PlantAmnesty Landscape Design, Renovation and Maintenance by Cass Turnbull Table of Contents Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 4 PART I: PRUNING 7 Gardening is a Virus 7 The Science of Pruning 10 Tools of the Trade 16 Looking for Dead Wood 17 Timing 20 Pruning Cane-Growers 24 Pruning Mounds 31 Pruning Tree-Like Shrubs – Serious Pruning 34 All About How To Prune Hedges 38 Shear Madness 45 Fruit Trees 49 How to Prune a Tree Limb 57 PART II: RENOVATING THE OVERGROWN YARD 66 Begin to Bring Order Out of Chaos 66 Sorting Out 70 Adding the Lower Story 80 Speaking and Understanding Gardenese 84 Getting Rid of Unwanted Plants 91 Radical Renovation: Testing the Limits 94 My Tree’s Too Big 98 PART III: DESIGNING AND INSTALLING A NEW LANDSCAPE 103 © PlantAmnesty Page 1 of 186 What Makes a Yard Look Good or Bad? 103 Map and Hardscape 110 How To Choose And Arrange Your Plants 115 More Unheeded Advice 122 Installation: How-To’s And Tricks 125 PART IV: MAINTAINING YOUR YARD 137 Taking Care Of Your Yard 137 Weeds: Hand To Hand Combat 141 Herbicides: Tales of Hope and Tales of Horror 151 Fertilizers and Organics 158 Watering 165 Pests And Diseases 172 A Woman – A Plan – An Organization: PlantAmnesty 182 © PlantAmnesty Page 2 of 186 Acknowledgements Simply listing the names of the many people who helped with this book seems too small of an acknowledgment. The rough draft was easy, but the rewrites, the search for the publisher, and the hunt for technical and literary inaccuracies were laborious. Thank you all for moral support as well as technical assistance. I hope you are pleased with the final result. What we didn't get this time, we'll get next time. I thank John Turnbull, steadfast and supportive. Thank you, Glen Grantham, illustrator, I'll miss our weekly meetings. Thank you Ron Brightman, Pat Roome, Lisa Hummel, Dorothy Bestor, Lisa Douglas, George Scott, super secretary Mary Barton, Bob Braid for a peaceful place to write, Deb Pederson and Bruce Cowen, the Washington Toxics Coalition, Mike Erb from the Wilber- Ellis Company, Extension Agents Stott Howard and Sharon Collman, Mariah Krone, David VanZandt, Margaret Moynan, and Eileen Niven, last line of defense against bad grammar and spelling. I especially want to thank the arborists who made this book and the entire PlantAmnesty campaign possible. They have donated countless hours of tree work to help pay for the word processing of the book and have been teaching me the ways of the trees, so that I may better serve them. Thank you, Rob Williams, Doug Clark, 100% sterling silver Chip Kennaugh, Mark Harman, Scott Neuert, Paul Wiltberger, Jon Cook, John Hushagen, and others both near and far. Thank you also to the people who have taught me most about the wonderful art of pruning. I apologize that at the time I was being given those pearls of plant wisdom I often thought to myself, 'big deal" or, alternately, "too radical, this can't be right." Such is the nature of learning. It often takes more than a while to sink in, or should I say to germinate? Thanks to Andrea Furlong, Carol Baker, Lisa Douglas, and Betty Rollefson. © PlantAmnesty Page 3 of 186 Introduction This book was not written for gardeners, although I'm sure it contains many hints and tips useful to professional and amateur gardeners. This book was written for people with a problem. The problem is what to do with their shrubs, their trees, or their yards. As a professional gardener I get many phone calls from troubled homeowners. I often hear, "It's all just gotten too big," or, "It's out of control!" They can't make any sense out of the pruning books they buy; the illustrations don't look anything like what's in their back yards. So, I've written this book to help people renovate overgrown and overplanted yards, not just to show them how to prune individual plants. Frequently I work on yards that have been previously worked on, or should I say, worked over, by homeowners or the people they've hired to cut it all back. Unfortunately, this method of yard control backfires. The trees and shrubs regrow rapidly and wildly. This book includes information on rehabilitative pruning, that is, how to get them back into good shape if they have been previously badly pruned. Most people have mastered the fundamentals of daily life by age thirty. They know how to buy a car, maintain a car, or where to go to have it fixed. They know how to choose their groceries, fix simple meals, and have located their favorite restaurants. But gardening fundamentals are not as readily or commonly understood. So, I have included general descriptions of how to successfully manage the average landscape. For example, the HOW TO MAINTAIN section explains what people need to know about weeding, watering, fertilizing, and pest control. It is not the complete and final word on these topics, but it should give the home gardener the basics upon which to build. And I have, I hope, included enough information to help you make intelligent choices when hiring work to be done. Poor design is at the root of most yard owner unhappiness. Pruning and fertilizing are often used, unsuccessfully, in an attempt to compensate for poor design and bad plant choices. Also, many people have empty or dull or disagreeable yards and wish to make improvements themselves. They lack the money to hire a full-service landscape company, and they need more information in order to choose a designer/gardener to assist with a do-it-yourself project. With some basic knowledge, a little courage, and a lot of physical work, they could transform their yards into true gardens. Remodeling the outdoor spaces can be as easy and rewarding as any home remodeling project. Perhaps "easy" isn't the word. Let's say "achievable." So, this book is for people with overplanted, overgrown, mal-pruned, poorly planned, or deadly dull landscapes. If you are one of these people, this book is for you. It is divided into four sections: HOW TO PRUNE; HOW TO RENOVATE; HOW TO REDESIGN, and HOW TO MAINTAIN your yard. You may discover an added bonus. After you eliminate the clutter and confusion of an overgrown yard or redesign and install a new one, your yard may become a source of pride and solace, as it protects you from the harsh urban world. Its greenness and aliveness may serve to © PlantAmnesty Page 4 of 186 refresh and amuse you, and you may come to feel toward your shrubs as you feel toward your pets--that they are alive and do things that give you pleasure. Beyond controlling it, and relating to it and understanding it (it being Nature). It is truly the same Nature that exists in the forests and jungles, and it can and does exist in your own backyard. The public is, I am convinced, unaware of the source of joy that exists in the 1000 square feet or so of land around their homes. Joy being a commodity in short supply these days, that land may be worth a second look. Your yard is action packed, in a slow-motion sort of way. It is full of sex, violence and mystery. You just can't see it, yet. Each section of this book includes mistakes to avoid. I feel that a lot can be learned from this approach. People persistently try to make plants do what they will not, thinking that shrubs and trees are infinitely malleable. Plants will not, cannot, be made to do whatever we want. There are rules to the game of gardening. Once you know the rules, you will find that plants are very forgiving. If you merely stay away from the big mistakes in your yard, you are more than half way home. After reading this book, you must be bold and begin to make decisions on your own. There are no absolute right answers (a situation that drives neophytes crazy); there is only a series of choices. Prune this or that branch? Move this shrub? Get rid of that plant? Prune the lower limbs of a tree or shorten the shrub beneath it? The principles of gardening are the same everywhere, only the names (species) of the plants change. So, don't be stymied by unfamiliar shrub or other names. If I make reference to a tree or shrub that you don't recognize, rest assured that you have their counterparts in your town which will respond in similar ways. Your local County Extension Agent or nursery person should be able to help sort out the particulars of your specific plant material. I have included lessons on speaking and understanding gardenese to help you communicate. I've tried to keep the book brief enough to get you through it before setting you loose with loppers and chainsaw. After reading it you will have, I hope, enough fundamental knowledge to keep you out of trouble until practice and observation teach you the rest. For those who just want to know what to do, not why or how, I have added a summary for each chapter subject. How to Begin: Things to Keep in Mind When my former partner and I used to arrive at the scene of a tangled, overgrown yard we had contracted to restore, we would be totally overwhelmed and would invariably exclaim, "What a wretched mess!" Then, like the cavalry, we would head in to do battle.