Blog

6/1/09

Our Gardener Owners Bio

As the owner of South Florida’s Our Gardener and most likely the major contributor to this blog I thought it might be beneficial if I explained a little bit about my biography. I have been landscaping for over 30 years, I am a third generation gardener with international design, installation and gardening experience. As a horticulturist I received the bulk of my academic training from the University of Connecticut, achieving a BS degree in Environmental Horticulture.

My family has been landscape gardening in the US for over 80 years. My grandfather started working in this country in Hartford, CT. My father developed a nursery and landscaping service and continued serving the Hartford area until the mid 1990’s. After receiving my Horticulture degree and continued training from my father, I eventually moved to Paris, France. In Paris I was fortunate enough to continue my career designing, installing and gardening for residential and boutique commercial gardens. Every young man should live in Paris, even horticulturists; it will change your life!

I continued my work in landscaping mostly in the US; gardening in South Florida, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. After finally finding the love of my life, we spent a four year honey moon in the Caribbean and have settled in South Florida. We love it here. We look forward to raising the 4th generation of gardeners here. And as for me, I hope to continue doing what I know best, gardening.

For me there is a lot of good stuff on earth but the best stuff is fruits and vegetables and they are even better if you grow them at home. Now is a very good time to plant a wide variety of vegetables here in South Florida.  The University of Florida IFAS Extension website http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021 has very specific information regarding dozens of different vegetables, when to plant, how far to space them, it lists best varieties available, what and when to fertilize with, etc. etc. …the website is off the hook and a great website to bookmark even if this season passes you by. 

                                          

Placement: 

Vegetable plants are going to need at least 6 hours of sunlight each day; that is the primary requirement that must be met. After you locate areas in your yard that have that kind of sunlight it’s a matter of the meeting other secondary conditions. Without light there are no flowers; no flowers, no veggies and nothing to brag about to your friends living through harsh winters up North. Well there are still some things, but, you know what I mean.

Veggie gardens for the most part are pretty ugly, I don’t care what anyone says they look terrible in ornamental planting beds, forget about putting them in high visibility areas. They should go near a water source and near the kitchen door. Most houses have their kitchens in the back so this co-ordinates well with my sense of esthetics. But you got to have the sun, don’t forget that exposure is key.

Next once you get the area picked out, think about raising it up. What I mean is if you can put concrete walls up around it a foot or so high this helps in a couple of aspects. (Concrete blocks, natural stone something to raise the bed) Stay away from pressure treated ties as there are chemicals that the wood is exposed to in the pressure treatment process that may not be healthy for you or the plants) Benefits of raised veggie gardens:

1. You don’t have to bend over as far to weed, prune, pick off bugs (Yes gardens need care and the easier you make it for yourself the more likely you will do it)

2. You can adjust the quality of soil, by adding amendments more easily and avoid the possibility that you will be planting in an area rife with nematodes.

3. Planting and working the soil is much easier in a raised planting bed

Do prepare the area with composted organic material it can be animal manure, (be sure it has been well composted) rotted leaves, kitchen scrap compost, and or commercial soil mixes. Work the compost or soil mix into the existing soil. Be careful not to make the area too rich your Ph will be less than optimal and the plants will lack other benefits they derive from a more balanced soil profile.

Just a word about compost, Broward County has a goal of increasing what we recycle vs. throw away, to a ratio of 75 to 25. I believe now its about 25% recycle. Composting will play a big role in reducing what goes to our landfills and composted kitchen scraps and yard waste is gold to a veggie garden. Have you looked at the price of gold lately? We all ought to be doing it.

There are a million reasons to grow vegetables in your yard but I think the most important reason is taste. Food just picked from the vine is so good its worth a little bit of effort on our part. Most of the time we harvest more food than we can eat and making friends is really easy when you give them fresh vegetables from your garden.

An Investment That Can Produce HUGE Returns

 A good gardener not only protects your landscape investment, but increases returns, exponentially!

Dan Pestretto

If you’re like most of us you‘re still recovering from huge losses on your stock portfolio, the likes of which no one has seen since the thirties. And you’re probably looking at your budget with an eye to cutting back wherever possible. Your landscape gardener may not be the best place to cut back. That is unless of course, he is non communicative, not pro-active and not a certified horticulturist. Then it may be time to get a gardener who will protect your landscape investment and potentially save you thousands.  Last month’s article pointed out the importance of having your garden regularly monitored for pest infestations by qualified gardeners; this article will touch on the investment protection and value of landscape care.

 

Not long ago lots of people were investing in their houses; real estate values were going through the roof, often exceeding the gains from the stock market.  As a landscape designer and builder, I know it was common for people to upgrade their landscape gardens for tens of thousands of dollars. Many people were even re-financing their homes to afford these projects, with the understanding that investing in their homes was a smart thing to do.

Well Designed Landscapes:

• Increase property values
• Provide higher quality of life (Beautiful spaces to live and enjoy family and friends)
• Boost curb appeal
• Distinguish homes from others in the market when its time to sell

 Well designed, properly maintained landscapes are priceless and impossible to replace.

 Gardeners Are The First Line of Defense For Protecting the Value of Your Landscape, a Good Gardener Will:

• Understand the original design intent and implement strategies that preserve the quality of the design
• Protect gardens from pest attack through consistent and regular monitoring
• Document conditions, record actions taken and verify results
• Stay current on pest activities and trends in the area and the best control methods available

 Good Gardeners Help You Attain Great Returns on Landscape Investments!

Proactive care, based on careful record keeping and regular monitoring of landscape gardens is the means; the results, are priceless.  It is not unusual to see three or four times of the initial landscaping investment added to the value of the house with beautiful mature gardens. It’s the advantage of leveraging a small amount of money to improve an expensive asset such as your home. The results are huge returns on an investment you can enjoy.

Conversely, a landscaper who doesn’t know what they are doing, will make every well designed garden look just like all the others they take care of. Ever notice that? Plantings misshapen, horticultural focal points not recognized and an inability to notice insect or disease infestations. No record keeping, poor communication and the only thing you get in writing is the bill. Ignorant homeowner’s trying to save a dollar, sacrifice thousands on future returns and face thousands in replacement costs if they loose these valuable, vulnerable, living assets. Poor landscape care is very expensive indeed. 

We offer complete landscape maintenance services by certified horticultural professionals at Our Gardener contact us at http://www.ourgardener.com/contact.html or (954) 632-3268

 

Landscape Staging: Low Risk, Huge Returns

Landscape Contractor Offering Deferred Payments for Houses Currently on the Market

Dan Pestretto

2724 NE 15th St #3

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Telephone: 954.632.3268

RReal Estate professionals know staging a house is important. Professional home-stagers have made a big impact on the industry. However, up until now there has been very little formal attention paid to landscape gardens. First impressions are the key to whether a house will be seen favorably or not. It takes 15 seconds for a client to form an impression about the property. Afterwards clients are spending their time confirming first impressions.

 With the inventory on the market today ranging from over 30 months to just under a year, it’s imperative for any high volume sales producer to select where and how they spend their time

• the web, email,  MLS listing services
• drive-bys (website listings for out-of-towners)
• in-house mortgage assistance

All are used in order to qualify, focus and target clients, minimize showings and to gain trust. They speed up the process and are also increasing the importance of Curb Appeal.

“Landscape Staging” is positively impacting Curb Appeal in order to bring marketability to its highest level. It’s not landscaping, it’s not redesigning gardens; it’s selectively pulling out what’s bad in the existing gardens, weeds and volunteers and augmenting what works. It is pruning, weeding, transplanting and sometimes adding a little bit afterwards to unify, feature, or distract. It is all done with the intent of drawing attention to what is good about the property and house and away from what isn’t as good. It’s subtle and when done right it works without anyone knowing exactly how or why. The house just “fits” into its surroundings.

I represent Our Gardener, located in Fort Lauderdale; we are offering Deferred Payment Plans on all of our Landscape Staging Projects. An explanation of our process can be found at: http://http://www.ourgardener.com/landscapestaging.html.   Our Landscape Staging programs start with 10,000 square foot properties, a $300 down payment and include:

• Adding to foundation plantings
• Adding to ground cover plants
• Gravel mulch or shredded bark mulch
• Weeding,edging, pruning and general clean-up
• Up-keep/maintenance on staging work
• Final Payment is DEFERRED until the closing of the property sale
• Total Cost is $1495.00 including "Up-keep"
• Other programs available, including those for larger properties and up to $8,000 .00 deferred payment possible; see http://http://www.ourgardener.com/landscapestaging.html for details.

All of our programs are customized and tailored to the existing conditions; no cookie cutter work. Our Landscape Staging solutions are creative, improve marketability and will get your house sold. Our Gardener performs regular full service landscape maintenance in addition to the “Up Keep” and we can be contracted for that as well.

Please see After and Before Shots

After:

Before:

 

Please contact me so that I can better understand your situation and how I might be able to help.                Email: dan@ourgardener.com Telephone: 954.632.3268

The Science of Landscape Care

By Dan Pestretto

Telephone: 954.632.3268

Given the complexities of the science of Landscape Care it is absolutely amazing how many service providers in Broward County there are without any qualifications. Add to that the importance of protecting our environment and the potential harm or good that landscapers can affect. And it’s incredible there aren’t more regulations regarding landscapers.  I have written before regarding the fertilization issues and regulations we can all see coming; but, in this article I really want to point out how important it is to protect, not only our environment but the economic investment we have in our gardens. If you have priced landscape renovations lately, you will surely understand what I mean. Older, mature landscapes are priceless, as it’s almost impossible to find large plant material and the expense of moving large plants is very high, very high indeed. Why then would anyone hire an unqualified landscaper?

Expense, that’s why. But when you think of the responsibility a landscaper carries and how much impact they can have on the environment and what a qualified landscaper can do in terms of providing pro-active insurance against huge losses; does it really make economic or environmental sense? This website www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/pi-pest-alert.html provides links to pest alerts for insects and diseases that have recently arrived in Florida or that may arrive soon.

Recent Pest Info

·         Another Asian Ambrosia Beetle, Xyleborinus andrewesi (Blandford) 

·         Argentine Ant, Liniepithema humile Mayr 

·         An Orchid Mealybug - Pseudococcus dendrobiorum 

·         Ligurian Leafhopper - Eupteryx decemnotata 

·         Emerald Ash Borer - Agrilus planipennis 

·         Blue Gum Chalcid - Leptocybe invasa, a Eucalyptus Pest 

·         Texas Phoenix Palm Decline 

·         A New Exotic Soft Scale Insect on Croton in South Florida (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) 

·         An Ornamental Fig Pest , Horidiplosis ficifolii Harris (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), Genus and Species New to Florida and North America 

·         The Fig Whitefly Singhiella simplex (Singh) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae): 
A New Exotic Whitefly Found on Ficus Species in South Florida 

·         The Poliaspis Cycad Scale Poliaspis cycadis Comstock (Hemiptera: Diaspididae): A new exotic scale insect for Florida

·         Redbay Ambrosia Beetle, Xyleborus glabratus

·         Red palm mite Raoiella indica Hirst

 

The list above gives you an idea of what insects have recently arrived and which are likely to come visiting in the near future. It isn’t a pretty picture. We in South Florida deal with new pest infestations all the time. Insect infestations without natural predators can be devastating and it happens with a regularity that is alarming! Landscapers are the front line in the defense of our gardens from these pests. I dare say there are no other service people in your gardens more often than the landscapers; if there is an insect infestation starting to erupt no one has a better opportunity to see it than your gardener.

Pro-active gardeners observe, communicate and recommend action. It can be difficult to get some landscapers to do things you see need doing, beyond mowing the lawn. Do you think these people will be able to communicate to you things that need attention that you don’t see? We offer complete residential landscape services by Certified Professional Horticulturists at Our Gardener. Further information at http://www.ourgardener.com/contact.html

^Pruning

Pruning; here in South Florida we do a lot of it. We shear, we prune, and we clip back. We prune to maintain vistas, we prune to encourage privacy, we cut out the dead, we prune to promote health and encourage growth, we prune away from buildings and other plants to discourage growth. We prune to protect our trees from hurricanes. We prune to preserve plants and trees after hurricanes. You get the picture; landscape maintenance around these parts requires us to know quite a little bit about pruning. Yet driving around our neighborhoods shows in many cases there is still a lot we can learn. I think, if landscapers were forbidden to buy chain saws and powered hedge clippers until they proved that they understood the way plants grew, we could have healthier and prettier looking foliage and a lot fewer landscapers!

In the short space I am allotted here I will run through some basic pruning principles and guidelines. Find pruning suggestions broken down by the type of plants we most commonly prune. For all plants except Palms when you remove the terminal or ending bud of a stem you will then see multiple buds grow into shoots or stems from that cut. Removing the terminal bud will give you multiple lateral buds in every case.   

Trees or Specimen Plants

1. Try to never remove more than 25 - 30% of any palant's foliage each time you prune. allow ample time for recovery between prunings
2. Prune to a pleasing shape. some plant can be pruned to all sorts of shapes. For this article we are only considering naturalistic pruning.
3. With rules 1 and 2 firmly in mind remove crossing branches and branches that pass through the center of the tree. For plants that look best with a dominant leader stem, prune out or back on subordinate branches or stems. Do this gently; if in doubt leave it. this will help produce a naturalistic look to the main stem that is thick on the bottom and tapered at the top.
4. Always make your cuts just above where a leaf is positioned on the stem. This point on the stem is called a node; internodes are teh speaces between the nodes along the stem.

Palms

1. Never cut fronds (leaves) that are at a 45 degree angle or less from the stem above it. In other words leaves that fall below 3 o'clock and clockwise to 9 o'clock should be removed. Anything pointing out at 9:00 o'clock clockwise to 3 o'clock should stay. Always remove fronds as close to the stem as posible.
2. Flowers and fruit can be removed. Coconuts should be removed just before hurricane season.
3. Remove dead fronds to their base without damaging live tissue at the stem.

Hedges

For hedges, not attended to recently, or hedges that havebeen consistently sheared; remove branches down towards the center of the plant to allow light in through the top layer of leaves. Scatter your cuts thoughout the hedge. This allows light down into the plant making it possible for foliage growth inside the plant. With leaves below the top layer the height of the hedge can more easily be adjusted. 

2.   Always cut hedges so that the sides of the hedge are wider at the bottom than the top. This will       allow all the leaves to recieve sunlight and not be shaded by the upper leaves. Useful if you want       foliage all the way to the ground.

Since there is almost always a need for somethign in our gardens to be pruned it's easy to find plants to practice and get good on. I have only touched on the rudimentary basics of pruning here. If you would like more information, I am available for consultations and estimates to have Our Gardener to do the work. Give me a call or drop me an email.

Legislated Green: Florida’s Restricting Fertilizer Formulations

The great American lawn is under attack. People are becoming uneasy about lawns and their impact on our environment. Misapplication of pesticides and over use of fertilizer has been blamed for harmful algae blooms; causing fish kills as well as swimmers' rashes and respiratory problems. The state legislature is now getting involved. State officials have proposed a rule that would limit fertilizer sold in Florida to formulas classified as no or low-phosphate; in an effort to address concerns regarding polluted waterways.

Good gardening practices and common sense are the answer to this very important problem. Ultimately, I see legislatures moving towards complete regulation of fertilizers and horticultural chemicals. It may be too late to avoid this, however, if we all applied a little common sense now, it will definitely help.

As I see it, limiting pollution   boils down to 2 different issues, choice of turf species and its care.

1. Choice: from a designer’s point of view, use and esthetics are paramount. A good designer must also consider whether the cultural conditions meet the requirements of the chosen turf species. (Just like people, lawns have their cultural tolerance limits and must be installed where they will thrive! Come to think of it lawns are even less adaptable than people.)

a.       Turf, under stress will look as if it needs more water, more fertilizer. It may look diseased or insect infested. All these conditions cause us to needlessly use fertilizers and chemicals that ultimately end up in our waterways.

b.      Selected turf must meet design expectations and thrive.

Use chart to help select grass species that will tolerate existing conditions.

Warm Season Lawn Grasses Commonly Used in Florida
Turf species	Cultural Tolerances					Temperature adaptation	Planting method
	Cold	Drought	Shade	Salinity	Wear/Traffic
Bermuda grass	Low	High	Low	High	High	Warm-season	Seed, sod, stolons, sprigs, plugs
Seashore paspalum	Low	Moderate	Moderate	High	Moderate	Warm-season	Sod, stolons
St. Augustine grass	Low	Moderate	High	High	Moderate	Warm-season	Sod, stolons
Zoysia grass	Low - moderate	High	Moderate-high	Moderate	High	Warm-season	Sprigs, sod

 

2.       Care: Use of chemicals is ONLY on an as needed basis. (Most of us grew up with our dad’s putting down a four step fertilizer program; had pesticides mixed in with the fertilizer and a prescribed schedule on the bag. If our dads were too busy, there was a friendly Chemical guy come to spray our “stuff”. It was easy, not too expensive and it really seemed to work.) This is how we got to where we are today with the government breathing down our backs about how we fertilize our lawns. Do you think the government will stop there? We must stop our old ways. Indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertilizers does not work and it is the source of a certain amount of pollution. You know we did have nice gardens back before chemicals. My grandfather was a landscaper in the 1930’s; and his yards looked great. 

Its simple, its good gardening and its back to the future with common sense.

a.       Fertilization programs must be based on existing conditions, determined through regular soil tests

b.      We must monitor our lawns and gardens; regularly looking for pest outbreaks

c.       Monitor for predatory species (bugs looking to eat the pests) apply pest controls based on the balance between pest and predators

d.      Use eco-friendly pest controls whenever possible

e.      Track pest outbreaks, record pest control measures and track results.

Okay, not as simple as calling the “guy”, but we have to change. Gardening this way will help us all. I will get more into common sense gardening in future articles. I also will talk about esthetic and cultural characteristics of our warm season grasses. I am here to guide you to simple, sustainable gardening practices that will give you great looking gardens and keep Uncle Sam off our backs.

Dan Pestretto

dan@ourgardener.com

 

Ficus White Fly – The End of Ficus Bushes as We Know It

Ficus White Fly was first sited in Miami Dade during the summer of 2007, the first occurrence, actually in the continental US. This charming little creature comes our way via Myanmar (Burma), China and India. White Fly is thought to have at least 3 generations per year here in Florida, which can easily overwhelm natural predators existing in our area. And, there are natural predators here!

The predators look mostly like ugly Lady Bugs and are related to the prettier orange Lady Bugs. There are also, very tiny parasitoids trying to make life difficult for the white flies as well. A parasitoid is like a parasite except that they’re lethal. Parasitoids are small and if you could see them you might think them to be very tiny wasps. I mention the predators as their presence is important to consider when selecting control measures. You want to try to kill the bad guys without hurting the good guys, if you can.
Ficus trees with severe infestations will have yellow and brown leaves dropping from the tree. White flies can defoliate a tree and huge sections of hedges in almost no time at all. If you were to shake an infested tree, small clouds of tiny white, gnat-like adult whiteflies will come flying from the leaves. Its really disgusting, gives you a weird feeling like the tree is very dirty.

White Fly
Photo Credit: UF/IFAS Mannion

It is important to gain the upper hand on controlling this very prolific insect. The damage they can do is often irreversible. Homeowners with Ficus hedges planted for privacy would do well to monitor their plants regularly; if possible, weekly. When you monitor your gardens what you do is go outside and look for situations that appear to be unhealthy for your plants. Check for pests; insects, weeds and diseases that might be just starting to get settled. You want to find and eliminate them before they get too comfortable and start to invite their family and friends to your garden. Monitoring regularly fits well with an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Regular and frequent monitoring will detect infestations before they get too serious and allow applications of low toxic pesticides like Insecticidal Soaps to control insects before populations grow to levels that would require stronger controls. Although controversial in some anti-pesticide circles a systemic insecticide such as ‘Merit’ works well to keep populations low and actually does very little harm to beneficial insects as they do not ingest it.

White Fly Predator
Photo Credit: UF/IFAS Mannion

White Fly is mighty, and its control important. Use of Ficus Bushes in landscapes is, or has been, prevalent in our area, mostly as privacy hedges. It appears now that most wholesale growers have moved on to grow substitutions for Ficus and use of Ficus bushes in the future is uncertain. In most circumstances non control of white fly is not an option, replacements for the affected shrubs will be hard to find. The best protection is regular monitoring of all your trees and shrubs. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Monitoring and control applications are obligatory. IPM monitoring and application of eco-friendly but effective controls are the best ways to keep the eco-system intact and Ficus Hedges looking good in our gardens.