Don’t wrap evergreens in burlap for winter protection

Burns ‘em right up, is all a burlap wrap does.

The reason evergreens burn in winter is the needles get dry, from sun and wind. Wrap the poor plant in burlap and the burlap acts as a wick – the sun is still beating down on the plant, heating it up (through the burlap), the wind is still blowing and drying it out (through the burlap), except now there is a nice light, dry fabric wrapped around the plant to be sure all the moisture is sucked out.

For the first few years you plant certain evergreens, particularly dwarf shrubs, where they will receive more than a few hours of direct sunlight in winter, shade them with burlap walls (bottom picture).

Remember, we plant evergreens for winter interest as much as any other reason. Know if the evergreen is susceptible to winter burn – most arborvitae, pines, spruce, and firs are not. Yews are typically planted in so much shade that they remain in shade in winter, but truth is an established yew, properly maintained, can handle full winter sun. Be sure all evergreens go to bed having been watered well through fall. If you think building a burlap wall is a wise precaution, you only need it one winter, two at the most. If the plant burns without a burlap wall after two years of root development and growth, it was the wrong plant for the spot, or went to bed dry (and I’ll wager it wasn’t fertilized in the spring, either).

Don’t mix concrete retaining wall block with natural stone

You know me – I hate concrete retaining wall block. But if you have to use it, go all out. If you bring in natural stone to augment areas of the same landscape, the gruesome effect that concrete wall block has on the scene is intensified.

I like this stone retaining wall and planting area, sort of. It rises up and goes away in a kind of nice, natural way. I think I would have used some larger boulders throughout, but it hangs in there.

Now look at the big-ass house, with the concrete block foundation beds. Ugh. Corporate Headquarters. Note the concrete paver steps and stoop. Those white wood railings look right at home, don’t they? And what’s going to be placed in that silly little raised circle of concrete block at left, in the driveway? A statue of a little boy with a fishing pole?

I realize this is all a matter of taste, but then again, it’s a matter of taste.

Don’t seed a lawn as thick as most people seed a lawn.

I was out at a consultation earlier this spring and the homeowner had just finished applying grass seed by hand over some large areas of the property. How could I tell? The soil was nearly covered with grass seed. I could tell before I stepped out of my truck that the property had been seeded. Most of the yard was creamy white, due to patches where you couldn’t see the soil for the seed.

Most people apply way too much grass seed when seeding a new lawn area, or overseeding a thin lawn. I suppose the theory is you want thick, lush grass, so you should lay the seed on thick. Nope. What happens is the seed germinates and there is way too much root development per square inch to support the individual grass plants. So most of them fail, and you’re left with a thin lawn area.

Whether seeding by hand or seeding device, apply grass seed so that there are between only 8 to 12 seeds per square inch. How can you tell? You get down on your hands and knees, and count the seeds in one square inch. When the seed germinates and starts growing, initial growth should resemble the density of the hairs growing on the top of your wrist (were your hair green). Or the density of the hairs on the very top of the Renegade Gardener’s head. Don’t panic when you see this thin, initial growth. Unlike the top of my head, thick, lush growth is only weeks away.

Don’t use standard nails and fasteners with the new treated wood.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. The EPA led the charge to ban CCA, the combination of chemicals used since the ‘70s to treat lumber for outdoor use. The ban went into effect last year, and wasn’t a bad thing—the “A” in CCA stands for arsenic, and while the University of Minnesota and other researchers concluded that the arsenic posed no public health risk, minute traces of arsenic were found to pass from the old treated wood into the environment, and, in rare cases, humans.

So now the new treated lumber is out on the market, made water- and rot-resistant with a combination of more environmentally friendly chemicals (ACQ - Ammoniacal Copper Quat, CA - Copper Azole). All appeared fine until the little pieces of paper noting grade and SKU number on the end of each board started falling off the lumber, before the lumber was ever shipped from the mills. The staples were frying off—in as little as 24 hours after being inserted.

Turns out the new treatment chemicals are corrosive. Impregnated in the wood, the lumber now fries up and eats metal. There are already reports of builders and homeowners watching their new decks fall apart as the nails, bolts, and stringer hangers used in the construction are quickly corroded to the point that they no longer hold the wood together.

If you buy lumber to build an outdoor structure—a deck, fence, flower box, timber retaining wall, etc.—don’t fasten the wood together using that old box of nails or bag of screws you have kicking around in the garage somewhere. Of course, if you choose to build a retaining wall (or edge a garden bed) with treated timbers, instead of stone, having the thing fall apart is probably what you deserve.

Instead, buy stainless steel or triple galvanized nails, screws, bolts, and hangers (standard galvanized gets eaten, too).

Build away, but keep your fingers crossed. Researchers are pretty sure they’ve solved the problem, but all they know for sure is that the new fasteners haven’t corroded in, well, about a year.

Don’t mow your lawn short in mid-summer.

Since we’re heading into the peak heat of summer, I thought I’d toss this one out again for new visitors, even though this and other lawn care-related bits of advice run throughout the site like snippets of creeping charlie.

It’s getting hot, and the heat will last through most of August. The longer your lawn after it is cut, the healthier the individual grass plants. If you cut your lawn down to an inch or inch-and-a-half, you’re asking for trouble. Mowing a lawn this short means mowing often, more than once a week, and that shocks the grass plants (you try losing a finger once a week). Short lawns respond with short, shallow root systems, meaning they need frequent watering, and fertilization. And you’re doing all this to the lawn when it’s ninety degrees outside.

Now is the time to RAISE the cutting height of your lawnmower; that’s what those odd, never-used “C” and “D” settings are for. Cut your lawn to three inches in mid-summer, then cut again when it has grown an inch-and-a-half. The longer blades shade the soil surface and roots, and keep the ground cooler. Longer grass, longer, healthier roots. You don’t get brown-outs, or weak patches of lawn that fall prey to weeds and lawn diseases. You can water less. You need not fertilize, if you fertilized in late spring. You only have to mow about every eight to ten days.

Use all the extra time and saved effort to plot new ways to develop your landscape incorporating trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers where all that grass now lives.

Don’t dig perennials and small shrubs using a shovel.

Perennial fork (left); lowly shovel (right)

If your question raised by the above statement is, “How else do you dig up plants?,” you don’t own a perennial fork.

At least, that’s what I call them. They have different names around the country. Some people call them pitchforks, but that isn’t right. Pitchforks have five to ten long, thin, sharp tines protruding from a long handle. A perennial fork has a short handle, and four flat, strong tines. Thrust the tines into the soil around a perennial or small shrub, pull back on the handle, and the tool sort of rocks/lifts/tears the plant out of the ground.

With the roots intact, mostly. A shovel cuts the roots of the plant you’re moving, no question, every time. You can work a perennial fork up close to perennials in close quarters, but not sever roots when thrusting the tines into the ground as you work the tool around the plant.

Don’t go all nuts planting trees and shrubs this fall without submitting a soil test.

I sheepishly admit that the first few years I operated my humble little residential landscaping business, I planted some yards in the western metro without submitting soil for testing to the University of Minnesota soil lab. I’ve been telling people for years that soil in the western ‘burbs runs fairly uniformly in the 6.5 to 7.0 pH range, because that’s what the garden elders told me when I was a youngster.

My bad. Slightly acidic may be the general average, but I’m discovering that soil pH can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and even neighbor to neighbor. I’ve done three landscaping jobs in the western metro this season, took soil samples for each, and in all cases have had to drastically amend the soil to include soil sulfur to lower the pH. One yard I’m doing in Minnetonka right now has soil that tested 7.7 on the pH scale. And phosphorus levels approaching ground-glow, of course. Four years ago, a relatively straightforward job in Minnetonka, I’d have been tempted to think hell, skip the soil test. And I’d have planted ten evergreen trees and shrubs in horrifically sweet soil. Now is a great week to plant trees and shrubs, but you can plant into early October as well. So submit a soil test before you plant-the University has been sending the results back to me in just five to six days.