For Screening or a Fence: Willow Fedge vs Coppiced Willows

That Jim (6'2"), the owner of Bluestem Nursery, standing amongst

Salix viminalis Superba. That is just one year's growth!

(on the willows, not Jim!)

Willows are great for screening. They put on a lot of growth in a single year, especially when coppiced (cut to ground level) in late winter/early spring.

There are two ways to grow them: upright, which involves putting cuttings in the ground, and building a fedge, which involves putting 6'+ rods into the ground on an angle. Let's consider the pros and cons of a building a fedge vs a simply planting a stand of willows:

Fedge (more info on our website)

Pros:

• sturdy
• permanent (meaning year round)
• unique
• will keep out deer and other larger animals
• can be kept narrow
• gives you screening the first year 

Cons:

• will require pruning at least twice a year
• if not pruned the branches will flop and look messy
• requires some effort to build
• because of the pruning required, it may not be very tall

A stand of coppiced willow plants

Pros:

• inexpensive
• easy
• requires pruning only in late winter
• many ways to approach it (see Willows for Screening) on our website 
• will probably keep out deer, once it grows taller
• shelters wildlife

Cons:

• needs to be cut down at some point (however, see the link above)
• will not give much screening the first year
• will be quite wide, though stray branches can simply be pruned, at anytime of the year

Root Systems of Prairie Plants

A customer pointed out this interesting information, from the Illinois Native Plant Guide, on the root systems of native plants. Since we occasionally get asked about the root depth of our grasses, and because we sell 8 of those shown in the diagram, I thought it may be of interest. Click here to view.

It is a bit difficult to read the names of the plants, so here are those that we carry:

• Sorghastrum nutans (Indian grass) - 4th from the left
• Andropogon gerardii (Big bluestem) - 9th
• Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie dropseed) - 11th
• Bouteloua curtipendula (Sideoats grama) - 12th
• Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass) - 14th
• Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem) - 16th
• Koeleria cristata (pyramidata) (Junegrass) - 19th
• Buchloe dactyloides (Buffalo grass) - 21st

Note that the first one is so small that you may miss it when counting from the left (its Kentucky bluegrass)

Click on the coloured text to go directly to our website to view more info aabout each grass.

Nova Scotia Community College - Living Wall

I received a link to this video of a living wall under construction at the Waterfront Campus of NSCC in eastern Canada.

Congratulations to all involved. It looks beautiful!!

If You Have Streambank Erosion Issues

From a newsletter we receive:

Streambank Soil Bioengineering: How to Build & Install Vegetative Structures for Reducing Streambank Erosion

Same Agenda, Two Locations:

February 23-24, 2011 Portland, OR

or

March 9-10, 2011 Spokane, WA

"Join us for a very practical, in-depth and applied workshop on building and installing vegetative structures for reducing stream bank erosion. Our two very experienced instructors will cover all aspects from understanding stream functions, and riparian sites to the building, applied uses and life expectancy of stream bank erosion control techniques. A wide variety of designs and applications will be covered with an on-the-ground assessment of what works and what doesn't. The same workshop will be offered in both Portland, OR and Spokane, WA to make your travel plans easier."

For more information and to register, click here.....

Living Walls or Vertical Gardens

A vertical wall of greenery is not only aesthically pleasing in concrete jungles, but it also significantly cools the wall.

The vertical garden is not just ivy growing up a wall, rather the plants are rooted in the wall. It is closely related to a green roof.... simply a green roof suspended vertically.

Previous to the Olympics in Vancouver, I had been seen pictures of living walls(aka vertical gardens, green walls, plants walls, biowalls), but I hadn't been able to get up close to one until I saw this one on display during the Olympics. The picture below looks a bit like it could be a bunch of plants at a nursery, waiting to be purchased, doesn't it? However this small panel is hanging vertically and while he plants have not filled out yet, you can see the various colours and textures have created something visually appealing:

To explain the concept, from Wikipedia:

"In vertical gardens, plants are rooted in fibrous material anchored to a wall. Water trickles down between the sheets and feeds moss, vines and other plants. Bacteria on the roots of the plants metabolize air impurities such as volatile organic compounds."

To further develop the idea of using various leaf colours and textures Patrick Blanc has designed many incredible vertical gardens around the world. This one is on the Marché des Halles in Avignon, France:

The overpass below is Pont Max Juvénal, in Aix-en-Provence, France:

A living wall on the CaixaForum, a new museum in Madrid, Spain:

Made by Scotscape Living Walls, in Scotland:

The walls can also be indoors, such as in offices, hotel atriums, etc, to improve the air quality, but I will save that for a future post.

Some further info and pictures can be seen at these websites:

• Green Fortune
• an article about Patrick Blanc
• 10 Living Walls
• Scotscape Living Walls

Sod Furniture, Grass Furniture or Organic Furniture

I see that it was way back in 2006 that I discovered some pictures of sod furniture and put them on my own blog. I am guessing that some of you might like to see what wonderful things some creative people are doing with a mound of dirt and some rolls of turf.

I believe that credit can be given to Greg Tate for coming up with the idea. He is responsible for these beauties:

Cornell University has done quite a bit of work in this area, including a video series. This is the first, which is a time-lapse video:



This page has many more videos in the series: Cornell University Living Sculpture, and these pages have more info and links.

For those of you considering making a piece of sod sculpture, I suggest that you visit Cornell's blog, as they have also followed it up with an article title Sod Furniture Revisited: Some Lessons Learned

Instructions for a sod chair can also be found at the bottom of this page at Rumble Pie.

What fun!!!

Willow Elephants in England

The Brits are miles ahead of us in North America, when it comes to the use of willows for sculpture (though Patrick Doherty and Alastair Heseltine are two notable exceptions).

Here is my latest discovery, from a post that is no long available on The Guardian's website:

"A herd of life-size wicker elephants arrives in Hyde Park today for a two-week stay. The 13 elephants are specially commissioned by charity elephant family, which is working with the Royal Parks Foundation and The World Land Trust to raise awareness about habitat protection projects in the UK and India. Here we chart the elephants' journey from the workshop to the banks of the Serpentine."

 
There are 9 more photos on The Guardian's website, including some of how the elephants were constructed. There are a few more interesting details on the BBC website.

On our website, I have more links to artists who are creating willow scuptures.