halles Avignon, France Until recently, if we wanted to place plants or flowers within or without our homes we ve used flower pots, hanging baskets, and plant beds. All of these choices are governed by the plants need for soil, which is necessary for the delivery of water and nutrients to the plant. Recent improvements in hydroponics and planting media, however, are allowing us to rethink how and where we can grow plants. Most notably has been the development of green or living walls, structural elements that bring not only a new aesthetic to homes and urban areas, but environmental benefits as well. Living walls, also called Green walls, are simply walls on which vegetation grows. They can be placed inside our homes and buildings or outside as part of a building s external facade. Living walls can be as small as the windows in your kitchen or can span over half an acre, as does the exterior of the Los Cabos International Convention Center in Mexico. Found in schools, restaurants, homes, on building facades, and in corporate offices, living walls blur the lines between the natural and man-made worlds, allowing us to integrate nature into our living spaces on a larger and more vertical scale than ever before. continued on page 9 3 4

4 Spring 2014 The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side. A lush green lawn like this one is a delicate balancing act involving the type of grass, the amounts of food & water, and even mowing methods. What happens when that balance is thrown out of order and what can we do to avoid letting that happen? Healthier 3 8

5 Summer 2014 No other element of your landscape has a greater impact on its beauty than your lawn. A green, lush lawn can make any landscape look good, and yet a distressed lawn can make even the most well-gardened landscape look bad. Unfortunately, if conditions are favorable, any disease-producing organism can cause damage to your lawn. The good news is that these diseases only act under favorable conditions and as soon as those conditions change, the lawn recovers on its own. If conditions don t change, however, and the disease is allowed to persist, then damage can be more extensive and your lawn may take much longer to recover. There are herbicides that can help mitigate the effects of lawn diseases, but they re not always effective and they can kill as many beneficial organisms as damaging ones. The best way to battle these diseases, then, is to control your lawn s environment so they never get a foothold. There are three things you can do to improve your lawn s ability to mitigate disease-producing organisms: 1) plant the correct lawn varieties for your area, 2) utilize correct feeding and watering patterns, and 3) ensure that correct mowing practices are upheld. Planting the right grass varieties for your climate is the first step you can take to avoid weather-related stresses. Cool season grasses such as fine fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass do well in cooler climates. They grow well in spring and fall, although they suffer somewhat in the very hot summers. Warm weather grasses such as Zoysia, Bermuda grass, and St. Augustine, on the other hand, do well in hot and humid climates. When the weather turns cold and nears freezing, however, they quickly go dormant and are subsequently slow to green up in the spring. Too much food and water can negatively affect your lawn as much as too little food and water can. All lawn fertilizers contain nitrogen, which greens up your lawn, but they also contain mineral salts. Excessive use of fertilizers causes mineral salts build up in soil, making it much more difficult for grass to absorb water. In these cases, lawns dehydrate and burn. Excessive nitrogen also directs much of your lawn s energy and nutrients away from root development to leaf production. Consequently, these underdeveloped roots are less efficient at absorbing water and nutrients, a condition which essentially starves the lawn. Of course, not enough nitrogen also leads to poor root development and leaf growth. Fescue grass - a cool season grass found throughout the Northeast. Zoysia grass - a warm season grass common in the Southeast United States. Notice the deep root system found in this turf. Deep roots such as these are more drought resistant than shallow roots. Frequent short watering periods inhibits this type of growth. A well-maintained lawn allows us to focus on these these beautiful perennial beds. Distressed lawns tend to distract us from the focal points within our landscapes designs. We ve all seen the consequences to a lawn that does not receive enough water, but running irrigation too often also leads to an unhealthy lawn. Grasses in lawns that are watered too often do not need to reach their roots down vertically into the soil in search of water. As a result, they develop a shallow root system, which is less resistant to high heat and drought conditions and less able to draw and absorb nutrients from the soil. A healthy watering program is one that waters less frequently and more deeply (for a longer period of time), ensuring that your lawn reaches down into the soil in search of water. There is also a direct correlation between root depth and grass height, so the higher you cut your lawn, the deeper its roots will grow. This doesn t mean that you should let your yard become a hay field, only that you should mow it at a height of at least 3.5 inches and preferably inches. Other factors that can affect lawn health include dog urine, compaction, herbicides, poor drainage, insect damage, extreme temperatures, and deep thatch layers. People often mistake the layer of dead, matted grass that sits on top of their lawn s soil as thatch; this is not the case. The thatch layer is constructed of partially decomposed organic material (roots, stems, crowns, stolons, rhizomes) and sits at the soil s surface. The thatch layer is extremely beneficial and acts like a mulch layer for grass by insulating roots against extreme temperature swings and by reducing the loss of water vapor. Too much thatch, however, can impede the absorption of water and oxygen into the soil. Diseases like Red Thread, Dollar Spot, and Leaf Spot are all knocking at the door waiting for an opening to attack and infest your lawn. Correct mowing, watering, and fertilizing practices will keep these and other diseases at bay and ensure that you have a healthy, lush, green lawn year after year. 7 8

6 Summer 2014 continued from page 4 What s until the early 2000 s. In reality though, it was Stanley The invention of Living walls has often been attributed to French Botanist Patrick Blanc, whose work began in the late 80 s but didn t really gain momentum Hart White, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who first developed the idea of a man-made wall of living plants when he patented a product named botanical bricks in Professor White created a solid media that could Trending? deliver water and nutrients and allow for healthy root development without literally falling apart. Because it was solid and could be stacked, walls of vegetation developments in planting media and hydroponics have could Lawn be created and in numerous garden applications. In the 70 years since Professor White introduced his invention, spending is up for made the idea of walls of vegetation a reality. There are now numerous ways that we can create vegetated walls, 2014 from simple and shelving bold and trellis colors, systems that are hand-watered, to elaborate fiber mat systems with wa- comfortable spaces, creating living walls, there are currently three dominant designs: loose media, mat media, and structural and value are at the top media. of Loose our media shopping walls utilize plant bags lists. or containers ter circulation. But for all the different ways people are that hold soil and plants and are attached to the wall. Some loose media walls are made of trays that hold standard 4-5 pots, which are placed within the trays extending out at an angle of 45 degrees. The advantage of a loose media wall resides in the ease with which plant material can be swapped out. Unfortunately, they are quite messy and need their soils to be replaced at annual intervals. For these reasons, loose media walls are best when kept small, although some large shelf systems have been used successfully. Shelf systems involve the use of vines and other creeping plants that are grown in planter boxes and are trained to climb a trellis framework. These trellises are attached to a building facade with enough space between the wall and framework for maintenance personnel to walk behind and tend to the planters. By layering these trellises vertically, a wall of green can be created without fear that the plants will damage the building s facade. x Mat systems involve the use of felt or fiber mats in thin and sometimes multiple layers. Plants root in the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mats, and water and nutrients are wicked through them. No soil is used so they are much more stable than loose soil systems, and when plants mature Urban Garden Montreuil, France Vertical According Garden to the Garden Media Group s study on Ecuador consumer spending last year, North Americans spent more on their lawn and gardens ($58 billion) than on their pets ($53 billion), weddings ($42 billion) or casinos (36.4 billion). Fueling this spending is our desire to extend our living spaces outside into our gardens and patios. We are spending more time outdoors and, as a result, are decorating our outdoor spaces with as much care and thought as our interiors. And we are looking for the same comfort and quality in our lawn and garden purchases as we are in our interior choices. Longwood Gardens Outdoor furniture and accessories are being sold Kennett Square, PA, at record levels and leading the way are items that Musée du quai Branly Paris, France Caixa Forum Madrid, that are Spain comfortable, fade-resistant, and durable. Developments in all-weather fabrics and corrosive-resistant materials mean our furniture can be left outside almost year-round without losing its quality and value - no more bringing in the cushions when the sun goes down. And more and more of us are installing fire pits, outdoor fireplaces, exterior heaters, and lamps. We re spending more time outdoors and more of that time at night, socializing with family and friends. Consequently, we re also enhancing these spaces with the same technology and decor we enjoy inside our homes. Wireless technology is bringing high quality audio to every corner of our properties, and we re even installing all-weather televisions so we can have yond the ability of the mat to support them, the plants our cookout can be removed and the game by cutting on, too. out the Throw mat and in a replacing beautiful it outdoor with a new rug, piece. some These garden systems, art and however, ornaments, handle even very a large water or feature mature and plants we which can build will cannot rip a room the mat. that In can t addition, be found they anywhere are very inefficient inside our in delivering homes. water and consequently need continuous watering. Not only are we selecting outdoor furniture and Structural accessories media based systems, on their on the value, other we re hand, also possess choosing the best our qualities plants of this loose way. and According mat systems. to the These US systems Dept. of involve Agriculture, the use the of a sale stable of growth perennials media has which are produced in blocks that can stand on site for 10- increased over the last decade whereas the sale of 15 years before needing to be replaced. Due to their annuals, which need to be replaced seasonally, has density, these blocks deliver water more efficently than fiber decreased or mat in systems. that same Installation amount involves of time. growing This isn t the plants to say off that location annual in use blocks is disappearing, that have been only taliored that to meet we are the finding nutritional more needs value of in the perennial selected plants. use. For When the instance, plants many have matured designers and are are using able to woody withstand shrubs the as centerpieces weather conditions in containers. that prevail Hydrangea, at the site (strong winds, seismic activity) the blocks are then installed into a wall frame attached to the building s facade. In time, when pieces need to be replaced, the affected areas can be cut out and replaced with another block. Although their initial cost is higher than the other two types of living walls, structural media systems offer a greater value founded on their stability, efficient water delivery, and ease of block replacement. Living walls have numerous applications but their greatest impact may lie in urban areas where they provide tremendous environmental benefits in addition to their visual impact. Urban areas suffer from what is known as the urban heat island effect, where urban heat signatures can differ from their rural counterparts by as much as 22 degrees. Since plants can absorb and utilize solar radiation while increasing in temperature only four to five degrees, living walls in urban areas can have a dramatic impact on the urban heat island effect. In addition, living walls insulate against external temperatures and noise, driving down cooling and heating costs, and creating quiet spaces for work and living. Soon, the work begun by Professor White over 75 years ago may become a commonplace inclusion in home design and urban planning. Perhaps in a few years interior designers will ask us what plant scheme we d x like to use instead of what paint color. Maybe urban planners will create sight lines to green walls sintead of billboards. The aesthetic possibilities that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx living walls present, like their environmental benefits, are endless