Three Weeks of Silva Cell Installations
It’s been a busy three week full of Silva Cell installations. Here are a few photos of where we’ve been recently.
It’s been a busy three week full of Silva Cell installations. Here are a few photos of where we’ve been recently.
As an urban trees and soils consultant, I am always looking for studies that examine how trees survive and adapt to the built environment. One of the biggest questions and confusions I encounter is the issue of whether organic matter (something that I discussed in a previous post) needs to be added to urban… More
It’s Thanksgiving-eve! Surely everyone, if they’re even still at their desks, is waiting for the day to end so they can head home, or wherever they’re going for the holidays, and think about tomorrow’s feast. While few of the turkeys that will be eaten tomorrow are wild, I thought the holiday still merited a look… More
As the year winds down, we’ll be looking back at some of the project case studies we’ve completed in 2011. This case study — written in British English, for those of you in North America — discusses a trees and stormwater Silva Cell project in a Lidl car park in New Milton. You can find… More
Part 1 of this blog series summarized recent studies in Minnesota, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and King City, Ontario, which all found that the difference between summer and winter performance of bioretention systems is not substantial, even on sites with severe winters. Now that we know that, how do we go about maximizing bioretention performance in… More
Of all the benefits of urban trees that we discuss on this blog, there’s one that we haven’t addressed: food production!
You don’t need much experience in arboriculture or landscape design to notice that planting trees in cities is very different from planting trees in forest environments. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the biggest is the difference in composition of the soil.
Research to date has shown that bioretention can be effective for water quality treatment and for preserving the pre-development hydrologic function of a site, but what happens when air temperatures dip below freezing? Studies indicates that with proper design and maintenance, bioretention can function well even in cold climates.
We’re sooo excited to be the cover store of the November/December issue of ReNew Canada Magazine!
As a soils guy, I have a lot of discussions with clients and colleagues about the quantity of organic matter in soil. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a lot of confusion and misinformation around this issue. What is organic matter, and where does it come from?
I have to admit that one of the things I love most about street trees is the wildlife they attract. There is something so wonderful about seeing a hummingbird zip around looking for nectar or hearing bees buzzing furiously as you pass under a particularly tasty tree. It feels extra special to see sites like… More
About a month ago, someone posting the following question to the ASLA group on LinkedIn: In his book Up From Roots, James Urban criticizes our profession for not knowing basic horticultural Principles. Is this crit valid? Over 50 responses later, some of them quite impassioned, and it’s clear that Jim’s book — and this question —… More