Activity

huh buddy, its been awhile, i can’t say what exactly will work up there, but i can tell you what i have had success with down here.
 
hackberry, sweetgum, black cherry, black cypress, live oak, persimmon, box elder,
 
eastern red cedat, sweetbay magnolia, loblolly pine, american holly,. wax myrlte.
 
all of these are natives and pretty much wi…[Read more]

Thanks a lot!  Very useful, I’m going with pitch pine, sweet fern and bayberry.  Nitrogen fixation sold me.

Curious about good mulch being environmentally unsound.
 

Trees, rain gardens (where appropriate, IE around the perimeter so the plows can push snow into them during the winter… raised islands in the middle, so the plows won’t dig up your plants), massing of grasses/sedges… low hardy ground covers… If you do rocks, do river stones 3-4″ min… wood mulch is becoming outdated and the good stuff is…[Read more]

Agreed with the Nyssa…I didn’t read closely enough…’dunes’. Oops.
Sassafras is superb, but I have found it to be a bit finicky to establish.

Smaller is better in most situations. A good rule of thumb I use for trees is a year of establishment for every inch of caliper. So many times I argue for the small tree, but everyone demands the instant…[Read more]

Cape Cod Cooperative Extension has a nice list of plants appropriate for fresh water buffer zones and coastal buffer zones. This one is now used as the standard for most local town conservation commissions. It has recommended plant size and spacing as…[Read more]

Nyssa is a great tree with knockout fall foliage. Likes to be near hydric soils. I’d be afraid to use it too high and dry, if that is an issue.
 
Chokecherry is pretty good for survivability, too. If it is moist, Sassafras does well.
 
Rugosa is a weird one because it has an aggressive nature on a dune and it is not native. It still makes the lis…[Read more]

Nyssa sylvatica (black tupelo) is a wonderful tree that does well in sandy coastal soils. I also second the shrubs cited by Mr Garulay…both myrica and comptonia fix nitrogen too! Bonus
I would use caution with the rugosa rose…I believe they made the list of invasives in the northeast a couple years ago.
Best of luck

I’m farther north than you. Not many trees are going to establish in a dune situation as it is constantly changing in terrain (wind driven shifting sands, by definition). The only tree that I see handle a dune at all is Pinus rigida.
 
There are several native shrubs that live in dunes and sandy oceanside areras similar to dunes without the…[Read more]

In situations like that I always ask nature what works? I look at what has worked in other places just like what you are dealing with. If there is nothing that works in nature in your location I would plant what is most likely to work. I am guessing that shrubs might be your answer, can you think of any first succession(pioneer) shrubs that you…[Read more]

I used dynascape at a former employer. It is just another autocad type program(from canada I think) with different commands. If you know how to use one drafting program it should not be a big transition between them all. I switched from autocad, to Landscape pro, to dynascape, to microstation, and now to revit over the last 7 years. It was…[Read more]

Dynascape software is only good for residential design. If your looking at teaching your self better skills on the computer I recommend taking the online course for sketch up. Even look on YouTube they always have great information on sketch up and auto cad. Dynascape in my opinion is dieing and can not do anything beyond the residential aspect of…[Read more]

Go for it.  Fraxinus americana if you’re looking for the species.

Thanks John– I recently learned Dynascape at a company I worked for in philadelphia area- I thought it was being used by some designers.  I am trying to figure out which programs companies (design/build and landscape architecture firms) like to use other than autoCAD.  I am thinking of taking an online course this week for google SketchUp.  Do yo…[Read more]