By Sarah Mann
From Behnkes Gardenews Fall 2008 Newsletter
There are endless benefits to landscaping your yard. Landscaping makes dull areas pleasing. It is possible to make ordinary homes into spectacular ones and office buildings into warm, livable spaces.
Beautiful landscaping increases the property value of your home. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) recommends that you invest 10 percent of your home’s value in landscaping. This investment in your property’s appearance can grow to 20 percent of your home’s value. This is certainly an area you do not want to neglect!
The first decision to make is whether you want to do this project yourself, or hire a professional landscaping company like Behnke’s Design and Landscape. There are a few things to consider before making such a decision:
1. Your experience with landscaping.
2. The size of the project. Larger projects can become very complex in both the staging of materials and installation.
3. Your understanding of how plants work together in the landscape. Using seasonal color, texture, form, and size in contrasting and complementary fashions creates balance and harmony.
4. Your understanding of technical landscaping aspects such as proper grading to avoid drainage problems.
5. How your lifestyle affects landscaping choices: e.g., outdoor living space requirements; areas for your children to play in; and the time you have available for maintenance.
6. The amount of time and energy you have to devote to your project.
If you are more “hands-on” and desire to do the project on your own, research the plants best suited for your needs. Many books, articles and websites can help you. Go to behnkes.com first! Make sure to note alternate plant suggestions, since not every plant you initially fancy will be available or suitable for your conditions.
Of course if you visit Behnke’s garden centers, our staff will help with your selections. There are many other factors that influence landscape design. One of the most important is the protection of your home through proper grading. Improper grading leads to water drainage issues that can damage your home.
This in turn can cost you more in repairs than it would have to hire a landscape professional from the start. A well-planned landscape is pleasing to the eyes and enhances the value of your property, while incorporating your ideas and needs; however, planning a landscape is not merely arranging plants on your property. You should have a written plan, which at the very least entails a design or sketch of the placement of the plants in the yard. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas. Have fun creating your own design!
This design should include:
1. Structural elements- such as walkways, patios or pergolas
2. Shade and flowering trees
3. Planting beds
4. Foundation shrubs and plants
5. Other landscape elements such as ponds, fountains, outdoor lighting or irrigation.
If you decide to have Behnke’s design your landscape, work closely with the designer. The more of your personal expectations and preferences you communicate to the designer, the more satisfied you will be with the resulting design. In any case, remember the design is the base map for your final landscape but don’t be concerned if some tweaking is required during the actual installation due to real site conditions.
After you have a final design, it is time to implement this plan! If you do not have the funds to finish your 
entire design at once, phasing in your design is fine. Begin with the structural and grading elements of the project. Follow with your shade trees, then the backyard, and finish with the planting of the foundations and the front yard.
Of course there is nothing more exciting for Behnke’s Design and Landscape clients than to see their landscape transformed in a few days’ time rather than the months it would take to complete a do-it-yourself project. Whatever you decide, remember autumn is an excellent time—and in many cases the best time—to create the beautiful landscape of your dreams.
 |
Sarah Mann |
Tags: Fall 2008 Gardenews, Landscaping, Sarah Mann
By Larry Hurley, Perennial Buyer
From Behnkes Gardenews Fall 2008 Newsletter
In fall, a gardener’s fancy often turns to ornamental grasses. My favorite grass is slated to be the Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial of the Year for 2009, Hakonechloa macra or Japanese Forest Grass. This is an interesting choice because, while they are terrific garden plants, they are a wee bit slow-growing and tricky to produce in the nursery, especially in the spring while it is cool. Generally demand exceeds supply.
That said, they can be spectacular in the garden; best sited in morning sun and afternoon shade, in good garden soil that receives regular moisture, they are the epitome of grace.
They have a weeping form and the flowers are insignificant. The prettiest to my thinking is ‘Aureola’, gold with green stripes, height 12 to 15 inches. I have a patch that is at least 15 years old, about 3 feet wide, five feet long. It is intensely gold when it emerges in the spring, fading a bit when it heats up. An all-gold form, cleverly called ‘All Gold,’ has a similar growth rate and habit. Taller and more vigorous at about 24 inches is ‘Albo-striata’, green with white stripes, and the species form, which is all green.
This is a grass that looks great from April to October, doesn’t run and doesn’t seem to seed. It is particularly attractive draping down over the edge of a low dry wall (as can be seen at the Bonsai Pavillion at the National Arboretum) or next to a backyard pond. Like all slow-growing plants, they are relatively expensive; however, I know that if you plant this grass, you will be delighted with the results.
 |
Larry Hurley, Perennial Buyer |
By Ami Dorn, Behnke Staff
From Behnkes Gardenews 2008 Fall Newsletter
With your summer vegetable garden still going strong, it’s now time to begin your fall plantings, to continue the harvest into the cooler months. Perhaps you have used all available space for your initial spring/summer planting, so what can you do? Make intense use of your space.
Bush beans, lettuce, peas, radishes, and cucumbers, for example, may be harvested fairly early in the summer season, yielding space for something else to be started (including more bush beans, cucumbers or other heat-tolerant vegetables). This is called “succession planting;” that is, never letting garden space go fallow (unused) while another crop could be growing and making food for you. Continue this into fall, with the introduction of cool-season vegetables that tolerate colder temperatures and shorter days.
Consider micro-managing the garden space. Even if you harvest cabbage or broccoli plants one at a time, you have enough room to add a new transplant. Be sure to add soil amendments and fertilizer to the soil before putting in another crop. Why should you bother? Price increases at the grocery store should be enough of a reason, but if they aren’t, you have complete control over the types of vegetables the family likes and the picking time in your garden. No more tough green beans or bitter broccoli as your only choices. You can pick your produce at its optimum size before it gets tough or its seeds are too large.
What are the choices that I have for fall vegetables? The Maryland Home and Garden Information Center lists beets, bush and lima beans, black-eyed peas, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, collards, corn, cucumbers, peas, garlic, kale, lettuces, mustard, spinach, Swiss chard, turnips, and tomatoes as some of the plants to grow again. Note that planting dates are important; tomatoes or cucumbers for fall harvest need to be planted by mid-summer, while lettuce, cabbage, and spinach will yield well if planted in September.
Garlic cloves should be planted from mid-October to mid-November for the biggest yields. Behnke Nurseries’ web site (www.behnkes.com) offers a convenient way to buy your vegetable seed from your home.
When it’s time to plant the next crop, clean out all the plants and rake up any remaining debris.
Turn in organic material like Leaf-Gro, manure, composted yard waste or peat humus. Always feed the soil first with regular incorporation of organic matter. Organic matter improves soil structure, slowly releases nutrients, and increases beneficial microbial activity.
Next, work in either organic or inorganic fertilizer into the row or plant locations. Mix into the top 4-6 inches of soil. Plant seed or transplants, and water the area well. Plan your garden size to match your time. Wouldn’t a small group of plants well-cared for and actively yielding be better than a larger plot where you can hardly see the vegetables for the sea of weeds? A garden needs time for weeding, watering, perhaps fertilizing again (called side dressing), picking crops and finally, removing the spent plants to make room for the next crop of vegetables.
What if you live in an apartment? If you have a balcony which gets at least 6-7 hours of full sun, try growing your vegetables in large pots. In summer, dwarf varieties of cucumber, squash, tomatoes, peppers and okra can be grown in pots, while in the fall, you can try greens like lettuce and spinach, harvesting repeatedly over a period of weeks.
Maybe you have been growing a balcony garden and would like to move up to a small plot. Some community centers, county extension offices, neighborhood schools, and places of worship have land for gardening. In the city, neighbors take advantage of cleared lots to grow just about everything! You can too.
