The Planting Place
I have been writing about three elements of landscape design. To remind my one reader of what I consider the three essential elements in design, they are personal taste or needs, the planting place and the available plants. Last week I wrote about personal tastes and needs. This week I would like to reflect on some of the components of the planting site you might want to consider in designing your landscape. These components make up the site conditions.
The first and most obvious condition is deciding whether your site is shady or sunny. I find it intriguing that the people with full sun complain about their hot and dry yard and the people with shade complain about not being able to grow anything in their shade. Look at nature there are plants growing in both shade and sun vigorously. You need to take this condition into play when you are selecting plants.
Not all shade is the same. The shade from a building is a denser shade with little to no sun penetration. Look for plants that are very tolerant of shade. If you notice in a woods there seems to be little sun specks dancing around on the forest floor. Sounds romantic, yeah? There are actually plants, such as ferns that are adapted to take advantage of these sun specks.
The hardest environment to place plants is a dry shade. There are a few trees that will produce a dry shade under their canopy. The Norway maple is the worst culprit of producing a dry shade. They have a very fibrous root system that seems to suck up all the water within a city block which produces a tough area to grow even plastic plants in.
Remember turf grasses are full sun plants. There are some varieties that will tolerate shade. The key word is “tolerate”. Shade for grass, is like your neighbor’s teenage kid, you tolerate him but he is slowly killing your patience.
Sunny yards create a whole new set of challenges. They tend to dry out quickly and bake your plant’s leaves to a nice crispy brown. Can you say drought tolerant plants?
This leads us into another site condition you need to consider when planning your landscape and that would be the availability of water. In Michigan we have an abundance of water compared to other states. We are blessed with many lakes, streams and a high water table. Good clean water is everywhere. It is my prediction in a hundred years people will be moving to Michigan because of our natural resource of water. I am waiting to become governor until that time because so many people will want to start businesses here. The bottom line is, plants are 90% water and we have to make sure we can supply their needs.
One of the ways to slow down the use of water is to know the direction of your prevailing winds. Both the summer and winter winds have a drying effect on plants. Wind increases the transpiration of plants. Transpiration is the loss of water through the pores in the plant called stomata. Let’s just say, just like the wind dries out your skin wind will also dry out plants. Wind barriers of plants, buildings or fences will slow down the drying effects of the wind.
There are a couple of Master Gardeners that talked to me about how people often forget about their soil type when planning out their gardens. Since soil is below the ground, they are right in noticing soil is often over looked. I have run out of space for this article and so I will have to discuss soil in my next column. Can you believe I am using soil as my attempt at a cliff hanger?
The Basic Dirt on Soil
True gardeners have dirty minds. In fact gardeners know all the dirt. Growers get down and dirty and don’t feel a bit guilty. That is why they “dig” it. I have probably lost most of you right off the bat with all these sick puns. In last week’s article I spoke of the importance of knowing your site to be a successful gardener. I ran out of time and stated that I would cover the basics of soil. One of my readers wrote and asked if I was going to have dirty pictures. He got me going. Without naming him, I am blaming him for my bad puns. To give you a clue of who it was, it is almost certainly he’s the only person who will read past this first paragraph.
If truth be told, most gardeners don’t take dirt as a laughing matter. They have nothing but the utmost respect for the thin layer of soil below their feet. They don’t appreciate all the human activities that treat our soils like dirt. Soil quality is the limiting factor in most gardens and if we are going to have vigorous, vibrant, vivacious vegetation we need to be aware of our soil characteristics.
Your soil characteristics will determine the types of plants you can select for your landscape. The characteristics of soil that should be considered are texture, structure, chemistry, organic matter and water.
The main component of soil is the mineral content that is derived from weathered rock. The sources of the mineral component of the soil could be from the bedrock under your property or it could have been transported in by ice (glaciers), water, wind, gravity or a big dump truck. This is the building block of soil that gives you stability. The mineral content of soil usually makes up around 45% of the soil.
The distribution of the particle size of the mineral content is what soil scientists (yes there are scientist that make a living playing in the dirt) call the texture of the soil. The types of soil texture are sand, silt and clay. Without going into the exact size of sand, silt and clay just know the sand is the largest size particles and feels gritty. Clay is the smallest size particles and feels sticky and slimy. Silt is the size of particles between sand and clay.
Each soil texture has its own advantages and disadvantages. Sandy soils are well aerated, and stand up to soil compaction but has little water retention abilities. Clay soils hold onto to water but have little air space and are easily compacted.
As insects, plants, fungi, bacteria and other creatures go through the soil they poop, die, vomit and give off other sticky substances. These sticky substances along with the chemical properties of the soil create aggregates of the soil particles. These aggregates are called the soil structure. Soil structure affects the availability of water, nutrients, and root growth. It is very important to protect your soil structure since it takes years to create these bonds. Soil structure is very fragile especially when the soil is wet. That is why washing cars on your front yard can cause great harm to your turf.
One way to improve your soil structure is to add organic matter. In most soils, organic matter makes up about 5% of the soil. I bet you thought it would be higher. If organic matter gets too high, there is no stability in the soil. It will be like what I am in my wife’s hand, putty.
If you can do the math, minerals make up 45% of the soil, and organic matter makes up 5% of the soil that leaves 50% of the soil. That 50% is the water and air content of soil or pore space. Plants are adapted to the amount of water and air that is in the pore spaces. In plant selection you need to know if you have wet or dry soil. Knowledge of soil drainage is important to growing plants successfully.
Chemical activities of soil also affect the plants that can be grown in your garden. There are 16 essential nutrients that are needed for plant’s growth and development. These nutrients are attached to the organic matter and mineral content of the soil. The availability of these nutrients is dependent on the soil’s acidity or pH. Knowing the soil pH is important in successful gardening.
Take time to know and appreciate your soil. By understanding your soil’s personality and traits you will become a better and more successful designer and gardener in your landscape.
The Love of Plants
In life we all have things we are passionate about. Even if other people don’t see the attractiveness in an item, event or person our passion creates a sense of beauty. Have you ever noticed how people with ugly dogs are passionate about those animals? Many of us can see the beauty in watching a wide receiver catch a touchdown pass, even if it is the Detroit Lions. I personally can’t see what my wife sees in Johnny Depp, but when one of his movies comes out she is the first in line. I just don’t have the same passion for Johnny. I guess that is why the saying came about that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Passion drives our likes, dislikes, and decision making process.
The reason that I am talking about passion is that it is the first word that comes to my mind when I see a plant in bloom, fall color, or excellent form. I am often asked what my favorite plant is and I guess my response would have to be the one I am looking at, at the time. This passion for plants keeps getting me (and my wife) into trouble. We are constantly spending money on plants that we have no idea where to plant. I am glad we have a neighbor who also loves plants and will often take the extras off our hands.
There was a great plants-man named JC Raulston who was a professor at North Carolina State and began a superb Arboretum on campus, who stated, “If you are not killing plants, you are not stretching yourself as a gardener.” He knew plant people love to try new plants and stretch the environment that they are gardening in. Sometimes the plants live but many times they are pulled out to make room for our next trip to the nursery enabling our plant addiction.
For those gardeners who don’t want to take risks and want plants to thrive in their garden make sure you are planting the “right plant in the right spot.” Right plant in the right spot is the sincere oath of the gardener that we break every time we see a plant in bloom at the local nursery. When this oath is broken we purchase plants without any idea where to place them.
If you don’t want to get caught up in this bad habit of purchasing plants without any idea of where they are going once they get home, evaluate your yard and look for plants that will thrive in your setting.
Before purchasing a plant research its cultural needs. Make sure those needs will be satisfied by your yard. Can your yard fulfill cultural needs such as sun, shade, soil moisture, soil texture, soil pH, and winter hardiness for the plant to grow? We all try to grow plants where they just don’t thrive. Every home owner wants a beautiful lawn in the shade. Kentucky bluegrass tolerates shade but prefers full sun no matter what the label says.
All plants are tolerant of insects and diseases. Unless you enjoy spraying your plants or sadistically enjoy seeing plants get eaten up, look for plants that are especially tolerant of the known insects and diseases in your area. As you can see no one is planting ash trees in Michigan because the Emerald Ash Bore. For a long time elms weren’t being planted but now we are seeing elms bred that resist the Dutch elm disease.
You can drive through any neighborhood and see plants that are way too big for the spot they are planted in. At times people can’t even get into their front doors. Keep in mind the mature size of the plant and the form.
We all enjoy seeing plants in bloom. We will go to the nursery in the spring and see all the beautiful shrubs, trees, and perennials in bloom. We purchase the plants because we see their excellent bloom and plant them in our landscape. I can tell the people who do this because all their flowering plants bloom at the same time. Walk through your yard and take note the season of bloom of your existing plants. Then purchase plants that bloom at a different time.
If you are addicted to purchasing plants, I can relate to your pain. If you are looking for right plants for your yard, take time and research the plants that are hardy for your area. You will be glad you did because your plants will thrive and might make you a plant junkie. (Which isn’t all bad)
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