Blog - Lush Mountain Landscaping

Xeriscaping: 5 Principles

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013xeriscaping

1. PLANNING & DESIGN

To begin, think about how you would like to use your property and what features it could have. For example, would you like a patio, a big shade tree, a butterfly garden, or a vegetable garden? Where do you need pathways? How much sun is there in different areas? Are there views you want to frame or things you want to hide?

Next, you can make a scale drawing of your property, house and any plants or features that you want to keep. Then try out your ideas using overlays of tracing paper.

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Sustainable landscaping-the 13 deadly syndromes

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013sustainability

THE THIRTEEN DEADLY SYNDROMES by Owen E. Dell 1. THE SATURDAY MORNING SYNDROME SYMPTOMS: The urge to venture forth on weekends to the local nursery, to seek out new, mysterious and cheap plants, to bring them home and to look for a place to put them. This leads to a mish-mosh of plants that has […]

Drip Irrigation systems

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013irrigation

DRIP IRRIGATIONS SYSTEMS by Owen E. Dell

WHAT’S A DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM?A drip irrigation system applies water slowly to the specific root zone of plants. This is accomplished with emitters that are placed at each plant and apply water drop by drop, allowing it to soak in to the soil rather than running off or blowing away. Black polyethylene tubing, placed above ground, carries the water from plant to plant. A valve, automatic or manual, controls the system. A backflow prevention device prevents water from flowing back into the pressure main and contaminating the potable water supply.

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Water Smart soil

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013soil quality

A Water Smart soil is a living soil.

In a typical suburban lot, good quality living topsoil contains approximately 90 pounds of earthworms, 240 pounds of fungi, 150 pounds of bacteria, 13 pounds of protozoa and 89 pounds of arthropods and algae. This soil life and its food web cultivate and aerate the soil, improve its structure and increase the availability of water and nutrients for plants. If the organic matter in a growing medium is less than one per cent, all this life will die. Optimum amounts of organic matter in a living growing medium provide a garden soil thatfeels soft and crumbles easily and has few clods and no hard pan, drains well and warms up quickly in the spring and resists erosion and nutrient loss, does not crust after planting and supports high populations of soil organisms,

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Why Xeriscape, the Okanagan environment, and growing conditions of the Okanagan

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013xeriscaping

Why Xeriscape?

If you want your garden to give you the maximum enjoyment and value for your expenditure of time and money, xeriscaping is the answer! Xeri (rhymes with terra) is the Greek word for dry. Xeriscaping is gardening with your natural environmental conditions rather than fighting against them.

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What to do during a drought

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013irrigation, sustainability

WHAT TO DO DURING A DROUGHT for your plants in Kelowna

• Doing nothing is sometimes best
• Avoid fertilizer – it can burn root hairs, cause drying out of the tissue
• Avoid pruning – it stimulates new growth, which uses water reserves
• Avoid pesticides – they can injure drought-stressed foliage
• Avoid watering, obviously
• Turn off your controller or adjust moisture sensors for minimum watering
• Allow plants to wilt, up to a point
• Remove unnecessary plants to provide more water for those remaining
• Use an anti-transpirant to reduce water loss

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Sustainable solutions for landscaping

By lushmountainApril 5, 2013sustainability

Some of the solutions being developed are:

Reduction of storm water run-off through the use of bio-swales, rain gardens and green roofs and walls.
Reduction of water use in landscapes through design of water-wise garden techniques (sometimes known as xeriscaping)
Bio-filtering of wastes through constructed wetlands
Landscape irrigation using water from showers and sinks, known as gray water
Integrated Pest Management techniques for pest control
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Soil Preparation and Maintenance

By lushmountainFebruary 22, 2013soil quality

Soil Preparation and Maintenance

The soil is the basic raw material of the gardener’s art. It should never be dismissed as a mere collection of mineral particles used to anchor roots or, worse still, as “dirt.” It is much more than that.
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Benefits of Trees

By lushmountainFebruary 9, 2013xeriscaping

Benefits of Trees in the Okanagan

Most trees and shrubs in cities or communities are planted to provide beauty or shade. These are two excellent reasons for their use. Woody plants also serve many other purposes, and it often is helpful to consider these other functions when selecting a tree or shrub for the landscape. The benefits of trees can be grouped into social, communal, environmental, and economic categories.

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