by TRC_Admin | Mar 2, 2023 | Codes, Environmental, Landscaping, Planting
Photo: Johner Images, Getty Images on Martha Stewart
“Also called meadow lawns, this landscaping technique requires little to no maintenance or resources to thrive.
What Is a Tapestry Lawn? Best Plants How to Plant Mowing and Maintenance Zones and Regions Pros and Cons
A tapestry lawn is just one term for this natural landscape trend: Sometimes called a matrix garden, meadow lawn, prairie lawn, or patchwork lawn, this turf technique involves removing traditional grass and replacing it with a mix of native plants and flowers of varying heights, sizes, and textures for both aesthetic and ecological benefits.
As its name implies, a tapestry lawn consists of a mix of colorful plants that create a living piece of art in your yard. ‘They are alternatives to traditional grass lawns and are more colorful, visually intriguing, eco-friendly, and low-maintenance,’ says Jeremy Yamaguchi, the CEO of Lawn Love. ‘These lawns are essentially an interlaced spread of low-lying plants and flowers.’
While most homeowners opt for low landscapes, a tapestry lawn can vary in height; low-lying options clock in between 6 to 10 inches, but your site can be scaled to up to 48 inches depending on your turf and goals, says Benjamin Vogt, the owner of Monarch Gardens LLC. ‘In general, such a landscape will include plants that move about, fill gaps, and generally show a new arrangement season to season and year to year—just as they would in wilder nature,’ he says, adding that the main difference between your lawn and the wild is that the plants are purposefully selected to work on this site for aesthetic, practical, and environmental reasons.
The Best Plants for Tapestry Lawns
Tapestry lawns aren’t one size (or zone) fits all. Ultimately, the plants you choose when working within this landscape trend should be native to your area, non-invasive, and low-water. ‘You also want your selection of plants to all have similar water, light, [and] humidity requirements,’ Yamaguchi says…
Tapestry Lawn Regions and Zones
All the experts we spoke to agree that the secret to creating a successful tapestry lawn is to always choose plants native to your region. ‘The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map has universal codes that will help you pick the right ground cover plants for your [region],’ Bucur says, noting that native plants are easier to care for and have a low likelihood of wilting or dying.
Pro: Environmental Impact
Tapestry lawns are far more eco-friendly than grass lawns, says Vogt. ‘Just the increase in flowers alone is a boon to adult pollinators, while the diversity of plant species provides more food for their young (think caterpillars that eat foliage and become butterflies and moths),’ he says. ‘The increased density and diversity also is much better for healing soils, capturing and storing carbon, cleaning and cooling the air, reducing stormwater runoff, and generally providing habitat (and an aesthetic show) all year round—yes, even in winter.’
Con: Foot Traffic
While there are certainly perks to this low-maintenance approach to lawn care, Yamaguchi notes that there’s a pretty obvious con to surrendering turf for tapestry: ‘The only major downside to this lawn type is that it is not well built for much foot traffic,’ he says.”
— Lauren Wellbank, Freelance Writer for Martha Stewart
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by TRC_Admin | Jan 23, 2023 | Planting, Trees
“In honor of Florida Arbor Day, join us at the Arboretum for a TREE SEED GIVEAWAY sponsored by local non-profit CO2NSQUENCES.ORG!
January 21 at 9 am. Limit 1 plant/tree per person. While supplies last. First come first served.
About : CO2NSEQUENCES.ORG!
High school senior Grant Tucker connects with community leaders and individuals who are working to combat the most cataclysmic issue mankind has ever been faced with- climate change.
Change is a concern for all of mankind and it is our generation’s responsibility to work towards reducing our carbon footprint. By consolidating youth coalition within the movement, amending our current dependency on fossil fuels, and utilizing the benefits of our Mother Earth, we can reach net zero emissions.”
— Jacksonville Arboretum & Botanical Gardens
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 15, 2022 | Nature, Planting
Photo: Willie J. Allen Jr., Orlando Sentinel
“Holiday Blooms at Leu brings the holiday spirit and thousands of vibrant poinsettias and other seasonal favorites to the 50-acre botanical oasis in Orlando, Fla., starting Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022.”
Photo: Willie J. Allen Jr.,Orlando Sentinel
“The Holiday Blooms at Leu also features a mistletoe station that is included with daytime garden admission until Jan. 2, 2023.”
Photo: Willie J. Allen Jr.,Orlando Sentinel
— Willie J. Allen Jr.,Orlando Sentinel
See entire photo gallery here
by TRC_Admin | Aug 1, 2022 | Landscaping, Nature, Planting
Photo: UF
“1. Right Plant, Right Place Achieving a healthy, low-maintenance home landscape starts with putting the right plant in the right place. Select plants that match a site’s soil, light, water, and climatic conditions.
2. Water Efficiently An efficient irrigation system conserves water and helps to ensure that fertilizer and other pollution doesn’t flow into water bodies.
3. Fertilize Appropriately Proper fertilization enhances growth, increases flowering or fruiting, corrects nutritional deficiencies, and enhances the plant’s appearance. Improper fertilization can damage plants and the environment.
4. Mulch Mulch helps retain soil moisture, protects plants, and inhibits weed growth. It gives your landscape a neat, uniform appearance and is a great Florida-Friendly choice for hard-to-mow areas and shady spots.
5. Attract Wildlife Select plants with seeds, fruit, foliage, flowers, or berries that provide food. Supply sources of water, such as a rain garden or bird bath.
6. Manage Yard Pests Responsibly To prevent disease and insect outbreaks, select pest-resistant plants and put them in suitable locations. When problems do arise, remove the affected leaves or plant parts, or pick the insects off by hand.
7. Recycle Yard Waste Decomposing organic matter releases nutrients back to the soil in a form that plants can easily use. Using yard waste for composting is a sustainable way of creating organic fertilizer.
8. Reduce Stormwater Runoff Fertilizers, pesticides, debris, and eroded soil carried in stormwater can wreak havoc on our water quality. Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ seeks to retain and use as much of the rainfall and irrigation water that lands on our home landscapes as possible.
9. Protect the Waterfront Florida boasts over 10,000 miles of rivers and streams, about 7,800 lakes, more than 700 freshwater springs, and the U.S.’s second-longest coastline.”
— IFAS Extention University of Florida
Get MORE Details on each of the principals at the Extension Service’s site
by TRC_Admin | Mar 31, 2022 | Nature, Planting
Photo: Samantha Neely, The News Herald
“A group of agencies are working together to make the Panhandle a better place,
one tree at a time.
The Northwest Florida Water Management District celebrated the planting of the
20 millionth longleaf pine on district lands on Thursday.
The event at Wolf Pond North Recreational Area was joined by the Longleaf
Alliance, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Arbor Day
Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and officials from state Rep. Allison Tant’s
delegation.
Their work of planting trees has gone back almost 30 years, with the district and
their partners planting 28 million trees in total since 1993. With its mission to
protect the district’s water, Northwest Florida Water Management District
Chairman George Roberts said he is proud of the milestone.
“Today was a good day for our 20th million longleaf pine,” Roberts said. “We do a
lot of reforestation projects throughout our district and also to help with our
water quality, as well as getting trees planted back to help with our water levels,
which was very high due to Hurricane Michael…”
— Samantha Neely, The News Herald
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by TRC_Admin | Mar 31, 2022 | Nature, Planting, Technology, Trees
Photo: Alana Holmberg, The New York Times
“A program in Melbourne, Australia, that tracks every public tree — and even gives each an email address — is seen as a way to manage climate change.
High in the branches of a 122-year-old Dutch Elm, two workers in a bucket crane framed by the city’s skyline used a chain saw to slice large limbs from the top of the tree.
Office workers strolled past, seemingly enjoying the afternoon sunshine of Flagstaff Gardens, the city’s oldest public park, while the workers carried out their ‘reduction pruning’ aimed at controlling the tree’s bulk to help improve its vitality and extend its lifespan.
It is one of the most time-tested forms of tree maintenance, but at ground level the workers’ supervisor, Jake Shepherd, added a high-tech wrinkle.
Mr. Shepherd, a 27-year-old Englishman, touched a yellow circle on a portable electronic device. The circle was within a map of the park that is part of the city’s elaborate tree database and it instantly turned green to register that this specific elm was back in top shape…
New York, Denver, Shanghai, Ottawa and Los Angeles have all unveiled Million Tree Initiatives aimed at greatly increasing their urban forests because of the ability of trees to reduce city temperatures, absorb carbon dioxide and soak up excess rainfall.
Central Melbourne, on the other hand, lacks those cities’ financial firepower and is planning to plant a little more than 3,000 trees a year over the next decade. Yet it has gained the interest of other cities by using its extensive data to shore up the community engagement and political commitment required to sustain the decades-long work of building urban forests.
A small municipality covering just 14.5 square miles in the center of the greater Melbourne metropolitan area — which sprawls for 3,860 square miles and houses 5.2 million people in 31 municipalities — the city of Melbourne introduced its online map in 2013.
Called the Urban Forest Visual, the map displayed each of the 80,000 trees in its parks and streets, and showed each tree’s age, species and health. It also gave each tree its own email address so that people could help to monitor them and alert council workers to any specific problems.
That is when the magic happened.
City officials were surprised to see the trees receiving thousands of love letters. They ranged from jaunty greetings — ‘good luck with the photosynthesis’ — to love poems and emotional tributes about how much joy the trees brought to people’s lives.
Members of the public were subsequently recruited to help with forestry programs such as measuring trees and monitoring wildlife, and politicians were left in no doubt about how much Melburnians valued their trees…
Gregory Moore, an expert on ecosystems and forests at the University of Melbourne, said another major problem was that planning laws controlled by the state of Victoria did little to protect greenery on private land, allowing development that contributed to the annual loss of 1.5 percent of canopy cover across the greater metropolitan area.
‘A good tree cover can save you an enormous amount in health spending alone by reducing deaths in heat waves and getting people outside and taking more exercise,’ he said. ‘Politicians and bureaucrats seem to think that all of these benefits from planting trees are simply too good to be true, but I think they will eventually get the point when economists keep telling them how much money they will save.'”
— Peter Wilson, New York Times
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