Activity

Please see http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/pubs/abstracts/efg/efg9605.shtm regarding root barriers. 
 
and http://hort.ufl.edu/woody/spacing.shtml about spacing, which is great by the way.
 
and lastly, http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/disaster/Hurricane%20Preparation%20files/Where%20to%20put%20the%20money,%20the%20tree%20or%20the%20hole.pdf.
 
They ar…[Read more]

May I reprint this picture please?

What kind of difficulties are you finding with rain gardens in small parking lot islands?  And what is small?  200sf?  400sf?
 

http://land8lounge.com/photo/diy-center/next?context=user   This was a simple, integrated stormwater and native habitat restoration that revitalized a commercial lot.  Design capacity is a twenty year storm event infiltration as required by the regional planning agency.  Removed 13,000 sf of asphalt from a car lot and cut in bio-swales from the ex…[Read more]

I have been using it for around five years, I love it….very professional and easy to integrate. The people and tech staff helps and has lots of info.
I dont know what the heck I would do without it. Compiling a plant list by hand seems archaic now.

I quickly adapted to using it for planting plans, although I know I wasn’t using it to its full potential.  The other night (during an all nighter) I kept loading the tutorial videos on my second monitor while I was working and I couldn’t believe the things they were saying were possible with it. 
I guess I realize that AutoCad is used by so m…[Read more]

Yes I use Land F/X at my office and love it.   It has definitely streamlined a lot of my work processes.

I’ve got a collection started, too. My favorite is the sprinkler system on when it is pouring rain. And I’m getting more. I’ve hit the motherlode in upstate NY…where design goes to die.

Interesting…the excuse I always hear is that the trees in the islands act to shade the parking lot to reduce the heat island effect. Yea…right. You would need a real canopy for that to happen, not twigs placed at 50′ on center. Besides, just how often are the trees allowed to grow? Overzealous landscapers tend to make them into lollypops. I kn…[Read more]

Jim,
Another East-coaster, here…Isn’t it amazing how a site specific design application can revolutionize the way drawings are produced? I learned this almost 4 years ago when I transitioned from using AutoCAD to Vectorworks Landmark. Whether using a plug-in that makes it site specific or using a stand-alone site specific application, it makes a…[Read more]

I have a number of parking lots where I could move some green space from outside the parking lot  and into islands, but that costs more since that equals more pavement to drive past the increased islands So is it really ecologically an important thing to have trees in islands? Maybe they should be smaller so that the space outside the parking…[Read more]

The second you find a way to add to a landscape and still meet the parking requirements, the developer and/or  his architect or engineer will add to the building or find some other way to snatch it all away from you. Perhaps that is why they are more often the Primary and LAs are not.
 
Each community sets its own values and applies them through r…[Read more]

From my commercial landscape plan review days… one applicant argued that there was nothing in the code that specifically excluded asphalt from being counted for area that contributed to % of ground cover.

Code minimums are just that. It is up to the L.A. to persuade the developer to go beyond the minimum. I know most owners/developers would rather maximize the opportunities for parking spaces, however trees that are planted in groups do better and have a greater chance of survival. So whether you decide to go with a low impact development strategy…[Read more]

I have been taking walks at lunch and every time I see a “Landscape OOPS” I take a picture. It is interesting to look back and understand why we exist. Fun to see spruce trees planted 2 feet from buildings, edging used as a retaining wall, trees planted in the middle of a concrete driveway and everything is heaving. Well It should make a good slideshow.

Yeah, it was born to fail.  But in an ironic kind of way it’s more like a true forest tree, where only one one in a thousand something trees makes it from a seedling to maturity.
I have recently begun to take pictures of trees of declining trees in this type of situation.  Hopefully to make a collage of sorts.  I will know more about the use an…[Read more]

Funny most people look at this tree and want to blame the tree for being diseased or something. Not the fact that there is no way that tree would ever work in that spot….

I can always depend on you, Trace, for some crazy off the wall and maybe even impractical idea.