Landscaping Mississauga gardens -moisture

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draught tolerantThe moisture content of the soil on your property greatly affects the design of your low-maintenance garden.  Before planting examine whether your proposed garden site, as it naturally exists, is wet or dry.  Once you have determined that, you can either amend the soil or choose plants that flourish in the sort of soil you have in the garden.

The most recent trend in landscape design is  xeriscaping -choosing plants that will survive on only the natural water that is available to them. These plants should be grouped together in a dry sunny area of your garden.

However, even if your gardening area is usually dry and you decide to grow drought tolerant plants, you still may want to ensure continued good drainage in the proposed garden site before you start planting. Good drainage will prevent unusually heavy downpours or extended spells of wet weather from creating lingering puddles that could drown your plants. You can improve drainage by building raised beds on top of existing soil, by installing underground drainage pipes or tiles, or by regrading the area to create a slope that will allow water to drain away.

If your proposed garden area is generally moist, you still need to be prepared to keep it watered in dry weather. You need a water source nearby, so that during a drought you can sprinkle the spot daily in the afternoons or keep moist with the soaker hose.

Check our next blog entries for ideas what plants will do well in specific soil conditions in Mississauga and generally GTA area.  Here is our next blog entry on shrubs that perform well  in dry soil.

Landscaping Mississauga Gardens – composting

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If the soil tests described in our last two blog entries show that you need to improve the soil, you can do so in two ways; by adding the missing chemical components or composting.

The best way to build a better soil is to work in lots of organic matter that can solve all sorts of soil problems, such as poor drainage, lack of earthworms, extreme pH levels, or low nutrients.  The best source of organic matter is compost pile, which allows you to recycle leaves, grass clippings, plant debris, and household food waste into a nutrient rich soil conditioner.  Follow the steps below to learn how to make a compost pile:

composting1

1.Build a compost pile from alternating lawyers of “wet” material (green plant matter, fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds) and dry plant debris.

 

 

composting2

2. Sprinkle wet lawyers with wood ashes (for potassium and to lower pH) or lime (to raise pH) and livestock manure, or blood meal (a slaughterhouse by-product), or garden soil.

 

 

composting3

3. Spray the compost pile with water until it is moist as a squeezed out sponge; later moisten the pile whenever it gets dried out.

 

 

composting4

4. Turn the compost once a week, moving material from the outer edges of the pile into the center; the compost is ready to use once it is dark brown and crumby.

 

 

Repeat every year. Adding compost to your soil every year will keep it in good shape for growing plants.

Landscaping in Mississauga – soil type tests

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Properly preparing your garden soil before you start to plan will save you endless hours and considerable expense in trying to make up for deficiencies later on.  There is a lot you can do to improve the overall quality of your soil, and starting with good soils will also greatly broaden your plant choices.

To find out what type of soil you have in your garden, and determine what you need to improve before planting, start with four basic tests:

  1. check how well the soil drains after a heavy rain or after you have doused it with water from a hose or bucket – for the well balanced soil it should take about one hour for the water to drain: if it takes less – your soil is too sandy; if it takes much longer – your soil is to heavy with clay
  2. for the second test turn over some soil with a spade and see if you can find earthworms in it – consider yourself lucky if your soil contains a lot of these wonderful creatures with digestive systems and enzymes that chemically alter soil components in plants favour, and whose burrowing activities significantly improve soils drainage and aeration; if you cannot find any worms, this means that you need to  improve your soil to attract them.
  3. additionally you can do a test discussed in our previous blog entry

Landscaping Mississauga – knowing the soil type

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Plants grow in a variety of soils from Yukon tundra to Wasaga beaches; most individual plants, however, do well only in particular types of soil.  Thus, a crucial first step in designing a low maintenance garden is to evaluate your soil and the kinds of plants that grow best in it.

Sand and clay represent two extreme soil conditions. Clay soil consists of tiny particles packed together so tightly that water has difficulty seeping through.  Dense and heavy clay tends to block the spread of roots and may ultimately suffocate them; yet, the clay soil is usually loaded with nutrients because they have little opportunity to wash away.

Sandy soil contains large, loose-fitting particles that constantly shift. It has many air pocket for water to drain through and ample room for roots to spread.

Although you can find plants suitable for clay or sandy soil, you can greatly expand your selection by improving the soil with organic matter.  Your goal should be to create soil that drains within an hour after heavy rain, crumbles fairly easily in your hand, and is full of nutrients.  You can also buy a soil-testing kit from your local garden centre or hardware store and test your soil for acidity (pH scale) and key nutrients, such as nitrogen (for leaf and stem growth), phosphorus ( for root development and seeds formation) and potassium (that enhances plants vigor and resistance to diseases.  The majority of plants in the Greater Toronto Area will flourish in soils with pH ranging between 6 and 7, which is mildly acid to neutral.

Follow the steps below to test your soil:

soil type testing step 1.Step 1:

To get a representative sample of soil, mix trowefuls of soil from different parts of the garden together and put a small amount of soil in the kit’s test tube.

 

soil type 2Step 2:

Add the required amount of indicator fluid to the collected soil; gently shake the tube, and wait for the content to settle.

 

soil type 3Step 3:

Compare the tube to the test kit’s colour chart.  The more expensive your kit is the more accurate information on your soil conditions will you be able to derive.

 

soil type 4Step 4:

If your soil’s pH is too low, add lime to raise the level; on the other hand, to lower teh pH level, work powdered sulfur or wood ashes into the soil.  See the next week’s blog entry for details how to improve the soil condition.

Ash trees are dying in Ontario

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healthy & infested ash tree

As many of you have already noticed ash tress in Peel, Halton, GTA and York region are dying while others are being infested by the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).  The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a highly destructive invasive insect that attacks and kills all species of ash trees native to North America. This invasive pest tunnels underneath the bark, cutting off the flow of water and nutrients and killing the tree within a few years.

Introduced from Asia in the early 1990s, but discovered in the Detroit and Windsor areas only in 2002, it is believed that the insect was brought to North America unintentionally via wooden packing crates. In 2008 the CFIA confirmed the presence of EAB in Mississauga.  EAB has been confirmed across southwestern Ontario and has been identified as far east as Montreal and it has been declared an invasive alien species by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and is therefore subject to quarantine (that means that movement of ash wood products outside of the quarantine area is prohibited).  A large section of southwestern Ontario is now under quarantine.

There are somewhere between 700,000 – 1ooo,000 ash trees in Mississauga alone.   EAB invasion will have a devastating impact on our urban forest.  While, as part of its Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) management program for City-owned trees, the City is in the process of inspecting woodlots and identifying trees for removal due to the declining health and increasing hazard of trees infected by EAB; there is no similar programme for privately owned trees as they are considered the responsibility of the owner.

There are things you can do:

  • learn how to identify ash trees
  • look for signs of EAB infestation – see the Emerald Ash Borer fact sheet – most common signs of EAB infestation include:
    • bark damage – vertical cracks appear in the bark
    • shoots growing from the trunk and branches o f the tree
    • crown dieback – loss of leaves in the tree canopy
    • discoloration or yellowing of the leaves
    • D-shaped exit holes
    • increased presence of woodpeckers feeding
  • determine if treatment can save your ash tree
  • hire a qualified landscaping company if removal is required
  • plant alternative native trees to protect our urban forest

Landscaping Mississauga gardens – Lawn weeds control

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crabgrassBefore we say anything else, it is important to note that it is difficult if not impossible for weeds to invade dense, healthy turf and so they are seldom a serious problem on well-constructed and properly maintained lawns.  Weeds can be troublesome on neglected areas or lawns on poor soil. Although hand pulling is practical when weeds are sparse, high weed populations require chemical treatment. If weeds continue to invade after proper chemical treatment, some other facet of maintenance is at fault and steps should be taken to remedy the failing.

Chemicals used to control weeds in established lawns are called herbicides and are applied as preemergence or postemergence treatments.  Preeemergence herbicides are applied before weed seeds germinate and as the the seeds or seedlings begin growth they absorb enough chemical to kill them. Permanent lawn grasses are relatively unaffected. Postemergence herbicides are applied after weed seed germination when the weeds are in active growth, and such formulations do not greatly affect affect lawn grasses. Some chemicals are selective in that they kill only broad-leaved plants but not grass.  Others are nonselective and kill both weeds and lawn grasses.

  • Correctly identifying the weed and then selecting a proper chemical for its control are crucial.
  • Timing is also important. For example, dandelions may be controlled in midspring and late summer in Ontario because they are growing actively and are very susceptible to selective chemicals.
  • Choose a clear day with little or no air movement and temperatures of 15-25 C degrees. Such weather permits rapid absorption and uptake of the chemical with little chance of drift or spread beyond the treated area.
  • Do not apply herbicides during the excessive heat.
  • Follow exactly the directions on the package regarding dosages.
  • Keep all containers out of the reach of children and pets.
  • Wash your hands thoroughly after using the chemicals.
  • Do not use the same sprayer for different pesticides because it is virtually impossible to rinse out all traces of toxic herbicides; use separate sprayers and label them clearly.

Landscaping Mississauga Gardens – lawn care tips

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lawnWhen the snow melts, your first impulse may be to get working on your lawn – but hold on your horses ………. starting too soon may actually do more harm than good.  If your lawn feels spongy underfoot, that means that it is still too early.  Wait until the ground feels firm.   That’s the time to start working on your lawn.

The secret to a grassy yard all year-around are the following easy 8 easy steps:

1. Clean up the yard  Remove all fallen stems, branches and leaves by gently raking your lawn and gathering all the debris.  If there is more than 1cm (1/2 in.) of brown, matted blades of grass located where the soil meets the roots of your lawn, you will need to dethatch using a fan rake (if you have a large space, you may want to rent a motorized dethacher from RONA or Home Depot).

2. Curb local critters  Check the yard for any evidence of tunneling moles: little raised hills and underground tunnels in your lawn.  Fix the damage by tamping down tunnels and applying blood meal (you can find it in any garden centre). True to its name blood meal is a dry, inert powder actually made from animal blood as a slaughterhouse by-product.  It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen used as a composting activator as well as it can be spread on gardens to deter animals.  Used on your lawn it should discourage repeat visits from moles. Once the weather warms up, getting rid of the grubs moles feed on will also control future tunneling.

3. Aerate  Buy or rent a manual or power aerator (tip: share the cost with your  neighbours!) to remove little plugs of compacted soil from your lawn, so that air, water and nutrients can flow to the root zone, improving your lawn’s look and overall health. Aeration is especially essential in high-traffic areas, such as common paths and in areas with clay-based soil (which is most of Mississauga).

4. Top dress and reseed  This step will make your lawn thick and lush – and, as a result, naturally weed resistant.  “Top dressing” means spreading an even layer of of soil across your lawn, filling holes and leveling out uneven spots. Don’t cover the blades on your grass entirely in the process though! Then spread a good quality grass seed across your lawn (read the labels on the package carefully to make sure that the grass seed you apply is properly suited to the amount of light in your yard – sun or shade).  Rake it gently (there is no need to cover it again with more soil), and water very well.  Grass seed need soil that is warmer than 15 deg. C to germinate or you will be just wasting seed or money.  A great and simple way to check the soil’s temperature is to stick a kitchen meat thermometer in the ground and measure the temperature…. 🙂

5. Fertilize  Apply lawn fertilizer that’s high in nitrogen (the first number on the bag) early in the season. Choose a “slow release” formula so your lawn gets a consistent feeding of nutrients over time, while limiting the release of of fertilizer into the water with rain and preventing fertilizer’s burns on  your lawn.  My favourite is Scott’s Turf Builder Pro.

6. Water wisely  Lawns love water. The average lawn needs at least 30 to 40 mm (11/2 to 2 in.) of water per week.  If mother nature isn’t providing enough in the form of a rain, you will h ave to supplement it with a hose and a sprinkler.  Water regularly during the early morning hours when it’s cooler.  To figure out how long you need to water your lawn do a simple experiment the first time you are watering: set out a wide, empty container, such as margarine tub) in the centre of your lawn and check the time before you start watering; when the water in the container reaches 30 to 40 mm, you can turn off your water. Check the time again – now you know how long you need to water your lawn…. 🙂

7. Deal with the weeds  To get rid of weeds, you can apply an environmentally friendly herbicide like Scotts Eco Sense Weed B Gon, or remove them by hand.  If you choose the latter, I recommend doing so after a rain – weeding is a breeze when the ground is wet. Take care to ensure you’ve removed the plant and its entire taproot, And get to them before they go to seed , or you will only have more dandelions to pull in the weeks ahead.  Note that crabgrass control products prevent germination, so if you’ve used it on your lawn, you must wait up to 8 weeks before reseeding.

8. Cut the lawn with care  Mow your lawn to a height of 5 or 6 cm (2.5 – 3 in.)  This ensures the blades are just tall enough to shade out and prevent weeds from germinating, and also to keep roots pf your lawn cool. Plan on mowing once a week, alternating the direction each time. so if you run the mower up and down perpendicular to your house this weekend, you should run it back and forth parallel with your house next time.

If you have any questions or need help, just get in touch.  We are here to help

Soil preparation for gardening & landscaping in Mississauga & GTA area

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soil preparationAs the weather teases us one day into believing that spring is already here; and the other day reminding us that the winter still rules, the green thumbs amongst us are eager to do something for their gardens.  Perhaps the best thing one can do while going through the ups and downs of undecided weather is to devote the time to the preparation of the soil for planting at a later time.  This is an important task as the success or failure of a garden largely depends on the soil where the plants live and grow.

There are basically three kinds of soil:  sandy, clayey and loamy.  Loam is a combination of clay and enough sand to offset the cohesive properties of the clay. It also contains considerable amount of decomposed organic matter or humus, which provides fertility, moisture retention, and hospitable environment for friendly bacteria and other organisms.  In our part of Ontario, and especially in Mississauga, the soil is mostly clayey – formed by extremely fine and compacted soil particles.  This type of soil impedes drainage, becoming a hard, solid crusted mass when dry and turning swampy when wet.  It  does not hold much air to support growth, just like sandy soils contain too  much air and not enough water to sustain growth.

We should strive to prepare garden beds that are composed of a felicitous combination of sand, clay, and humus – soil that is able to breathe, drain, and still retain enough moisture to feed the plants without drowning them.  Good soil holds the minerals and chemicals delivered by water, does not pack or clod when wet and warms up in the spring.  It should contain at least 18 inches of workable loam.   The more humus mulches, and compost are added over time, the softer and richer the soil becomes. And now, when the weather is nice,  is the perfect time to work on preparing the soil, mixing it properly.  Experts opine that one should start preparing the soil anywhere between 2-4 months before planting.   At Landpol Landscaping, we routinely add topsoil with all flowerbeds that we create, but you can start improving the quality of soil in your garden now….. 🙂

Best junipers for landscaping in Mississauga

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Skyrocket Juniper

Skyrocket Juniper

If you are looking for a fast growing elegant plant around long entryways or even just to hide the neigbour’s shed that hurts your eyes, Skyrocket Juniper is your answer to these problems.

This plant has a tall and extremely narrow, columnar growth habit. Its short, compact, silvery blue foliage is evergreen with virtually no change from season to season. It can be planted as a cluster against a large fence or building for a very striking, dramatic effect or it can be used in formal planting. It is the tallest, narrowest juniper out there and one of the fastest growing. A variety of it is sometimes Blue Arrow Juniper. We at Landpol have grown specimens that were labeled as both Skyrocket, as well as Blue Arrow within close proximity to one another. After five years, I checked today and I didn’t noticed any distinction between the two, no differences to speak of whatsoever. They look the same, but much, much taller than the babies we planted.

That’s the beauty of this plant – you can plant them small and they will grow fast at the rate of 10-12” a year reaching mature height of 15-20” and with 2-3”. They are perfect for our climate zone and thrive best in the full sun, but will tolerate shade (it will just grow slower). It prefers average to slightly acidic and sandy well-drained soil and it loves mulching.

Shade garden plants for Mississauga, Ontario

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I hear often people complain that they cannot garden because all they have in their yard is shade.  I have to challenge this assumption and lead you a helping hand. There is no reason why you cannot have a beautiful garden living in the shade.  Here is how you do it:

  • prepare soil – rather than using triple mix, for shady gardens use well decomposed cattle, sheep or horse manure that has cured for at least two years and that is weed-free; use a lot of it – 8 to 10 cm
  • plant small nursery plants – plant only nursery grown plants.  Do not buy one that were “harvested” from the wild – they will not tolerate replanting well.  Also, there is no need to buy large five-gallon plants, the smaller ones are much cheaper and will grow in very quickly
  • plant the right plants – Here are some of my favourites shade plants for southern Ontario:

Japanese Spurge (Pachysandra) – evergreen that looks good all year round, it spreads by rhizomes or roots that creates a dense carpet of green when planted about 15cm apart – it takes about two years for the grid to disappear

Barrenwort (Epimedium) – low-growing perennials that produce the most interesting flowers. Shaped like bells, they hung in clusters just over the heart-shaped foliage below

Solomon’s Seal (Polugonatum biflorum)– this white flowering plant is a standout as at maturity it grows to 60cm high and features every June a charm bracelet of white flowers that hang beneath the foliage. Solomon’s seal is used to best advantage in raised beds, where you can see underneath the foliage

Canadian Ginger (Asarum canadense) – a great ground cover that produces broad, rounded leaves with a natural gloss that makes it attractive all season long. It grows to 15 cm high