A couple of weeks ago my brother sent me a link to a story on WNYC about the variable mortality rates for trees that were planted as part of New York City’s Million Trees initiative. We’ve seen the uneven outcomes of planting efforts like these before, and New York is no exception. Dedicated (volunteer) citizens who water… More
7 years. 13 years. 15 years. You’ve probably heard all of these figures (and more) applied to the true average lifespan of a street tree. So which one is correct? According to Lara Roman, a Research Ecologist with the USDA Forest Service, the question is more complicated than it first appears. The 7 year figure… More
Q: What does it mean to say we are losing soil? Where does it go? A: You may hear the phrase: “We are losing our soil.” Sounds serious…but how do we lose soil? Where does it go? Soil erosion is the movement of soil by wind or water, and it’s through erosion that soil is “lost.” If… More
Q: I recently got into a conversation with someone who claimed soils are a renewable resource because the nutrients in them can be replaced with fertilizers. But I’ve heard that soil takes a really long time to form, so that to me makes it non-renewable. What’s your opinion? A: The idea that soil is renewable… More
We write a lot about the benefits that trees and soils have on water quality. But what, exactly, do they improve? Back in 2011, landscape Nathalie Shanstrom tackled this topic, explaining in easy-to-understand terms what we mean by when we refer to water quality improvements. While seriously impaired runoff is not a concern on most sites,… More
The other day, I passed a dead street tree in San Francisco Not an uncommon occurrence unfortunately, but this tree had once been on TV. The tree, a Paradox walnut, had been planted along with a second tree next to it as part of an art/science project called OneTrees designed by Natalie Jeremijenko. Jeremijenko cloned… More
A recent issue of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) magazine, Ground, contained a great discussion between nine professionals on the topic of soil. James Urban, FASLA, ISA, wrote to the magazine to add a few more comments to the piece – taking issue with the contention that what we plant in shouldn’t be… More
Question: What makes that “fresh earth” smell in spring? What is that? Answer: In a word, geosmin. Geosmin is an organic compound released by a group of soil microorganisms called actinomycetes. Actinomycetes are filamentous “prokaryotes.” In other words, they are microscopic organisms whose cells have no “nucleus” enclosing their DNA. Organisms that do have cell nuclei—like plants,… More
As regular readers of this blog know, when I learn about early suspended pavement systems for trees, such as the Christian Science Center in Boston, I like to find out more about them. I recently learned about another one that was installed at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix, AZ in 1989 – now 25 years… More
This was originally published on the landscape architecture blog The Field. When we talk about low-impact development and design today, the term “suspended pavement” comes up a lot, but it occurred to me recently that this term is rarely defined. Here is my attempt to do that by walking through suspended pavement’s history, uses, composition,… More
Very often the “trees” that are added to architectural drawings or envisioned as elements of a new downtown landscape are only part of the structure: the aboveground portion that includes the trunk, the branches, the canopy, and the leaves. While this portion of the tree is usually the only visible part and thus captivates the… More
“The soil here is terrible.” This is something we hear a lot during design discussions. People often assume that soils in heavily developed environments can’t possibly be biologically sound for plant life. In some cases, this is true. But in others it isn’t, and the only way to know for sure is to do a… More
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