Green Jay Landscape Design

Green Jay Landscape Design

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Wetland Restoration

Wetland restoration is normally thought of as something that happens in some “other”, far away place like a nature preserve or a national park. However, a huge percentage of our wetlands exist on private property–in our own backyards. This means that the individual property owner has the ability to make a great impact on regional and national wetlands restoration simply by preserving and restoring the wetlands in their own backyard. Of course, not many people actually have a wetlands area on their property, but if there is a wetlands area included in your residential or business property, or you know someone in this situation, you’ll find this article packed with valuable help and guidance in restoring your wetlands area to its natural beauty.

A Recent Green Jay Landscape Design Project

Wetland Restoration – Why is this important?

WETLAND RESTORATION PRESERVES OUR COASTAL AREAS.

Do you enjoy a day at the beach? Thank the upstream wetlands. Rivers transport water, sediment, and nutrients from the land to the sea, play an important role in building deltas and beaches, and regulate the salinity and fertility of estuaries and coastal zones.

WETLAND RESTORATION CREATES HABITAT FOR PLANTS AND ANIMALS.

Do you enjoy observing wildlife, or just knowing that your property is a bio-friendly zone? The presence of wildlife is a sign that the land is also healthy to humans. Rivers serve as corridors for migratory birds and fish, and provide habitat to many unique species of plants and animals, including federally endangered and threatened aquatic species. Wetlands provide food, protection from predators, and other vital habitat factors for many of the nation’s fish and wildlife species, including endangered and threatened species. If you’re fortunate enough to have a wetlands area in your own backyard, you have the ability to participate in enriching life by restoring and preserving a bio-friendly area.

 

WETLAND RESTORATION CREATES COMMERCIAL AND RECREATIONAL VALUE.

There is economic value associated with recreational, commercial, and subsistence use of fish and wildlife resources. Any action you take to preserve and protect the wetlands in your backyard may have an indirect positive effect on our economy.

WETLAND RESTORATION HELPS CLEAN UP POLLUTION.

Wetlands remove pollutants from overland flows before they reach our lakes, rivers and bays. Restoring and preserving the wetlands in your backyard will directly affect the entire water system downstream for miles.

WETLAND RESTORATION PROTECTS OUR LAND FROM SOIL EROSION AND FLOODING.

Wetlands intercept storm runoff and release flood waters gradually to downstream systems. When wetlands are converted to systems without water retention capacity, downstream flooding problems increase.

Remember the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans? A major cause of that devastation was the gradual commercial destruction of a natural wetlands buffer between New Orleans and the ocean. With this wetlands buffer compromised, the flood waters had direct access to the city with tragic results.

 

Wetland Restoration – The Condition of Our Wetlands

THE DAMAGE TO OUR WETLANDS

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of miles of river corridors and millions of acres of wetlands have been damaged throughout the nation. In the 1600s, over 220 million acres of wetlands are thought to have existed in the lower 48 states. Since then, extensive losses have occurred, and over half of our original wetlands in the lower 48 have been drained and converted to other uses. The years from the mid-1950s to the mid- 1970s were a time of major wetland loss, but since then the rate of loss has decreased. Between 2004 and 2009, an estimated 62,300 acres of wetlands were lost in the conterminous United States.

THE MAJOR CULPRITS IN WETLANDS DESTRUCTION

Human Actions

  • Drainage
  • Dredging and stream channelization
  • Deposition of fill material
  • Diking and damming
  • Tilling for crop production
  • Levees
  • Logging
  • Mining
  • Construction
  • Runoff
  • Air and water pollutants
  • Changing nutrient levels
  • Releasing toxic chemicals
  • Introducing nonnative species
  • Grazing by domestic animals

Natural Threats

  • Erosion
  • Subsidence
  • Sea level rise
  • Droughts
  • Hurricanes and other storms

WETLAND RESTORATION PROGRESS

From 1982 to 1992, a total of 768,700 acres of wetlands were gained as a result of restoration activities around the nation (USDA, 1997). Likewise, numerous miles of rivers and streams were restored in our nations watersheds over the same time period. While this sounds promising, the overall percentage of our wetlands continues to decrease. We’ve simply slowed down the destruction.

Wetland Restoration – Back to Your Backyard

Do you have a wetlands area on your property? Consider restoring it and preserving it. Your action will be a part of the overall decrease in wetlands destruction. If enough residential and commercial property owners take action to restore and preserve the wetlands to which they have been entrusted, we can look to coming years where the overall percentage of wetlands in our nation is actually increasing, moving back toward the 220 million acres we had in the 1600s.

WANT TO RESTORE WETLANDS IN YOUR BACKYARD?

CALL Green Jay Landscape Design

(914) 560-6570

Many of the statistics and examples in this article are compliments of the United States Environmental Protection Agency

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

Do you have wetlands on or adjacent to your North Eastern US property? It’s critical to human survival that we preserve our vanishing wetland areas.

A walk through the wetlands areas in the New York Botanical Garden gives creative ideas on how to preserve and protect your wetland area, and re-introduce some of the original plant species native to wetlands in the North East.

Following the video and transcript:

TOP 5 REASONS TO PROTECT NORTH EASTERN WETLANDS

Wetland Landscaping – Educational Walk Through New York Botanical Gardens Wetlands

 

 

Wetland Landscaping Ideas – Paraphrased Transcript from Video

“We’re at the wetlands in the children’s adventure garden of the New York Botanical Gardens. Wetlands are critical for our survival as a species. Here is the primordial ooz from which we came, which is critical to nourishing and sustaining us. Embrace and come to appreciate our precious natural resources.”

“John and Meg are responsive for this amazing native garden. Algae removal is a constant issue for aesthetical purposes. The water source for this wetlands area is the Bronx River. We can’t introduce fish into this area because they might make their way back into the Bronx River System. Our goal is to preserve the eco-system. It’s an ornamental garden, not habitat reconstruction as is the adjacent 40-acre natural virgin stand of NY forest. 50/50 mix of native species and cultivated varieties of native species. Come, enjoy, and get ideas for using these native plant species in your own landscape.”

“Black die was added to the water in the Mid Plant Garden to inhibit UV light which creates algae bloom. Some algae growth still occurs and Meg is removing that algae from the pond with a net. They also pump water from the lower level which serves to aerate the water, increasing the dissolved oxygen level.”

Wetland Landscaping Ideas – Top 5 Reasons to Protect Wetlands

Wetlands include wooded swamps, vernal pools, peatlands and marshes. These areas perform 5 valuable functions which are eliminated when we fill in and build over our precious wetlands.

1. FLOOD PREVENTION

Flooding occurs when excess water is not absorbed into the soil. Wetlands slow down and absorb excess water. If this water has no place to go, it may end up in your foundation or basement!

2. WILDLIFE HABITAT PRESERVATION

Wetlands such as marshes, swamps and bogs feed and shelter rare plants and wildlife. These may include deer, waterfowl, songbirds, insects, fish, turtles, salamanders, frog and more. There is a fragile living beauty to this ecosystem.

3. GROUNDWATER RECHARGE

Wetlands are like reservoirs. They hold excess water during the rainy seasons and release it over time into rivers and streams and the ground water system during dry seasons. Without wetlands, the ground water aquifers which supply our well water could go dry.

4. WATERSHED PROTECTION

All the wetlands in a watershed area are interconnected. Water moves over the ground from one wetland area to another, spilling into the areas lakes, rivers and streams. This means that if one body of water is polluted or depleted, other bodies of water in the watershed area will be affected. As the people of New Orleans discovered, wetlands also provide a buffer from the wave action of the sea. When the wetland buffer between the sea and New Orleans was compromised through development, it could not protect New Orleans from hurricane Katrina.

5. POLLUTANT FILTRATION

Wetland soils, due to their porous nature, filter pollution such as heavy metals and other contaminants.

 

Wetland Landscaping Ideas – Conclusion

If you have a wetland area on your property, you have been given a rare opportunity to help preserve and protect a unique environmental zone. Due to it’s interconnection with other wetland area near you, how you proceed could have far reaching effects on the plant, animal and human life in your neighborhood.

We here at Green Jay Landscape Design look forward to actively preserving, promoting and engaging the wetland areas on your property.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

“The Market Garden On the Deck” is a wonderful way to increase your enjoyment of nature and edible plants. Supplement your diet with organically grown vegetables and herbs. You’ll need to provide regular watering, pruning and feeding, but in all, this container garden is simplicity and beauty at its best. Altogether this space accommodates our barbeque, a small café table, 3-4 chairs, intimate dining—all the wonderful aspects of our beautiful world at Green Jay Landscape Design.

 

Container Gardening Ideas – Unique features of the container garden:

  • Elevated Deck: An elevated deck above the landscape brings nature and our experience of nature closer to the home and to our kitchen.
  • Home-Grown Food: Grow food in proximity to the kitchen.
  • Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder: The new state of the art squirrel proof bird feeder. A squirrel jumping on the feeder will trigger a cut-off of the seed supply. The cardinal ring is particularly inviting to cardinals. Finches love it.
  • Distinctiveness: The various shapes and sizes of the containers make this garden distinct.
  • Compact: It doesn’t take up much room. The space is designed for 2 people to occasionally entertain.
  • Tower Garden: A tower garden hydroponically grows vegetables and herbs in rock wool from seeds or live plants.
  • Vertical Garden: There’s a vertical garden. The cells enable us to grow basil, herbs, vegetables, annuals, perennials, parsley, red lettuce, petunias, sweet potato vine, black-eyed susan vine, whatever the light allows.
  • Shady “Chi” Corner: We have a shady corner planted with wax begonia, containing a little fountain that attracts birds and encourages positive Chi in the garden area.

Container Gardening Ideas – Some of the perennials and annuals in the garden:

  • Citronellas repel mosquitoes.
  • The red fountain grass is a wonderful addition to our landscape. The blowing wind adds motion and interest.
  • Flowering hibiscus and Siberian Napata add fragrance and repel biting insects while attracting beneficial insects.
  • Myer Lemon produces fruit (needs to be taken inside during cold weather).
  • Bougainvillea creates a wonderful fragrance along with the combination of plants.

    Container Gardening Ideas – Top 7

    1. Know Your Plant Characteristics: Study each plant’s growth habits, needs for light, water, fertilizer, drainage, pruning, susceptibility to pests and disease. Consider the time investment each will require before you begin populating your garden.
    2. Use Complimentary Colors: Select a color scheme that compliments the surroundings including the other plants and even the colors of your home.
    3. Select Appropriate Plants for the Lighting: Assess the natural lighting and select plants accordingly. Is the area shaded? Is it in full sunlight?
    4. Consider Plant Height: Arrange the plants according to height and size. Before you begin, create a plan that includes plants of various sizes.
    5. Seek Complimentary Diversity: Consider the shape of the plant, its leaves and blooms. You’re creating an overall art piece as you carefully place each plant.
    6. Select Appropriate Containers: You can add elegance to a plain looking plant by placing it in an artistic container. You can show off an elaborate, colorful exotic plant by placing it in a simpler looking container.
    7. Properly Space Your Plants: Overcrowding leads to spindly, weak plants. One plant per container is a good basic rule. It not only allows room for the plant’s healthy growth, but showcases that particular plant. Space the containers so that air can circulate between the plants. You don’t want the plants growing into each other.

    Container Gardening Ideas – Final Tip

    CREATE AN ENDURING MASTERPIECE WITH THE HELP OF A LANDSCAPE DESIGN SPECIALIST.

    We’ll design the perfect fit, maximizing your overall landscape design, the look of your home in light of the time investment you want to put into maintaining the beauty of your container garden.

    Jay Archer, President

    914-560-6570

    jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

What is ecological landscaping? What’s the best time of year to get started with your garden? Which types of grass and plants grow best in our area? Is there an organic way to deal with issues like pollen, flooding and insect problems? What kinds of edible plants grow best in our gardens? What tips do you have for growing house plants?

These and other questions were posed to Jay Archer, owner of Green Jay Landscape Design in May of 2015 by Maura Carlin and Mike Witsch of “Local Live”, a talk show program created for Rye NY, Mamaroneck NY, Harrison NY, Larchmont NY and the surrounding communities. Here’s a quick summary of the questions and answers in this video interview. It’s not meant as a substitute for viewing the interview, but just as a summary.

Q: WHAT IS ECOLOGICAL LANDSCAPING?

A: Landscaping that embraces nature. Landscaping in which we participate with nature instead of being separate from or opposing to nature. For example, instead of removing leaves, compost them back into your lawn and garden. This puts back into the soil the organic matter we’ve been removing over the last 50 years. This is organic, natural fertilizer. On the other hand, when we use blowers to remove leaves, we also blow away the garden’s top soil over time.

Q: WHAT’S THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO GET STARTED WITH YOUR GARDEN?

A: 5:00 this evening. Start to change your life today. Begin organic gardening. Reduce the size of your lawn. Stop applying pesticides and toxic chemicals to your lawn and garden.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TYPES OF GRASS THAT DO WELL IN RYE NY, MAMARONECK NY, HARRISON NY, LARCHMONT NY AND THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES?

A: The most productive grass seed (Improved Perennial Ryegrass) is grown in Oregon, which has a climate similar to ours in New York and Connecticut. When it comes to plants, the best thing you can do is create bio-diversity (plant various species). You’ll end up attracting butterflies and birds. Bring in more native plants.

Q: WHAT ARE NATIVE PLANTS TO THIS AREA?

A: One example is milkweed (butterfly weed). This plant provides food for butterflies.

Q: HOW DO YOU REDUCE POLLEN?

A: Irritation to pollen is an indicator our immune systems are not what they should be. Pollen didn’t bother the Native Americans. Reducing chemicals and pesticides supports healthy immune systems.

Q: HOW CAN WE DEAL WITH WATER PROBLEMS AND FLOODING?

A: Plant rain gardens instead of the great American lawn. For example, French lilac helps absorb water.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME EASY EXAMPLES OF VEGETABLES YOU CAN GROW IN YOUR GARDEN?

A: Blueberries and raspberries are easy to grow. Go to “Gardens Alive” and purchase a little hoop that will screen your berries from deer during the 2 weeks the plants are producing.

Q: PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE TROUBLE WITH TOMATOES. WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?

A: A lot of sunlight, good soil. Stone Barns in Westchester is the greatest source of soil on the East Coast.

Q: HOW DO YOU TELL GOOD SOIL SUPPLEMENTS FROM BAD?

A: Guaranteed analysis. Consult Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Q: HOW CAN YOU TELL A PLANT FROM A WEED?

A: It’s in the eye of the beholder. We have clients who want us to leave weeds in their lawn. These bloom, add to the natural look.

Q: WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR PLANTS INSIDE THE HOME?

A: We created a vertical “living wall” in our home. 1 square foot of plants will clean 100 square feet of air in the home. We also built an eco-terrium with living plants and frogs. This both helps clean the air humidifies the home.

Q: WHAT ABOUT BUGS THAT IRRITATE PEOPLE?

A: Bio-diversity is the answer. Because of the diversity of song birds, damsel flies…etc. in the wet lands adjacent to our home, the mosquito population is naturally controlled. Unhealthy deer spread tics and Lyme disease. A good coyote population, returning to our area, helps control this problem.

Q: HOW DO YOU PROPERLY TRIM HYDRANGEAS?

A: Hydrangeas are woody shrubs. Don’t trim them too low. Get professional advice.

Q: HOW DO YOU TRIM RHODODENDRONS?

A: Don’t cut the buds. Water properly based on the climate conditions. Last year rhododendrons got too much water. This year we’re in drought and they’re not getting enough.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

Dethatching Your Lawn – Why Dethatch?

When a lawn is left untended, it begins to collect a gradually thickening layer of debris, roots and dead grass just above the soil surface. This layer will begin to block out water and air from the lawn’s root system, and it also harbors disease and pests which can damage the lawn. Dethatching is the act of removing this unhealthy debris layer.

Dethatching Your Lawn – When to Dethatch?

Fortunately it’s pretty easy to check the thickness of the thatch layer. Work your fingers into the grass, you’ll feel the layer. If it’s 1/2 inch or more, it’s time to dethatch. To maintain a healthy lawn, you’ll probably need to dethatch once a year. There should be about 45 days of good growing conditions after you dethatch so the grass will recover without weeds taking over. Late spring to early summer is normally the safest lawn dethatching time period. You don’t want to dethatch when there might be a freeze or a drought in the next 45 days.

Dethatching Your Lawn – Tools to Use

If you want to turn the project into an extreme marathon body workout, go ahead and use a dethatching rake. For a shorter moderate body workout, rent a dethatching machine (see the movie below). On the other hand, if you’d rather get your workout on the golf course, call us at 914-560-6570!

Dethatching Your Lawn – Watch a Demo

Dethatching Your Lawn – How to Use a Dethatching Machine

The dethatching process is pretty simple. Your goal is to cut the turf just below where the roots begin without disturbing the soil any more than you need to.

HERE’S THE BASIC DETHATCHING PROCESS:

  1. Set the blades to about 3 inches apart for most lawns in the Northeast.
  2. Run the machine back and forth across the lawn, then make a second set of rows perpendicular to the first.
  3. Rake up the debris and run the machine again across any areas that you missed.

You’ll know you’re finished when you can’t see any grass (as in the movie). Don’t worry, your lawn will grow back healthier than ever without that smothering, pest and disease-ridden layer of thatch.

You may also consider aerating your lawn a couple times a year, but that’s a subject we’ll cover in another article.

Again, unless you’re really looking to do your full body workout on your lawn instead of on the golf course or some more enjoyable venue…

Call us if you have questions as to the proper timing, equipment or you’re just wondering whether your lawn needs dethatching.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com

 

Finally, Spring has come to the Northeast! Isn’t it amazing how a simple thing like driving down the road or strolling up your home’s entrance way is an entirely different experience than it was just a month ago? Trees are budding, daffodils are popping up, it feels good again to be outside!

Organic Gardening – Healthy Soil Promotes Life

At this time, our thoughts naturally turn to the yard and garden. We imagine what the garden will look like in another couple months when it’s in full bloom. What does the garden need at this time, in order to grow into its most healthy, spectacular fullness? Instinctively we know that brush and dead wood need to be carefully removed. And, the soil needs attention. Proper feeding helps ensure a beautiful garden.

Choice of Organic Fertilizer Is Key

So, let’s talk about the soil. What kind of attention do we need to give to promote the life-giving quality of the soil in our garden? Before you go down to the garden center and purchase a popular fertilizer, take a moment to consider the impact of your decision.

 

 

How we treat the soil on a large scale affects the earth in a big way. For example, California is experiencing a terrible drought and has just one year’s water supply left. Imagine no longer having the amazing array of fruits and vegetables and healthy foods that come from California farms? Other areas of the planet are experiencing similar issues, and desertification of entire regions is on the increase.

Promoting Water Retention – Reversing Earth’s Desertification

What does your choice of fertilizer and care of the soil have to do with huge issues like desertification? Everything! The major decision is whether to continue to go non-organic with chemical fertilizers, or organic. Organic fertilizers like compost and mushroom mulch not only take carbon out of the air, but allow the soil to make better use of the water it does get. This is referred to as “sustainable agriculture”.

On a global scale, sustainable agriculture can sequester carbon and ameliorate climate change/global warming.

 

Help Support Earth’s Natural Soil Production

Please take some time to watch this beautiful movie, Symphony of the Soil , produced by Deborah Koons Garcia. It’s an official part of the UN International Year of the Soils and is moving people the world over to recognize the precious, fragile nature of our planet’s soil, the wonder of how the earth’s soil is created and how sustaining its life-giving quality through organic gardening and farming can help reverse desertification globally.

4 Great Benefits of Organic Gardening

When you go organic in fertilizing your garden, you do a number of things that support a healthy earth:

  • Your garden itself is more healthy. It needs less water, is less likely to dry out on a hot July day.
  • Every year, the soil in your garden becomes richer and healthier instead of becoming more depleted.
  • When you decide not to use harmful pesticides, you begin to notice the butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects returning to the garden.
  • You show your love for the earth and the soil that gives life to the plants we love and need.

 

 

A Call To Action

Please join me this Spring in making a commitment to go organic and only put into the soil that which sustains life and promotes the health of the planet.

Would you like help converting your landscape into a life-sustaining organic landscape?

We’re committed to creating and maintaining beautiful organic landscapes and would be happy to help you with ideas, design and creation.

Jay Archer, President

914-560-6570

jay@greenjaylandscapedesign.com