Garden Center Archives - Page 2 of 9 - Stephens Landscaping Professionals

Nov 22, 2022

Fabulous Holiday Porch Pot Designs for Moultonborough

The end of the growing season in New Hampshire doesn’t mean the end of beautiful planters. On the contrary, holiday planters are the perfect way to decorate your porch this Christmas and beyond. The weather may be too frosty for flowers, but we can still make fabulous seasonal arrangements using evergreen boughs, berries, bells, ribbons, and more—here are some ideas!

Materials for a Holiday Porch Pot

While you won’t have much success planting annual flowers this time of year, we can look to our winter landscape for a world of new inspiration.

Berries: Whoever came up with red and green as Christmas colors was likely borrowing from the natural world around them. Red berries stand out amidst the snow and add an incredible pop of color to arrangements, especially winterberries, holly, and rosehips.

Evergreen Branches: As the most vibrant part of our winterscape, make every opportunity to use cuttings from any evergreens on your property in your porch pots. These include junipers, cedars, spruce, firs, pines, and hemlock.

Pine Cones: Pine cones are like ready-made decorations waiting to be used in holiday decor. Technically the flower of pine trees, they bring rich brown tones and beautiful texture to any porch pot.

Deciduous Twigs: Dogwoods, birch, and willow branches will bring beautiful white, gold, red, and green colors to your planter. Feel free to use either small branch clippings or even whole sawn-off logs, as you’ll see below. If you don’t have access to any of these trees, use any deciduous branches available for a similar result.

Dried Flowers and Seed Pods: While you don’t want to create an autumn look with too many dried flowers, hydrangea blossoms and lilac seeds are good options for holiday porch planters, as they maintain their shape quite well. Feel free to experiment with any other dried flowers or seeds found in your yard.

Ribbons, Bells, and Balls: What would a holiday planter be without a few bells, Christmas balls, and ribbons to grace the porch? They mimic the radiant reflections of the snow and bring beautiful finishing touches to a winter planter.

How to Design a Holiday Porch Pot

Thriller, Filler, Spiller: This famous design technique is just as valuable during the winter as it is in the spring or summer. As a reminder, the “thriller” is the focal point that catches your attention—in this case, any tall branches or brightly colored decor. The “filler” fills in the space around the thriller with greenery, namely evergreen boughs. The “spillers” are plants that hang over the sides of the pot, hiding the edge and creating a look of overflowing abundance. Any flexible evergreens work as great spillers during the winter.

A Look of Abundance: The holiday season is a time of abundance when we share our gifts with the people around us. Likewise, the most impressive porch pots have a sense of grandeur, so don’t hesitate to fill in your planters with ample evergreen boughs, ribbons, pine cones, and more!

A Play of Textures: How can you make a planter look unique when it’s mostly evergreens? The key is to play with different textures. Contrast your soft junipers with lively spruce, or your smooth firs with sprightly pines. Juxtapose peeling paper birch with silky ribbons, and let your rugged pine cones mingle with glowing winterberries.

Great Holiday Porch Pot Ideas to Start With

Need some ideas for bringing these materials and techniques together? Here are a few designs to get you started:

Birch Logs, Holly and Juniper

For your thriller, place three vertical, 1-2″ birch logs in the center and back of your pot of soil. Next, fill in upright boughs of spruce around your birch logs, and place overhanging boughs of juniper around the entire front edge and sides of the planter. As a finishing touch, arrange several twigs of bright red holly berries in front of the birch logs and insert a large red ribbon to hang over the front.

Dogwood, Christmas Balls, and Pine Cones

Begin by placing several tall twigs of dogwood or willow at the center-back of the pot. Next, place juniper or cedar around the front and sides of the pot as both the spiller and filler. Finally, nestle three large decorative red balls in the center of the junipers and, as a finishing touch, place pine cones around them.

Final Step: Once you have your arrangement in place, water the entire pot to freeze the soil and keep the boughs in place.

At the end of the day, holiday porch planters are all about creating seasonal art pieces, which means there’s a lot of room to experiment and play. Now that you know the basic steps, materials, and philosophy, feel free to experiment while making your own.

For any supplies for your holiday porch pot ideas, please visit our garden center in Moultonborough, NH! Follow us on Facebook or Instagram for updates and featured products!

Nov 14, 2022

How to Attract Birds to Your Garden in the Winter

Garden Center

As the seasons shift, some birds in New Hampshire fly south for winter, others stay, and still others that breed in more northern places migrate here. Attracting these feathered friends is not only a great pleasure for us, but provides important food, shelter, and water for them during the cold months. Although boosting the bird habitat in your landscape is a long-term project, even in the short-term, there are simple ways to bring winged-ones to your yard!

Which Birds Can I Expect to Attract?

In its own way, the world of winter is just as wondrous as other seasons—with magical snowy beauty and a unique cast of birds in our forests. The most common year-round residents you’ll see are the Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Black-Capped Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Dark-Eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, Blue Jay, and Mourning Dove. Of course, these are only a few of the 400+ birds that live or migrate through New England.

Long-Term Ways to Attract Birds

The most effective way to attract birds to your yard is by enhancing their habitat. That means growing more native trees, shrubs, and flowers that birds like to feast on or live in. Evergreen trees are an especially good habitat for birds over the winter, as their thick branches provide shelter from snow and cold. As for food, any trees with cones, nuts, acorns, berries, and fruit will be a bird’s delight over winter and year-round.

Other Ways to Attract Birds Over Winter

Although you can’t grow a tree overnight, there are still many ways to make your yard attractive to the winged-ones this winter.

Provide Shelter: although birds aren’t breeding over winter, they still benefit from having boxes, especially during cold snaps. Birdhouses used for nesting in the spring can become warm-up spots for birds over winter. Or, bigger boxes, known as “roosting boxes” can provide shelter, often for many species at once. In the absence of evergreens, leaving a pile of brush in your yard also supplies moderate coverage for small birds.
Provide Water: having a birdbath in your yard is a great way to attract birds over winter. To keep it from freezing, place a heater inside of it, or install a heated birdbath. Since eating snow is much more energy intensive for birds, they’ll appreciate any source of liquid water!

How to Attract Birds with Feeders

Setting up food is another sure way to attract feathered friends over winter. Here are some tips for placing, using, and choosing feeders:

Use a Variety of Feeders: different birds have different feeding styles. For example, Dark-Eyed Juncos are ground-feeders, while Nuthatches feed as they travel down a tree trunk. Attract more birds by using various styles of feeders, including open trays at ground and table height, hanging feeders, and suet cages along tree trunks.

Provide Good Quality Food: whole nuts, seeds, and suet are the best foods for birds, especially sunflower seeds and nyjer. To keep the food mold-free, install a roof over your open trays, check your feeders often, only put out small amounts at a time, and replace any food before it spoils.
Place Your Feeders Strategically: put them within sightline of your windows, so you can watch the feeding birds. Hang them near an evergreen, so small birds have options to hide from predators. If big birds, like Blue Jays, are dominating your suet cage, place it on the underside of a leaning trunk, so only small perching birds can access it.
Keep Squirrels and Rodents Away: if squirrels and rodents are hogging your bird feeder, you can install a squirrel baffle over it, which is a barrier that is difficult for them to crawl over. You can also place a cage over the feeder which allows small birds to enter while blocking squirrels. Mixing a small amount of cayenne pepper into the seed mix is also known to repel squirrels, but the birds don’t mind it.

Attract Birds with Homemade Boxes and Feeders

You can bring your own creative touch to your yard by crafting things yourself. Research the feeding style, food preferences, or shelter needs of your favorite birds and try to make something to attract them. Any old stumps or coppiced trees are great locations to install a homemade tray or birdhouse-style feeder. Sometimes a bird feeder can be as simple as an upwards-angled mason jar hanging horizontally by a ribbon.

Observe and Form a Relationship

If you want to get better at attracting birds, make a habit of observing them in your yard throughout the seasons. Find out what they eat, where they live, what their calls mean, and when they nest. You’ll not only gain insight into their lives, but as touchstones to the ecosystem, birds reveal the wild world of insects, plants, and animals that are—often unbeknownst to us—living all around us.

For supplies to attract winter birds, visit our Garden Center in Moultonborough, NH. And follow us on Facebook or Instagram for updates and featured products!

Nov 07, 2022

How to Protect Your Trees from Cold and Salt Damage

Garden Center

Salt damage, winter burn, frost heaving, and hungry rodents are just a few of the challenges our trees have to contend with during the winter. Although most trees we grow in New Hampshire are experts at living through the cold months, we can still help them overcome seasonal challenges, so they thrive next year—here’s how!

Understanding Salt Damage

De-icers keep our roads and walkways ice-free during the winter, but they have an unfortunate consequence on nearby trees and plants. Traffic on roadways can spray salt water onto trees throughout the winter, causing evergreens to turn brown and die back in the spring or killing the new buds on deciduous trees. A cluster of dead twigs, or “witch’s broom,” on the end of deciduous branches is a telltale sign of damage from salt spray.

Besides being sprayed with salt water, trees also suffer from salt dissolved into snowmelt penetrating the ground; this can leech off roadways or come from de-icers you apply to your property. When a tree absorbs salt ions, it exhibits similar signs as drought damage, such as scorched and curling leaves, stunted growth, susceptibility to disease, and even death.

How to Prevent Salt Damage in Moultonborough

There’s no need to let your trees suffer from our de-icing practices. Here are several ways to help them avoid and overcome salt damage:

Use Alternative De-icers: if possible, use coarse sand, gravel, or calcium chloride to prevent slipping on your walkways, and minimize or eliminate the use of sodium chloride.
Pile Snow Away from Trees: when shoveling salty or dirty snow from your hardscapes, don’t pile it near any trees or gardens. Instead, shovel it somewhere where the snow can melt off your property, not into the root zone of trees.
Erect a Barrier: set up a burlap screen, plastic fence, or snow fence in front of roadside trees that are subject to salt spray.
Improve Drainage Around Trees: adjust the grade in your garden or landscape so salty snow melts away from your trees, not towards them.
Flush the Soil in Spring: use water to flush away salt-affected trees, diluting any salty water and sending it deep into the ground, below the root zone.
Be Mindful of Salt-Intolerant Trees: white pine, sugar maple, eastern hemlock, basswood, and spruce are intolerant of salt. Give them extra attention to prevent salt damage, and avoid planting them near roadways. Salt-tolerant species include birches, ashes, poplars, red oak, and red pine, but keep in mind that even though they’re more salt-tolerant, they can still be damaged by it.

How to Protect Trees From the Cold

Most trees native to New Hampshire or hardy to our growing zone can withstand our winter, but that doesn’t mean that winter doesn’t pose a challenge for them. Evergreens are vulnerable to winter burn, which happens when they lose too much moisture through their needles.

The freezing and thawing cycles of winter can also cause damage to roots, and there is the weight of the snow itself. Whether you have young trees you want to protect or trees that are prone to winter burn, here are some strategies to help your trees withstand the cold:

Mulch the Roots: insulate the roots from fluctuating temperatures by mulching with bark mulch or wood chips. During extremely cold weather, you can pile extra snow around the roots of vulnerable trees. Remember to keep mulch 2 inches away from the trunk to prevent rotting.
Wrap Vulnerable Trees: broadleaf evergreens, like rhododendrons or arborvitae, are particularly vulnerable to winter burn. You can place a frame around them and wrap it with burlap to prevent moisture loss. Evergreens exposed to sunny areas or prevailing winds also lose moisture more easily during the winter. If necessary, set up a burlap screen to protect them from desiccating wind and sun. Remember to remove any wrapping in the spring to prevent overheating.
Water Evergreens in the Fall: water your evergreens regularly throughout October and November until the ground freezes to protect them against winter burn in the months ahead.

How to Protect Trees from Animal Damage

Rabbits and rodents pose a risk to trees over winter, especially young ones, which have softer bark. To prevent animals from girdling their trunks, wrap vulnerable trees with a plastic guard, metal mesh, or a metal cylinder. The cylinder should extend 2–3 inches below ground for mice and 18–24 inches above the snow for rabbits.

For more expert advice on protecting trees from salt damage and any challenges over winter, visit our garden center in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, and keep up-to-date with us on Facebook or Instagram.

Nov 01, 2022

Prune It or Leave It? A Guide to Fall Pruning

Garden Center

There’s nothing like a warm autumn day to beckon us outside to finish the garden tasks for the year. Pruning may seem like a natural addition to the fall checklist, but before you take out the pruning shears, it’s important to know which plants, if any, need to be pruned—and which ones to leave!

Should I Prune Shrubs in the Fall?

When looking around your garden, it may be tempting to prune your unruly shrubs back into shape while you have the time. But, the rule for pruning in the fall is, generally, don’t do it. Why? In the fall, shrubs are slowing down, preparing for dormancy, and hardening their branches in preparation for winter. Pruning stimulates new growth, which may not have time to harden off before the cold arrives. This could result in dieback over the winter, which can damage the plant.

Exceptions: What You Can Prune In the Fall

Even though you should leave most shrubs alone, there are some exceptions to the rule, such as:

Dead, Diseased, and Damaged Branches: these branches pose a risk to the plant as they can harbor disease. Your shrubs won’t be damaged when you prune out the dead wood in the fall, and it’s necessary to prune out the disease now, so it doesn’t spread over the winter.
Maples and Birches: it’s not ideal to prune maples or birch trees in the late winter or spring, as they can lose a lot of sap during that time of year. Instead, you can prune them in the fall after their leaves fall off and they become dormant.

What Perennials to Cut Back in the Fall

While not all perennials need to be cut back to the ground, there are some which benefit from having their stocks and leaves removed before winter:

Perennials Susceptible to Disease: peonies, lilies, iris, and garden phlox are common perennials that are susceptible to fungal infections over the winter. To prevent this problem before it happens, cut back their leaves to 4-6” in the fall, once they turn yellow. Any other perennials suffering from powdery mildew, slugs, or other infections should also be cut down.
Disorderly Perennials: if you want to have an ordered look in the garden over winter, cut back any unruly-looking perennials that are falling over, or will fall during winter, such as delphiniums and monk’s hood.

What Perennials to Leave in the Fall

By and large, most perennials can be left in the fall, either as winter interest or as habitat for wildlife. Here’s a breakdown of which perennials to leave:

Evergreen Perennials: before you prune, keep in mind that some perennials are evergreens, meaning they will use their same leaves again next spring. A great example of this are coral bells.
Seedheads for Birds: you can provide food for birds over winter by leaving any plants that have significant seedheads, such as:
coneflowers
black-eyed Susans
Joe Pye weed
goldenrod
asters
hyssops
bee balm
sunflowers
grasses

Perennials for Winter Interest: any perennials with strong stalks that will stay standing during the winter can be left for winter interest, including blazing star, ligularia, globe thistle, coneflowers, Joe Pye weed, and hydrangeas (technically a shrub).
Habitat for Insects: any perennials that you don’t need to cut down can be left as a habitat for beneficial insects. Dead stalks and dead leaves provide ideal overwintering sites for native solitary bees, soon-to-be butterflies in their cocoons, ladybugs, lacewings, and many others that are a boon to your garden and the ecosystem.

When Can I Prune Shrubs?

Now that we know it’s best to leave most shrubs and trees alone in the fall, you may be asking: when can I prune them? The answer depends on when they’ll be blooming and when they set their buds. Most summer-flowering shrubs should be pruned in the late winter or early spring before they start developing flower buds.

Spring-flowering shrubs, such as lilacs and forsythia, form their buds for the spring during the previous summer. To preserve the buds, it’s important to wait for the window after they finish flowering before pruning them.

Hedges can be reshaped anytime, except fall. And of course, if some other reason for pruning is more important to you than flowers—for example, a shrub is too large—you can prune shrubs anytime during the growing season, without risking any damage to the plant. Just remember to stop pruning by the end of summer to let all of your shrubs prepare properly for dormancy in the fall.

Knowing what to prune in the fall and what to leave, not only helps you protect your plants, but also helps you retain beauty in your garden over winter. For any more information, visit our Garden Center in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, and follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more updates!

Oct 24, 2022

Everything Your Moultonborough Garden Needs Before Winter

Garden Center

Songbirds flying south, trees dropping leaves, insects preparing for hibernation—all around us, the ecosystem is getting ready for winter. Likewise, it’s time to prep our garden and lawns for the months ahead. Here’s a guide to give your landscapes enriching fall care, whether you plan to leave for the off-season or live in New Hampshire year-round.

Cut Back and Remove Diseased Plant Matter

When it comes to a fall clean-up, the primary task on most gardeners’ minds is to cut back any dead leaves or flower stalks on their perennials. It’s essential to do this for plants infected with aphids, powdery mildew, slugs, or any other pests. Cleaning up diseased material now prevents the spread next spring. Be careful to keep any diseased material out of your compost bin!

Cut Back or Leave Other Perennials

If your perennials are disease-free, you have the option to cut them back or leave them. The sole purpose for cutting them back is to have a cleaner appearance in the garden over winter and save you time during the spring clean-up. Like plants in the forest, your landscape plants will do perfectly well if you leave them. In fact, your garden stands to benefit, as dead plant matter provides important habitat for overwintering insects, like solitary native bees, daddy long legs, and butterfly caterpillars.

The only exceptions are peonies, lilies, hostas, and irises, which can be susceptible to fungus if you leave the dead stalks. Remember to cut these back, but feel free to leave the others.

Note: the following perennials should never be cut back in New Hampshire: heuchera, heucherella, tiarella, grasses, lavender, Russian sage, hibiscus, ajuga, lamium, lambs ear, sedum, roses, perennial geraniums, ferns, brunnera, bergenia, and most hydrangeas.

Leave Seed Heads for Birds and Winter Interest

Another benefit of leaving some perennials standing is for winter interest in the garden. Any perennials with strong flower stalks to withstand snow and interesting seed heads are good candidates, including hydrangeas, globe thistle, ligularia, blazing star, sea holly, black-eyed Susan’s, and ornamental grass. The seed heads also provide food for resident birds when other food is scarce.

Leave the Leaves in Your Garden

Autumn leaves are a gift of nutrients and mulch for your garden. They hold moisture in the soil during the dry spells of winter, nourish the soil as they break down, and provide essential nesting sites for countless beneficial insects, including ladybugs, lacewings, and cocooning moths and butterflies. Keep some leaves in your garden, and you’ll retain these insects, which become natural pest controllers next year, pollinators for your vegetables, food for the birds, and beautiful creatures of their own.

Note: to reap the most benefits from leaves, remember to wait until the insects emerge from hibernation next year before you start your spring clean-up. If you have an excess amount of leaves on your lawn in the fall, rake them up and use them as the all-important “browns,” or carbon component, in your compost pile.

Spread Compost on Your Soil

Whether you’re growing vegetables, perennials, fruit trees, or shrubs, all gardens benefit from compost in the fall. It replaces the nutrients your plants use during the growing season and mixes into the soil over winter, making your beds ready for planting next spring. For avid gardeners or anyone who wants to grow exceptionally tasty and nutritious food, it’s also a good time to take a soil test and add any minerals you find missing. Caring for soil in the fall with compost and amendments leads to healthier plants, which are more resilient against pests.

The Essentials of Fall Lawn Care in New Hampshire

Mow and Mulch Leaves: too many leaves left on your grass can suffocate it over the winter. It’s best to shred some with the mower, leaving them behind as nutrients for your lawn, and transfer the rest to your garden or compost pile.
Aerate, if Necessary: aeration helps loosen compacted lawns and bring airflow to the roots. It’s only necessary if your lawn is hard and compacted.
Feed Your Lawn: just like your garden, you can improve the soil and health of your lawn by raking in a light layer of compost.

Other Important Tasks for Fall Lawn and Garden Care

Note Perennials to Divide in the Spring: it’s too late to divide perennials now, but you can look for any plants that are crowded or have dieback in the center, make a note, and plan to divide them in the spring.
Water Evergreens: giving them water in the fall helps them retain moisture throughout the winter and prevent winter burn.
Final Tool Care: after all your garden and lawn care is complete, clean any tools, sharpen them, and oil them for protection against rust over the winter.

For supplies or other questions on garden and lawn care for winter, visit Stephens Landscaping Garden Center in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, and follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more updates!