Now, before you hop in the car and head off to the nurseries with your shopping list, I need to offer a last minute check of the plant list. Do you have enough large-leaf plants incorporated into our plant combinations? I bring this up for good reason. If you flip through certain gardening publications, not to be named here, we will find that although the pictures are very colorful, the gardens look messy. Gardens comprised of numerous small-leafed plants look messy, even with lots of color contrast between neighboring masses. Using your mind’s eye, make sure you have enough large-leafed plants in your design. Before venturing off, you may be able to view your nursery’s inventory online or elect to call them before you head out. Researching availability at home will save you valuable time running around town gathering exactly the right plants for your new landscape. Last reminder before you go... now that you’ve done your homework, developed a plan and know how big your plants will become at maturity, stick to the plan and don’t buy more because the garden needs to look full Day 1. The landscape should age well with time like fine wine. The least attractive day in the life of a landscape should be the day it’s first planted, when you have accounted for future growth and the eventual mature height and width of plants. I've had customers and inexperienced landscapers actually reset my placement of buckets, because the spacing of plants seemed off and they thought I had made a mistake. It may look right then and through the first year, but the true test of a well-designed landscape is what it looks like in 5 to ten years, neat and balanced. Overplanting will no doubt lead to a messy landscape, so develop a long-term approach to the project to help you install the correct number of plants, save time and money, and ensure a lovely mature yard. Trust me, the end result will be worth the wait. After you’ve arrived at the nursery, had some time to look around and discovered the nursery doesn’t have everything you’re looking for, don’t allow the salesperson sell you on a plant substitute you know nothing about. Plants within a genus species can appear very similar in a 3-gallon bucket, but what they look like in 5 to 10 years can be vastly different. Take a look at some examples and notice the mature heights listed in the caption… For those new to gardening… plants are organized by genus, species, and sometimes cultivar names, such as Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snow Queen’. The first word (Hydrangea) always begins with a capital letter and is known as the genus. The second word (quercifolia) is written in all lower case letters and is the species within the genus (Hydrangea). The third name, highlighted with single quotes and first letter in caps, is the cultivar (‘Snow Queen’) within the genus species (Hydrangea quercifolia). The cultivar name is very important, because it names a specific and unique plant within a genus species. By itself, a genus species name can refer to a specific plant or, if not properly labeled, to a whole bunch of cultivars with different growth habits and mature sizes. Make sure you know what you're buying. If you do decide to substitute plants at the nursery (after quickly confirming plant info on your mobile device), there’s one last consideration. You need to think about how the new plant will impact the immediate area as well as the overall design of your new landscape. One change can have a rippling effect, which can leave you scratching your head and vulnerable to quick decisions and costly mistakes. Stick to your plan and the overall goals of the project. Don’t be swayed by slick advertising. Consider driving a longer distance to a larger well-stocked nursery or shopping online to get exactly what you’re looking for. Landscaping is expensive, labor intensive, and permanent given the mature size of certain trees and shrubs. It also takes years to assess the design, so plan accordingly and take the time to locate exactly what you want. Next time, we’ll talk about planting. The best time to plant is fall, but my second favorite season for landscaping is winter. The plants are dormant, and they transition remarkably well during this time as long as the ground can be worked. Plants are generally better off planted in the ground in your yard than above ground in buckets at the nursery. You can also get great deals from hardscaping and irrigation crews during the slower winter season. You may even consider mulching, which becomes one less thing to take care of (or wait for) leading up to that spring graduation party or Mother’s Day gathering. Take a few minutes to mark up a calendar with reminders to avoid a spring rush, and while you’re at it, schedule the winterization of your irrigation system. Frozen, busted backflow preventers are expensive to replace. Have a good week.
We know native plants are better suited to their natural environment and therefore better able to survive extreme conditions. This is true. However, more importantly, our bugs generally prefer native to non-native plants. Wait. What? I can hear the buzz… we’re supposed to draw bugs into our yards for the purpose of eating our plants? Yes, absolutely!
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Check your design for a sufficient number of native plants. Next time, we’ll go shopping! I’d be a fool to think Skittles wouldn’t run off because of any affection for me. Up until this point, she had spent two weeks in a very large dog crate and one week in our garage getting use to her new environment, our daily routine of coming and going, and, most importantly, understanding where her food came from. Skittles was a wild cat, after all, and no dummy when it came to survival. And so, at the start of week 4 of the prescribed taming/acclimation process, I let her out into our yard for the first time. I had no idea what to expect and found this part quite interesting. She darted around the yard, quickly absorbing the new sights and sounds, but never ventured too far from familiar territory (the garage) and intermittently ran back there for protection from perceived danger. After several minutes of this back and forth, in and out, I coaxed her into the garage with treats and shut the door, having had enough excitement for one day.
That was Skittles, good to go and relatively easy to tame when compared to Snickers. If Skittles was predictable, Snickers was completely unpredictable. Perhaps it had something to do with their age (Snickers came to us at 7 months of age, Skittles at 4 months) or malnutrition before and after birth. Clearly, Snickers was not the sharpest tool in the shed or was she? Snickers’ fears have always outweighed her love of food, so the process of taming her took a whole lot longer. Two weeks in the dog crate for Skittles became three weeks for Snickers. One training session on the cat door for Skittles took several days for Snickers, but then Snickers also figured out how to unlock the cat door. Go figure. Even now, one minute I can pet her, the next minute I can’t. One minute I can pick her up, the next minute not a chance. Yet she’s the first to come running when she hears my voice and is never far away when I’m in the yard, always just a bit beyond reach. I’m not sure if she’s playing with me or simply has no memory. But, perhaps she’s sharper than the rest of us.
Lest you all think I’ve lost my mind, next time we’ll move on with the process of landscape design. Fall is for planting. Enjoy your yard, the cooler temps, and the way the leaves catch the light of the lower, late day sun. Some tips for working with feral cats:
Over the next several days, I continued to visit her with cat treats, in a bag I would crush for sound. Eventually, the crinkle of the bag and my voice brought her running. She was definitely a food hustler, a helpful trait for training purposes, but also enjoyed the attention and a little petting now and again. I continued to feed her twice a day, always in the crate, which kept her comfortable with confinement (her next round of shots was due shortly) and allowed me to close the crate door and open the big garage door for an hour or so. She was not only acclimating to her new shelter from inclement weather (our garage), she was also getting use to the sights and sounds of an even bigger outside world, our yard. During week 4, we installed the cat door while Skittles was taking a break in the crate (door closed). We have raccoons in the area, so I initially looked into an automatic cat door triggered by a imbedded microchip. Our door, however, leading outside was metal, which meant the cat door might not function properly.
I settled on a basic door that could be locked four different ways (my magician Snickers can unlock it though, go figure), and I would take the food bowls up after dinner. As I mentioned earlier, both cats are on a dry-food-only diet. Smelly wet food that could attract other animals was not an option. The cat door installation was a piece of cake, perhaps a 20-minute job. Training was planned for week 6. Skittles was just about ready to explore the yard, but I was getting nervous. Had she bonded enough with me and her new home? Would she run away? She and I had invested a lot of time and energy into this project. I needed it to work. My yard needed relief from destructive critters. After doing some research and talking to several folks in the know, including my veterinarian, I decided to adopt two female kittens less than 6 months old. Female feral cats are generally better hunters, since they provide for their kittens, and they would be more adaptable at 6 months or younger. Adopting two would give them companionship, which is something they were use to coming from large colonies of cats, and provide better coverage of the property. Both would be spayed and receive their first set of shots through the trap-neuter-release programs of several local organizations. The hardest part was figuring out a 6-week period when we weren't traveling overnight. We also didn't want the weather to be too hot or too cold. And we knew that kittens are more readily available for adoption in the spring versus any other time of year.
Just inside the crate door, I immediately placed containers of kitty litter, water, and a high quality dry food, all of which were checked, cleaned, and replenished twice a day. With opossums, raccoons, and eventually a cat door between the garage and outside, smelly wet food was not an option. When Skittles used the litter box and finally started to eat, it was only when no one was around. During this first week, no attempt was made to pet her as she pressed herself into the back corner of the crate. We just talked to her. She was one scared kitty to be sure, so the process of taming and acclimation had to be super slow. With the start of week two, I switched to feeding her twice a day and introduced cat treats a few times a day by first dropping them into the crate and then gently tossing them to her through the open door. I also hung out in the garage while she ate her meals. Skittles gradually began to associate the positive pleasure of food with humans. Still, after a few days, when I reached my hand towards her with a treat, no go. She quickly became ricochet rabbit trying to get away, and I quickly closed the door. This was going to take more time.
For some older kittens, like Snickers who came to us at seven months of age, four weeks can be used to stretch this process out even further. The goal is to get wild kittens comfortable with and attached to their surroundings as well as human touch before releasing them into the confines of the garage, which is where we'll pick up next time.
Until then, check out our new perennial pricing for fall planting and have a great week. |
Welcome to my journal. For over 20 years I've created original landscape plans to help homeowners increase property value and really enjoy their yards. I approach every project as an unique opportunity to develop a work of living art, one that will require minimal care and age beautifully with time. In this journal, I will share some of my field experiences and tricks of the trade with you. Feel free to email questions. Thanks for visiting.
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February 2019
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