Finished recycled Landscapes

All of the Plant materal in this bed was taken from another bed on campus that was being demolishedThe brick wall was just redone due to the old brick falling down. I had a blank slate to work with. The yews, Arborvitea that are not in the pic but around the corner, and the magnolias were taken from another bed on campus

All of the Plant Material in below landscape is from another bed on CampusIn all of the bed I will be putting some annual color to make the beds pop later in the spring

Almost, Almost about another week and we will have some pretty tulips

Here are some snapshots of the tulips on the UMKC Campus that we planted last fall. Last fall as a part of a community beautification project along the Troost ave corridor UMKC donated and planted 75,000 tulips, other businesses participated, by planting tulips outside there place of business.

After Pictures of Bloch School

The yews, aborviteas, magnolias were all transplanted from another bed on campus. In the back it is hard to see but there are red knockout roses behind the boxwoods. There is are peegee hydrangeas on a standard that will go in behind each set of three yews to add more color. also on the corner of the front entrance scape will be a white magnolia on each corner.

later on in the spring I will be putting annual color around each arborvitea next to the side walks as well as adding annual color under the Japanese Maple at the bottom of the stairs along the wall.

More before and after Pictures

These are before pictures of a wall that was just finished at the Bloch school of Business

Before and After Landscape shots

Here is a landscape that I just finished last week. I still have to replace the turf and will do so when I can get some sod in. All of the plant material in this landscape was taken from some landscape beds that were being demolished on the other side of campus. Because they were taken from another bed I did not have a choice of other plants to use however it does look much better than when I started.

You thought you were having a bad day??

I took this picture this morning on one of the jobsites here on campus. I thought this was funny. This guy is having a very bad day. Hope you all have a better one.

Tree Care

This is a little blip I did with the local news on hazard limb safety I hope you enjoy.http://www.fox4kc.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3543360
It is very important to take a pro-active approach to taking care of your trees, both for your safety and the health of the tree.

Scheduling Your Landscape Maintenance

Some people tell me in the spring that they have a hard time keeping up with there landscape maintenance. Let me make a suggestion. Most people have an outlook schedule either at work or at home. Use your outlook or whatever you use to plan your life with to plan your landscape maintenance so you dont forget anything. There is so much to keeping up your lawn and landscape that it can get away from you quickly. In the green industry it is called an agronomic calander.
To give you an idea of how much space we have to deal with here at UMKC we have almost 70 acres of green space and landscape beds and we take care of everything from the flowers to the turf. Here are just a few of the things that I put on my calender to keep up with the grounds here at the University of Missouri Kansas City.
1. Weekly mowing schedule
2. When to plan, order, install, fertilize and dead head my flowers
3. When to put pre-emergant, grub control and fertilize my grass. It is absolutly essential that you use the correct amount of fertilizer 90% of all fertilizer pollution comes from home owners using too much product, not professionals. More is NOT better.
4. Bed maintenance- such as pre-emergent, new mulch, weeding, shrub pruning ( some shrubs you prune at different time especially if they are flowering).
5. Tree pruning- depending on the size, variety, and amount of trees you may want to shedule this out 2-3 years in advance so you can save because tree care can be costly. Trees are one of the most important, and valuable pieces of your landscape. Depending on the size, type, locations and condition it could increase the value of your property significantly.

These are just a few of the things I have on my calander. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me or leave sugessions

Rain Gardens

Here is a picture of me setting up a transducer for a Graduate student in one of our three rain gardens. The student is working on her thesis for her masters in environmental engineering. The transducer will collect data on the water depth in the rain garden as well as the average rain fall, and water flow. The rain gardens dont look that great this time of the year due to the fact that they are mostly perrenials and are cut down for the winter. There are many advantages to having raingardens such as reducing runoff, cutting down on storm drain loads, beautifying the environment. Raingardens are low maintenance and easy to maintain. I currently have plans for two more raingardens on campus.

Bloch School of Business Gate

Here is the final product, after the mulch and pruning. later in the spring I will be putting some annual color to really make the entrance pop. Keep in mind that all of these plants were from another bed on campus that is slated to be demolished, so I was not able to have my choice of plant material but had to use what I had in the other bed. All in all I feel that it came out as planned.

This is what I started with

Recycling landscape material to create a new landscape

This is somthing I started today and will update this post as I progress. I started with these junipers, they have been there for about 30 years, they are old, tired and have served there purpose well. We currently have a construction project going on campus here at UMKC, they are building a new Student Union. After I have ripped out the old junipers and prepped the bed with some nice compost, I will then take some nice looking serviceberries and yews from a landscape bed over by the new student union and put them back into this bed. It will give it a fresh new look. we will be reusing plant material as well as saving the University some money.