Enhance Your Environment

Who You Are Determines How You Should Live

Tonight I was running with my Golden Retriever Jackson.  It was getting late and a beautiful full moon was rising over the prairie. I had to stop and appreciate this moment - watching the bright light cascading off the tips of the numberless blades of prairie grass.  If these kinds of things are important to you, then your landscape should incorporate planning so you can appreciate the light of the moon on clear autumn nights.  I'm always amazed at how gorgeous a full moon is in Autumn or early winter.  Then I had another thought  -- some people don't care a thing about this!

Yes, it is true that we all have different affinities for nature, just as we do for music, food, and art.  I for one consider the expressions of nature to be some of the most beautiful forms of art. Nature is one of those things that changes and expresses itself differently as time and seasons pass.  Fortunately, there are rhythms to this expression and you can take advantage of that to maximize your enjoyment of your outdoor environment.  You don't have to have the hot western sun beating down on you when the filtered shade of a Kentucky Coffee Tree could easily provide welcome cooling, interest from the light dancing through the movement of the uniquely shaped leaves, and the security of having the vertical space brought down to a  comfortable scale that is appropriate for any number of family activities.  Or not. 

You see it became apparent to me today as we worked with several different clients at Treemendous Landscape Company that studying and understanding the person is probably the most important thing we can do to ensure their environment enables them to live in a way that is right for them.  If you absolutely enjoy being outdoors, regardless of the season, then a firepit may have a great deal of significance for you.  If you are someone that likes things tidy and neat, then the maintenance of a perennial garden or pond may exceed your tolerance level.  How do you know what you like? The only way I know is to try things out, ask yourself WHY you enjoy certain spaces or materials or plants, and remember that your landscape is never done.  Just like Nature, it should evolve with the changes and rhythms of your life and lifestyle.

Harvest Moon image courtesy of Brian Neudorff.

Now is the Time to Learn Your Micro-Climates

Now that the seasons are changing again, it's a great time to tune in and learn a few things about the micro-climates in your garden that may not be as discernible when the temperatures are more extreme.  What are micro-climates?  Here's an example.  Today, just before the sun was setting, I left my house on a bike ride.  Thanks to the little gadget on my bike that tells me how fast I'm going and what time it is, I'm also able to monitor the ambient temperature.  It was 70 degrees when I left my suburban home.  I noticed a definite chill when I arrived fifteen minutes later at the prairie where I like to ride.  Before long, the temperature was dropping into the 60's and even the 50's!  This all happened in a span of 45 minutes.  When I left that frigid prairie it was 54 degrees.  Yet, within ten minutes of returning to the predominantly asphalt, concrete and brick of the subdivision, it was back up to 61 degrees.  What does this tell us?

Well, asphalt and concrete and brick absorb and hold heat.  This is not necessarily a good thing in drought situations.  Though you don't notice it then because it's so blasted hot everywhere!  Today I was doing a Quality Audit at one of our client's whose property we maintain in the TallGrass subdivision in Naperville.  We were trying to determine why the dwarf lilacs along the southern facing brick wall were displaying the effects of drought stress.  Aloha!  This just might be a little micro-climate situation.  Heat is reflected off that wall - onto the lilacs - and that heat continues to radiate from the wall long after the sun sets.  We believe this ultimately caused the decline of these plants, especially considering the plants facing due south were suffering the most.  Can we be certain this is the source of the problem?  Of course not - there are countless variables such as the condition of the soil, the watering history, and certainly the quality of the plants.  Considering the quality of the plants, one thing we discussed is plants grown out of state are typically not as well suited to our soils and climate because they have not acclimated to it like those that "grew up here."  Makes sense, doesn't it! Setting that aside, we come back to the original conclusion regarding the micro-climate created by the wall.

Working with Nature is an interesting endeavor.  You have the opportunity to think, probe, and test your theories.  Sometimes the solution you are looking for is right under your nose, but the problem may have preceded it by a period of time.  In other words, the symptoms show up after the conditions that caused it have subsided.  Keep studying and reconnecting and the pieces begin to add up.  Tune in to how Nature works to understand it's Intelligence.  If gardening was easy it wouldn't be as much fun.  The challenge is finding the next level - or at least sustaining the one you have discovered.