TTC Gardening
TTC Gardening
TTC Gardening
The
TheScience
Science of
ofGardening
Gardening
Course Guidebook
ii Professor Biography
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
LESSON GUIDES
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Image Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
iv Table of Contents
The Science of
Gardening
Course Scope
T
here are thousands of print and online resources for gardening—but
few of them are grounded in appropriate plant and soil sciences.
This course focuses on current, relevant scientific information for
developing and caring for home gardens and landscapes. The applied
sciences that underlie sustainable landscaping and gardening are young
and evolving, resulting in new approaches that spark vigorous debate
among experts and gardeners alike. You will be introduced to many of these
controversial topics throughout the course. Likewise, you will scrutinize
many gardening products and practices through the lens of science.
The first two lessons in this course will demonstrate why a scientific
approach to gardening is crucial to long-term success. You will visit some
landscapes where trees and shrubs have died long before their time and
conduct horticultural crime scene investigations to discover the underlying
reasons. These investigations will set the stage for outlining the criteria that
will be used to identify reliable sources of gardening information.
1
The second set of lessons is structured around site analysis and design.
Designing gardens and landscapes is an intensely personal process, and
science won’t be used to dissect it. These lessons will, however, analyze
the environmental factors that influence plant choice and placement. Much
of the analysis will be targeted to soils, as baseline measurements of soil
characteristics are critical to landscape success. Then, you will consider
plant selection in the context of morphological features, life history,
physiological requirements, and human interactions. The hot-button topic
of native plants will be discussed to discover whether science supports the
perception of native plant superiority.
The next set of lessons will detail the recommended practices for
purchasing healthy plants, preparing and protecting soil, and planting
trees, shrubs, and perennials. This segment contains many controversial
topics, and you will examine the relevant plant and soil science to discover
why new approaches are needed.
No garden is without its problems, and the fifth set of lessons will focus
on diagnosing and solving problems. Once again, you will visit some
horticultural crime scenes to practice diagnostic skills. You will discover
how to adapt integrated pest management (IPM) for your home garden and
landscape. The philosophy of IPM takes a least toxic approach to problems,
so you will learn the cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical
methods a gardener might need to consider when battling weeds, insects,
and herbivores.
The final two lessons will circle back to the beginning of the course. You
will objectively analyze some garden products, practices, and informational
sources. Again, the course will address some controversial topics, especially
as they relate to correlation of variables and causation of effects. The
course will end with a tour of two landscapes to show you how sustainable
garden practices can create beautiful, functional, and healthy landscapes.
2 Course Scope
By the time you finish this course, you will have learned techniques that
represent a sustainable approach to caring for gardens and landscapes.
The following are a few of the benefits that sustainably managed gardens
and landscapes provide:
Ecological/Environmental
• enhanced soil fertility
• enhanced biodiversity of beneficial microbes, insects, birds, and
other animals
• reduced contamination of aquatic systems from runoff and erosion
• reduced use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals
Economic
• reduced labor and material costs for maintenance and plant
replacement
• reduced costs for pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals
• increased value of property
Human Dimensions
• enhanced aesthetic enjoyment of landscape
• improved physical health and well-being
• increased interaction with neighbors and other people interested
in gardens and landscapes
The hope is that this course will not only help you create sustainable
landscapes and gardens, but that it will also encourage you to educate
others. You can protect and conserve natural resources by practicing
sustainable horticulture and teaching others to do the same.
4 Course Scope
Lesson 1
Y
ou’ve probably seen recommendations on the internet
for all kinds of products and practices that promise to
work miracles in your garden. You’ve probably read that
common household chemicals—such as dish soap, Epsom
salts, vinegar, baking soda, molasses, and cinnamon—can be
used successfully in your gardens and landscapes as fertilizers
or pesticides. But are these claims valid? This lesson will
consider the good, the bad, and the really wacky sources of
gardening information.
5
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF GARDENING
VV Historically, agricultural research has looked at food and fiber-
related crops. This is where the money is—this is where it’s important
economically and important for people. Grant money from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and other funding sources is still geared
at researching food and fiber-related crops, not ornamental plants.
Therefore, products and practices that were relevant to maximizing
agriculture production were developed, not products and practices
relevant for gardeners.
VV Unlike products and practices that are related to food and drugs,
there’s no regulatory agency for most of these types of gardening
recommendations. You can find all kinds of materials that are sold as
biostimulants or tonics or potions, but there’s no science or regulation
behind them.
VV There are also some great online resources. On .edu sites (university
websites) and .gov websites (government websites), you might find
peer-reviewed, university extension publications that are written
specifically for gardeners. On .com websites (commercial websites),
a lot of good information can be found, but be aware that they may be
selling something rather than just providing good information. There
are also open-access scientific journals that you can find online.
VV It’s great having information out there for everybody to read, but is
it good information? Is it a peer-reviewed journal, or is it a pay-for-
play journal, where you can pay to have basically anything you want
published? There are different assessment categories.
Chalker-Scott, Hügelkultur.
———, The Informed Gardener.
———, The Informed Gardener Blooms Again.
Chalker-Scott and Daniels, Scientific Literacy for the Citizen Scientist.
QUESTIONS
O
ne of the strategies for creating sustainable
landscapes and gardens is understanding the site
conditions before buying plants. In this lesson, you
will discover how geographical location affects temperature
and water in the landscape. You will also learn what makes
specific gardening sites different from what might be
predicted by the local climate. In addition, you will discover
how parts of landscapes differ depending on their cardinal
orientation and how this changes with the seasons. Finally,
you will learn how to sample soil, which will help you develop
your planting plans and select fertilizers.
14
Finding the right plant for
the right place is one of the
most important decisions
we gardeners make. But
we tend to make decisions
aesthetically, visualizing how
lovely a particular plant would
look by the front door, rather
than considering if the plant
will thrive in that location.
VV Local airports collect average rainfall data that goes into a bigger
database that has been maintained for decades. All of the data has
been averaged so that you can figure out the yearly average rainfall
as well as the seasonality. The average rainfall is important in terms of
what types of plants you can grow; seasonality is important in terms of
what plants will do well in your climate.
VV Water and temperature determine the plant life that will grow in
a region. They also determine soils and organic matter.
VV The next thing to consider is slope and drainage of your location. These
will influence factors like water movement, so consider them when
you’re planting. An upslope will be drier; a downslope will be wetter.
VV Then, consider shading, such as from trees and structures. Shading will
change over time, especially if you’ve planted trees. Trees are going
to get taller, shading is going to change, and your plants are going to
perhaps have to change as well.
VV You can figure out some issues with soil water by doing a few tests.
Soil Drainage Chart
VV A second source is storm water. During certain times of the year, when
you might have intense rainstorms, you can preserve some of this water,
not necessarily to use for irrigation later in the year, but to keep it in
your soil and in a way that doesn’t contribute to runoff. A good example
is a rain garden, which is a smaller version of a retention pond. Creating
a rain garden helps you manage water, reduces erosion, and perhaps
gives you a lovely wetland garden at the same time.
VV Another source is gray water, which is water that’s been used for another
purpose in your household or landscape. Dishwater, for example,
is called gray water because it’s not potable (you can’t drink it),
but it’s not necessarily toxic to plants. There are also contamination
issues here.
TEMPERATURE
VV Consider hardiness. Look at the tags attached to plants in the nursery
to see what the zone is for the plant, in terms of how cold it can get and
possibly how hot it can get. It might tell you if it’s a sun plant or a shade
plant.
BIOTIC FACTORS
VV Finally, you need to consider the biotic, or living, factors—and not just
how to deal with them, but what you want for your landscape. Do you
want your landscape to be children- and pet-friendly? Do you want to
attract wildlife?
VV Then, you need to think about the problems. Think about the pests
and the diseases. You’ll have to do some homework to find out what
problems are local for you. Your extension office is a great place to
look for new problems that are just emerging in terms of insects and
diseases.
VV Get multiple samples from the same site. Then, combine those samples
and take a subsample from that. Finally, keep some of the samples for
your own home testing of soil texture analysis, and then send away your
lab results.
READING
QUESTIONS
YY Your neighbor claims that you should stop watering your native
plant landscape in the fall because excessive water will cause
the trees and shrubs to send out new shoots that will die when
nighttime temperatures dip below zero. Explain why this is not
a concern for your native trees and shrubs.
Soil Analysis:
What Makes Soil Great?
S
oil conditions can significantly influence plant success.
This lesson will teach you how to succeed with your
existing garden and landscape soils. You will learn
how to use soil science techniques to determine your soil’s
characteristics. You will also consider the various components
of soil and the role that each plays. Given the realities of urban
and suburban soils, how can you make them more hospitable
to your plants and beneficial soil organisms? The answers will
come as you analyze your soil test results. Using a combination
of home techniques and professional laboratory testing
services, you can discover baseline measures and begin
to explore methods of restoring your soils that are both
sustainable and environmentally appropriate.
25
COMPONENTS AND TYPES OF SOIL
VV Soil is a combination of inorganic and organic components. These
components together impart physical, chemical, and nutritional
characteristics.
VV The inorganic parts of soil include sand, silt, and clay. These three
components have different sizes and dimensionalities. Sand is three-
dimensional, round, and gritty. Silt is also three-dimensional and round
but is much smaller than sand, and it has a floury texture rather than
a gritty texture. Clay is much smaller than silt, and clay particles are flat,
not round.
VV As you work down the sizes, from sand to silt, you have increased water
retention and less drainage. By the time you get to clay—with its small,
flat particles that tend to form almost impenetrable plates—drainage is
at a minimum, and aeration is difficult.
VV Let’s consider native and urban or suburban soils. Most people do not
have native soils at home unless they live somewhere that’s never been
touched by human development. Native soils are usually not compacted;
they are loose and friable, have good air and water movement, and are
naturally aerated by soil organisms, such as worms and moles. These
organisms bring air and material up as well as bring material down, and
this is how organic matter is worked into the soil naturally.
VV A home landscape often has very abrupt layers. Once a house is built
and topsoil has been removed, fill is brought in, and that’s often called
designed soil or landscape fill. It’s not true soil. It’s a mixture of soil
and lots of different kinds of organic matter. This is not necessarily
a great thing for native plants, which may have evolved in a completely
different type of soil system.
VV Designed soils may not be the best choice for your garden and
landscape. They don’t usually contain real topsoil—which is hard to
find and therefore a very expensive commodity. Designed soils contain
various types of material blended into the topsoil, such as sand and
organic matter. Sometimes it’s far in excess to what’s needed by the
plants and what’s able to be sustained naturally. When you have too
much organic matter in the soil, over time, as it decomposes, it’s going
to settle and subside.
2. Ribbon test: Start with a sample of your soil and add just enough
water to get it thoroughly moistened. Then, mix the soil. Put the
moistened soil in your hand and squeeze it to make a ball. By working
and feeling the ball of soil, you will be able to determine a little bit
about what type of soil you have. Your fingers are very sensitive to
texture and can tell the difference between gritty sand; smooth,
floury silt; and sticky, slick clay. After examining the ball, work it with
your fingers and try to flatten it into a ribbon. Use the soil triangle
to figure out where your soil fits in terms of texture analysis.
While laboratory tests are crucial for determining soil mineral content
and other chemical attributes, it is relatively simple to determine
soil texture using only water and your fingers. The behavior,
appearance, and feel of your sample will help you determine its
textural classification as shown in the U.S. Department of Agriculture
soil triangle (below). It’s helpful to either practice this technique
with someone more experienced or compare your finding with a lab
analysis of the same soil. In time, you can become quite adept in
distinguishing among many of the soil types.
Sand: Sandy soils are loose and gritty; because they don’t hold
moisture well, they are not cohesive. When squeezed in your
palm, sandy soils may form a ball but fall apart if touched.
Silty loam: Silty loams have a high silt content and little clay.
Like loams, they form balls that can be easily handled.
Silt: Silty soils often form clods when dry but are easily crushed
into a floury powder. When moistened, silty soils feel silky and
form smooth balls that can be handled carefully, but the lack of
clay makes them more fragile.
Clay loam: Like silts, clay loams also form clods when dry but
are much stickier when wet due to the higher clay content.
Interestingly, clay loams represent the most even distribution
of clay, sand, and silt in their composition. Moist clay loams
form heavy balls that survive rough handing.
Clay: Clays are the most finely textured of the soils and form
clods when dry and hard, durable balls when moist.
Sandy loam: Sandy loams form very weak, gritty ribbons that
break easily.
Loam: Loams form soft, slightly gritty ribbons that may reach
half an inch before breaking. They do not hold fingerprints.
Silt: Silty soils feel soft and smooth when rubbed between the
fingers but do not form ribbons.
Clay loam: Clay loams form thin ribbons that may reach two
inches before breaking. Although they may show some sheen,
clay loam ribbons do not hold distinct fingerprints.
Clay: Clay soils form long, thin, slick-feeling ribbons that are
shiny and hold fingerprints.
3. Soil pH test: Kits that allow you to test soil pH are very easy to
find and use. The kit requires water, your soil, a reagent, and
a color-coded chart. Place some of your soil into a tube and add
the reagent and water. Shake the tube vigorously and then let it
sit. The grit will move to the bottom of the tube, and the water
on the top will change color. Compare the color of the mixture to
the chart to determine where on the pH spectrum—from acidic to
alkaline—your soil lies.
The good news is that gardening science has shown us what the
ideal soil looks like: a combination of clay, sand, and silt, with a bit
of organic matter. We know that pore space within soil is critical for
retaining both water and oxygen and that compaction is primarily
to blame for lifeless soil and struggling plants. We have easy tests
to determine soil texture and pH, and university and government
labs can provide us with additional information about nutrient levels,
organic matter content, and possible contamination.
Armed with this knowledge, it’s possible to turn nearly any soil into
great soil.
QUESTIONS
YY Trees grown for balling and burlapping are almost always grown
in clay soils. Why is this a practical choice? Why might this pose
a problem in your home landscape?
Living Soils:
Bacteria and Fungi
T
his lesson will continue uncovering what makes a garden
soil great by addressing some of the biological
components of soil—specifically the microbes. Both
beneficial fungi and bacteria grow into and around actively
growing plant roots. Roots, bacterial sheaths, and fungal
hyphae function to create an intricate underground network.
In this introduction to these plant partners, you will learn how
some specialized bacteria and fungi are able to penetrate
plant defenses and become intrinsic parts of the root system.
You will discover specific benefits that each partner receives
from these relationships, and you will analyze gardening
practices to determine whether they benefit or harm the
establishment of these symbiotic associations.
37
BENEFICIAL MICROBES
VV Many microbes are pathogenic, or capable of causing disease, but many
other microbes have evolved a symbiotically mutualistic relationship—
in other words, both the bacteria (or the fungi) and the plant benefit
from the relationship, and there’s no detriment to either one.
VV In this type of relationship, the plant receives more water and nutrients
than it would be able to on its own. This is because the microbes are
able to scavenge to find pockets of water and nutrients much better
than the plant’s roots can. In return, the microbes receive sugars and
B vitamins from the plant. Plants manufacture sugars and vitamins;
microbes can’t make these themselves. These particular groups of
microbes are found throughout the plant kingdom.
VV The spores of symbiotic bacteria are in the soil practically all the time,
but they only become active if they are invited to become active. When
the roots give off their signal, the spores germinate, creating nodules
inside the roots. These nodules are oxygen-free environments
where bacteria can fix nitrogen. Within the nodules, the bacteria
receive materials from the plant and take in atmospheric (gaseous)
nitrogen and fix it into a solid form, which the plant can use for its
biochemical processes.
VV What about the other beneficial bacteria, the ones that are not
nitrogen fixers but are still able to colonize plant roots? The bacteria
are attracted by sugars and organic acids that are secreted by the
roots. The bacteria are able to enter the plant roots and suppress the
plant immune response by secreting peptides and other chemicals that
prevent the plant from getting rid of them. Pathogens do the same
thing, but these are beneficial microbes, so the plant doesn’t actively
try to destroy them.
VV When these bacteria colonize the plant’s roots, they’re able to prevent
colonization by pathogens. Generally, these bacteria make a sheath
that surrounds the plant roots, physically removing the space where the
pathogens could land. If pathogens try to land and also infect the plant
roots, these bacteria have some nasty chemical defenses that attack both
bacteria and fungi. For example, some of them can produce cyanide,
which kills the pathogenic bacteria; some produce fungal wall–
degrading enzymes, which kill the pathogenic fungi.
VV So far, there is only a small percentage of plant families that have been
found to have ectomycorrhizae, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t
exist elsewhere. A small percentage of plants will accept ectomycorrhizal
fungi, which form extensive networks throughout the mulch and topsoil
layers. They will get into the mulch and create a network that connects
the woodchips to the topsoil to the roots. They can hold the woodchips
together to retain water and reduce erosion.
UU Soil fumigants
UU Excessive irrigation
UU Warm temperatures
QUESTIONS
T
his lesson will tackle a topic that many gardeners feel
strongly about: using native plants, versus non-native
plants, in gardens and landscapes. After defining
exactly what “native” means, the lesson will elaborate on
the perceived benefits of using native rather than introduced
species. Specifically, you will discover what the scientific
literature says about how native and introduced plants affect
the diversity of birds, insects, and other animals in landscapes.
You will learn that introduced plants—carefully chosen—can
be valuable resources for attracting desirable wildlife. You
will also learn some practical landscape design strategies
that are guaranteed to create a more environmentally friendly
landscape for your wildlife.
46
ARE NATIVE SPECIES THE BEST CHOICE
FOR YOUR GARDENS?
VV Because defining what a native plant actually is can be very subjective,
let’s consider a native plant to be something that existed in the United
States before European settlement. In contrast, a non-native plant
would be one that came afterward, whether it came on purpose or
accidentally. A subset of non-native plants is the invasive plant, which is
one that is so destructive to whatever landscape it’s introduced to that
it decreases biodiversity and often creates monocultures.
VV All of this concern about using native species has caused many groups
to start enforcing planting mandates in certain areas, such as in new
developments and along public roadways, and it has affected personal
choice of plants.
COMMUNITY DIVERSITY
VV Do native and non-native trees and shrubs (woody plants) differ in how
they affect community diversity—the numbers of other plants, reptiles,
birds, mammals, and insects that that community can support?
READING
QUESTIONS
Plant Selection:
Function and Form
T
his lesson will introduce you to the many roles your
plants can play in your landscape, with a focus on the
backbone of your landscape: trees and shrubs, as well
as ground cover plants. As a sustainable gardener, you will
want to assign jobs—such as moderating the microclimate
around your house—to your permanent landscape plants.
This lesson will also address some of the morphological and
physiological considerations in your plant palette. Finally, you
will learn about a science-based approach to creating your
home landscape.
54
THE ROLE OF YOUR PLANTS IN YOUR LANDSCAPE
VV What do you want your plants to do? What is their role in your
landscape?
VV If you live in a city or somewhere that has fairly small lot sizes, one of the
most important things your plants can do for you is serve as a screen.
Screening hedging can help keep your privacy at a maximum and noise
at a minimum. For both privacy and noise control, choose evergreen
plants. Avoid, if possible, not having all of one species; intersperse
different types of evergreens with each other.
VV If you’re looking for summer shade but still want winter light, choose
deciduous plants. If you decide to use deciduous plants, make sure to
select ones that will tolerate being pruned—ones that have small leaves
that tolerate shearing and look great after being pruned.
VV When you’re first choosing your plants, keep in mind that trees and
shrubs will grow and fill in space, so don’t overplant them. Figure out
the final size of your plants before you plant them. Make sure that you
have sufficient space between the trees and then fill in the gaps with
other materials, such as fencing, a trellis, or climbing vines. As the trees
grow, you can remove those added materials and let the trees fill in
the space.
VV You can also moderate storm water. If you’re in an area that gets heavy
torrential rains and don’t want your soil washing away, use plants that
are adapted to being in very wet conditions that will suck up the water
and store it.
VV You can also help restrict animal movement. You can keep pets or other
wildlife out of a particular area by using plants that are too thick to climb
through or that smell bad to the animal.
VV Another important use for plants is managing crime. Put low plants
in front of your windows; having large trees or shrubs in front of your
windows gives criminals easy access to your house because the trees
block your sight and conceal them. You can also use plants that are
particularly dense or that have thorns or other types of unpleasant foliar
characteristics to keep people from entering areas you don’t want them
to enter.
UU When you’re choosing your plants, think about the mature size.
Consider genetics: Some plants will be tall naturally while others
won’t be, and particular sizes will work for your landscape.
UU Keep mature size in mind when choosing plants for small sites and
shallow or restricted soils that are common in urban areas.
UU Also consider both hazard and nuisance issues. Avoid plants with
toxic fruits in the parts of your landscape where children or pets
may eat them. Also avoid plants that shed their fruits around
sidewalks and other areas where you walk or drive so that you don’t
end up with a sticky mess. Avoid plants that give off a bad smell,
such as female ginkgo trees, whose cones smell terrible when
they’re squished.
UU Thorns are a positive if you want to keep people and animals out
of a certain area, but thorns might not be so great for children
and pets. And if you’re a gardener, especially a bare-handed one,
thorns are a nuisance.
UU This is where leaf morphology comes in handy. Plants with big, flat
leaves tend to not do well in dry conditions because there is a lot
of space for water to evaporate from. Plants can have wavy layers
or soft, silky hairs that are made to help the plant retain water and
therefore tolerate dry conditions. Shade plants typically have very
thin leaves that are adapted for picking up a lot of light.
VV Consider food value, not just for the birds, butterflies, and other
charismatic macrofauna, but for insects living in the mulch and microbes
living in the soil.
VV Also consider nesting value. Birds are an obvious target for this, but
also make space for insects who build nests in the landscape—perhaps
underground or in the bare soil under your shrubs. Maybe they’ll stay
out of your house if you provide them with an outdoor habitat.
VV Consider species diversity. Choose plants that are not members of the
same families. Increased genetic diversity ensures increased resistance
to pests and disease in your landscape.
VV Visit some parks, arboretums, and other places where the lawn isn’t
heavily managed to see what grows there naturally. Maybe you can use
some of the same plants in your landscape.
QUESTIONS
YY You might have been told never to plant anything under black
walnut trees because they produce a toxic chemical (juglone)
that will kill other plants. While this allelopathic chemical is
known to exist and have effects in the laboratory or greenhouse,
it has not been found to be a cause for mortality in the field. In
fact, many people successfully grow a variety of plants beneath
walnuts. What might be some other reasons for plant mortality
mistakenly attributed to juglone toxicity?
T
his lesson will teach you how to use practical plant
physiology to choose or avoid plants at the nursery,
focusing on trees and shrubs, not only because they are
the backbones of permanent landscapes, but also because
they can cost a lot of money. You will learn how to look for
key indicators of hidden flaws. You will learn about taper, root
flares, suckers, and grafts. You will discover how to inspect
trunks and branches for signs of improper pruning. As you will
learn, half the battle to successful tree and shrub planting is
starting out with healthy plants.
64
ASSESSING QUALITY IN PLANT NURSERIES
VV The following are types of plant materials that you might be able to find
in a plant nursery:
UU Balled and burlapped (B&B): A ball filled with clay and covered with
burlap. These are often the largest trees available, but they may
come with serious root problems.
VV You want to assess the general health of the plants at the nursery. Look
for evidence of weeds, pests, diseases, and nutritional issues. You don’t
want neglected plants. After doing an overall assessment, you want to
start looking at specific plants. Start by looking at shoots.
We often buy the biggest trees possible, even though they can cost
hundreds of dollars, and we’re drawn to trees that are pruned to
look like miniature adults rather than left in their straggly but natural
teenaged form.
UU Look for damage or disease. A few leaves that have been diseased,
maybe at the end of the season, are not a problem, but if the tree
has damage to the trunk, bark, or any other permanent structure,
avoid it. Trees like this are normally culled out by the nursery before
they go into retail, but sometimes things slip through.
Nursery Checklist
Choose plants that
55 have branches that are well distributed along the trunk; and
UU If you get to the point that you’ve removed all foreign materials and
notice that the roots of your plant are dead, dying, or diseased—
things you couldn’t see until you took everything apart—you can
take the plant back to the nursery. But there are some restrictions.
There are often limits on how long after you’ve bought the plant
that you can return it, and there are warrantees that say if you
disturb the root ball, you won’t get your money back, so you might
have to take a risk.
READING
QUESTIONS
YY Visit your local nursery and find examples of these tree quality
problems:
Soil Preparation
and Protection
A
popular perception is that you need to add lots of
nutrients to your soil so that your plants establish their
roots well, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Previously, you learned about the components of a great
soil and why soil tests are critical before you try to change
your soil’s character. In this lesson, you will consider the
results of your lab soil test, as well as your home analysis, and
determine which soil conditions you can and should change,
and which you can’t. As a result, you might need to change
your gardening plans.
73
SOIL TEST RESULTS
VV Before you adjust your soil in any way, look at the results from your
soil test. Among other things, you can find out what the pH is. Find
out what’s typical for your part of the country in terms of the alkaline-
acidic scale. The pH of your soil will be a factor when you choose
your plants.
VV Your soil test will give you a report on the nutrient levels of your soil,
including deficiencies and toxicities, and this will be addressed in an
upcoming lesson. You might test your soil for heavy metals, especially
if you have a vegetable garden, and this issue will also be addressed in
an upcoming lesson.
VV There are some things that can be changed relatively easily, although
they may not be permanent. Organic material can be added easily. But
the problem is figuring out how much to add and then how to add it.
VV Consider the different types of organic material you may have. When
you compare various organic materials, weight varies drastically,
even if the volume is the same. In the landscape, it’s impossible to
add organic materials by weight; the only practical way is to add by
volume. For example, you could incorporate one inch of compost
into the top three inches of soil, which would give you 25 percent of
organic matter.
VV It’s also relatively easy to change pH in a very limited way, but this will
be a continual process. This is because soil volume is vast, and it’s
impossible to change soil pH permanently. Your climate dictates your
soil pH, so you have to be realistic in your plant selection. If your soil’s
pH isn’t close to what you want, consider using containers or raised
beds and adjust conditions there.
VV As you think about whether you’re going to amend your soils, it’s
useful to think about how unamended soils work. For example,
consider clay, clay loam, sand, and gravel. Clay and clay loam are
smaller-textured materials, so water moves through them slower than it
moves through sand and gravel, which are larger-textured materials that
have a greater amount of space between their pores.
VV Because water moves through gravel faster than clay loam, you might
be tempted to put some gravel at the bottom of a pot or container to
help wick the water through faster. But because the rate of movement
is actually determined by what’s on top—in this case, clay loam—
the soil will be very saturated for a while, with water sitting on top.
Don’t put gravel on the bottom of containers and don’t have two
different soil textures touching each other because this slows down
water and air movement and prevents roots from growing.
TILLING
VV Historically, tilling has been done with agriculture for centuries. There
has been a lot of research on it, especially in agricultural production,
that has found that tilling—which is perhaps done by gardeners as
rototilling or double digging—actually damages beneficial microbes,
roots, and soil structure.
By and large, you’re stuck with the soil you’ve got, but you can
improve soil drainage, aeration, and nutrition using science-based
practices.
Chalker-Scott, Biochar.
———, ed., Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens, ch. 7.
———, The Informed Gardener, “The Myth of Soil Amendments,”
parts 1–3.
QUESTIONS
YY Explain why tilling three inches of compost into the top three
inches of soil is not sustainable in terms of soil organic matter
content and why placing those same three inches on top of the
soil is.
M
ulches are much more than bags of processed
materials. They can be organic or inorganic, coarse or
fine, chunky or smooth, living or dead. By definition,
mulches include anything that covers the soil and protects
it from erosion, compaction, and weed invasion. But not all
mulches are created equal, and the right mulch can be the
tipping point needed to transform a struggling landscape
into one that’s healthy and more sustainable. This lesson will
review the research-based pros and cons of different mulches
so that you can make an informed choice for your garden and
landscape.
81
MULCH TYPES
VV There is a plethora of mulches that exist. First, there are synthetic
mulches, which include plastic mulch. There are also various kinds
of fabric mulches. Some are found in tree care packages that are to
be used after a tree is planted; others can be used under walkways
or beds to keep weeds down. Synthetic mulches also include rubber
mulches, which might be made from ground-up old tires as a way of
recycling them.
VV There are also living mulches, including turf and turf alternatives as well
as cover crops.
VV Then there are inorganic mulches—which don’t break down—including
pebbles, glass, stone, and pavers.
VV Finally, there are organic mulches, which offer the biggest range of
types of mulches, including compost, crop residues, and wood, bark,
and other low-nutrient materials.
VV There are also some drawbacks to using organic mulches. The main one
is that you have to continually reapply them because they break down.
Greener materials, such as compost and coffee grounds, will disappear
the fastest and have to be reapplied; woody mulches are slower, and
the bark mulches are the slowest overall.
VV There are other issues with using sheet mulches, especially cardboard,
which is used often for preparing beds. One of the reasons that people
tend to like cardboard, as opposed to woodchips, is that they’re under
the impression that woodchips are pest havens, but in fact, cardboard
is the favorite food of termites. Another issue is that because sheet
mulches make an impermeable layer over the soil, it’s very easy for
rodents to burrow under it and make tunnels. Rodents can’t tunnel
through woodchips—organic mulch—because they collapse.
VV Pests are not a problem unless the woodchips are too large. Wood-
boring insects, such as emerald ash borer, can infest wood, and if you
chip up wood that has been infested by emerald ash borer, make sure
that it’s chipped very finely so that you’re not bringing any of the larvae
in with your mulch.
VV The benefit of using locally sourced materials is that it helps remove all
of these materials from the waste stream. Another benefit is a decrease
in the use of packaged, transported materials.
QUESTIONS
YY You are creating a pocket garden that will be the focal point of
your landscape. You have three choices of materials to use for
mulch:
yy arborist woodchips
yy tumbled glass
yy compost
What are the benefits and drawbacks of each? Which
considerations are most important for this garden?
T
his lesson will focus on healthy root systems, the part of
the plant that’s out of sight and unfortunately often out
of mind. The lesson will move the root system firmly into
the forefront of your gardening awareness as you consider the
best way to transplant trees and shrubs.
90
HISTORICAL HORTICULTURAL BACKGROUND
VV Until the middle of the 20th century, all trees were planted bare root.
These dormant saplings devoid of leaves or fine roots burst into full
foliage within a few months of planting. Many of these trees that
were planted centuries ago—stately spreading lindens and maples
and sycamores—are still alive today, gracing cities and towns all over
the world.
VV In the last half of the last century, however, new methods of growing
and selling young trees and shrubs became popular. Rather than being
dug up from propagation beds and left bare, the roots are instead
incased in containers full of planting media or burlap-covered clay balls.
VV There are four main reasons why many transplanted trees and shrubs
fail: improper soil management, poor-quality woody roots, inadequate
root preparation, and the plant being installed too deeply. You will
learn how to avoid these problems through the process of preparing
your plants for transplanting.
VV Don’t try to plant the really long roots. Instead, cut some length off of
them. Also, if any of the roots are too hard to straighten, simply prune
them off.
VV If you are working with a balled and burlapped plant, the roots might
be encased in clay as opposed to planting media. Because planting
media is light, when it is washed off a plant, the plant doesn’t lose much
weight. But a balled and burlapped plant is so heavy that you will be
amazed at how light it will feel once you’ve removed the clay soil from
the roots.
VV Remove the burlap. Under the burlap, the root ball will be surrounded
by twine or staples, which also need to be removed. Knock off any
loose clay, just as you do with planting media, and use a soil knife to
cut away some of the clay if you can. Then, soak the root ball in a tub or
barrel, making sure that the water covers the root ball.
VV Let the root ball soak in water for a day, or even a few days. Then,
remove the plant from the water and wash the roots to remove any
remaining clay. Make sure that you can see the crown, because you
don’t want to plant the crown too shallow or deep.
VV You might notice some roots that have started growing off the stems
that are higher than where the root crown is located. These are called
adventitious roots because they are growing somewhere they’re not
supposed to be. These should not be planted; they should be above
the ground, and you can cut them off so that they don’t bother you.
VV You want the crown, or flare, to be planted at grade. You might have
been told to just peel the burlap back and plant the ball in the ground,
but when you do that, you’re planting it too deep, which leads to
problems down the road.
VV The next step is to pull apart the roots so that they are all radial. Cut
away any roots that are pointing straight down. Also cut any roots that
are knotted together and then point them out like spokes on a wheel.
Cut off the ends of any roots that are extremely long. Keep working on
the roots until you get them as straightened out as much as you can.
VV Make sure to keep the root crown at grade or slightly above grade, not
below grade. Then, build a mound of soil in the center as needed.
VV When you finally have your plant exactly where you want it in the hole,
backfill the hole that the plant is now in with unamended native soil. Do
not use fertilizer or other amendments. Whatever originally came out of
that hole goes right back in, with the exception of big rocks or garbage.
VV Don’t press, stomp, or otherwise compact the soil; this compresses soil
pores, which hold both air and water. Instead, “mud it in” with water
and additional soil. This is a relatively old technique, but it’s a great
way of making sure the soil gets around the roots and that you’re not
eliminating air while you’re doing it.
VV At this point, if the root crown has sunken below grade, gently pull it
up until it’s level or above grade. If needed, you can push more soil
underneath the crown and add more soil on top. Then, water it again to
resettle the soil. Keep doing this until it’s at grade.
READING
QUESTIONS
O
nce you have healthy plants in the ground, you
should consider aftercare: the materials and methods
you need to use to optimize your plants’ ability to
survive and thrive. With aftercare, there are all kinds of heavily
marketed products that you might be tempted to buy. This
lesson will help you determine whether these products are
necessary or even useful and teach you the best methods for
maintaining a sustainable and healthy landscape.
98
WATERING
VV All new transplants need water, As long as your tree and
even drought-tolerant species. shrubs are still alive, you can
There’s no such thing as an dig them up, correct any
instantly drought-tolerant plant; problems they might have,
they first have to get their roots and replant them—during
established. any time of the year. But if
you planted a tree recently,
VV The single most important thing
you don’t want to disturb it
for the successful establishment
again and give it a double
of your new plants is give them
dose of transplant shock.
plenty of water.
Instead, wait a season or so.
VV Roots will grow toward water,
oxygen, and nutrients, and those
three things will contribute to the
establishment of your plants.
FERTILIZING
VV The roots of your plant are spread out near the surface of the soil like
spokes on a wheel. You want to put the fertilizer where the roots are
going be able to access it, so fertilizer should go on top of the soil, and
nature will work it into the soil. Never put fertilizer into the soil; your
roots can get tip burn.
VV Don’t add anything to your soil that your soil test deems adequate.
MULCHING
VV Instead of adding fertilizer, use mulch. Mulching, next to watering, is
the second most important thing you can do for your plants.
VV Add at least four inches of woody material. If you don’t have that much
mulch, weeds will grow better rather than worse. If there’s enough light
getting through the mulch, weeds will grow. But if you have at least four
inches of mulch, light can’t get through to the seeds. Perennial weeds
will require even thicker layers of mulch.
VV Don’t make a mulch volcano, where the mulch starts at one level and
goes all the way up the trunk of the tree. Instead, create a mulch bagel:
Start with a depth of four or more inches, and as you approach the tree
or shrub, decrease the depth. This is an easy way to retain water around
the tree with the help of the mulch. As the mulch decomposes, you’ll
have to add more to keep it at a minimum of three inches. For low-
maintenance sites, you can increase the depth by several inches.
VV Remove weeds if they appear. Simply pulling them out is fine because
mulch reduces erosion. Pulling out weeds doesn’t disturb the soil.
VV Don’t prune any small branches along the trunk; these protect and
provide food for connecting trunk tissues.
VV As soon as you prune the crown, you’re going to stimulate new shoot
growth, which leads to more stress on the plant. Not only is the plant
trying to establish its roots, but now it has to support new leaves. You
want all of the resources to go down to the roots so that they grow
and establish.
STAKING
VV If you use the bare-root method, you may not need to stake at all. The
reason is that if you plant a root ball—the ball of clay or the planting
media—it’s a ball-in-socket type of thing, and the ball moves within the
hole. You have to stake the plant so that it doesn’t move.
VV You want to see taper—where the size of the tree flares outward from
the trunk to the roots—and the only way that taper develops is if the
tree can sway in the wind. If a tree is staked too tightly, that prevents
movement, and the tree will not develop taper. A very tall and skinny
tree results, and once you take off the staking, the tree will bend over
or snap off.
VV Second, look for new leaf growth, which is an indication that the roots
are established and can support new crown growth. This is only if
you’ve bare-rooted the plant. If it hasn’t been bare-rooted, then you’re
not going to get that response.
VV Keep in mind that you have to take the stakes off, especially ones that
are tied to the tree itself. The ties will become strangling as the tree
grows. Neglected stakes will injure or kill trees.
THINGS TO AVOID
VV In addition to routine staking, there are other things that you should
avoid. This includes transplant supplements. For example, you
might have heard that hydrogels, or water crystals, will reduce your
irrigation needs because they improve the moisture holding capacity
of your soil. And hydrogels do this to a certain extent, but this is not
a permanent fix. Hydrogels degrade and are expensive and generally
ineffective.
VV Also avoid any type of vitamin B1 supplement. The myth is that this
enhances root growth. But plants make their own vitamin B1, and you
don’t need to add more.
VV Don’t bother with packaged microbes. They don’t add anything to the
soil, and they’re really not going to add anything to your plants.
VV Also avoid root snorkels. If you look at newly planted trees, especially
in urban areas, you might see a plastic tube that goes down into the
ground. Some people say that the purpose of the tube is so you can
add water for irrigation; other people say that it acts like a snorkel,
bringing oxygen down to the roots. In any case, they’re pointless. The
roots are not sunk two feet below these in the ground; the roots are
right there at the surface.
VV Try to avoid any further soil disturbances. You want to make sure that
you control erosion and runoff.
QUESTIONS
YY You have a recently transplanted tree that you now realize was
staked improperly—too tight and too high. You also realize that
removing the stake could cause the tree to bend or break. How
might you address this problem so that within a year your tree
is freestanding?
Plant Nutrition:
Evidence-Based Fertilizing
S
oil tests are the only accurate way to determine the
properties of your garden soils. This lesson will show
you how to analyze your soil test to determine what
kind of fertilizer, if any, you need to be adding to your garden
or landscape. You will discover which chemical elements
are essential for plant growth and what roles they play. You
will also learn how to assess nutrient levels, pH levels, and
organic material levels from soil test results. You will identify
nutrients that are deficient as well as those that may be in
toxic quantities.
107
ELEMENTS AND NUTRIENTS FOR PLANTS
VV The essential chemical elements are different for plants than for animals.
There are nine macronutrients, which are nutrients that are required in
relatively large quantities. The ones that every living organism on earth
need are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Then there are the complete
fertilizer components: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. The only
three macronutrients are calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
VV There are eight micronutrients that we know of so far. These include
mostly metals—boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel,
and zinc—and also chlorine.
VV Then there are some unusual requirements that are only for special
groups of plants. Nitrogen-fixing plants require cobalt as an additional
nutrient for their nitrogen-fixation process. Selenium collectors are
found in selenium-rich soils, and selenium is required for their growth.
Silicon is found in the cell walls of grasses. Many succulent species have
sodium as a requirement. Aluminum, arsenic, and other heavy metals
may play a nutritional role that we’re not yet aware of.
VV There are functional designations for these nutrients. The building
blocks—which make carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and nucleic acids—
are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur.
VV Another group is the cell wall strengtheners: silicone (which grasses
have) and boron and calcium (which all plants have). Some elements
are used for cell water management; these include chlorine, potassium,
and sodium.
VV There are a group of metals that are enzyme cofactors, and they include
aluminum, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum,
nickel, selenium, and zinc. There are many toxic heavy metals that can
replace these and interfere with enzyme activity.
FERTILIZER LABELS
VV Fertilizer labels can be very complicated, but they are regulated, so any
ingredient that is listed on the label is guaranteed to be in the fertilizer.
This is true for both inorganic and organic fertilizers. If it’s called
a fertilizer, then it must have a legal guarantee of nutrient content. If
it’s not on the label, there is no content guarantee. It doesn’t mean that
the fertilizer doesn’t contain the nutrient at all, but it usually means that
there’s too little of it to measure or it’s so variable that it’s impossible
to measure.
VV But this type of intense harvesting is not what happens in our home
gardens and landscapes. You rarely have to add any nutrients to
your soil, except maybe nitrogen, but you think that you have to add
nutrients, so you tend to add more and more, without having your soil
tested to let you know where you stand.
FERTILIZER SOURCES
VV There are both inorganic and organic fertilizers. Both are capable of
causing pollution problems. Inorganic fertilizers break down relatively
quickly, making the nutrients available quickly. Organic fertilizers tend
to release their materials much slower.
VV Organic fertilizers increase the organic matter content of your soil. This
improves drainage, water holding capacity, and soil structure. But it’s
easy to overdo, so check your soil test for organic matter levels.
VV The risk for runoff and contamination of water sources is greatest with
inorganic sources.
NUTRIENT TOXICITIES
VV If your soil test shows that your soil contains nutrients at toxic levels,
don’t add more chemicals. Regardless of which nutrients are at high
levels, plant a fast-growing cover crop, which will pull nutrients out
of the soil. Then, remove that plant material so that the nutrients are
removed with it; you can compost the cover crop, but don’t put it back
in the soil.
VV Another way to decrease nutrient levels is a little slower but better for
landscapes where you don’t want a cover crop. This is by using a low-
nutrient woody mulch, which, when applied on top of the soil, will be
a food source for microbes, which will strip nutrients out of the soil as
they’re growing.
READING
QUESTIONS
P
runing is one of the most important things you can do to
maintain the health and attractiveness of your landscape
plants. It’s both an art and a science. It’s an art when
a plant is pruned to enhance the landscape; the science part
is knowing how, where, when, and why to remove tissues. In
this lesson, you will discover how applied plant physiology
can help you prune trees and shrubs properly. The how-to
methodology of pruning is vast, so this lesson will focus on
techniques that are compatible with a plant’s natural form and
growth patterns. You will discover that proper pruning will
create a more aesthetically pleasing landscape and over time
will reduce the need for chronic maintenance.
117
WHY PRUNE?
VV The most common reason that homeowners prune is to maintain
the size of a tree or a shrub. Many gardeners mistakenly assume that
tree and shrub size can be “fixed” by pruning. But tree and shrub
sizes are under both genetic and environmental control. Frequent,
heavy pruning depletes a plant’s resources and opens the tissues
to invasion by pests and pathogens. If a shrub has to be pruned for size
more than once a year, it’s probably in the wrong place, so consider
moving it.
VV Training young trees is the second reason for pruning. In this way, you
can correct future problems early. Never prune young trees to make
them look like miniature adults. Formal pruning techniques, such as
topiary, bonsai, or espalier, should be done by an expert.
WHEN TO PRUNE
VV When considering when to prune, consider how pruning will affect
future plant growth. Natural target pruning, also known as selective
pruning, is done with consideration for how the plant will respond to
the pruning. The plant will remain in a natural form; it won’t look like it
has been pruned.
VV When you prune, you might stimulate dormant buds that are below the
cut. Where they’re stimulated depends on where the cut is made; buds
closest to the cut will be released from dormancy first.
VV When you make heading cuts, you run the risk of water sprouts
developing. As opposed to suckers, which come from the root system,
water sprouts come up from the crown and are vigorous upright
branches that are usually unattractive. When you have water sprouts,
you usually have to remove them, and then more water sprouts develop.
This requires constant maintenance.
VV The other reason that it’s legitimate to make heading cuts is if you’re
deadheading, which involves removing a shrub or tree’s flowers that
have died.
VV Another reason to consider making heading cuts is when using the “kill
or cure” approach. This is appropriate only for those species that are
naturally multitrunked. This approach is good for shrubs and small trees
that have become spindly. It’s basically a last resort—a way to start over
when you’re unsatisfied with the shape of your plant and it would be too
difficult to do restoration pruning. If they are otherwise healthy, plants
will respond to this approach with vigorous regrowth from the crown.
VV You can also use thinning cuts for crown cleaning, which involves
removing some of the interior branches that have become too dense to
let more light in and to increase air penetration.
VV There are costs and benefits associated with pruning during each
season of the year.
UU The spring is the worst time for regrowth. This might be good.
If you want to have a smaller tree or shrub, prune in the spring
because it will have a dwarfing effect. Spring pruning can also lead
to “bleeding” of some species as growth resumes and the xylem
and phloem are busy with water, nutrient, and carbohydrate
movement, resulting in leakage that makes a plant look like
it’s bleeding.
VV Don’t prune after transplanting. If you prune, you will stimulate crown
growth, and you want the plant’s resources to be put toward rooting
after it is transplanted.
HOW TO PRUNE
VV The proper equipment to use for pruning includes a pair of hand
pruners and a pruning saw. For smaller branches, use the hand pruners;
for branches that are too big for your pruners to get around easily and
be able to cut, use the saw.
VV When you’re trying to figure out exactly where should you make your
cuts, look for the points where branches are attached to the trunk or
other branches. The tissue at the point where the branch comes out
from the trunk or other branch and is a little raised and rough is called
the branch collar. You don’t want to cut into the branch collar, because
that’s where natural sealing occurs. Instead, cut just above and parallel
to the branch collar.
VV How much you should remove when pruning varies with species, age,
and environmental conditions. As a rule of thumb, about 25 percent of
the foliage is the maximum you should take off per year. Restoration
pruning with therefore take several years to complete. Excessive
pruning will encourage water sprouts and suckers.
QUESTIONS
yy flush cuts
yy candelabras or codominant leaders
yy included bark
Would any of these trees constitute a hazard to people or
property? If so, what should be done about them?
Creating Safe
Food Gardens
T
his lesson will give you the tools and information you
need to analyze the risk of heavy-metal contamination
of your garden soil. The lesson will address how some
of the most common contaminates can end up in your
garden soil and stress the importance of having a baseline
soil test performed. Once you know whether your soil is
contaminated with heavy metals, you can make decisions
about how to minimize exposure through direct contact and
through consumption of vegetables. Even landscapes with
contaminated soils can be safely used for growing vegetables
with some careful planning.
126
It’s tempting to think of your
home gardens as a sanctuary
where you have absolute control
over what chemicals are present.
But this is a dangerous delusion.
Industrialization has led to the
invisible problem of heavy-
metal contamination in many
landscapes. But knowing what
your soil contains allows you to
take control of the problem and
reduce the risk of exposure.
VV Considering what might be in your soil will help you determine what
types of soil tests you should do. There are many possible sources that
your soil can be exposed to.
The risk cup is a simple EPA graphic from decades ago that helps
explain the types of contaminations you’re exposed to and what you
can and can’t control. It is a visual way of determining your relative risk
of exposure to various environmental factors.
UU We ingest heavy metals from our diet. Vegetables and cereal are
the primary sources of lead. Cereals and root vegetables are the
primary sources of cadmium. Heavy metal levels are higher in
urban-grown vegetables than in rural-grown ones.
UU Metals are more mobile in acidic (low pH) soils. Metals are also
more mobile in sandy soils. Metals are less mobile in clay soils.
VV But if uptake does occur, then the roots are most likely to be
contaminated. If this happens, you might not want to grow beets,
carrots, or other foods whose parts you would be eating grow below
ground.
VV Leaves can be contaminated. Leaves that are red are often more
contaminated than those that are green. Fruits are less likely to be
contaminated. The exception to this is zucchini, which accumulates
certain heavy metals.
READING
QUESTIONS
Water-Wise Landscaping
N
o matter where you live, water conservation is a serious
issue, or will become a serious issue. This lesson
will teach you how you can be both conscientious
and effective in the use of water in your landscape. You will
discover ways to reduce water use and protect water quality
as well as easy ways to figure out irrigation needs. You will
also learn some plant biochemistry and physiology that will
help you understand how photosynthesis works.
135
BASICS OF WATER-WISE GARDENING
VV Water-wise gardening has a few components: reducing both the use of
and the evaporation of water. In other words, it involves reducing how
much water plants are getting and reducing how much water is lost,
either from the plants themselves or from other surfaces.
VV There are some great design modifications you can consider. To reduce
the use of water, consider using more hardscape, such as pathways of
different types of pavers and decks and patios. Also consider using
grass islands rather than having grass as the bulk of your landscape. In
addition, consider creating hydrozones—collections of plants that have
the same water requirements—in your landscape. To reduce the loss
of water, consider structural components, such as windbreaks—which
are linear plantings of trees and shrubs designed to reduce wind, which
strips water from plants—and shading, which reduces temperature and
therefore reduces evaporation.
VV You need to reconsider your lawn. This is difficult for many homeowners
to even think about. Part of reconsidering your lawn is accepting that
it’s not always going to look beautiful. The reason we have problems
with our lawns is because turf uses the most water of any landscape
plant. Keep in mind that you can let your lawn go dormant if water
or temperatures are not ideal. Alternatively, think about how you can
change having a lawn into a way that’s more sustainable. You can
replace the lawn without destroying the soil by mowing it flat during
the dormant season when it is brown and then mulching it deeply with
woodchips, letting it sit until the turf is gone. Then, you can plant water-
conserving plants.
VV You need to think about soil management. Specifically, keep weeds out.
Weeds use water—sometimes more water than your desired plants.
Weeds can be dealt with by keeping exposed bare soil covered with
mulch, plants, or hardscapes.
VV Also consider additional water sources for your garden and landscape.
To reduce water usage from your garden hose, consider capturing and
reusing water from your sump pump, commonly found in basements
of houses. Similarly, if you have an air conditioner, the condensate that
comes from the air conditioner is a relatively clean source of water,
so you could use it in your garden. In addition, you can use rooftop-
collected water through rain barrels. Be careful about using this water,
though, because it might contain chemical or fecal contaminates. This
water will probably not hurt your plants, but it might hurt you.
VV At the same time, if you see wilting, make sure that it isn’t due to
other soil problems. A common cause of wilting in landscape plants is
overwatering. If the soil is waterlogged, there’s no oxygen. Then, the
roots aren’t taking water up to the leaves and they wilt—not because
the soil has too little water, but because the leaves have too little water.
VV Don’t bother with moisture probes, which you stick in the soil to
determine its moisture. The roots of plants go way beyond one spot
in the soil, so what’s happening in one spot may not be the same as
another spot.
VV To fix this problem, many grasses and plants from tropical areas have
a modified version of the C3 pathway called the C4 pathway—which
is the same as the C3 pathway, but with a few extra first steps. These
plants are photosynthesizing, but when the carbon dioxide comes in,
rather than binding onto RuBisCO, it binds onto phosphoenolpyruvate
(PEP) carboxylase.
VV When you compare the two pathways, even though C3 plants require
less cellular energy to photosynthesize, when they’re photorespiring,
they lose so much energy that they could actually lose weight over time.
So, although the C4 pathway requires more energy at the beginning, it
actually saves energy because of the reduction in photorespiration.
VV The succulents, which are found in environments that are hot and
dry, have a third way of reducing photorespiration problems: the
crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway, which helps these plants
retain water and still allows them to photosynthesize.
VV This pathway is just like the C4 pathway. It has those extra steps at the
beginning, where carbon dioxide binds with PEP carboxylase, and the
carbon is carried to wherever the RuBisCO is. And while the C4 plants
had this spacial separation of the enzyme from oxygen, the CAM plants
have a temporal separation.
VV Because these plants are in such hot, dry environments, they close their
stomata down during the day when water is very low and it’s very hot.
But when the stomata are closed, carbon dioxide can’t get in, so the
plant can’t photosynthesize. These plants overcome this problem by
having their stomata open at nighttime to let carbon dioxide in and
oxygen out.
READING
QUESTIONS
Diagnosing Diseases
and Disasters
T
he focus of this lesson is on diagnosing landscape plant
problems. Being able to diagnose problems accurately
ensures that you not adding unnecessary pesticides or
fertilizer to your plants. The diagnostic approach described
in this lesson will help you collect and organize data to then
use to narrow the field of possible plant problems. Once
you’ve reached an informed diagnosis, you’ll know what, if
anything, you should do to treat your plants and how to avoid
future problems.
145
Plants die most often
from poor horticultural
practices, not from
pests and disease.
VV After figuring out what your plant is and whether it actually has
a problem, make sure you can describe the abnormality, both for your
own knowledge and to anyone you might be asking for advice. This
involves looking for symptoms of damage and signs of insects or other
types of biotic factors.
VV Then, determine the site history. Trees and shrubs take a while to die,
so there could be significant issues with soil management from years
before that won’t manifest until years afterward in the plant. These
issues include road building or repaving or foundation excavation, soil
amendments, and fertilizer/pesticide usage.
VV Finally, determine how the plant was installed. In other words, how
was it planted? Often the reason a plant is failing is because it was
not planted properly.
UU Wilting is one of the best diagnostics there is. If your plant has
wilting leaves, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs more water.
It means that the leaf doesn’t have enough water, either because
the soil is dry or it is too wet. There are many stresses that are
water related. If the leaf is distorted, such as warped or cupped,
this is often a temperature-related issue—the environment being
either too hot or too cold—or sometimes a nutrient-related issue,
such as an imbalance.
VV One of the things that you’ll see with insect or herbivore damage is
tissues that are missing or otherwise damaged in a way that doesn’t
look like a nonliving factor.
UU If you see a bullseye pattern radiating out from the center of a leaf,
which often is either black or is actually a hole, that is where the
fungal spore landed and started growing, and then it spread
outward.
READING
QUESTIONS
Gardening CSI:
Case Studies
M
ost of the horticultural death and destruction
that occurs, especially in trees and shrubs, is not
due to pests and disease but to poor gardening
practices. And this is completely preventable. In this lesson,
you will investigate 13 situations where plants did unexpected
things. Some of these examples are truly horticultural
crime scenes, but others are just physiological peculiarities.
You will discover that you should carefully examine plant
symptoms and environmental evidence before determining
how to treat failing plants.
153
UNMANAGED ROOTSTOCK
VV In the Case of the Concealed Cherry, one tree apparently disappeared
and was replaced by another. In this case, shoots from the rootstock of
a grafted weeping cherry tree overtook and eventually killed the less
competitive weeping scion.
BAD STAKING
VV Wild water sprouts pop up on trees as visual SOS signals; they are often
a sign of stress. In the Case of the Wild Water Sprouts, a badly staked
tree responded by growing new branches on the unaffected limbs.
Specifically, staking material was left on a tree that girdled and killed
the upper part of the crown, resulting in most of the resources going to
the lower limbs, which grew water sprouts.
NO ROOT ESTABLISHMENT
VV The Case of the Receding Rhododendron shows that pot-bound
roots can signal their distress through leaf performance. In this
case, a rhododendron looked healthy initially, but because of how it
was planted, it eventually sprouted smaller new leaves and became
unhealthy. It was planted with container media, burlap, and clay, which
were all barriers to the roots getting to the native soil. The roots didn’t
get established and the plant exhibited signs of drought stress, such as
necrosis on the tips and margins.
READING
QUESTIONS
Integrated Pest
Management
I
n this lesson, you will discover how to deal with pests in the
garden by managing them, not controlling them. A garden
pest is anything that you don’t want in your landscape.
There are scads of chemical methods for controlling pests,
but this lesson will focus on reducing or eliminating the use
of chemical pesticides through integrated pest management
(IPM), which is a systematic, science-based approach to
managing your worst pest problems with a minimum of
chemical inputs. Using the IPM approach, you will discover
the least-toxic ways to control pests but leave your desirable
garden inhabitants relatively unscathed.
161
HOW IPM WORKS
VV When considering IPM, it’s important to make sure that you’ve
diagnosed the problem accurately. Is it an abiotic cause, such as the
environment or bad planting practices? Or is it a biotic cause, such as
a pest? Is it a primary pest or an opportunistic pest? Pests are often
opportunistic and result from poor plant selection or management.
VV You also need to know exactly what your pest is. A pest is simply an
unwanted plant, insect, or other organism that may be desirable in one
part of your landscape but not in another. Identifying the pest of
concern is important. Fortunately, there are great internet resources,
extension offices, and other ways to make sure that you identify your
pest correctly.
VV Next, learn its behavior and life cycle in your region. This is important
for the timing of the control. You need to know when eggs hatch, if it’s
an insect that has a larval stage and goes through various changes and
then becomes a problem; if it’s a problem when it’s a larva, you need to
know that to figure out your control options.
VV Then, monitor the pest once you’ve discovered it. Keep a diary. This
allows you to know for your region and your particular microclimate
when a pest appears and when it starts causing damage. You can also
use monitoring traps to capture pests as they invade your landscape.
CULTURAL CONTROL
VV The first part of the IPM approach is cultural control: Either change the
plant or change the environment.
VV You can try to make the plant itself less hospitable to the pest.
UU Prune trees and shrubs to increase their air circulation and decrease
some disease problems.
MECHANICAL CONTROL
VV In addition to cultural control, you can use mechanical control to
physically remove the pest.
UU Use monitoring traps, which are often used to see how pests are
progressing through a landscape but can also be used as traps.
codling moths
The Science
parasitic of Gardening
wasps lacewings nematodes 167
Lady beetles are a wonderful
predator on aphids and other
pests—but do not buy them.
Many purchased lady beetles
aren’t natives, and they can
physically displace the native
species of lady beetles. In
addition, the collection of
lady beetles degrades the
native environment. Instead,
make your landscape more
hospitable to lady beetles: If
you build it, they will come.
UU Determine that pesticide use is critical for plant survival, not just for
your aesthetic desires.
READING
QUESTIONS
Understanding Pesticides
M
odern pesticides are formulated to kill the target pest
with less injury to unrelated organisms. This lesson
will introduce you to the spectrum of pesticides, with
some specific focus on those certified for organic use. The
lesson will analyze whether a pesticide actually works; there
are many that exist with no proof of efficacy. The lesson will
end with a note about home remedies, which explains why an
informed gardener does not go this route.
171
PESTICIDE BIG PICTURE ISSUES
VV You can only use a pesticide for what it’s labeled to use on. This is why it
is important to read the label.
VV Legal pesticides are registered both by the EPA and by your state
department of agriculture. It’s important to check if a particular
pesticide is legal to use in your state.
VV The EPA does not require any evidence of product efficacy. There’s no
regulatory arm in the EPA for this. Efficacy information is supposed to
be provided by the company that is marketing the product, which could
misrepresent the efficacy of the product.
PESTICIDE TYPES
VV A pesticide is defined as any substance that is intended for preventing,
destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest.
VV The term “pesticide” is the umbrella term under which exist insecticides,
which kill insects; miticides, which kill mites; and nematicides, which
kill nematodes. Then there are bactericides and fungicides, which will
kill bacteria and fungi, respectively, which really shouldn’t be used
because they are harmful to living landscape soils. Then there are
herbicides, which kill plants; molluscides, which kill slugs and snails; and
rodenticides, which kill rodents.
UU This will also work for spore and seed germination. You can make
the surface inaccessible, such as by covering it, or you can change
the surface’s chemistry, such as its pH. These methods will prevent
the organism from reproducing.
VV Instead of preventing pest damage, you can cure the problem, which
involves dealing with the pest once it’s already present.
VV There are several inorganic chemicals that you might be able to use.
codling moth
178 Lesson 19 � Understanding Pesticides
VV There are also biological products.
UU There are also animal products. The problem with these products
is that there is rapid habituation when feeding pressure is high.
yy There are four ways that these products can have an effect:
neophobia (it’s new, so the animal doesn’t like it); conditioned
aversion (the animal avoids a certain food after becoming
sick after eating that food); irritation (the animal’s mucus
membranes swell up after eating a certain food); flavor
modification (something is added to a plant that makes it
taste horrible—for example, soapy or bitter—so the animal
stops eating it).
yy The types of products that you can find on the shelf that fall
into these categories include dried blood, which is a flavor
modifier; bone meal, which has a neophobic effect; capsaicin,
which is an irritant; urines from natural predators, such as
coyotes and foxes, which have a neophobic effect (urine from
nonpredators is ineffective); putrescent egg solids, which are
smelly; pheromones, which can be used to repel various types
of animals; and thiram, which is a chemical that causes gastric
upset and is an example of conditioned aversion.
READING
QUESTIONS
A
weed is simply a plant that is out of place. In this
lesson, you will learn about where some weeds came
from and why they ended up in the United States.
You will discover some of the worst perennial weeds that can
be found in your region, consider the damage they cause—
not just to your garden, but to other areas they can easily
invade—and use the IPM approach (cultural, mechanical,
biological, and chemical control mechanisms) to create
a multipronged control strategy. The last resort, chemical
control, is only considered for truly problematic weeds.
182
DEFINING WEEDS
VV Europe, Asia, and Africa tend to be the more common countries that
weeds came from to the United States. There are several reasons why
they were brought to America.
CONTROL OPTIONS
VV There are several options for controlling noxious weeds.
UU Life history traits will affect control options. Does the weed spread
seeds sexually or vegetatively? If you have to treat a weed that is
going to seed, you’ll want to deal with it when it’s in its reproductive
form. If it’s a weed that spreads by roots, rhizomes, or runners,
then you will be dealing with soil issues instead. Also consider the
weed’s toxicity to herbivores. Some ways to deal with weeds have
to do with bringing in grazers, but if it’s a toxic plant, then you can’t
use that option.
yy There are a few ways that this plant spreads: It forms berries
that birds eat and disperse, and the plant’s vegetative parts
give way to new plants.
Tamarix
188 Lesson 20 � What to Do about Weeds
UU Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) was introduced deliberately
by immigrants. It’s an ornamental, wetland herbaceous perennial
that originally came from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.
READING
QUESTIONS
I
n this lesson, you will learn about the bugs that bug you in
your garden. You will consider how the four prongs of IPM—
cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical control—can
be generally applied to controlling pest insects. You will learn
about some of the most widespread examples of garden
pests and discover specifically how to get them under control,
or at least manage them.
191
CONTROL OPTIONS
VV In general, cultural control for insects involves increasing landscape
diversity. This creates a habitat for predators and parasitoids, which
can help control the insects that you don’t want in your garden. Use
polyculture or intercropping—which involves interspersing vegetable
plants and ornamentals, for example, instead of having all the same
plants in one area. This confuses pests, who will have to actively search
for host plants.
VV Another method is the use of trap plants, which are specific for
particular pests. This involves knowing a pest’s food desires and
planting its favorite food so that perhaps it won’t attack the plants you
intentionally planted that the pest was destroying.
VV There are also mechanical ways of dealing with insect pests. Physical
removal includes picking off and destroying the pest, using a hose
spray, and using sticky traps.
Bug zappers work because anything that touches them dies, but they
will attract mostly beneficial insects, such as moths, not mosquitoes.
READING
QUESTIONS
What to Do about
Herbivores
T
his lesson will address some of the worst animal visitors
that you’d rather not have in your garden, such as slugs,
deer, and rats. The lesson will apply the four prongs
of IPM to managing animal pests, but there won’t be many
biological control options. Thus, the focus will primarily be
on cultural and mechanical controls, especially those that
modify animal behavior. You will also have to consider the
legal implications of managing vertebrate pests. Issues such
as humanely dispatching trapped animals are important,
as are protection statutes for some native species. This will
vary from state to state, so be sure to consult with your
state department of wildlife before trapping, injuring, or
killing animals.
201
CONTROL OPTIONS
VV The simplest, most holistic control option is to consider your plant
selection. Ultimately, this will not help much if animals are hungry enough.
VV Cultural control is one of the areas where you can manage activity
of these animal pests. With some of them, increasing the landscape
diversity to support natural predators, especially with smaller animal
pests, will be helpful. And you can provide other food sources, such as
peanuts or sunflower seeds for squirrels so they don’t dig up the bulbs
you’ve planted.
VV Also consider mechanical control, such as fencing, which can keep
animal pests out of wherever you don’t want them.
VV You can also modify the behavior of animal pests.
UU You can scare animal pests with startle inducers, such as scarecrows,
motion sensor sprinklers and lights, and flags or aluminum plates
that blow in the wind. However, if animals are hungry enough, they
will ignore things that would normally scare them and still feed on
your landscape.
UU Another way to modify behavior is by using deterrents and
repellants. Some basic ways that animals can be managed
behaviorally include neophobia, which is scaring an animal with
something different, such as processed meat (meat and bone
meal); conditioned aversion, which involves spraying something on
your plant that is harmless to the plant but will upset the animal’s
stomach; irritation of the mucous membranes in their nose and
mouth by using something like capsaicin, the active ingredient in
chili peppers; and flavor modification with something like blood
meal. Again, if the animal is hungry enough, it will eat anything
rather than starve to death.
VV With smaller animal pests, you can consider trapping.
VV There are not many options for biological control of animal pests
because there are laws about killing wildlife. But you can have dogs,
which can scare away many unwelcome visitors and are one of the best
options for keeping larger animals away from your landscape.
UU Slugs can wreak havoc on your plants because they are so large
and so voracious. They make huge holes in the ground and can
strip plants down to the ground.
Copper tape is also said to keep slugs away, but there’s no scientific
evidence that this would work.
UU The large predators of your plants include deer, moose, and elk.
These animals can cause a lot of damage by killing and otherwise
destroying plants in your landscape.
QUESTIONS
YY Slugs are easily killed with salt, yet this chemical control is not
recommended. Why?
T
his lesson will investigate some popular garden
products and practices to see if the claims live up to the
science. The lesson will offer case studies that fall into
some of the categories that gardening information can fall
into: practices not based on any consistent, reliable scientific
research; misapplied research; overextrapolated research;
poorly interpreted research; and poor-quality research. You
will also discover the importance of separating correlated
observations from causative actions.
211
Evaluating Garden Information: The CRAP Test
To evaluate garden information, use the CRAP test, which
stands for credibility, relevance, accuracy, and purpose.
Companion planting
Nurse plants
MISAPPLIED SCIENCE
VV Garden practices can be victims of misapplied science, in which the
science is good, but it’s being used in a way that is not appropriate.
One of the best examples of this are Epsom salts.
VV The Epsom Salt Council have implied that Epsom salt—or magnesium
sulfate—helps plants grow greener with higher yields and more blooms,
helps seeds germinate, increases chlorophyll production, improves
phosphorous and nitrogen uptake, and helps produce vitamins.
VV With many of these claims, the opposite is true if you’re growing plants
in a solution that is devoid of magnesium. But adding more magnesium
is not going to make these things better. So, the claims are based on
some science, but the science is not applied well.
VV There is also some scientific evidence behind using magnesium
appropriately. Many of these recommendations are better used
in agricultural systems than for home gardens and landscapes.
For example, magnesium often has to be added to get good fruit
production. But there isn’t any evidence for using magnesium sulfate,
or Epsom salts, in any situation.
UU The research did not involve trees—only pots of soil and mulch.
This is an overextrapolation: We’re going from pots of soil and
mulch to trees in a landscape. The containers were filled with
soil or media and then were either covered with mulch or not
covered—four different types of treatments. Then, water loss from
evaporation was measured for three days after watering. This is an
odd experiment: It’s not using trees, and the pots are only watered
for three days. This is not realistic for a landscape.
UU The results were all reported, but they were selectively highlighted
in the abstract. In other words, the results that most matched the
author’s bias were the ones that were highlighted. Unfortunately,
most people get their information from the abstract.
UU Here are the results: On day one, there was more evaporation on
the mulched media versus the nonmulched media. On day three,
the last day of the experiment, there were no differences between
the mulched and nonmulched media. However, the unmulched
soil lost a total of three liters of water, and the mulched soil lost
a total of two liters, so the mulched soil was much more efficient in
retaining water than the unmulched soil. This is opposite of what
was proposed in the abstract.
UU This is a single paper, and its conclusions are at odds with the bulk
of the scientific literature. This means that the paper in question
has to clear a very high bar, and other people have to be able to
repeat it and confirm the results. But this paper was not confirmed
anywhere else.
POOR-QUALITY RESEARCH
VV With poor-quality research, the information is not good for a number
of reasons. A particular paper on bee death and neonicotinoids,
published in the Bulletin of Insectology, claimed that neonicotinoids are
the sole cause of colony collapse disorder. There are several red flags
with this paper.
UU The lead author has a history of doing research that makes spurious
claims about the relationship between colony collapse disorder
and a specific group of pesticides.
UU A causes B.
UU B causes A.
UU A and B result from a common cause but don’t cause each other.
READING
QUESTIONS
T
his final lesson focuses on two landscape success
stories: One is from an ecological restoration effort
on a wetland site, while the other is an 18-year home
landscape transformation in Seattle. Throughout a landscape
transformation, there is a lot of trial and error. For sustainable
gardening, keep in mind that it’s not only important to figure
out what doesn’t work, but to understand why it doesn’t work
based on your knowledge of plant and soil science.
221
HERONS GLEN WETLAND BUFFER ENHANCEMENT
VV The Herons Glen wetland buffer enhancement was part of
a conservation effort to preserve a Garry oak prairie site with two
creeks running through it. The creeks are bounded by wetlands,
which needed protection with an enhanced buffer of approximately
three acres. The site was heavily infested with Scotch broom (Cytisus
scoparius) and Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) after decades
of livestock grazing.
VV In the third and fourth years, the canopy of the initially planted trees
was rapidly covering and shading most of the site. The shade reduced
the ability of noxious weeds (Himalayan blackberry and Scotch broom)
to appear. The weeds were replaced by creeping buttercup, which
was a native ground cover for the landscape. In drier areas, the trees
that had been planted died, but native grasses provided enough
shade to keep the invasive plants out. Once again, monitoring photos
were taken.
2004 2006
The Science of Gardening 223
VV The wetland continues to evolve, as landscapes do. Because it became
a more inviting environment after restoration, beavers moved in and
created dams. The dams created backups and flooded many of the
trees. But this is natural succession.
UU Water was always an issue with the arborvitae hedge; the water
bill was reduced by eliminating the lawn, adding hardscape, and
mulching.
READING
QUESTIONS
———. How Plants Work: The Science behind the Amazing Things Plants
Do.Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2015. This book translates plant physiology
into practical information for practical use by gardeners and others who
care for gardens and landscapes.
———. Safe Handling and Use of Rain Barrel Water in Gardens and
Landscapes. Pullman: Washington State University, 2017. http://cru.cahe.
wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS280E/FS280E.pdf. This publication provides
science-based suggestions for using rain barrel water in ways that protect
people, pets, and the environment.
228 Bibliography
———. The Informed Gardener Blooms Again. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 2010. This, along with The Informed Gardener, forms
a set of myth-busting books that is a comprehensive guide for gardeners
that will help them differentiate between good and not-so-good
gardening advice.
Chalker-Scott, Linda, and Mike Bush. Should We Buy Lady Beetles for Our
Gardens? Pullman: Washington State University, 2017. http://cru.cahe.wsu.
edu/CEPublications/FS268E/FS268E.pdf. This fact sheet discusses the
drawbacks to using purchased lady beetles and suggests some alternatives
for attracting and retaining local species.
Cogger, Craig. Raised Beds: Will They Benefit Your Vegetable Garden?
Pullman: Washington State University, 2017. http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/
CEPublications/FS075E/FS075E.pdf. This publication describes the uses of
raised beds and weighs their benefits and drawbacks so that gardeners can
decide if they are a worthwhile gardening investment. Some basic tips on
raised bed soil preparation and management are also included.
230 Bibliography
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