Birchcrest

Light Your Landscape For Safety & Evening Enjoyment

You have a substantial investment in your landscape. It shouldn’t be abandoned every night when the sun disappears over the horizon. But that’s exactly what happens to many landscapes. You can change all that with garden lighting. The mission of garden, or landscape, lighting should be twofold – for safety and enjoyment. Nothing beats a […]

Dormant Oil Kills Many Pests As They Sleep

Petroleum jelly is good for treating burns and other human injuries. It’s also good for treating trees and shrubs for insect pests while they sleep. In the case of trees and shrubs, I’m referring to dormant oil spray. Dormant oil spray is particularly effective against aphids, mites and scale. This material is highly refined oil […]

Beware Of 5G Small-Cell-Sites

Every positive thing comes with some negatives, including 5G communications. Why would we want to talk about this subject in a landscape blog? Because it’s affecting our professionals and could affect you as well. Certain 5G transmitting hardware has caused discomfort to arborists close to it. Earlier cell phone transmission depended on those ubiquitous cell […]

Staff Encouraged To Pursue Certification

Many industries confer certifications on professionals who have met certain criteria. These credentials, usually sponsored by trade associations or professional societies, require candidates to successfully complete an examination and have a certain amount of experience in the field. Some require a specific degree as well. The tree and landscape industries have a number of voluntary […]

Why Winter Pruning Is Healthy For Most Trees

Our arborists don’t take the winter off. In fact, winter is one of our busiest seasons for tree pruning. That’s because deciduous trees (those that lose their leaves) are dormant in the winter. Removing branches during pruning wounds the tree, and winter dormancy acts as nature’s anesthesia. Pruning wounds have the rest of the winter […]

Take A Walk In Your Yard On Mild Winter Days

La Nina is giving you an opportunity that you don’t have every winter. That’s a chance to get out and check on the condition of your landscape during the breaks from snow and bitter cold. When your landscape is buried under snow and the temperature’s freezing or below, I bet you look out the window […]

Be Landscape Trendy In 2021

What is the new normal? After a topsy turvy year, I referred to Garden Media’s annual Garden Trends report for the answer. I wanted to find out what our customers might be asking for this spring. As in the past few years, this year’s report had a lot of social, as well as landscape and […]

Let Hardscape Add Winter Interest

Nothing’s as boring to look at as piles and piles of white snow. It doesn’t have to be so boring. Many landscape designs include ornamental grasses, hollies with their red berries, and trees. But the deck or patio still looks bland. Why not use hardscape to add winter interest? I know you don’t want to […]

Insulate Your Plant Roots With Mulch

This is a time of uncertainty….for the weather as well as everything else in our lives. However, the early predictions I’ve seen indicate that this may be a mild winter with less than the usual amount of snow. The map I saw showed major snow events taking place north of Lake Ontario. If this long […]

Please Have A Happy, Safe Thanksgiving

This has certainly been a unique year, like no other in our lifetime. As you weathered this challenging time, I hope you were able to embrace the bright spots like the flowers that bloom after a long winter. As we head into the heart of the holiday season, I wish you and your family a […]