We love trees. We also love woodies. For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you will know that we promote large volumes of non-compacted, biologically active loam as essential for street tree health and longevity. There are other plants which require soil volume and need attention as well. Vines,… More
How do the stormwater benefits of Silva Cell suspended pavement tree/soil systems compare to the stormwater benefits of traditional bioretention systems? Since the mechanisms by which the tree and soil provide the stormwater benefits in these systems are the same as those in traditional bioretention, we expected the benefits to be comparable as well. The… More
There is a lot of misinformation in the landscape architecture community about whether or not trees roots will grow in gravels, structural stone soils, and clear stone. Our experience indicates that roots will adventitiously grow in any medium given the right set of circumstances. Quantifying and predicting what set of circumstances produce that growth response… More
For the last two weeks in December I’m be re-posting some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Today’s shares some of the most exciting news we got in 2013, when the Washington State Department of Ecology recognized the Silva Cell as being functionally equivalent to a rain garden. Scroll all the way to the… More
For the last two weeks in December I’m re-posting some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Today’s, by James Urban, perfectly captures what we need to do in order to create healthier urban environments for trees and soils. It’s simple. Touch trees. – LM Alex Shigo, one of the most famous plant biologists and… More
For the last two weeks in December I’ll be re-posting some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Today’s post is by Dr. Bert Cregg, Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Department of Forestry at Michigan State University. It was originally published on The Garden Professors and is reprinted with the author’s permission. -LM We’ve… More
As of this summer, Raleigh, NC now requires a minimum of 600 cubic feet of soil for all street trees planted in the right of way for new developments. Their new Street Design Manual outlines this requirement, and the design methods available for achieving it, in section 6.18, page 82-86.
Many factors affect tree health. Are they all equally important or are some more important than others? According to Kim Coder, soil compaction is by far the biggest constraint on tree growth. In a 2007 paper, he wrote, “Soil compaction is the most prevalent of all soil constraints on shade and street tree growth…Many people… More
Tim O’Hare Associates LLP is a leading independent environmental consultancy based in the United Kingdom specializing in soil science and landscape engineering, including soil science, topsoil, habitat creation, sales pitch agronomy, and more. A few weeks ago I talked to Tim O’Hare himself to learn more about its reuse, recovery, and what it really means… More
I often get the following question from designers: what do I do with the space between the pavement and the street tree? Typically, it’s a small space of anywhere from 16 to 64 square feet in which the tree is supposed to live, commonly known as the “tree pit.” Really, it is an opening into… More
You know how when you learn something in school, it sounds a little abstract until you actually see it? For example, I remember learning about what stomata are. Here is the definition according to Wikipedia: In botany, a stoma (plural stomata) (occasionally called a stomate, plural stomates)[1] (from Greekστόμα, “mouth”[2]) is a pore, found in the epidermis of leaves, stems and… More
Here is this year’s photo from the Bartlett Tree Lab study comparing different planting methods for urban trees. This year, we can also share a graph that demonstrates just how well the trees growing in suspended pavement are doing relative to the other treatments.
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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