Living Fences™ made of ornamental evergreens such as Hollies, Leyland Cypress and Green Giant Arborvitae. Instead of using hard goods such as metal or wood fences for screens in the landscape, these natural barriers create privacy, shade and closure to your landscape. Evergreens are an excellent biomass filter, producing oxygen and helping to reduce your carbon footprint.
In our last blog, we talked about soil types affecting the availability and uptake of plant nutrients. Sandy soils , which drain quickly, may not have sufficient N, P and K due to leaching, as the water rapidly leaves a sand area. Over the years rains can remove a lot of nutrients from a porous area to the … Continue reading Watering & Fertilization
Early spring is the time to fertilize the evergreen trees of your privacy screen. Visiting our clients sites over the last 3 years, it appears most Living Fence evergreens need fertilization. The past few rainy years has most likely leached most of the nitrogen from our garden soils. One year we even had 70 … Continue reading Evergreen Tree Fertilization
Picking out a live Christmas tree has become a tradition for many families. Oh the fun in walking amongst the trees to find just the right one to fit the space and have the perfect shape. Getting the tree home and to stand up right in the stand without falling over well, that can be … Continue reading Eco-Friendly Christmas Trees
Fall is a great time for planting. As temperatures cool, transplanting is less stressful on plants as they slowly become dormant with less new growth. Plants lose less water thru their leaves via evapotranspiration this time of year. Root growth will remain active till the ground freezes. With the late fall comes the soil recharge months, … Continue reading Still Time to Plant your Living Fence Before the End of the Year!
The largest evergreens for Living Fence privacy screening that we grow and are able to transplant from our fields, are 15 foot tall Thuja Green Giant Arborvitaes. For almost 40 years we have successfully planted large green giants privacy screens throughout the Baltimore/Washington area. Our green giants trees are grown from rooted cuttings at Pryor's Nursery … Continue reading How Tall Are The Evergreen Trees That We Grow Locally For Living Fence Privacy Screening?
Its that time of year again when bagworms could appear and unfortunately, they damage plants. Bagworms prefer juniper, arborvitae, spruce, pine, and cedar but also attack deciduous trees. The bags hold over 300 eggs in the cocoon and disperse in late spring by "ballooning" or crawling. The caterpillars feed for up to six weeks. Larvae … Continue reading Bag Worm Control
Early this spring a client asked me to plant our Nellie Stevens Holly trees to form a privacy screen at his place in Oxford, Maryland. Wow!! Oxford Maryland is where, about 100 years ago, gardener Nellie Stevens experimented with holly cross breeding and created a new variety which carries her name today. The trip to the … Continue reading Maryland: Home of the Original Nellie Stevens Holly
At our evergreen tree farm, we experimented with different soil types and potting mixtures over 20 years ago. Leafgro, which is manufactured by the state of Maryland, proved to be an excellent addition to the planting medium. Made of leaves and grass clippings collected from the surrounding cities, it is professionally recycled into Leafgro at … Continue reading Organic Soil Amendments
Why do I like the Nellie Stevens Holly ...let me count the ways. The Nellie Stevens is denser than most upright pyramidal hollies. It responds well to pruning, creating additional lateral tip buds at each pruning cut. Nellie Stevens hollies tolerate wet feet well. At our evergreen tree farm in Damascus, Maryland, the clay soils are … Continue reading Nellie Stevens Holly
Today we also use holly trees to create beautiful living fences for year round privacy screening. The holly trees can be trimmed a bit during the holiday season so you can make your own wreath or kissing ball. Or, you can go eco friendly by using a live holly tree as your holiday tree, then plant it in your yard afterwards.