Sanctuary for Your Soul- Creating a Contemplative Garden

The garden provides us with food, flowers, fragrance, colors and textures.   We tend to them with patience and care in knowing it will return with abundant yields.  The garden can equally serve as a sanctuary for our soul, as a place to retreat from the world and its worries, creating our own sacred place.

Contemplative gardens such as the rich tradition of the Zen Buddhist gardens in Japan, nurture the soul with simplicity for quiet reflection and reprieve.  This “place”, this outdoor space of simplicity, austerity and balance, will allow us to be present to the given moment as it unfolds and embark on a personal journey; a journey that will mature and expand as your garden grows.  The act of garden maintenance, such as removing fallen leaves, maintaining gravel pathways and light pruning becomes a form of meditation, allowing you and the contemplative garden to become one with the natural surroundings. 

As you begin to map out different “rooms” of your sanctuary, take time to reflect on your natural elements, ones that soothe your inner being.  Maybe it is a stand of trees that remind you of your childhood days climbing dogwoods or maples trees.  Maybe you recall the love of the ocean or creeks you visited and you wish to incorporate the sound of tricking water.  Remember, a contemplative garden should be simple, such as a grouping of aromatic lavender next to a bench should assist in centering your thoughts on a hectic day.  Simple elements that speak to you and your soul are the foundation of this place, reconnecting you with your inner being.

As a meandering pathway creates anticipation, so should your contemplative garden.  Your layout should be mindful and deliberate, a new perspective for each visitor, encouraging visitors to slow down and observe the features of your space.  Process the planning stages slowly, observing the area in which this sanctuary for your soul will be located.  Revisit the area repetitively over a period of time as you may discover a pre-existing element in a different light that could be incorporated into your garden, such as a native boulder outcropping or a fallen limb from a nearby tree.

Embark on creating your emotional, meditative and transcendent retreat focusing on the mainstay of your garden, the central core.  It could be a grove of trees providing the central core of energy and provides shade on a hot day for your spot of reflection and consider what shape of tree or types of trees have that hold the most significance for you in the process.

In a traditional Japanese garden, there was a structure such as a hut or a pergola at the end of a meandering path where tea was served, but a hut can simply be a wooden bench nestled under or amongst your grove of trees providing a place to rest.  Incorporating a screen of shrubs and trees that defines the perimeter of your retreat will create your sacred realm, a sense of place that is safe and secure.

As in all garden design, creating the sense of entry is one of the most important pieces as it identifies a place in which you move from one world to another.  This threshold can be formal with an archway or stone pillars covered in vegetation or as subtle as a well manicured meadow between two places, allowing a time to decompress and for eager anticipation of what awaits in your sanctuary.  Creating simple topography changes within the garden, such as a subtle, rolling berm planted with waterwise fescue grass creates higher ground, a feeling of clear vision and a fresh perspective.  If there is not sufficient space within your garden to dedicate to this rolling berm, the fallen tree limb or stack of vertical flat stones will help in creating this sacred mount and as Aristotle wrote The Soul never thinks without a mental picture.

Resources:  Moir Messervy, Julie

The Inward Garden and Contemplative Gardens

Keane, Marc P.

Japanese Garden Design

Modifying Wind for Cool Season Landscape Design Purposes

As wind moves through your landscape, it is modified by buildings, tree canopies and other solid and porous objects.  In cool season wind areas, the greater the difference in temperature between the air and the object, the greater the cooling effect and in winter when the temperature difference between a person and the air is at a maximum, modifying wind can reduce “windchill”.  This means that landscape designs for areas to be used in cool seasons, such as an outdoor living area, should focus on reducing wind speed by creating a wind block.

Of all the elements in a landscape to characterize and control through design, both biologically and physically, wind is probably the most difficult to control through design, however there are a few standard approaches that can help modify winds in your landscape design.  Once you have determined your cool season prevailing winds, orient your outdoor space away from these prevailing cool season winds and provide upwind barriers perpendicular to prevailing cool season winds.  A good example is to install a coniferous windbreak that deflects your cool season or winter winds.  By selecting the porosity of the object to utilize in your wind modification, you can control the amount of wind reduction and size of area, commonly referred to wind reflection zone.  Trees with 50 percent porosity that are low branched to the ground will reduce wind speed greater and create a wider wind reflection zone than open branched deciduous trees and conifers whose branches don’t reach to the ground.  As water will continue to flow after it encounters an obstruction, so will wind and will flow over and around.  Through design of properly placed vegetation, this wind can be reduced further or channeled to flow through areas that would benefit from increased winds. 

When modifying wind through proper design principles, we can also modify solar radiation to provide beneficial microclimates, a landscape that has been designed to modify both the wind and solar radiation to provide a thermally comfortable place for people.  In the upcoming blog we will discuss strategic modification of solar radiation and the benefits of active and solar heating, survival of plants and habitat for animals.  It will contain information on landscape design utilizing proper landscape vegetation that can modify and increase poor air quality in urban settings.  

Resources:  Brown, Robert D., and Terry J. Gillespie

Microclimatic Landscape Design:  Creating Thermal Comfort and Energy Efficiency

John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Ponds to Water features- Design through Implementation (2nd of a 2 Part Series)

Once location and size of your water feature has been determined, water movement and flow rate calculations are necessary.  As mentioned in the first part of this series, creating “live” water is essential for the proper maintenance of your feature and to create oxygen in the water to support aquatic and plant life.  The simplest design is to create a ledge or rill through which water flows (supported by a pump) back into a lower basin.  The higher the vertical lift (bottom of pond to top of rill or ledge), the larger the flow rated pump should be.  A good reference is a that a 4,800 gph flow rated submersible pump utilizing a 1.5” diameter return line creates great flow rates and sound for a vertical lift of 48” – 54”.  Always remember submersible pumps are all about water flow, not pressure, so it is important to maximize return line size in accordance with your pump’s flow rate.

Under natural conditions, ponds are part of an eco-system that contains a marsh area filled with reeds and sedges.  This is a good strategy to incorporate in your pond construction and should be part of your overflow system.  Designing an overflow that infiltrates this marsh area will be perfect in the wetter months, supporting these types of plants, and then allowing the marsh area to dry out in the less precipitation months.  This natural condition is vital for the proper growing cycle for plants that like “wet feet”.  Some of the plants that are capable of growing in wetland conditions include astilbe, gunnera, iris sibirica, and trollus to name a few.  Many plants flourish in these conditions with the elimination of competition from vigorous plants such as equisetum and algae.  Amphibians such as frogs and toads will enjoy these seasonally dry marshes as their fish predators will not be able to prey on their tadpoles.

Properly managing your plants in and around your water feature is easily accomplished by understanding and matching the conditions in which they grow naturally.  These matrices are supported by the proper soils and wet meadows occur in heavy loams consisting of clay and silt, and occasionally peat.  It is important to study these natural environments and recreate them forming a dense and permanent plant cover to reduce weed growth that can be tenacious in these environments.

If you are considering or dealing with a bank, the point where static water meets land, rapid stabilization of the bank to resist erosion is important.  Some very good soil-binding plants include acorus, athyrium, dryopteris, rodgersia and spartina.

Shallow waters are home to numerous plants which can help stabilize the waters edge as they spread slightly into the moist soils where water meets land.  These plants have exploratory root systems and this readiness to produce new roots enables them to spread easily throughout a water system, creating a fast growing upperstory essential for the aquatic life below while creating a balanced and healthy pond.  Many of these marginal plants are intolerant of frost and will need to be protected during the winter months and can be accomplished by covering them or simply removing them and storing until the following season.  Calla, juncus, peltandra, and hydrocharis are some good choices for smaller sized ponds. 

There is an unlimited way to create ponds or water features in regards to shape and style, but the dynamics are consistently the same.  Creating live water supported by proper flow rates, water movement and depth along with proper vegetation selections will support a successful, easily maintained and sustainable water feature.

Ponds to Waterfeatures- Design Through Implementation (First in a Series)

Small and large ponds to trickling, low-flow water features add amazing dynamics to any landscape.   They can be created in small spaces with the “what’s around the corner” atmosphere to wide expanses where space is not a factor and you can encourage local fauna to make this area their home. 

There are many facets of a healthy water feature and the next few blogs will discuss many of the ebbs and flows of creating your “live water” water feature, your piece of paradise that melds with nature and your surroundings.  Over my years as a landscape designer and contractor, I have created water features and ponds of varying sizes and dynamics, from grotto to small lakes and I have gained immense knowledge from my failures, and a few reinforcements from my successes.  I hope this series will supply significant knowledge to provide the confidence to design and implement your creation and at the same time, minimize, if not eliminate frustration and costly re-dos.

Design implementation should begin with considering what size and where to locate your creation, open water versus pond-less.  Oxygen and water movement are two main key areas in developing live water.  Live water is best described as non-stagnant, oxygen filled healthy water that can sustain life in your pond / water feature.  To successfully create a water feature that will sustain live water, especially small ones, there must be a supply of dissolved oxygen in the water.

Since sunlight is the driving factor in photosynthesis which sustains plant life which releases oxygen into the water, a pond should be sunlit.  If your water feature will be small in scale and shallow, it will be important to study and understand your proposed site, considering seasonal sun angles, shading and passive solar techniques along with vegetation layering around the edges and how to utilize aquatic plants such as large leaved water lilies.  In your design process, consider what type of tree will be utilized for shading, since leaves deplete oxygen levels with bacteria that are created when the leaves enter and sink to the bottom of a pond, plants such as weeping spruce and phormium species make good sense (depending where you live, what planting zone).  Other possibilities of creating shade include structures; from a simple walkway bridge to decking can be effective and eliminate leaf litter dilemmas.

Once location has been determined, the next step is to finalize the style of your aquatic retreat you wish to incorporate into your landscape.  One that has an open body of water, complete with waterfalls, rills and creeks or a more subdued, yet impacting architectural element, with softly bubbling water cascading over the lip of a ceramic vessel and returning into the below surface sump that is pondless.  At this point, design sense (your boulder-based water feature does not appear to be coming out of the side of your stucco garage for instance) should take a back seat as it is very important to fully understand what style, what dynamics will best fit your lifestyle, to successfully maintain, and sustain years of enjoyment from.

Ideally, you want to create your feature to be in scale with its surroundings, for water features that are too small in scale will be ineffective and you want the dynamics of your creation to be manageable yet impacting.  If you are creating an open water feature with exposed static water regardless of size, depth is critical.  A pond with 2’ of depth will be sufficient and easy to maintain proper water temperatures (if you have inhabitants) in summer and winter and it is the proper depth to create live water; through a small fountain acting as an aerator or a driven by a larger pump recirculating water though rills over ledges of stone and boulders back into the pool below.

In the upcoming blogs as part of this series, we will continue to discuss the dynamics of designing your water feature including creating movement and sound, pump sizing and configuration, filtration techniques, water levels and overflows and choosing the proper plants for your creation.

The Soil Food Web- Mulch, Compost Tea &, Mycorrhizal Relationships

As we understand that the soil food web is the foundation that creates the soils needed to support healthy, sustainable plant life, we will explore the importance of fungal compost, compost tea and mycorrhizal fungi and their relationships with the soil food web and maintaining trees, shrubs and perennials.

Just a reminder, trees, shrubs perennials prefer their nitrogen in forms of ammonium, not nitrate.  If you have ever wondered why your picea pungens (blue spruce) did not survive in the middle of your turf grass, the major contributor probably was your turf grass lawn as it is nitrate-fertilized.  By early detection or knowledge, you might have been able to protect your spruce by creating negative lawn area, in this instance, a planting island.

Mulches, fungal compost and tea work best on maintaining the health of your shrubs, trees and perennials.  When applying amidst your trees, you’ll want to make sure there is negative space between the compost and the trunk so the microbes aren’t in contact with the trunk, so the microbes don’t attack the bark.  It also makes perfect sense, both now and for future maintenance, to create planting or greenspace under the trees in place of turfgrass.

If you look at nature, leaves fall and cover the roots, naturally recycling the nitrogen and carbon with some making it back to the plant.  By applying a form of mulched leaves within a layer of brown mulch, preferably a couple inches thick, it will provide slow release nutrients and protect the roots though the winter months.  By applying a compost tea in the fall and once again in the spring (about 2-3 weeks before your shrubs and trees leaf out) is a sustainable way to insure the health and integrity of your plants and trees.

Mycorrhizal fungi products have been around for nearly a century but have mainly become main-stream within the last 5 years.  It is a natural form of nitrogen, one that envelopes and takes hold on the roots of your plants and is created by plants.  Hardwood trees form mycorrhizae known as ectomycorrhizal where most shrubs, perennials and softwood trees form mycorrhizae with endomycorrhizal fungi.  The heath family, which includes rhododendrons, sub-specie azaleas and blueberries, thrive on mycorrhizal fungus. 

If your garden is mature and you have compacted soils without noticing mycorrhizal activity (mushrooms growing under the drip line of your trees) you may wish to use a deep root feeder to inject your mycorrhizal drench to inoculate the roots.  With shrubs and perennials, it is simply excavating around their drip lines into their root zones with a spade or trowel and applying Endomycorrhizal spores.  If you have mushroom growth in and around your trees drip lines, then your soil has not been degraded to the point where natural mycorrhizal has been effected and you don’t necessarily have to add to create one.  Mycorrhizal fungi spores must be in contact with roots within 24 hours after exposure to moisture to grow and this is why mycorrhizal fungi is applied as a drench to assist in their delivery.

By applying mulches, teas, composts and mycorrhizal, your trees, shrubs and perennials will be less stressed and keep them from becoming attacked by insects.  They create extra pitch; their leaves are coated with beneficial bacteria and fungi to outcompete disease.  By having a soil food web –based system in place, you will continue to build a sustainable foundation for a healthy garden and greenspaces. If your plants do become stressed or diseased, at the first sign, don’t hesitate to put your soil food web knowledge to use and re-apply, especially compost teas. 

The Soil Food Web & The Relationship to Healthy Soil

To support sustainability, a good foundation is necessary.  Just as important as a well constructed building foundation, the soil food web is the foundation that creates the soils needed to support healthy, sustainable plant life.

Good soils are teeming with life, from earthworms to centipedes and ants, there is a world of soil organisms such as fungi and bacteria in which every organism needs energy to survive.  They derive this energy from nitrogen and sulfur and carbon that is produced from plants and waste products produced by other organisms.  The soil food web, beneath and above the soil is simple eat and be eaten existence.  Organic matter produced by healthy plants and root systems create organic matter that is turned into bacteria (subsurface) while fungi is being created closer to the soil surface.  In a cross-linked soil food web, root and fungal feeding nematodes are then preyed upon by birds which in turn are preyed upon by larger animals.  To simplify, it always starts with the plant.

Plants secrete chemicals that are important to the soil’s condition, through photosynthesis in the leaves and these secretions are referred to as 'root exudates'.  These carbohydrates exudated by roots grow beneficial bacteria and living fungi which commences the food web.  These beneficial bacteria and fungi are natural fertilizers for healthy plants and are spread by nematodes by eating the bacteria and fungi, digest what they need to survive and excrete excess carbon as waste.

As we gardeners all know, not all soil bacteria and fungi is beneficial and many cause plant diseases.  Having good soil food web containing a large, diverse population of different species will help control theses non-beneficial troublemakers.  This healthy soil food web will keep these pathogens in check and in some instances to their deaths.  Mycorrhizal fungi is a special soil fungi, interacting with roots, producing nutrients such as water, nitrogen and phosphorous.

The importance of understanding the soil food web, the foundation of good soil, is to also understand the negative impacts on the soil food web.  Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides affect the soil food web in a negative way, toxic to some and chasing others away.  You have now started altering the soil food web as you will have to continue to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides as plants microbial method of obtaining nutrients has been affected by reducing the natural fungi and bacteria and chasing away a major contributor, the earthworm. 

The living organisms within the soil food web will be continuously at work, building defenses against pests and disease, creating soils that drain well and pathways for oxygen and carbon dioxide.  By employing soil food web knowledge, you can reduce / eliminate the use of commercial chemicals and fertilizers, improve your soils overall health and usefulness and start building a sustainable foundation.

Next blog release, we will discuss the soil food web and its important relationship with compost tea, mycorrhizal and maintaining trees, shrubs and perennials.

Beautiful, Animated and Bio-diverse- Ornamental Landscape Grasses

As far back as the early 1900’s, gardeners from a wide range of climates have been enjoying various species of perennial ornamental grasses in their landscape.

Ornamental landscape grasses allow us to rapidly change the dynamics of our landscape, creating works of art by maximizing various colors, textures and physical characteristics of the specie or species selected.  They allow us to be conserving (as most are drought tolerant once established), high spirited, inspiring and maximize out time management by offering low maintenance.

In the broad sense, ornamental grasses (including sedges and rushes) are ever expanding, as the grass palette which started with maybe a dozen perennial grasses to choose from in the early 1900’s has increased to over 100 exhilarating choices.  The increase in diversity and ease of day-today care, the popularity of ornamental landscape grasses has never been greater, reflecting the rhythms of our shared places, of the sun, and the seasonal change.

The two main growth habits of grasses are referred to as runners or clump forming.  When applied appropriately, running grasses can minimize maintenance as they knit together stabilizing soils and making excellent groundcovers.  When used in the wrong situation, you can imagine the problems that might be created, as these runners take over less vigorous neighbors creating monocultures instead of the diverse garden you were hoping to create.

Tufted grasses, as some clump grasses are referred to, grow slower and their space within the garden is easier to determine and many clump forming grasses make excellent architectural pieces, such as Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ and Pennisetum orientale ‘Lil Bunny’.

When discussing ornamental grasses growing seasons, grasses are typically referred to as cool-season growers and warm-season growers.  Their periods of growth are determined by temperature, days of sunlight and soil temperature.  Cool season grasses grow well from sub-freezing temperatures into the low 70’s as warm-season grasses respond well to hot weather, superbly adapted to temperatures reaching the mid 90’s.  The hotter the day, the more they revel, growing steadily larger and producing magnificent flowers (awns) at summer’s end.

The almost over-looked aspect of maximizing landscape grasses is they continue to pay forward, as over the years most ornamental landscape grasses can be divided with a knife or narrow edged trowel and discarding the dead material will provide a healthy and strong plant the following spring.