Using the right materials on your front walkwaycan add instant curb appeal. From bluestone to crushed stone, custom pavers to brick there are a variety of materials you can pick from in order to match the landscape style that appeals to you and works well with your home. Statile & Todd is featured in Houzz for a herringbone brick pattern which is classic and stately, and creates a traditional feel that is pleasing to the eye and adds further curb appeal. To learn more about enhancing your front walkway contact us today!

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Spring is in full swing which means more and more people are outside walking, and enjoying the relief from the cold winter. With all the action outside you need to make sure you’re thinking about your front landscape. What is your curb appeal like? What better way to enhance your curb appeal than by adding a welcoming walkway from the sidewalk to the front door. Adding shrubs, flowers and more will welcome your guests as the weather continues to get better. Contact us today to get started improving your front walkway!

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Statile & Todd was featured on Houzz for their work creating a Brooklyn, NY garden sanctuary. The enclosed outdoor garden creates a feeling that you are alone in your own “secret garden” in the midst of the city. If you are looking to create your own private garden sanctuary, whether it is in a city, or out in the country contact us today to see how we can help you create that perfect garden room.

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We were part of the massive shore cleanup and are still helping people in our close proximity of Bernardsville, Basking Ridge, Harding, Far Hills, and Bedminster in Somerset County. Our surrounding Warren, Essex and Morris counties were also hit hard by Sandy.

The absolute best time for digging up trees is before they leaf out in mid-to-late April.

Trees give us shade that can help cool our homes in the summer, act as a wind block from prevailing winds, give us fuel, privacy, protect animals and birds from predators and the elements and can generally warm our hearts.

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
-Warren Buffett

It’s a difficult decision to pare down a list to 11 trees since there are so many. John Todd has been a tree guru for 40 years and has many favorites. Here’s his list of the 11 best types of trees to plant in NJ that qualify as low maintenance, disease and pest resistant:

Acer Buergeranum – Trident Maple

1) Acer Buergeranum – Trident Maple – Likes full sun, tolerates drought, excellent lawn specimen for patio or yard, 20-25’ tall and 30’ wide.

Carpinus Betulus – European Hornbeam

2) Carpinus Betulus – European Hornbeam – Likes full sun to light shade, often used as hedge or screen, versatile for many situations, 40-60’ tall and 30-40’ wide.

Cercidiphyllum Japonicum – Katsura Tree

3) Cercidiphyllum Japonicum – Katsura Tree – Likes sun or part shade, heart-shaped leaves, fall fragrance, can handle wind, not much drought, very graceful, 60-100’ tall and 20-30’ wide.

Cornus Kousa – Kousa Dogwood

4) Cornus Kousa – Kousa Dogwood – Likes sun or part shade, acid loving soil, blooms in June, nice winter interest, outstanding choice for small space especially when combined with shrubs, 30’ tall and 20-30’ wide.

Ginkgo Bilboa – Ginnkgo

5) Ginkgo Bilboa – Ginkgo – Likes full sun, prefers sandy and moderately moist soil, can handle many pH soils, great for shore areas in Monmouth and Ocean counties, female tree fruit may be a little stinky so many people prefer male cultivars, 50-80’ tall and 30’ wide or greater.

Koelreuteria Paniculata – Golden Rain Tree

6) Koelreuteria Paniculata – Golden Rain Tree – Prefers sun, adaptive to many soil situations, drought tolerant, large leaves make this a great shade tree, nice flowers when hardly anything else is flowering in July, fruit may be a little messy, 30-40’ high and 30’ wide.

Magnolia Virginiana – Sweetbay Magnolia

7) Magnolia Virginiana – Sweetbay Magnolia – Likes full sun, however can handle shade and wet soils, fragrant white flowers in May/June, gorgeous leaves, evergreen in mild winters, North American native, outstanding small specimen near a patio, 20’ tall and 10-20’ wide.

Betula Nigra – Heritage River Birch ‘Cully’

8) Betula Nigra – Heritage River Birch ‘Cully’ – Soil adaptive, tolerates moist or dry situations, terrific exfoliating white bark, pyramidal shape, North American native, 40-70’ tall and 40-60’ wide. There are smaller varieties that are also outstanding such as ‘Little king’ and ‘Dura Heat’.

Metasequoia Glyptostroboides – Dawn Redwood

9) Metasequoia Glyptostroboides – Dawn Redwood – Likes full sun, well drained soil, can handle wet soils, easily transplanted, deciduous, excellent in large open areas as specimen or in groups, reddish bark exfoliates as it matures, 70-100’ tall and 25’ wide.

Juniperus Virginiana – Eastern Redcedar

10) Juniperus Virginiana – Eastern Redcedar – Prefers full sun in moist, sandy soils, drought tolerant and excellent for salt sprays windy, exposure, great for NJ beach areas, green foliage turns bronze in winter, North American native, 40-50’ tall and 8-20’ variable width.

Abies – Concolor

11) Abies – Concolor – Full sun, moist well drained sandy soil preferred, can also handle light shade, drought conditions, will not do well in clay soils, citrus fragrance, excellent substitute for Colorado Blue Spruce, great for large landscapes, North American native, 50-100’ tall and 15-30’ wide.

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There isn’t much to worry about when it comes to your landscapes, the cicadas are coming to reproduce, not feed. Potentially some saplings or young shrubs could be damaged, but overall you really have nothing to worry about.  To learn more you can also read the article EAST ABOUT TO BE OVERRUN BY BILLIONS OF CICADAS from the associated press.

If you are at all concerned about how the cicadas will affect your landscape give us a call at 908.204.9918.

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Here are a sample of some plants we found on a walk at a local NJ public garden.

Close up of Hellebore Orientalis ‘Nigra’

Hellebore Orientalis ‘Nigra’ White blooming Hellebore that is deer resistant and an early flowing plant.

White Primrose in the foreground

Hellebore

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Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

A war was declared in New Jersey that very few New Jersey residents ever heard about.  In 2002, the discovery of the Asian Long Horned Beetle could have seen devastation to hardwood trees in New Jersey if the Department of Agriculture had not reacted as quickly and effectively as it did.  An infestation of this nonnative species while appeared apocalyptic to the local communities that were affected, the plan to aggressively eliminate the host trees surrounding the area worked in preventing the beetle from escaping and ruining the hardwoods of the highlands and central part of the state.  Over 100,000 trees were taken down, chipped and then incinerated to ensure that the insects eggs and subsequent generations were eliminated.  Peter’s Todd Tree Service, the sister company of Statile & Todd Landscaping played a critical role in the five year battle.

New Jersey Wins Fight Against a Tiny Invader
New York Times
By Lisa W. Foderaro

“If you took a cross section of a tree infested by Asian long-horned beetles, it would look like Swiss cheese,” said Rhonda Santos, a spokeswoman for the federal Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

But this month, New Jersey declared victory in its war against the Asian long-horned beetle, an invasive, hardwood-eating insect that arrived on the shores of New York City in 1996, most likely on wood pallets. The beetle has since surfaced in a total of five states and, by tunneling through tree trunks, has threatened some of the nation’s most common tree species, including maples, London planes, birches and poplars.

More than 20,000 trees were removed in New Jersey during the struggle, but — knock on wood — the beetles are now vanquished from the Garden State. “It shows that the program works,” said Paul J. Kurtz, a state entomologist who led the eradication effort. “I’ve been doing this for 11 years nonstop, so it’s a little weird that it’s over. But at the same time, it’s like, ‘Wow, we did it.’ ”

New Jersey was the second state, after Illinois, to announce its ouster of the beetle, which is black with white spots and has long antennas resembling horns. Massachusetts, New York and Ohio are still in the fight, with federal, state and local officials using a combination of techniques, including tree removals, insecticide injections, public education and surveillance.

The beetles lay their eggs inside the bark of the tree, and after the eggs hatch, larvae feed on the trunk’s hardwood. “It kills a tree by eating the wood from the inside out,” said Rhonda Santos, a spokeswoman for the federal Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “If you took a cross section of a tree infested by Asian long-horned beetles, it would look like Swiss cheese.”

In New Jersey, the beetle was first detected in 2002 in Jersey City, in Hudson County, where 113 trees were found to be infested. But a separate and more serious outbreak occurred in Carteret in 2004. A homeowner there called the state to report a strange-looking insect in his yard. Mr. Kurtz dropped what he was doing to investigate. After confirming that it was, in fact, the Asian long-horned beetle, Mr. Kurtz appeared on the local news to alert the public. During the broadcast, a woman from West Carteret called the hot line to report that she, too, had spotted the invader.

“We went out to see and, sure enough, the lady’s trees were covered with hundreds of exit holes,” Mr. Kurtz said of the telltale pockmark, measuring three-eighths of an inch in diameter, through which the adult beetle emerges from the trunk. State officials discovered over 600 infested trees, in Carteret and the neighboring municipalities of Linden, Rahway and Woodbridge.

During the next two years, New Jersey’s agriculture officials delineated a 25-square-mile quarantine zone across the four communities, which include both industrial and residential neighborhoods, and inspected 129,686 trees. Officials urged the public not to transport firewood, the main way the beetles are spread. Workers removed not only infested trees, but also a wide swath of nearby trees that were at high risk. Here in Linden, for example, only 11 infested trees were discovered, but 14,894 trees, including many saplings, were cut down. The trees were then chipped and burned.

“It’s because of the host ratio,” Mr. Kurtz said, referring to the number of trees in proximity to an infested tree that are potential hosts. “If you’re in an area that has a higher host ratio, you’ll be removing more trees.”

The Department of Environmental Protection replanted about one-third of the trees that were removed, favoring species that are not attractive to the beetle.  “Sometimes it may seem a little draconian,” Mr. Kurtz said, “but in Jersey City you would never know we were there.”

The last live beetle in New Jersey was seen in 2006, but state and federal agriculture officials require localities to go through three “confirmation cycles” in which no invasive species are found, which can take years.

Across the Hudson River, officials are making their own progress in New York City, where the beetle was first detected in the United States in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In New York State, the pest is now found in every borough of New York City except the Bronx, and in Suffolk County. A federal study found that 43 percent of the city’s 5.2 million trees were “potentially impacted” by the pest, said Matthew P. Wells, director of tree preservation for the city’s parks department.

Since the discovery in Brooklyn, workers have removed 12,749 infested and high-risk trees from the four boroughs, treated 588,000 others with insecticide and carried out 1.2 million inspections. The last beetles were seen in 2010. As a result, the city is poised to proclaim a partial victory. Ms. Santos, of the Agriculture Department, expected the city to announce the beetle’s eradication from Staten Island and Manhattan by summer.

Just because New Jersey has conquered the Asian long-horned beetle does not mean that Mr. Kurtz is idle. “If you’re not minding the store,” he said, “someone else could come in.” He was referring to the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect and fast flier that attacks ash trees and is now in 18 states, including Pennsylvania and New York. “It’s inevitable,” he said of the ash borer’s arrival. “We’re surrounded.”

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Photo: Hunter Ten Broeck

The ground hog didn’t see his shadow this year which according to folklore means we are due for an early spring. Statistics show that he is correct about 39% of the time.

One thing is certain, spring is coming and we are already busy planning our gardens for this year. We plan to explore more biodynamic methods which is a holistic approach using the interrelationships between the soil, the land, and the animals (i.e. pests) to create a more ecologically minded and sustainable system. Notable vineyards have been using biodynamic strategies for many years. http://www.freywine.com/press/top-ten-reason-to-buy-organic.html

Ever wonder why your lettuce petered out and never grew? Or why your green beans were spongy?

Certain vegetables are best planted at specific times based on the placement of the moon and this technique has been practiced for thousands of years around the globe. This is one aspect of biodynamic gardening. Just as the ocean tides rise and fall with the moon, the water content, roots and leaves in plants react to this influence.  Certain plants perform better when the planting is timed to a specific time during the lunar calendar.

We found an excellent resource for a software program to help plan growing our vegetables this year and we invite you to take a look: http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/phases.html

Hopefully this can help turn your brown thumbs to green!

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