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
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.
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
Sarah’s post last week got me thinking about fall foliage. Everyone loves the changing colors, but until recently I didn’t know why it happened. There are three primary factors that affect fall color: the length of the day/night, weather, and leaf pigments.
Many people and (dare I say) authors of this blog cite energy savings as one of many benefits of healthy urban trees. But where exactly do these energy savings come from? The answer comes in two parts: trees benefit buildings immediately neighboring them, and they also benefit the surrounding city.
The Silva Cell product is designed for use in the urban environment, so integrating Silva Cells and underground utilities is an important topic to us. In a previous post we discussed basic design strategies and construction methods for integrating Silva Cells and utilities. The next question we’re most often asked usually starts something like this:… More
Many of DeepRoot’s products are defined by their mil thickness. Our Geomembranes (Water Barrier and Bamboo Barrier), for example, have varying thicknesses of 30, 40 and 60 mil, while our root barriers are all 80 mil thick. But what is a mil?
This hydrograph (diagram showing runoff flow versus time) compares the intense spike of a stream during a storm in an urbanized watershed without adequate controls, with the “gentle rolling hill” appearance of a forested watershed’s response to the same storm. Note the loss of dry weather base flow for the stream in the urbanized watershed…. More
Here are this year’s photos from the Bartlett Tree Lab study comparing different planting methods for urban trees. For comparison, check out last year’s set. And for a fuller chronological picture, you can see all the photos up to that point in this post.
Back in January we posted about a project in Shoreline, WA, where the Silva Cells were being used to extend a sidewalk rain garden underneath paving. This stretch of the project is finally completed! It looks amazing, and we’ve got a case study to tell you all about it.
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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