By AMY IVY, Cornell Co-op Extension
With tight economic times, a lot of people are foregoing a summer trip this year and instead focusing on improving their home environment.
Spending some money on your yard and landscape is a wise investment that will provide you with enjoyment and beauty for years. Ask any Realtor, and you'll learn how much a nice landscape adds to the value of your property.
GET STARTED
Spend some time considering the views out your windows. Perhaps your neighbor has a garage you'd like to hide, or maybe there's a beautiful view you'd like to feature. Some yards are quite large, and an island bed might add some interesting scale to your property.
Consider also where you spend time outdoors. What would make those parts of your yard more enjoyable? Some shade? Some shelter from wind or neighbors? If you enjoy feeding birds, providing some cover and perching sites will encourage them to come closer and linger.
Finally, walk down the street in front of your house and try to see it as your visitors do. Is the front door easy to find and welcoming or hidden behind overgrown trees and shrubs? Improving your landscape involves not only adding plants in strategic spots but removing those that detract.
Shrubs are relatively inexpensive and easy for most people to handle and plant. One of the biggest problems people run into is when they don't allow enough room for their shrubs to reach their full size.
SHRUB CHOICES
Since shrubs are priced by their container size, you can save a lot of money by starting with small plants. That's fine, but please be realistic. Take the time to research the ultimate size of each type of plant. While you can keep plants smaller with regular pruning, that's a lot of work, and in some cases, you end up spoiling the natural character of the plant.
Make yourself take a tape measure to the space you have. Consider not only the height (so your windows aren't blocked) but the width you have available. We've all seen houses with trees and shrubs that completely block the front steps, front door and beautiful picture window. Young spruce trees are lovely planted near a doorway but 60-foot-tall spruces in the same location just don't work.
There are so many varieties of each type of shrub, you really need to study up a bit. I've been recommending ninebark as a trouble-free substitute for the insect-prone purple-leaf sandcherry. But there are many varieties of ninebark to consider. Diablo has beautiful purple leaves and white flowers but grows 8-to-10 feet high and 6 feet wide. If you need something smaller, consider Summer Wine, which stays closer to 4-to-6 feet tall.
READ THE LABEL
To help you with your planning there are a couple of helpful Web sites. Cornell's woody plant database is http://urie.mannlib.cornell.edu/woody_plants/index.php and the University of Connecticut's is http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/. Just be sure to consider the hardiness zone since Connecticut winters are warmer than ours. These sites will help you with the particular growing requirements of each plant.
Lastly, by shopping at a local nursery with knowledgeable sales staff, you can learn which plants are best suited to our growing conditions. Read the labels on the plants for basic information, but you might want to delve a little deeper before making your final decision. By planting the right plant in the right place from the start, your investment dollars will be well spent for years to come.
Amy Ivy is executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Clinton County. Office phone numbers: Clinton County 561-7450, Essex County 962-4810, Franklin County 483-7403. Web site: http://www.cce.cornell.edu/ecgardening. E-mail questions to askMG@cornell.edu
