I love this time of year.....the last two weeks of each year are one of my favorite times of the year. The pace is slower and I can reflect on what we enjoyed, what we did right and what I would like to improve upon. I am not big on New Years Resolutions, I would rather improve on an ongoing basis like Dr. Demming professed.

It has been about a year and a half since my sister passed away and 2 and a haf years since my father-in-law passed away and if you have read our previous posts you know that these events have had a tremendous impact on our lives.

Gardening has always been a passion of mine, starting off with cutting yards at the age of around 10 years old.....now you would need a work permit, a helmet and a liability release form to allow a ten year old neighborhood kid to cut your grass. Life needs to be simpler.

I love technolgy, computers, Ipods, XM, cell phones, flat screens and the like....but I also love the serenity of a garden and fortunately for us that is how we make our living. We closed our retail florist because it demanded too much of our time and limited our ability to travel to see family.

Our landscape construction business keeps us very busy from March through late October and our gourmet gift baskets keep us busy in November and December, although we do ship them year round.... these changes have allowed us time to enjoy life and run our business instead of our business running us.

The business world is always about bigger, more, better, faster, volume, branding and merging. Fortunately for us, our profession has been the same since the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or older. A Birch tree has always been a Birch tree and there is not a latest 5.0 version or style or fad and it does not become obsolete in 90 days. The only thing that changes in our business is the technology and equipment that we use to run our operation.

This allows us to stay small in stature while allowing us to create great gardens for our clients. We don't even see some of our clients for years, since they have second homes here and we may not be around when they are. But we email them photos of what we have done or what needs to be done and send invoices the same way. So blending the old and the new seems to work well for us.

Blogs like this allow us to share information about gardening with clients in ways we did not even think about ten years ago. We also share information with electronic newsletters. I like to look at the world through the eyes of a kid and be amazed at how changes effect our lives....both good and bad......that person in the restaurant gabbing on the cell phone to a friend about nothing in general.....hey! turn it off!

So having had a year to reflect on the conscious decisions we made to improve our lives, I think we made the right ones. As much as is possible, we now have better control over what we do and when we do it, while still making a living and having time for each other and our family. I think my sister and Cheryl's dad would be proud!

The local birds are enjoying the fermented berries and this time of year you will hear or see a lot more birds FUI....flying under the influence. Each fermented berry they eat is liking doing a jello shot.....

Yesterday I was sitting in my office working on my computer listening to my iPod with my headphones on and I still heard a whop on the sliding glass door. I opened the door and found a male Junco had hit the window and was lying on his back on the deck and appeared to be gasping for breath, but otherwise motionless.

Our Golden Retriever had followed me out into the gardens, so I took him back in the office and about five minutes later came out to check on the bird. At the time he was now lying on his stomach and appeared motionless. I went back inside to grab some paper to pick the bird up, so I could take him out and bury him and was explaining to my wife what had happened.

As she followed me out to the back deck, we opened the door and stepped on the deck. As I stepped onto the deck, the bird turned over onto his feet and flew off to perch on a nearby tree about 20' off the ground........

Either that bird experienced some sort of divine intervention or was simply knocked out cold from his FUI and just regained his senses as we stepped out onto the deck......perhaps he is just up in the trees somewhere, leaning up against a trunk, trying to sleep those last few berries off.....

The two pictures above show the beginning of a 110' long stream, which we recently completed for a new client, with a 15' drop from top to bottom. The 10,000 gallon per hour pump fills the 4' wide stream with a water depth varying from 3" to 8".

The sound the rushing stream creates as it flows over the streambed and between the boulders varies from a soothing trickle in the small pool areas behind large boulders to a deafening rush as it drops 8' in a distance of about 30' .

The soft lighting on the stream and waterfall dramatically light the pondless waterfall allowing the clients to sit outside at night and relax to the sound of the water. The location of the waterfall and stream in front of the house certainly creates a unique approach to the front door.

There is also a large Koi watergarden located immediately adjacent to the back of the residence which is a wall glass.......
This picture of the rapids was taken the same day we turned the pump on, so the filters had not removed the quarry dust from the water. After about 3 days the water runs crystal clear as you can see in the picture of the waterfalls on the right above.

Every day this November has been a gift for us, in regard to making the completion of our garden construction projects much easier than if it were cold and blowing here on the Pocono Plateau.

This past October we were able to dedicate the first garden that http://www.healinggardens.org was involved with from beginning to end. If you have read previous posts, you will know what and why we started the healinggardens.org website. The dedication day was overcast and chilly, however, it was a great celebration of life and closure for me on the passing of my sister. It was difficult (not necessarily in a bad way) for me to work on the garden, I just shed a lot of tears as the garden came together. I found tears running down my cheeks as I drove the skid steer back and forth between the garden and the pile of large boulders I was using to create the structure of the garden.

Now, that the garden has been completed, I am keenly aware that what I do on a daily basis (create gardens for our clients) can have a significant impact with the development of healing gardens on others who are not exposed to gardens and gardening everyday. They discover the serenity of sitting in a well designed garden and simply relaxing or reflecting, if just for a few moments.

We are working with a couple of other groups in the area to see how we might help them develop healing gardens at their sites and perhaps also develop horticultural educational programs upon the completion of any of these gardens.

Here we are in the middle of June and the gardens are lush, and I find it very relaxing to sit in our gardens after working out early in the morning to cool down and start the day off calm and relaxed. At the end of the day, I stop and take another moment to smell the roses.....or whatever else is in bloom.

The challenges I faced last year have certainly had a beneficial effect on my life this year. I have lost 40 lbs. since the first of the year by simply shutting my mouth and working out......what a concept :)

This weekend we are having an Open House at our design/build construction office. We are here to answer your gardening questions, guide you through our gardens or simply let you wander. So please stop by and enjoy our gardens as much as we do.

If you have a perennial garden or for that matter any garden, I would suggest that you try a drip or micomist irrigation system. When installed with a timer, your gardening gets a lot easier. You can also add an in line fertilizer and turn your irrigation system into a fertigation system. When you can consistently and efficiently water your gardens, the difference in the health and appearance of your garden is amazing. The plants are not stressed and if you water early in the day the water is absorbed into the soil and does not evaporate.

Avoid watering in the evening as the water will stay on the leaves and may cause fungus and other health challenges for your garden. Micromist or drip systems in vegetable gardens will help you grow an abundance of tomatoes, lettuce or whatever your choice is.

When we water, we generally will water once or twice a week for an hour. This deep root watering will help develop a healthy root system. We also use a beneficial bacteria which we mix into the soil prior to our planting. Most of these additives will also contain a starch-based polymer gel which does a tremendous job with maintaining water in the root zone. We have dug up plants to transplant two years later and the gel is still active in the soil.

Another great aspect of these sytems is, they are very inexpensive. We use Antelco brand since they can be controlled at every sprinkler head and now have press in place heads for easy removal or changing of heads.

Yesterday and actually most of last week offered great weather here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I was out in our display gardens yesterday vacuuming leaves out of planting beds and pruning some plants not taken care of last fall.

This is the time of year I like to cut back our Trumpet Vine and Clematis. We have a couple of gorgeous large Trumpet Vines whose main trunks are in the 1-2" dia. size. I usually cut them back to these main trunks and remove the vines from the bricks of our house. In one year these established vines will form buds along the stems and grow 15-20' in height in one year and offer us bright orange blooms on the house and sometimes up on our roof.

I also cut back all of our Clematis to a height of about 15" Some of our Clematis are supported on large wrought iron obelisks and some climb their way up 6' wide black vinyl clad chain link fencing. We will apply a slow release Osomocote fertilizer to all of the plants in our display gardens.

I also cleaned up the bottom of a massive Climbing Hydrangea that covers a section of fencing about 12' in width and 6' tall. I pruned away lower branches that had become rooted in the soil and raised the branches so the lowest branch was about 8" off of of the ground. This enhances the overall appearance of the plant and will help increase air movement in that vine as well as that section of the garden.

With the light rain falling today, I know spring is truly upon us.....I guess that means we will be out kayaking on Sunday afternoons shortly.

Next weekend in the garden we will prune the few remaining plants and adjust any garden lighting that may have settled in the spring soil thaw.

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........Mother Nature knows how to toy with us in Northeast Pennsylvania. No winter during winter and yet....roars in like the proverbial lion in March. So what to do in our gardens when winter rears it's ugly head? Time for a checklist. Did you order the bareroot plants from the catalog you have been looking at all winter? Are your tools clean and ready to turn over that first spade of fresh soil in a few weeks? Have you kept in shape all winter, so the first weekend of garden work doesn't find you smelling like Mineral Ice as you walk through the store?

This time of year is when we try to finalize with clients the garden designs we have been working on all winter. In our display gardens, up until last nights little gift of snow, we have been pruning the ornamental trees and shrubs. Winter and early spring is the best time to prune almost any ornamental plant material, because you can see what you are doing. Remember, you can make several small cuts...but you can't glue branches back on :)

When plants are dormant, you can see where branches are crossing and causing bark deterioration and need to be removed or perhaps the branches are growing in the wrong direction and now is the time to redirect them. Later on in the spring or summer with leaves pushing or in full growth, you cannot see what you need to see.

And remember, pruning should always be done in a characteristic manner. This means when you get done pruning a plant, other than it may appear smaller or thinned out, the general appearance should be the same. This is the best horticultural practice for pruning the majority of plant material

OK....the exceptions to characteristic pruning. If you are determined to have a very formal garden and are pruning say boxwoods, hollies or yews then you will perform shearing of the plant material. This is very hard on the plant and you need to be sure to shear correctly and to provide the plant material with adequate nutrition like a slow release osmocote fertilizer.

Rejuvenation pruning is also a form of shearing to the extreme. Too often we let plants go and never prune them and wonder why they stop flowering or look very leggy. Plants that fall into this category include, Forsythia, Viburnums, red and yellow Dogwood, Potentilla, Lilac, Hydrangea, Honeysuckle and...........well, you get the idea. Rejuventaion pruning usually involves taking the plant down to within several inches or perhaps a foot of the ground......Yikes!

The theory behind this is........you have eliminated 90% of the top of the plant and still have 100% of the root system. If you have a healthy root system, your plant will come back gang busters and reward you with great flowers and vigorous growth. Your plant will once again look full, dark green and healthy.

One warning......this does not.....repeat does not work well or at all with evergreen material.....since they are evergreen they rely on their foliage to produce food for them to grow.

What should you use to prune. I recommend going to the big blue store.....yes Lowes and purchasing a pair of bypass (looks like scissors) pruner. They should run you about $7.00 a pair and will last the average homeowner a long time. Bypass pruners can handle branches up to about 1/2" in dia. Anything thicker than that requires loppers or a great hand saw designed specifically for pruning. I tell my clients to never trust a landscape contractor that doesn't wear a pruner on their belt.........

One last comment on this Cliffs Notes of pruning.......when pruning, especially with trees and larger shrubs, never leave a stub when cutting. This will rot and continue to rot back into the plant. On all plants there is what is referred to as a collar at the base of each branch where it connect to the main trunk or branch. It is visible and looks like a little mustache hanging over the branch. You should cut the branch to about 1/8 to 1/4" above this collar. This collar is the plants mechanism to compartmentalize the cut and start to heal the wound. In a couple of seasons. eve a 2" branch cut will be grown over with new bark.....

Well gotta go and make sure our warehouse is ready for spring, final maintence is completer on our equipment and the tool containers in our construction trailer labeld and ready for next week.........