Landscape Management, April 2018

profit centers Design BuilD installation Raising the standard one arborist explains what he calls Deforestation by Design and shares his advice for proper plant installation By sarah WeBB A s John Palmer has moved into his second career as a landscaper hes focused much of his attention on tree and shrub installations and the poor planting practices that have become the norm More than 15 years of experience as an arborist led Palmer an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist and owner of PlanetCare Landscape Arboricultural Services in Lakewood Ohio to develop a term to describe the unsustainable practices hes witnessed Deforestation by Design Landscape pros have been functioning under an old paradigm for too long he says Weve got a system that works but when we take a long view of it its really not working PlanetCare is an under 100000 company that offers 30 percent lawn maintenance 20 percent ornamental pruning 20 percent cleanups 5 percent installations 8 percent snow removal and 17 percent other such as consulting services and chemical applications to a mostly residential clientele Q Tell US aboUT DeforeSTaTion by DeSign A Deforestation by Design is the design and installation of plant material in violation LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET April 2018 22 of known plant care standards resulting in predictable decline or death For example planting an evergreen 6 feet from the house results in predictable decline because eventually youre going to kill it or have to move it Planting large trees in little holes surrounded by concrete asphalt and brick is a violation of a known plant care standard and its going to result in predictable decline or death We as a landscape community do a really horrible job of giving trees the best chance to succeed We use the word sustainability a lot If you plant a tree that should live 50 years in a spot and it lives five or 10 years are you really being sustainable My conclusion is no To me what makes something unsustainable are practices that guarantee a shortened life expectancy of installed plant material The other issue with deforestation is that we cut down big trees and replace them with fewer trees or smaller trees Q Why Do people cUT DoWn The bigger TreeS A Big trees scare people You always see it on the news when a tree falls over and injures or kills someone Large tree failures are like airplane crashes Statistically they dont happen that often Weve had really poor tree pruning practices The tree industry and the landscaping industry both have created less safe trees as the trees get older and larger Then rather than try to replant a larger tree with an 800 pound root ball its easier to get a tree with a 50 pound root ball that was grown in a pot and is 4 feet tall Usually the two factors involved are ease of installation and cost Its easier and cheaper Weve also now moved to hardscapes When you put in a patio deck wall or hardscape the moment you cut the ribbon that piece on your property starts depreciating Trees on the other hand the moment you put them in they start appreciating A tree on a persons property can raise the property value by 10 to 15 percent Q WhaT are Some of The Top inSTallaTion miSTakeS yoU See A In the arboricultural community we like to call it planting trees in teacups People come in with a Bobcat dig down plop the tree in kick over some clots of clay and throw some mulch on it newsfeed landscapehub debuts Chicago based startup landscapeHub raised 44 million in seed funding led by Chicago Ventures The online platform founded by nursery industry veteran lisa Fiore is designed to alleviate the inefficiencies with buying and selling materials for landscape projects new FX controller FX luminaire unveiled the DX low voltage lighting controller its operated via a digital facepack and includes astronomical timing and event based programming capabilities eliminating the need for plug in accessories such as timers and photocells it comes with a full color lCD display An optional add on 9V battery adapter allows for preinstallation programming John Palmer