This is a concept that has recently become popular.

As construction of building and roads continue to take place, and storm water continues to get impacted, rain gardens are going to become critical to the survival of many creeks and streams, and even our lakes. When you have an impervious (meaning a solid, non water penetrating surface) surface, it will heat up in the sun light, and when water hits it, the water heats up, collects together and rushes off the surface into the drainage ditch that leads through a stream to the rivers and lakes. First thing is the extremely high temperature damages wildlife, and second, the concentration of the fast flowing water damages the natural flow of the stream. We will go into more depth on this at a later time, today I want to explain how a rain garden helps to much of this problem. In our Paver vs. Concrete blog, we touched on a solution to the impervious surface problem.

A Rain Garden in my own words is a big hole in the ground that drains water back naturally into the soil, filled up with organic dirt and planted with native plants that will survive the weather and tolerate the extreme conditions. A rain garden is put in a location where a concentration of water is exiting from a building or parking lot and is designed to catch all the water and hold it for up to 48 hours. The rain garden is designed like a bowl, and sometimes has a drain pipe at the very bottom for extreme water exit. The bowl is planted with all kinds of native wildflowers, shrubs and trees and is mulched usually with hardwood mulch. The plants are what helps the water percolate through the soil and back into the underground streams. As the hot water exits the parking lot, it collects in the basin of the rain garden. All the anti-freeze and oils from the vehicles is in this water that collects in the rain garden. As the water percolates through the plants and the soil, it is cooled off and cleaned. The oils get stuck in the mulch and on the plants. The plants will rejuvenate their leaves and the mulch will either compost itself, or is removed and replaced every so often. All this together, protects our streams from pollution and replenishes our underground water.

Rain Gardens can be installed in many different ways. There can be a stack system, where you have multiple basins for heavy rain events. You can use the underground drainage for extra water control.

Rain Gardens can also be applied to many different applications. I have personally installed rain gardens in home owner’s yards in places where the concentration of water from the driveway and neighbors yard was eroding their grass away. We put in this beautiful garden that doubled as water control and solved the problem.
If you have any questions and comments, please ask. A short blog cannot extensively cover this whole topic. Go to this link for residential image of a rain garden. Notice the beauty of it. Go to this link for a layout of the design.

Happy Streams

Examples of a paver patio

If you are looking to make a new sidewalk or patio, one question you should ask yourself is, what is the advantage of one over the other. Is there an advantage to using pavers over using a concrete slab? Is there a cost difference? Does one last longer than the other? Is one more maintenance than the other? These are questions I will highlight in this short blog.

The advantage. Well, there can be advantages to both. A concrete slab is very traditional, fairly easy to install, and will last a long time with very little up keep. However, pavers are very contemporary, fairly easy to install, and will last just as long. With concrete, you have to level the dirt, backfill rock and then get a concrete truck to drive to your spot and pour. Depending on the size of your spot, you have to pay for more concrete than you are planning on using due to a minimum truck order. After letting the concrete dry, and hoping for no low spots that hold water, you will backfill dirt around the edges and viola, a patio or sidewalk. Hopefully it will not crack so to let water get under it a freeze and create new cracks.
With pavers, you have to level the dirt, backfill with small rock as the leveling product, and then just start laying the pavers out in the pattern you so choose. After all the pavers are dry laid on the gravel, then you sweep in sand in the joints to ‘lock’ them in place. Once they are sanded in, they will not move (typically). I like pavers from an environmental standpoint. With pavers, the rainwater can naturally soak through the pavers and go into the water table under to ground naturally. With concrete, it all collects and runs off the concrete in a concentrated area, potentially creating erosion and a slew of other problems. With routine control with pre-emergence, weeds are not an issue in the cracks. If you have purchased quality blocks, then they will never crack or fade!

The major advantage to pavers over concrete, is just about everyone can do pavers, not everyone can do concrete!

The cost. You will spend about 10% more on pavers than traditional concrete, but the advantage out ways the cost.  But, if you have to pay someone to do your concrete, and you do the pavers yourself, the savings is huge for pavers.

Longevity. According to the specs on the pavers, pavers will ultimately last longer, because of the drainage issue. But, with most people, they slack with the weed control after several years and the patio goes to pot. With just a little maintenance, pavers are quality forever.

Well, here is my blog length answer for the difference in pavers vs. concrete. Try pavers at least once and see how you like it! The look cannot be matched.

Happy Paving

That is a great question, and can be argued by many people as to what they prefer to use when mulching, but after 18 years and several thousand yards of mulch put out, I want to share my opinion of what I like.

Now let me start out by linking you to another blog that defines "All the Different Types of Mulch ". That will give you the overview of the different types of mulch and what they try and accomplish. The most common mulch put out in my area of Middle Tennessee, is brown, black or red Hardwood mulch. It is bought either by the bag, or by the cubic yard scoop (bulk). When bought by the scoop in the back of a truck or in a trailer, there are several tools you want to make it easy to get out and spread. The first one is a pitch fork. Most people do not want to invest $25 in a pitch fork for once a year mulching, but it has so many other uses around the home for gardening, etc. The pitch fork will gently glide into the pile of mulch and give you a nice scoop to transfer to your flower bed. Then you can use the empty fork to spread the mulch in the bed. I never mulch with anything but the fork. You can then use a regular or square point shovel to get the last of the mulch out of the truck or trailer. Some people will use a metal garden rake to smooth the mulch around after they make piles all over the bed. This is fine, just a different technique, and usually takes a little longer. If you do a lot of mulching, they sell extra large pitch forks and scoop shovels, but are unnecessary for the average mulcher.

All you will need is your hands when using any type of bag or bale mulch. A razor blade will come in handy to cut the bags or string off the bale. Some people will dump each bag and spread with a metal rake or pitch fork, others will shake and spread with only their hands. Pine needles need to only be spread with your hands to ensure consistency. Gloves are usually helpful in this application, (especially for the guys that have a woman!), to keep their hands protected a little bit.

Happy Mulching

Pinch that off!

Make it go away?

This will be the first of many blogs on Tomato Plants. Please send your questions in and we will address them as they come in. I had someone ask about pinching a tomato plant. Why do you need to pinch a tomato plant? The tomato plant as it is growing and maturing, will put off extra branches called suckers, inbetween the main stem and the leaf stem. Those suckers need to be pinched out so the main leaf stem can get all the energy and nutrients to make the tomatoes. This process can make all the difference in the amount of fruit production, and the size of the fruit.

While we are here, I want to also remind you that the type of fertilizer can help or harm your plant and production. Make sure it is a tomato fertilizer with low nitrogen. Too much nitrogen can cause the plant to only create new plant and no fruit. Espoma makes the organic tomato tone that works extremely well.

Happy Tomatoes