Landscaping Blog

Recycling Rainwater

Written by Burkholder Brothers Landscaping Monday, October 17 2011 08:51

The past few months have wreaked havoc on our plants and our water schedule. First we experienced a drought, then a hurricane, and now we've had a lot of rain. It's hard to know what to do with weather this extreme. While there's no controlling the weather, you can control what you do with rainwater runoff. Rain barrels are an excellent way to store rainfall for use in the landscape.

Why Use A Rain Barrel?

• It's free! Spend $50 for one and then use it for one summer and it is likely you've more than paid for it. An easy way to calculate is figure out your water bill per gallon – then figure out how any gallons you need to break even. After that it's completely free.

• Rainwater is much better for plants to drink as it has natural nutrients in it and does not contain chlorine and other additives tap water has.

• We are letting free water escape our land. Unfortunately most new home builders remove the top 2-4 inches of good black dirt when leveling a plot. This good top soil is then hauled away and sold to companies that bag it and sell it back to you! This practice unfortunately makes our soil underneath the sod very poor and impermeable as it is typically hard clay preventing deep root growth for plants and grass. Water then takes a very long time to soak down into the clay, thus it winds up collecting as fast flowing water drowning the grasses' shallow roots and then most of it flowing into the storm drains where it is gone. Thus, a normal infrequent rain no longer satiates the water needs of most lawns (at least in my geographical location) and requires frequent watering using drinking / treated water during the summer. By using treated clean drinking tap water it winds up wasting those substantial resources to make it safe to drink.

Information Source: http://conflictedracer.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/rain-barrels/

Rain barrels gone artsy make for a great statement piece or a fun community project

A Rain barrel that functions as a flower pot serves two purposes

De-Stressing with Nature

Written by Burkholder Brothers Landscaping Tuesday, October 11 2011 11:46

I don’t know about you, but it seems like things just keep getting busier. One of the most difficult tasks in life is finding and maintaining balance – everyone struggles with it at some point in life, and for many it’s a constant battle. Maybe that’s why it's so relaxing to be out in nature. When you’re surrounded by plants and animals, it takes you back to the beginning – back to the way things were before we interrupted the cycle and balance of our natural environment. It’s refreshing to see the beauty, stability, and peacefulness of nature.

Landscape Architecture blog, The Dirt, recently posted a great article on how nature has been shown to help people de-stress. In this article, Michael Posner, professor emeritus at University of Oregon says that our brains get fatigued after working long periods at a time. According to Posner, a break in itself does not help deal with stress; the quality of the break is what matters. Dr. Marc Berman of the University of Michigan found that memory and attention span quality improved by 20 percent when subjects walked through an arboretum versus walking down a busy urban street, which left subject without any cognitive boost. Berman also found that simply looking at photos of nature helped improve cognitive attention span. So create a de-stressing environment for yourself, whether it is real plants or photos of plants.

Read this article for more info: http://dirt.asla.org

Moonlit Hayride in Media, PA

Written by Burkholder Brothers Landscaping Friday, October 07 2011 11:39

The past few days have felt like perfect fall days. The air is crisp, the sun is shining, and the leaves are beginning to show fall color. To make use of this great fall weather, we recommend the Autumn Moon Hayrides at Linvilla Orchards. The hayrides will take you through the apple orchards and drop you off at a "campsite" where you can warm up by the fire while roasting marshmellos and drinking apple cider. 

• Hayrides are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from September 30 thru October 30.
• 5:30-8 pm (Fridays & Saturdays until 8:30pm)
• $7 per person (includes marshmellows & cider)

 For more info, visit: http://www.linvilla.com/hayrides/autumn_moon.php

Bringing the Farm to the Forest

Written by Burkholder Brothers Landscaping Friday, September 30 2011 11:45

There's been a lot of talk about goats lately. Why, you might ask? Goats are a natural source for land clearing. They eat (almost) everything! Send goats out to a forested area before a tree clearing and you don't have to fight through as much poison ivy. Goats can clear herbaceous and small shrubbery at roughly one-third of the cost of human or machine powered clearing. Plus, who wouldn't like to see this cute face doing the weeding?

While goat rentals for clearing purposes should only be done by experienced professionals who have proper fencing and an animal care crew, we can expect to reap the benefits of these animals in the future. 

Goat Clearing Before and After Photo from Studio G