Overgrown Shrubs and Privacy are Top Inquiries
Not too surprising, at least to me, is that there are a lot of people struggling with how to best manage overgrown shrubs. Specifically,
visitors to this site want to know how to control the size of burning bush, at right, rose-of-Sharon, and evergreen trees and shrubs.
Visitors also want to know when and how far back to prune butterfly
bush!
Hand-in-hand with the above concern are
questions relating to the creation of privacy in landscape settings.
My sense is that a lot of people planted the above shrubs, especially evergreens, at left, in an attempt to create a sense of privacy in their garden? However, some years later, they're now trying to figure out how to deal with trees and shrubs that are much too large for the spaces in which they were planted!
In response to these concerns, click on the links at right for more my thoughts on addressing each of these issues.
By the way, if you do a search to find information on the topics at right, you'll quite possibly find that links to the pages on this site have made it to the first results page of many of the major search engines!
Each winter, the Central New York State Nursery & Landscape Association delivers an educational
program for its members and other "green" industry representatives including golf course superintendents, landscape architects,
institutional grounds maintenance staff, and others.
If you've spent time on this website, you
probably know that
Now, researchers at Michigan State University, where much of the
original research on the effect of tree leaves on lawns was
conducted, are taking a closer look at the possible herbicidal
activity of chemicals leaching out from shredded maple leaves.
Initial observations suggest that these naturally-occurring
chemicals can significantly reduce dandelion seed germination in
lawns!
I know it seems sort of silly to start mentioning flower and garden shows that are almost six months - and likely well over one hundred
inches of snow - away! 
What started out as a bit of experiment has become a modest success.
More surprisingly, because of the partnership with Drew Kinder and his company, the Seed Super Store in Buffalo,
these mixes have found there way onto lawns near West Point, out on Long Island and in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Virginia. A couple of pounds were even shipped as far south as Atlanta, Georgia!
Several weeks ago I mentioned on this page (scroll down this page) that my wife, Beth, and I would be traveling to Buffalo during the last
week in August to attend the "GardenWalk" garden tour.
Dealing with weeds is probably the worst part of gardening. This task is even worse when you're attempting to control an
especially aggressive weed such as goutweed, at right (which more than a few people unwittingly import into their
garden as tiny root pieces hidden among the roots of a "gift plant" from friends, family or neighbors)!
About
a month ago, I met with a couple to discuss the condition of the
trees surrounding an older home that they'd just purchased. 
While
many conditions associated with tree failure are pretty obvious, at
left, others are almost undetectable - unless you know what you're
looking for.
First, and foremost, the various American
elm varieties currently
in the news - including `Princeton,' `Valley Forge,' `Delaware,'
`New Harmony,' `Independence,' and others - are Dutch Elm Disease (DED) -
"tolerant", NOT "resistant!" 
I
would also think twice before planting DED-tolerant American elms
along city streets because they're simply very large trees -
assuming they live to maturity! All of the varieties mention above,
for example, can grow anywhere from fifty to eighty feet tall and
wide, with trunks that can easily be four to five feet in diameter -
or larger! Considering that there's often no more than five feet
between the street curb and sidewalk in many neighborhoods, just
where, exactly, are these trees going to be planted?