An unhealthy environment should not be the price of a beautiful landscape. Inappropriate plant choices and inadequate soil preparation can lead to a reliance on excessive use of water and on toxic chemicals to resolve problems. Ecological landscaping encourages practices that promote a healthy environment through conservation of resources, respect for biodiversity, and ecologically-sound techniques.
by Steve Cushman
One of the most important chores for tool maintenance is keeping cutting edges sharp; however, sharpening can cover a huge realm of techniques and tools. Find out about techniques requiring only a small investment in tools, and you’ll have your garden tools in perfect shape as the season starts – and perhaps be inspired to keep them that way.
by Jared Green
Meg Calkins, professor of landscape architecture at North Carolina State University and founding member of the Sustainable SITES Initiative®, reports on the progress of SITES, including areas such as materials reuse in which progress still needs to be made.
by Adrian Ayres Fisher
Gardeners new to the concept of carbon gardening often ask these two questions: What good soil management strategies will help maximize carbon sequestration? And, what would be a good plant palette to help accomplish this? Good questions. Read the article.
by Robert Kourik
You say you want to garden all-naturally, but the closest source of animal manure is many miles away? Then green manuring might be for you. Green manuring is the process of tilling fresh green plants into the soil to help make it drain better and allow it to hold onto more moisture, with an added bonus – the plants, as they decay, act as a readily available fertilizer. Green manuring is also pretty darn close to free fertilizer – discounting the cost of a few seeds and plenty of elbow grease. Learning how the natural cycle of decomposition works means you’ll know exactly what part of the cycle to influence, how to speed up the natural processes, and how to improve the soil in either the short or the long term.
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by Robert Schindelbeck, Aaron Ristow, Kirsten Kurtz, Lindsay Fennell, and Harold van Es
In general, soil health and soil quality are considered synonymous and can be used interchangeably, with one key distinction conceptualized by scientists and practitioners over the last decades: soil quality includes both inherent and dynamic quality.
by Keith Zaltzberg and Jim Newman
In the Fall of 2020, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is scheduled to release the Massachusetts Healthy Soils Action Plan (MA HSAP). This ambitious plan seeks to protect and build the economic and ecological resilience of the Commonwealth through exceptional soil stewardship and will consider all major land use types, including forest, wetland, turf and managed greenspace, highly impervious built landscapes, and agriculture.
by Amanda Sloan
Many landscape professionals realize they are in a unique position both to notice changes to the local environment resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and to propose and enact creative solutions to counteract those changes. In 2018, ELA began discussion at the board level about what kinds of practical tools could be developed and promulgated to help landscape professionals transition to methods that do not cause greenhouse gas emissions. Subsequently, the ELA’s Carbon Working Group was formed and is looking for input.
by Shannon Currey
It finally clicked. Working with grasses, I knew about the distinction between warm season and cool season. I had written about it and included it in presentations. But it took a webinar on native, warm-season grasses to understand how magical and fascinating that distinction is.
Landscape clients and home gardeners are increasingly interested in native plants, but are all native plants equally beneficial in the landscape? “Local ecotype” native plants, those cultivated in environmental conditions similar to their local source, offer certain advantages. What is your interest in local ecotype plants?
As I begin fall cleanup in my gardens, what are your recommendations? Should I clean beds off, cutting foliage and remaining seed heads off? Are there some plants best cut off and others that are good to leave until spring? Also, should I remove leaves entirely from the ground around plants? I didn’t get all the leaves removed from beds last year and had a lot of damage to plant roots from either voles or moles.
by Sandy Vorce
“Gotta get a goat” was the author’s mantra a decade ago as she struggled against bittersweet, buckthorn, and multiflora rose to regain a portion of meadow at Mass Audubon’s property in Belmont, MA. Her wish was granted, and the property now successfully utilizes a four-hoofed crew for control of invasive plants. Read the article.
by Krissy Boys
Four years after replacement of a streambank water control structure, native grasses, sedges, and forbs planted at the site have become well established. Most species are thriving and have propagated themselves by self-sowing in the streambank gardens. Only two species out of 58 genera completely failed.
