Archive for the ‘Reading & Research’ Category

What can hiring a professional landscaper bring to you besides ‘Sitting Back & Enjoying the View’?

Many, many advantages. Everyone wins!

How about increasing the value of your home by 15%.  MONEY Magazine estimates that you can expect to recover 100% to 200% of your landscaping costs when you sell. That’s why many homeowners add outdoor entertainment areas (outdoor rooms) that they can enjoy while living there, and still recover costs when it’s time to sell.

For Home Buyers: Lenders look favorably on well landscaped homes — and that’s good news for your home’s next owner!

For Home Sellers: According to appraisers and realtors, a beautifully landscaped home will sell faster and for more money than homes that do not have a well-maintained landscape. Nothing beats curb appeal when your prospective buyer pulls up to the front of your home. Realtors have stated that 95% of home shoppers won’t even get out of their car if the house lacks “curb appeal.” Want a faster, easier sale? Get landscaped!

For Your Neighbors: Professionally landscaped homes add value to the entire neighborhood! Just as a neglected property brings down property values, a well-maintained landscape adds to the desirability of the area. Everyone can enjoy the natural beauty. Carefully planned landscapes can buffer noise and serve as privacy barriers.

For the Environment: Plants and trees absorb ozone-damaging pollutants, produce oxygen, and help keep temperatures down in your home on those hot, sultry days and nights. Shady areas are naturally cooler. Ganshert’s also carries environmental friendly pavers now for hardscape installations–can be used in driveways, walkways for any hardscape surface use.

Call Ganshert’s then…Sit Back & Enjoy the View! AND watch the value of your home go up.

UW-West Madison Agricultural Research Station Urban Horticulture Day – Saturday, August 20 10:00 am-3:00 pm

New Program: 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.  At 8:00am, a Beginners Bird Walk and Bird Survey will be held, hosted by David Drake, Extension Wildlife Specialist, and Marsha Lisitza, local bird expert. They will lead a morning walk and a beginning bird survey program—remember to bring your binoculars! Meet in the parking lot next to the garden. Park across the dumpster near the hay barn.  Then, stay and join the fun at the field day!

Get new ideas and answers to perplexing problems, sample fresh produce and tour one of the area’s most extensive collections of flower and vegetable varieties, including many that haven’t yet appeared in seed catalogs, listen to the Madison Flute Club perform their Spring Concert from 10:30 to 11:30, taste and watch sauerkraut being made, “Silly Soil and Crazy Caterpillar” Sundaes will be available for the kids, Rocket Balloons, Fortune Fish, as well as a treasure hunt, and UV Bead, bracelet making—all at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station, 8502 Mineral Point Road, Verona. More details to come! Admission and parking are free. The field day is sponsored by UW-West Madison Agricultural Research Station staff, researchers at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Extension staff, and Master Gardener Volunteers.

Questions: 608-262-2257

What’s a person to do?

Deer damage in the U.S. is estimated at over $1 billion annually to homeowners (this does not include agricultural losses, which is much higher at $8 billion). Research statistics show that an average deer eat 7 pounds of vegetation per day. In high deer population areas, 40% of homeowners reported plant damage.. The average cost of replacing deer-damaged plants was $94 for vegetables, $102 for flowers, $156 for fruit trees, and $635 for shrubbery. Unfortunately, damage by critters cannot be prevented, it can only be reduced. As we all know, deer have taste preferences for some plants more than others, but as we at Ganshert’s always say, if the deer or rabbit is hungry enough (depending on the severity of the winter) then they will eat anything. So…below is a web address to a 6-page publication of landscape plants put out by Rutgers University, rated by deer resistance.  Keep this in mind the next time you go on a plant buying spree or meet with our designers. Be aware of the plants that are being eaten, and what animals you have as frequent visitors; hopefully that and this list will help you out.

www.njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=e271

Possible stocking stuffers for you or your loved ones? Some might not fit, though. Hopefully, you can get a hold of these at the library or go ahead and order for yourself for Christmas or just for the heck of it — hey, it’s winter in Wisconsin.

Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs – Michael A. Dirr — If you haven’t heard of Michael Dirr, you need to attend more gardening functions, he’s the king.

Perennials – Garden Handbooks — A photographic guide to more than 1,000 plants by type size, season of interest, and color

Flowering Crabapples (The Genus Malus) – Fr. John L. Fiala — “Father Fiala bring 50 years of passionate interest in the hybridization and cultivation of the ornamental crabapple to his readers.”

Growing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates – Nancy Rose, Don Selinger, and John Whitman

Trees of Wisconsin Field Guide – Stan Tekiela — Every tree lover and hiker should have this in their stocking this year. If you don’t know what the trees are in your yard – you need this field guide. (New version came out last year).

Birdscaping In The Midwest – Mariette Nowak — If you like the birdies and the beauty of native plants, you will not be able to put this down.  Absolutely knockout photos of native plants and birds.  I’ve featured this one in our “Growing With Ganshert’s” newsletter.

And if it still isn’t spring yet and you finished reading all of the above, don’t forget The Pruner’s Handbook by John Malins — It’s the Ganshert staff go-to for specific pruning questions on a particular genus or species of plant or tree.

HAPPY READING!                 THINK SPRING.