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It’s officially Fall, and in the traditional landscaping world, that means prime time for lawn renovations. Most grass species used in American lawns – Kentucky Blue Grass, Perennial Rye Grass, Fine Fescues and Tall Fescues – are cool season grasses. Cool season grasses grow and look best in the temperature range of 60 – 75 degrees F. During our hot and humid northeast summers, when temperatures get into the 80s and 90s, lawns usually suffer. This is when you see brown, burnt lawns or lawns dominated by weeds. Excessive heat, drought, compaction and improper fertilization practices stress cool season grasses in summer, reducing their growth rate and allowing opportunistic weeds to take over. August and much of September are simply too hot and dry to renovate your lawn if it has begun to suffer – the grass won’t grow! Aeration, top-dressing and re-seeding must wait for cooler fall temperatures.

Year after year we see the same seasonal patterns and pour more money and resources into reviving heat-stressed, cool-season lawns. Is it really worth it? Sure, lawn can serve a purpose for play, pets and gathering, but it has become far too ubiquitous in our landscapes. One of GJL’s main tenants in ecological landscaping is to reduce your lawn area! When we stop obsessing over a flawless carpet of green, and really examine how much water (the most irrigated crop in the US!), chemicals (2.4 million metric tons of fertilizer!) and gasoline (600 million gallons for mowing/trimming alone!)go into maintaining our “perfect” American lawns, we can poke holes in convention and design something better.

Many of our clients come to us to do just that. They are tired of the endless cycle of lawn maintenance and want to contribute more positively to their environment. We’ve ripped out entire front lawns for pollinator-supporting perennial gardens. The final design varies, necessarily, based on site conditions and character, but we always hear the same feedback. Our clients are thrilled to have ditched their one-dimensional, static lawn for something that evolves throughout the year, that brings color to their landscape, and creates a dynamic habitat for bees, butterflies, birds and more – and a great outdoor classroom for children.

These kinds of landscapes are incredibly productive. We choose our plant palette with the permaculture term “stacked functions” in mind – how many benefits can we derive from one plant or plant community? What will sequester the most carbon, provide nectar, pollen or berries, and supply shelter to the multitude of organisms we share our slice of the planet with? The planting possibilities are endless, but our native trees, shrubs, perennials and vines all contribute more than imported Eurasian turf grasses.

Maybe you’ve been struggling to get one area of your property to grow lawn that never seems to work. We’ve designed many woodland rain gardens in areas such as these, where grass always seemed bare, damp and scraggly. We take advantage of the hydrology and use it as an opportunity to collect, treat and let percolate storm water that would otherwise become runoff.

So, this fall, instead of scheduling your standard lawn renovation services, consider your landscape. Is it highly functional, productive, beautiful and evolving? Does it better the environment or negatively impact it? Take a step in the right direction and consider reducing your lawn area with an ecological landscape design this fall.

Call us to discuss your ecological landscape design project: 914-560-6570.

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Kathryn Saphire

VP of Landscape Development & Marketing

How can we reverse decades of poor landscape practices, like removing leaf litter? GJL’s Organic Plant Health Care Programs include Deep Root Feeding with our mix of microbiology products, molasses, & aeration. Healthy soil microbial populations are essential for breaking down nutrients and making them plant-available. In this symbiotic relationship, the plants strengthen their immune system through a healthy and balanced diet, and the microbes get a host plant and trade sugars from the plant for minerals and nutrients.

It’s been a common refrain this season: the mosquitos in my yard are insane. I can’t be outside for more than ten seconds before getting bit.

As landscape professionals who work outside every day… we believe you. We see it too. But our immense annoyance and frustration with these pesky creatures can lead to some pretty crazy human behaviors. Daily, we see mosquito-prevention trucks out in our communities, spraying toxic pesticides all over the landscape in hopes that every mosquito in town will come alight on those surfaces and die an instant death. Ha!

Unfortunately, mosquitos fly and can easily avoid sprayed areas. Mosquito spraying is ineffective.

Even more unfortunate are the other, unintended victims – beneficial insects, whose ecosystem value cannot be ignored. In organic gardening especially, we rely on healthy populations of insects –from pollinators, to pests and the predators that predate them—to stabilize ecosystems in a natural way and produce thriving, beautiful gardens. More broadly, we are currently facing rapid insect population declines globally– The Insect Apocalypse– as documented by scientists in Germany, Denmark, and the U.S. (and reported by the NY Times).

We simply cannot afford to kill more insects with ineffective mosquito pesticides sprays. So, what are our options? What creative ecological solutions are available?

Mosquito Dunks— a larvicide that only targets mosquito larvae. They should be placed in mosquito breeding habitats – standing water—they will dissolve and kill only the larvae. This is a very effective treatment that directly targets the vector of the problem. Tropical regions of the world deal with their intense mosquito pressure by targeting the larvae populations in this same way. Our climate lately, with intense storm events every few days and record temperature heat waves in between, is not far off from the tropical climates that face the worst mosquito pressure in the world. This extreme weather pattern invites standing water and creates ideal conditions for mosquito breeding (it takes four to twenty-eight days for mosquito eggs to hatch in standing water). Be proactive as you examine your landscape (and your neighbors!) after a storm event and treat any standing water you see with mosquito dunks.

Protect Catch Basins – catch basins are often the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos. Clean them out often, and ideally, cover with non-woven geotextile fabric and gravel. This covering stops debris but allows storm water to infiltrate into the drain and storm water system. It also keeps mosquitos and light out.

Rain Gardens – Every property could benefit from a rain garden! What is it? A depressed garden filled with a gravel-sand-soil medium and planted with facultative wetland species – plants that can survive both drought and rain inundation. The planting and soil medium allow for biofiltration of the storm water and percolation through to the aquifer, rather than pooling on the surface, which often happens with lawns. Plus, rain gardens require primarily native plantings meaning they attract hummingbirds, butterflies, native bees, dragonflies, and more!

Invite Predators – As ecological landscapers, we rely on and encourage the natural predator-prey relationships in our local environment. One of the best mosquito predators are DRAGONFLIES! Dragonfly larvae spend their first months (even years!) in water, right alongside a tasty food source: mosquito larvae. Adult dragonflies also eat adult mosquitos, gnats and other insect pests. The best way to attract dragonflies to your property is to create a pond habitat. It should have multiple depths, exposure to sun and should not freeze completely over the winter. Check out our Water Gallery for inspiration! Crucially, to make a hospitable habitat for any insect predator, your property must be maintained organically. Learn more about our Organic Lawn, Tree and Shrub programs.

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Kathryn Saphire

VP of Landscape Development

914-560-6570

There are many levels of expertise and experience within the landscape industry. At Green Jay, we pride ourselves on our ecological niche that takes a holistic view of a property when determining any design or program recommendations.

Simply put, these recommendations cannot be made in a vacuum over the phone. Site analysis is the first essential step in any of our projects. When we first visit a property, we consider the following:

Client Wishes– this is a pretty obvious step, of paramount importance! What do you like and dislike about your current landscape. How do you envision your landscape functioning – do you entertain often, have young children, rowdy pets, or do you just need a quiet place to relax outside?

Client Views– sometimes the best inspiration comes from insidethe house – particularly to evaluate and frame views outside from primary indoor living spaces. Getting a sense of the client’s style through their home décor choices also provides valuable insight.

Drainage – we always ask, “do you have water in your basement?” Often, clients are habituated to their basement sump pump running constantly, not realizing that there are home and landscape improvements that can reduce flooding and ponding. We evaluate gutter and leader sizes, trace where they dump the water, and inspect drains, catch basins, and pipes for debris or signs of degradation. Moss, mold and slimy surfaces are other good indicators of drainage issues.

Plant Health – Maybe you inherited a fifty-year-old landscape of exotic shrubs, now overgrown, and have no idea what’s worth keeping, pruning, or dumping? Maybe your arborvitaes haven’t grown since you planted them several years ago. Maybe you have shrubs with yellowing leaves and holes. Our trained horticulturalists evaluate your landscape’s plant health and make recommendations on how to rejuvenate them organically.

Sun / Shade Conditons – Sun mapping is critical in determing planting recommendations.

Lawn – is your lawn organic yet?! What will it take to get you there? Do you have a crabgrass problem? Do you have the right pH and enough organic matter to grow a great lawn? Is your soil suffering from compaction? Our Organic Lawn Care programs are custom designed for each property.

Soil – We evaluate the physical characteristics of your soil (how much sand, silt, and clay) by hand, and take note of coloration (rusty, light brown, almost black). For clients signing on for a design or organic maintenance program, we alwaystake a soil chemistry test to evaluate pH, micro and macro nutrients, cation exchange capacity, soluble salts, and more.

Circulation– is your landscape accessible from major entry points? Could it benefit from a stepping stone path or stone staircase to guide the visitor?

Repairs & Improvements – We can advise on existing property improvements from masonry work to gutters to rot and mold issues.

These observations and analyses are critical to informing a design plan. If you have a landscape project in mind that could benefit from a professional evaluation and recommendations, give us a call at 914-560-6570.

This pond was thick with debris from the surrounding woodland and had lost its original luster as a swimming pond in the 1940s! GJL suction-harvested the debris, with help from Cooper Ponds. Some of the organic matter and stone found on-site were used to create a planting bed adjacent to the pond, easing the transition from land the water. Stepping stones through a native bog garden creates access to the newly swimmable pond, and the aquatic plants will also continue to filter and purify the water over time.

Take a video tour of our first install of 2019! After a grand back deck addition, this client needed a landscape that could match her home’s party-hosting potential. After an ititial inventory of the necessary site development — large tree pruning, dry wells burried too deep — we created a digital master plan for the back yard. The front yard was designed by Jay over ten years ago, and has been organic ever since! Join us on a tour through both!

Our design created a series of intimate seating areas for various social activites. Right off the house is the Health & Healing Herb Garden, surrounding a circular patio with flowering vines, fragrant herbs, perennials and ground cover. New Garden Path Stone connects the front yard to the backyard, and the house/deck to the new garden rooms.

The Cornucopia of Hope is the most social of the gardens, offering a focal point of 3 basalt bubblers. The wooden screens will be planted with climbing honeysuckle vines, creating a backdrop to enhance the charming sound of bubbling water on river rock. The next phase of this garden will be resurfacing the gravel with Garden Path Stone and installing a fire pit and stone benches!

On the far side of the backyard, the client’s lovely giant watering can sculpture was installed on a stone base with gravel surround. Gravel within the sculpture prevents it from being blown over in storm events. All in all this charming and unexpected addition balaces out the Cornucopia of Hope garden, and creates another intimate area for reflection and contemplation.

The next phase of the project, once construction is completely finished, is to plant a Switchgrass and Amsonia hedge along the deck. Theses beautiful native grasses and perennials will provide beautiful movement and color while dually screening the area beneath the deck.

To get started on your own ecological landscape design project, give us a call! 914-560-6570!

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