Production/manufacturing nerds, this one’s for you! We regularly get questions about how and where we manufacturer Silva Cells to meet target performance requirements. I asked our Director of Operations, Rebecca Stevens, to discuss the various steps involved in our quality control process. -LM By the time a Silva Cell order is received by a customer, it is simply a necessary… More
My window looks out on 9 Mile Creek, a rural looking creek in an urban/suburban environment in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. In the six years our company has been here, this is the closest I’ve seen water come to the parking lot. For a number of weeks this spring and summer, the large ash trees on… More
Question: What is “compost,” exactly? I’ve heard the term my entire life, but I’ve never really understood what it means. Answer: Most gardeners and farmers know compost to be a rich, organic soil amendment, which can be used to improve soil tilth and supply plant nutrients. The term compost is also a verb for a rapid… More
Pacific Northwest readers, take note. James Urban, FASLA and four other presenters will be leading an Up by Roots workshop at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle on October 15th. This one-day workshop will highlight the principles of soil science and their use in facilitating the growth of healthy trees and developing water efficient landscapes. Healthy… More
Question: What does the term “groundwater recharge” mean and why is it important? Answer: Let’s start with the term “groundwater.” Groundwater is defined as the water that is obtained by pumping from below the ground surface from storage units commonly called aquifers. This water is an important source for agriculture irrigation as well as domestic consumption…. More
Today’s post is an interview with Ellyn Shea, garden coach, arborist, horticultural educator and researcher, and frequent contributor to this blog. In addition to 15 years of professional and personal gardening, Ellyn was Planting Manager and later director of the Tree Care program at Friends of the Urban Forest, a San Francisco non-profit that promotes… More
The Silva Cell is well known as a suspended pavement system that provides large soil volumes to aid tree growth and health. Less well known is the capacity of the Silva Cell system to provide onsite stormwater management. Whereas traditional stormwater management has focused on collecting stormwater in piped networks and transporting it offsite as… More
Today’s post is an interview with Drew Graham, a Landscape Architectural Intern at Brodie & Associates Landscape Architects in Toronto, ON. As an MLA student at the University of Guelph, Drew studied how heat-related emergency calls were distributed throughout the city. What he found was that areas with low tree canopy cover had significantly higher heat related emergencies… More
Today’s post, written by James Urban, FASLA, originally ran in 2011. But understanding soil organic matter – a sometimes mysterious-seeming property of healthy soil – remains a fundamental component of any discussion about planting trees for long-term success. -LM As a soils guy, I have a lot of discussions with clients and colleagues about the quantity… More
You’ve done your site analysis and ensured enough rooting volume for the tree. You spent time carefully selecting the right species and cultivar. You’ve even inspected nursery stock and rejected specimens with uncorrectable root defects. In other words, you tried to do everything right. Yet six months later, the trees don’t look so good. What… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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