In a place like Nebraska the winter landscape is best enjoyed from the coziness of the indoors.  The winter view can often be forgotten about when planning your garden design.  I like to think about different plants that I notice in a winter landscape.  What looks pretty or interesting poking out from a snow drift, or carefully frosted with ice and snow by Mother Nature herself?  I have a handful of plants which I particularly think add to the view of the outdoors from the inside.  Let’s think beyond flowers and consider what other attributes plants have that add to their interest like texture, form or color of:  bark, seed heads, berries, and foliage.  I’d like to move beyond the obvious winter beauty queen candidate which is the evergreens and focus on deciduous trees, shrubs and perennials.

In the fall I like to leave perennials such as sedum, rudbeckias and coneflowers standing (as long as they are not broken or flopping) because of their seed heads that pop up like little soldiers through a winters snow.  Cut them back in spring and they will start their next season fresh.  There are some lovely evergreen perennials which you might not think about such as hellebores, armeria and bergenia.  I love hellebores because of its unique foliage and beautiful early spring blooms.  Not to mention this plant is deer and rodent proof and is a shade lover.  It’s hard to find a perennial which has so much to offer.  Armeria is a favorite because of its tufted form of thread like foliage which is available in a variegated color and their dried flower heads are an added bonus.  Bergenias provide a thick fleshy evergreen leaf whose glossy shine can catch the eye when the winter sun reflects off of a fresh coating of snow which can’t be missed.  I’m going to go ahead and safely add all ornamental grasses to this handful of perennials because of the colors, texture and motion that they all acquire.  If I had to pick three I would probably choose the following:  bluegrass (because of its color), switchgrass (because of its seedhead) and feather reedgrasss (because of its tough as nail attitude and resistance to flopping).

If I had to pick three shrubs to be in my personal landscape for winter gazing it would be hydrangea, winterberry and witch hazel.  I always leave flower heads on my hydrangea because I love the way they look dried and when they have snow on them they look even prettier.  Winterberry is an unbelievably beautifully plant which is quite inconspicuous during the warm season but once they bear fruit and drop their leaves in the fall, winterberry cannot be missed because the masses of bright red berries whirled around the smooth gray branches is absolutely show stopping.  Witch hazel is another plant which seems to magically bloom during those cold winter days when it seems as though there is no life in the outdoors.  Their fingery looking flowers in colors of yellow to red burst from the naked stems of the shrub and will catch anyone who sets their eyes upon it.

I recently planted a paperbark maple and I cannot wait until it matures so I can gaze upon its awesome coppery curly bark.  It is a super cool tree which I highly recommend for an interesting winter garden.  Another tree which I want but haven’t had a chance to plant at home yet is a lacebark pine.  You might think this would be on the planting wish list because of its evergreen attributes.  This is not the case at all, in fact these have extremely interesting bark which like the paperbark maple becomes more impressive as it ages.  The bark looks like a patchwork of camouflage in green, blue and gray hues.  I won’t forget the first time I saw a lacebark pine…wow.  I have a lot of clients who are leery about installing crabapples in their personal landscape.  There are so many varieties which provide spring flowers, summer fruit and color and fall color.  What many people don’t know is that crabapples are now bred to have persistent fruit which means that the fruit stays attached to the plant.  In other words, these new crabapples won’t make a mess.  An added plus is that these fruit will remain on your trees throughout the winter months and are so showy during a time when so many plants have little to offer in terms of attractiveness.

By Alyssa Eyman

When pruning avoid: stump cuts, cutting into the collar and use of any pruning sealants. If a stump is left behind when pruning, the stump will rot away, which is a great entrance point for insects and disease. If a pruning cut is made too close to the collar, the pruning cut can damage the main branch and the wound will not be able to close up completely. This results in a weak point for insects and disease. In the past it was believed that a fresh pruning cut should be made impenetrable with a pruning sealant to prevent sap from leaking and to aid in compartmentalization. Using these types of products should absolutely be avoided because they can actually seal in bacteria, leaving no exit point. Release of sap or ‘bleeding’ following larger pruning cuts can be unsightly; however it does not injure plant materials. When larger branches are removed, they should result in a donut shaped scar at the point of removal. This is how one can be assured that it was pruned away at the proper distance from the remaining branch or trunk.

Always use the right tool for the right job and keep those tools clean, especially when moving from plant to plant. Main hand tools are pruners, loppers, and hand saws. Pruners are the best tool for making cuts which are 3/4” or less in diameter. Loppers work best for cutting branches 3/4” to 2” in diameter. Branches with larger diameters should be pruned using a hand saw. Make sure your pruning equipment is properly sharpened to ensure that the cut is smooth and clean. It is important to avoid leaving crushed or rough pruning cuts because they will not properly close up. Keep tools sanitized to avoid spreading disease from one plant to another.

As a general rule, winter dormancy is the best time to prune most deciduous trees and shrubs. This gives you the opportunity to view the branching structure to see what branches need to be removed. However, there is always an exception to the rule. Early spring bloomers such as lilacs, spirea, and forsythia should be pruned immediately following their bloom. Semi-woody perennials or perennials which have hollow stems, such as hardy hibiscus and Russian sage, should not be cut back until mid spring. Snow and moisture can find their way into these hollow stems if cut back too soon and cause crown rot, killing the plant. Evergreen shrubs should be pruned in early spring before active growth begins and light pruning can be done in the summer. If pruned too late into the fall, soft new growth is susceptible to winter injury. Prune evergreen trees, such as spruce and fir, when they are still dormant in late winter; pines should be pinched in early June to early July.

Woody trees and shrubs provide the bones and structure of our surrounding landscapes. We are reaching the optimal time for pruning before buds break dormancy, so get out in your winter garden and prepare for the upcoming growing season! Gardeners start to get very antsy this time of year because we can start to see hints of spring right around the corner. It’s almost here…!

Everyone loves color in the landscape, and four season color is a great way to add a punch of pizzazz throughout the year. From in-ground annuals to containers, the options for a creative outdoor display are endless. Color draws people to entrances and serves as a focal point when placed into the garden. When color is used in a business setting, it offers a great deal of enjoyment to customers and employees.

Many people have heard the three part rule to container gardening: thriller, filler, and spiller. The thriller consists of a large element, which is usually placed in the middle of or towards the back of the container. The filler refers to the medium sized plants, which fill the space around the thriller and have an upright habit. The spiller’s job is to do just as its name describes – trail over the side of the container. When planting annual beds, it is important to lay out plants according to their mature sizes and habits.

It is especially important to consider your plants’ environmental needs and to combine plant materials with similar growing requirements. There are several questions which should be asked when selecting plant material. Is the container or bed located in a sunny or shady space? What are the watering requirements? What plant characteristics are you looking for? What are the mature sizes of your chosen plants?

As with any sort of garden, maintenance is necessary when container gardening. Be sure to use high quality, fresh growing media in containers and beds prior to planting. It is beneficial to add a slow release fertilizer to the soil at planting time. Follow with a water soluble fertilizer when watering in freshly planted material. Watering once a week with a water soluble fertilizer helps to establish root systems and encourage healthy top growth. Regular fertilizing encourages increased blooming and color vibrancy. It is best to water in the morning, if possible, to avoid issues with fungus. Avoid over watering. Plants will wilt when under or over watered, so if in doubt, put your hand into the soil to test for dryness or saturation. Some flowering plants will require dead-heading to continue production of fresh blooms. Every once in a while you may need to give plants a trim to maintain the look you want to achieve.

Get motivated and call your designer today to share your thoughts and ideas for the upcoming color change! Color is our passion and we love to bring our clients’ ideas to fruition in a personalized, living display.

-Alyssa

Your landscape is a reflection of you and your personal style. Landscaping is an investment and you must be prepared to take care of your investment. Whether you or a garden maintenance professional takes care of your landscape, you want to make sure that the caretaker is knowledgeable about proper landscape management which includes plant specific care, pruning, and basic pest and disease control. Homeowners must understand that there is no such thing as a zero maintenance landscape. However, some gardens are more work intensive than others.

The most important thing for a landscape manager to know is the following: know your plants. All plants are different and therefore require unique care. Knowledge of plant specific needs is imperative for pruning, fertilizing, watering, and disease and insect control. New plants are developed on a frequent basis so constant education on the latest and greatest varieties is critical.

Optimal timing of pruning varies for deciduous trees and shrubs, evergreen trees and shrubs, broadleaf evergreens, and fruit bearing trees and shrubs. There are always exceptions to the rule. Technique also varies. Leaf type and arrangement affect how a plant should be pruned. An understanding of plant physiology can go a long way in knowing how a certain plant should be pruned.
Take a stroll through your garden on a regular basis and take an assessment of the health of your plant materials. Look for any odd appearances which may have resulted from pest infestation, disease or physical damage. Every gardener must be aware of issues such as bag worms, scale, aphids, fungus and canker. The earlier you can get a jump on a problem, the easier it will be to manage. Timing is often pertinent when it comes to treatment.

A garden is a community of growing, living, breathing organisms which is forever changing and adapting. Sunny gardens can eventually become shade gardens and vice versa. A good gardener will realize that they don’t want their garden to stay static and unchanged, but will understand that a garden must be managed to grow with its changing environment.

Alyssa Eyman

Imagine yourself and that special someone sitting together outside during a warm summer evening enjoying your favorite libation, gazing at the leaves softly lit dancing in the breeze, quietly listening to the crickets chirping. When a well designed landscape is coupled with a beautifully lit lighting plan, the results can be immeasurable. Just like a professionally designed landscape, lighting plans should be aesthetic and functional.

Light is a great way to accent the beauty and architecture of your home or building. It is also a great way to feature unique plant materials and garden elements such as artwork, stonework and water features. You can create a unique feeling or mood for yourself and company when entertaining in your outdoor spaces offering an inviting appearance to visitors.

Go ahead, take the party outside! Besides extending your time of enjoyment outdoors, landscape lighting increases usable living space making your outdoor space more functional. There are four main categories of landscape lighting fixtures which include: path lights, up lights, accent lights and submersible lights. One can safely move about the landscape and outdoor spaces with ease when dark spaces are illuminated. When using the proper fixture for the proper application you can truly create outdoor rooms. When your home or business is well lit it is less likely that you will be a target of crime. Criminals choose poorly lit spaces to commit crime for a reason and lighting can be a great deterrent adding to ones security.

There are numerous brands of landscape lighting available to consumers. LED lighting is the new efficient ‘green’ way of lighting for the future. Upfront cost can be more expensive when implementing LED lighting but it pays off long term. When it comes to placement and saturation of light, less is more. It is important to use the correct fixture for specific applications and be sure that the fixture is properly placed. Just like any other time when dealing with electricity, precaution must be used. Installers must avoid poor connections, overloading of circuits, improper voltage loads, and must always be aware of fixture wattage ratings. Be sure that your installers have experience and are knowledgeable. Ask to see examples of their work, and drive by at night to get a feel for the work they are offering to you as a client.

Alyssa Eyman

Water is a very precious resource we have and in Nebraska I think we sometimes take it for granted. Here are a few interesting water facts from MUD’s website:

1. Only 1 percent of the earth’s water is available for drinking.
2. Typical households consume 50 percent of their water on the lawn.
3. You can survive about a month without food, but only 5-7 days without water.
4. A person should consume 2 quarts of water per day to maintain health.
5. A small drip from a leaky faucet can waste about 3,000 gallons of water per year. A leaky toilet can waste as much as 200 gallons of water per day.
6. On average about 70 percent of water use is for landscaping.

I live in a forested neighborhood with lots of shade and am protected by the wind as well, so when I built my house 8 years ago I decided not to install a sprinkler system. This year I am proud to say I never had to water my fescue lawn. The lawn looks great and is thriving. We did have an unsually cool summer with timely rains so everything worked out perfect. Normally I will water 6-10 times per year starting in July and ending in early September. My landscape takes very little water as well. The native grasses, shrubs and trees are very drought resistent and easy to maintain.

As we consider some of these water facts I hope we all take the time to value our very precious resource. Please contact us if you would like to have Greenlife Gardens help you conserve water in your lawn or landscape.

Cory Wehrbein

Growing your own vegetable garden can be very rewarding personally and monetarily. Vegetable production creates a sense of security for the consumer and can also be a money saver. You can control the quality of your food and be aware of the environment in which it is produced so there is less need to be concerned about where and how your food was produced and with what it was treated during the growing process.

Transportation costs of your veggies are on the rise and you can save some money by cutting out the middle man. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a pound of tomatoes from the store will cost you about $1.77 per pound whereas a pound of homegrown tomatoes will cost you around 25 cents. Don’t waste your time and money growing vegetables that you don’t like. Consider growing foods that your family consumes more of and be cognizant of the going price for those foods that cost you more at the grocery store checkout.

Here at Greenlife Gardens we will be growing our own vegetable trial garden and are really looking forward to a great 2009 harvest season. Have fun and get excited about the upcoming growing season. Grab a seed catalog and start dreaming up your own personal produce section! We tend to appreciate things more when we work for them.

-Alyssa Eyman

Spring is a very important time of the year when it comes to turf care. What you do in April/May really sets the tone for what your lawn will be doing in the summer months and into the fall. Here are some very simple tips that when implemented can make a very big difference in the health of your lawn.

Please feel free to call us at Greenlife Gardens with ANY turf care questions.

Here are a few practical tips for keeping a healthy lawns:
1. Keep mower blades SHARP!
2. Mulch your grass clippings. Research shows mulched lawns are healthier than a lawn that is bagged.
3. Watch your mowing height. You should never remove more than 1/3rd of the grass blade.
4. Don’t forget to put down pre-emergent fertilizer. Mid-April to early May is the perfect time for this. Not applying will have you fighting crab-grass all year.
5. Watch your water. Don’t over water your lawn. A lawn needs a lot less water than most people realize. The best time to water is in the morning. This helps prevent fungus and mold.
Watering Tip: Simply turning your sprinklers on for a couple minutes in the mid-afternoon (especially into the summer months) can reduce the surface temperature of the lawn. This can help your lawn avoid a “burned” look.

Zach Higginson
Turf Care Extraordinaire

If you stay in touch with this blog you are going to see a wealth of valuable information from updates on pest controls to age-old wisdom for garden maintenance. I, however, will not be offering information like this on a very consistent basis. My modus operendi will revolve around comic relief and general commentary on the goings-on at Greenlife so you have the chance to get to know us as your personal landscape professionals.

In line with that vision, allow me to introduce myself. I have been working for Greenlife Gardens (GLG) since May of last year (2008). It was random chance that I even found the posting for the landscape “foreman” position on Criagslist. (Titles like “foreman” are a very loose concept with us. Leadership structure is much more organic at GLG than conventional models allow.) I grew up in south-central Nebraska spending much of my childhood playing in the woods on the banks of the Platte River, competing in every sport I could, and participating in every extra-curricular activity I could find. Yes, I am a Type-A extroverted personality…and I am ok with that. I came to Omaha in 2002 after graduating high school looking for where I would fit in the great, big, adult work world. Landscaping is where I landed. I love transforming spaces to be unique and beautiful. I love working with homeowners to realize the design vision created by our wonderful designers. And most of all, I love meeting new clients and opening a door for years of quality landscape care. See you in the field!

-Devyn L.

Hey everyone, just a little reminder from your Greenlife garden maintenance staff. Now is a great time to do some winter pruning on your trees and woody shrubs. You don’t want to do all of them however, because some bloom on last seasons growth (lilacs) and some can’t recover from the pruning wound during the winter (yews).

Here are a couple tips and things to look for when pruning:

- Look for crossing branches, and prune one of them
- Look for branches that are occupying the same space
- Look for branches that are rubbing against each other
- Look for diseased or broken branches and remove them

It’s also good to just take a step back and look at the overall shape of the tree or shrub. I know that I can get so focused on one area, and then I’ll step back and see some lopsided and weird looking shrubs. We like to keep our plant material looking as natural as if you found it in nature.

If you have any pruning questions, just leave a comment or feel free to give us a call at 402-593-7651

brett w koehn
project manager