ET Irrigation Controllers and Managers

We all have a shared responsibility to use our potable water intelligently when it comes to irrigation.  The need to conserve water has never been greater and more of us are looking at ways to maximize our irrigation systems and conserve water.  The only way to combat ET is with accurate, up to date weather information that is communicated to your irrigation controller.  ET, evapotranspiration, is water lost to the atmosphere as a combined result of plant transpiration and evaporation from the soil.  ET is affected by solar radiation, wind speed, air temperature and relative humidity.

Imbalance of moisture occurs when there is a disparity between water lost (ET) and water gained (rainfall / irrigation) and since the majority of irrigation controllers are time based, this leads to over-watering and wasteful use of our precious resource, water.  “Smart” controllers rely on the data you provide for each watering zone, including geographical positioning (North, East, South, and West), the type of vegetation (trees, shrubs, groundcovers, annuals) along maturation of vegetation, and soil type.  Once this data has been downloaded, the ET controller manages when and how much / often water needs to be applied.  This formula promotes healthy plants and eliminating over-watering; no more watering when it is raining, below freezing, and forgetting to seasonally adjust your timed controller.

There are a wide variety of smart controllers including ET Manager Series, a powerful management solution that works with virtually any existing controller, converting a conventional irrigation system into a weather-smart, accurate, real-time weather, water conserving system.

ET Manager Systems operate differently than the ET Smart Controller as it receives weather updates hourly from a weather signal provider. As the weather changes, your ET Manager driven controller will apply water only when needed, maintaining the optimum moisture balance in your soil, deeper root systems and a healthier landscape.

There are many regions that contain by-laws and tax credits that all new landscape irrigation must by ET controller based, making this the new standard in weather-smart irrigation.  ET controllers and ET Managers are smart and responsible in water conservation and provide peace of mind in knowing you can irrigate correctly as the water scarcity continues to deepen. 

Now is the time to water intelligently.

Creating a Medicinal Berry Garden

Berries are rewarding in many ways, from watching the plants flower through developing fruit until harvest and knowing that berries are a source for food and medicinal purposes.  The berry plant family is wide and complex, including many plants we don’t normally consider berries, edible or not, with more than one seed and skin.     

Deciding what berry species you are intending to plant along with the space you intend to grow them are as important as the medicinal purpose in which you will utilize them.  Herbs and berries share the same definition of an herb, “plants used by man for food or physic or for aromatic, cosmetic, or dyeing use” (Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs) and are appropriately grouped together in some garden settings.

Medicinally, berries such as Vaccinum, Ribes and Rubus sp. offer wide varieties to grow with a wide variety of medicinal uses.  Blueberries and Bilberry, part of the Vaccinium family along with wild cranberries, are rich in arbutin, a chemical that prevents the E. coli bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract.  Unsweetened blueberry juice can be used effectively for bladder problems as cranberry juice is commonly known for.  Blueberries nurture and protect the eyes and blood vessels, protect against ulcers and the leaves (one cup of boiling water with 2 cups of dried leaves) of the blueberry plant can help lower or modify blood sugar. 

Bilberries, part of the Vaccinum family, are currently enjoying more popularity in Europe than in North America.  It is a specie of blueberry that is typically found in lower elevations and like a high acid pH (5.0 – 5.6) soil.  After WWII, certain RAF pilots reported improved night vision after consuming bilberry jam and bilberries help with a variety of vision problems including cataracts and macular degeneration.  Eating the berries fresh is good for constipation while consuming dried bilberry fruit will remedy diarrhea.

The Rubus family contains the well utilized and enjoyed blackberry and raspberry.  Both are rich in vitamin C and the leaves of the blackberry contain ellagic acid, which is a anti-carcinogenic.  A study in Europe recommends an infusion of blackberry leaves for diarrhea, sore throats and mouth ulcers and an infusion of one ounce dried leaves to one pint of just boiled water steeped for under 20 minutes.

The raspberry leaves have been a pregnancy tonic for centuries as it strengthens and tones the uterus (avoid during first trimester) and the usual dose during pregnancy is one cup of tea a day.  Other century old uses of raspberry leaves include the aiding of menstrual problems and easing bee stings.

The Ribes families are slightly underutilized compared to the counterparts just mentioned, but have proven medicinal values in fighting colds and coughs, and black currant syrup and jellies are a few ways to prepare it.  The black currant berries are high in vitamin C and potassium, improving resistance to infection and are perfect to combat colds and flues.  Red currants when made into a jelly have an antiseptic effect preventing blisters and ease the discomfort of a burn if applied quickly enough.  Elderberry has a long history of uses, from wine to jelly, and is best known for combating the flu and new studies show inspiring results in trials involving herpes and HIV.

For more information on all types of berries and their growing conditions and other medicinal uses, consult the guide Backyard Fruits and Berries (Rodale Press).

Sanctuary for Your Soul- Creating a Contemplative Garden

The garden provides us with food, flowers, fragrance, colors and textures.   We tend to them with patience and care in knowing it will return with abundant yields.  The garden can equally serve as a sanctuary for our soul, as a place to retreat from the world and its worries, creating our own sacred place.

Contemplative gardens such as the rich tradition of the Zen Buddhist gardens in Japan, nurture the soul with simplicity for quiet reflection and reprieve.  This “place”, this outdoor space of simplicity, austerity and balance, will allow us to be present to the given moment as it unfolds and embark on a personal journey; a journey that will mature and expand as your garden grows.  The act of garden maintenance, such as removing fallen leaves, maintaining gravel pathways and light pruning becomes a form of meditation, allowing you and the contemplative garden to become one with the natural surroundings. 

As you begin to map out different “rooms” of your sanctuary, take time to reflect on your natural elements, ones that soothe your inner being.  Maybe it is a stand of trees that remind you of your childhood days climbing dogwoods or maples trees.  Maybe you recall the love of the ocean or creeks you visited and you wish to incorporate the sound of tricking water.  Remember, a contemplative garden should be simple, such as a grouping of aromatic lavender next to a bench should assist in centering your thoughts on a hectic day.  Simple elements that speak to you and your soul are the foundation of this place, reconnecting you with your inner being.

As a meandering pathway creates anticipation, so should your contemplative garden.  Your layout should be mindful and deliberate, a new perspective for each visitor, encouraging visitors to slow down and observe the features of your space.  Process the planning stages slowly, observing the area in which this sanctuary for your soul will be located.  Revisit the area repetitively over a period of time as you may discover a pre-existing element in a different light that could be incorporated into your garden, such as a native boulder outcropping or a fallen limb from a nearby tree.

Embark on creating your emotional, meditative and transcendent retreat focusing on the mainstay of your garden, the central core.  It could be a grove of trees providing the central core of energy and provides shade on a hot day for your spot of reflection and consider what shape of tree or types of trees have that hold the most significance for you in the process.

In a traditional Japanese garden, there was a structure such as a hut or a pergola at the end of a meandering path where tea was served, but a hut can simply be a wooden bench nestled under or amongst your grove of trees providing a place to rest.  Incorporating a screen of shrubs and trees that defines the perimeter of your retreat will create your sacred realm, a sense of place that is safe and secure.

As in all garden design, creating the sense of entry is one of the most important pieces as it identifies a place in which you move from one world to another.  This threshold can be formal with an archway or stone pillars covered in vegetation or as subtle as a well manicured meadow between two places, allowing a time to decompress and for eager anticipation of what awaits in your sanctuary.  Creating simple topography changes within the garden, such as a subtle, rolling berm planted with waterwise fescue grass creates higher ground, a feeling of clear vision and a fresh perspective.  If there is not sufficient space within your garden to dedicate to this rolling berm, the fallen tree limb or stack of vertical flat stones will help in creating this sacred mount and as Aristotle wrote The Soul never thinks without a mental picture.

Resources:  Moir Messervy, Julie

The Inward Garden and Contemplative Gardens

Keane, Marc P.

Japanese Garden Design

Modifying Wind for Cool Season Landscape Design Purposes

As wind moves through your landscape, it is modified by buildings, tree canopies and other solid and porous objects.  In cool season wind areas, the greater the difference in temperature between the air and the object, the greater the cooling effect and in winter when the temperature difference between a person and the air is at a maximum, modifying wind can reduce “windchill”.  This means that landscape designs for areas to be used in cool seasons, such as an outdoor living area, should focus on reducing wind speed by creating a wind block.

Of all the elements in a landscape to characterize and control through design, both biologically and physically, wind is probably the most difficult to control through design, however there are a few standard approaches that can help modify winds in your landscape design.  Once you have determined your cool season prevailing winds, orient your outdoor space away from these prevailing cool season winds and provide upwind barriers perpendicular to prevailing cool season winds.  A good example is to install a coniferous windbreak that deflects your cool season or winter winds.  By selecting the porosity of the object to utilize in your wind modification, you can control the amount of wind reduction and size of area, commonly referred to wind reflection zone.  Trees with 50 percent porosity that are low branched to the ground will reduce wind speed greater and create a wider wind reflection zone than open branched deciduous trees and conifers whose branches don’t reach to the ground.  As water will continue to flow after it encounters an obstruction, so will wind and will flow over and around.  Through design of properly placed vegetation, this wind can be reduced further or channeled to flow through areas that would benefit from increased winds. 

When modifying wind through proper design principles, we can also modify solar radiation to provide beneficial microclimates, a landscape that has been designed to modify both the wind and solar radiation to provide a thermally comfortable place for people.  In the upcoming blog we will discuss strategic modification of solar radiation and the benefits of active and solar heating, survival of plants and habitat for animals.  It will contain information on landscape design utilizing proper landscape vegetation that can modify and increase poor air quality in urban settings.  

Resources:  Brown, Robert D., and Terry J. Gillespie

Microclimatic Landscape Design:  Creating Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency

John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Ponds to Water features- Design through Implementation (2nd of a 2 Part Series)

Once location and size of your water feature has been determined, water movement and flow rate calculations are necessary.  As mentioned in the first part of this series, creating “live” water is essential for the proper maintenance of your feature and to create oxygen in the water to support aquatic and plant life.  The simplest design is to create a ledge or rill through which water flows (supported by a pump) back into a lower basin.  The higher the vertical lift (bottom of pond to top of rill or ledge), the larger the flow rated pump should be.  A good reference is a that a 4,800 gph flow rated submersible pump utilizing a 1.5” diameter return line creates great flow rates and sound for a vertical lift of 48” – 54”.  Always remember submersible pumps are all about water flow, not pressure, so it is important to maximize return line size in accordance with your pump’s flow rate.

Under natural conditions, ponds are part of an eco-system that contains a marsh area filled with reeds and sedges.  This is a good strategy to incorporate in your pond construction and should be part of your overflow system.  Designing an overflow that infiltrates this marsh area will be perfect in the wetter months, supporting these types of plants, and then allowing the marsh area to dry out in the less precipitation months.  This natural condition is vital for the proper growing cycle for plants that like “wet feet”.  Some of the plants that are capable of growing in wetland conditions include astilbe, gunnera, iris sibirica, and trollus to name a few.  Many plants flourish in these conditions with the elimination of competition from vigorous plants such as equisetum and algae.  Amphibians such as frogs and toads will enjoy these seasonally dry marshes as their fish predators will not be able to prey on their tadpoles.

Properly managing your plants in and around your water feature is easily accomplished by understanding and matching the conditions in which they grow naturally.  These matrices are supported by the proper soils and wet meadows occur in heavy loams consisting of clay and silt, and occasionally peat.  It is important to study these natural environments and recreate them forming a dense and permanent plant cover to reduce weed growth that can be tenacious in these environments.

If you are considering or dealing with a bank, the point where static water meets land, rapid stabilization of the bank to resist erosion is important.  Some very good soil-binding plants include acorus, athyrium, dryopteris, rodgersia and spartina.

Shallow waters are home to numerous plants which can help stabilize the waters edge as they spread slightly into the moist soils where water meets land.  These plants have exploratory root systems and this readiness to produce new roots enables them to spread easily throughout a water system, creating a fast growing upperstory essential for the aquatic life below while creating a balanced and healthy pond.  Many of these marginal plants are intolerant of frost and will need to be protected during the winter months and can be accomplished by covering them or simply removing them and storing until the following season.  Calla, juncus, peltandra, and hydrocharis are some good choices for smaller sized ponds. 

There is an unlimited way to create ponds or water features in regards to shape and style, but the dynamics are consistently the same.  Creating live water supported by proper flow rates, water movement and depth along with proper vegetation selections will support a successful, easily maintained and sustainable water feature.

Ponds to Waterfeatures- Design Through Implementation (First in a Series)

Small and large ponds to trickling, low-flow water features add amazing dynamics to any landscape.   They can be created in small spaces with the “what’s around the corner” atmosphere to wide expanses where space is not a factor and you can encourage local fauna to make this area their home. 

There are many facets of a healthy water feature and the next few blogs will discuss many of the ebbs and flows of creating your “live water” water feature, your piece of paradise that melds with nature and your surroundings.  Over my years as a landscape designer and contractor, I have created water features and ponds of varying sizes and dynamics, from grotto to small lakes and I have gained immense knowledge from my failures, and a few reinforcements from my successes.  I hope this series will supply significant knowledge to provide the confidence to design and implement your creation and at the same time, minimize, if not eliminate frustration and costly re-dos.

Design implementation should begin with considering what size and where to locate your creation, open water versus pond-less.  Oxygen and water movement are two main key areas in developing live water.  Live water is best described as non-stagnant, oxygen filled healthy water that can sustain life in your pond / water feature.  To successfully create a water feature that will sustain live water, especially small ones, there must be a supply of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Since sunlight is the driving factor in photosynthesis which sustains plant life which releases oxygen into the water, a pond should be sunlit.  If your water feature will be small in scale and shallow, it will be important to study and understand your proposed site, considering seasonal sun angles, shading and passive solar techniques along with vegetation layering around the edges and how to utilize aquatic plants such as large leaved water lilies.  In your design process, consider what type of tree will be utilized for shading, since leaves deplete oxygen levels with bacteria that are created when the leaves enter and sink to the bottom of a pond, plants such as weeping spruce and phormium species make good sense (depending where you live, what planting zone).  Other possibilities of creating shade include structures; from a simple walkway bridge to decking can be effective and eliminate leaf litter dilemmas.

Once location has been determined, the next step is to finalize the style of your aquatic retreat you wish to incorporate into your landscape.  One that has an open body of water, complete with waterfalls, rills and creeks or a more subdued, yet impacting architectural element, with softly bubbling water cascading over the lip of a ceramic vessel and returning into the below surface sump that is pondless.  At this point, design sense (your boulder-based water feature does not appear to be coming out of the side of your stucco garage for instance) should take a back seat as it is very important to fully understand what style, what dynamics will best fit your lifestyle, to successfully maintain, and sustain years of enjoyment from.

Ideally, you want to create your feature to be in scale with its surroundings, for water features that are too small in scale will be ineffective and you want the dynamics of your creation to be manageable yet impacting.  If you are creating an open water feature with exposed static water regardless of size, depth is critical.  A pond with 2’ of depth will be sufficient and easy to maintain proper water temperatures (if you have inhabitants) in summer and winter and it is the proper depth to create live water; through a small fountain acting as an aerator or a driven by a larger pump recirculating water though rills over ledges of stone and boulders back into the pool below.

In the upcoming blogs as part of this series, we will continue to discuss the dynamics of designing your water feature including creating movement and sound, pump sizing and configuration, filtration techniques, water levels and overflows and choosing the proper plants for your creation.

The Soil Food Web- Mulch, Compost Tea &, Mycorrhizal Relationships

As we understand that the soil food web is the foundation that creates the soils needed to support healthy, sustainable plant life, we will explore the importance of fungal compost, compost tea and mycorrhizal fungi and their relationships with the soil food web and maintaining trees, shrubs and perennials.

Just a reminder, trees, shrubs perennials prefer their nitrogen in forms of ammonium, not nitrate.  If you have ever wondered why your picea pungens (blue spruce) did not survive in the middle of your turf grass, the major contributor probably was your turf grass lawn as it is nitrate-fertilized.  By early detection or knowledge, you might have been able to protect your spruce by creating negative lawn area, in this instance, a planting island.

Mulches, fungal compost and tea work best on maintaining the health of your shrubs, trees and perennials.  When applying amidst your trees, you’ll want to make sure there is negative space between the compost and the trunk so the microbes aren’t in contact with the trunk, so the microbes don’t attack the bark.  It also makes perfect sense, both now and for future maintenance, to create planting or greenspace under the trees in place of turfgrass.

If you look at nature, leaves fall and cover the roots, naturally recycling the nitrogen and carbon with some making it back to the plant.  By applying a form of mulched leaves within a layer of brown mulch, preferably a couple inches thick, it will provide slow release nutrients and protect the roots though the winter months.  By applying a compost tea in the fall and once again in the spring (about 2-3 weeks before your shrubs and trees leaf out) is a sustainable way to insure the health and integrity of your plants and trees.

Mycorrhizal fungi products have been around for nearly a century but have mainly become main-stream within the last 5 years.  It is a natural form of nitrogen, one that envelopes and takes hold on the roots of your plants and is created by plants.  Hardwood trees form mycorrhizae known as ectomycorrhizal where most shrubs, perennials and softwood trees form mycorrhizae with endomycorrhizal fungi.  The heath family, which includes rhododendrons, sub-specie azaleas and blueberries, thrive on mycorrhizal fungus. 

If your garden is mature and you have compacted soils without noticing mycorrhizal activity (mushrooms growing under the drip line of your trees) you may wish to use a deep root feeder to inject your mycorrhizal drench to inoculate the roots.  With shrubs and perennials, it is simply excavating around their drip lines into their root zones with a spade or trowel and applying Endomycorrhizal spores.  If you have mushroom growth in and around your trees drip lines, then your soil has not been degraded to the point where natural mycorrhizal has been effected and you don’t necessarily have to add to create one.  Mycorrhizal fungi spores must be in contact with roots within 24 hours after exposure to moisture to grow and this is why mycorrhizal fungi is applied as a drench to assist in their delivery.

By applying mulches, teas, composts and mycorrhizal, your trees, shrubs and perennials will be less stressed and keep them from becoming attacked by insects.  They create extra pitch; their leaves are coated with beneficial bacteria and fungi to outcompete disease.  By having a soil food web –based system in place, you will continue to build a sustainable foundation for a healthy garden and greenspaces. If your plants do become stressed or diseased, at the first sign, don’t hesitate to put your soil food web knowledge to use and re-apply, especially compost teas.