Rutgers Nursery -- It's a FUN place to shop!

Rutgers Nursery..

It's a FUN place to shop!

All new pottery is in including terra cotta pots!

You can't miss us with these BIG chairs out front!

Need a watering can? We have them too!

Stop by and take a picture next to our NJ Tree Foundation Display and then visit their website to learn what benefits they bring to NJ! NJ Tree Foundation

Browse in our greenhouse and meet "The Mugglies"

Rutgers Nursery

It's a fun place to visit!

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Rutgers Landscape & Nursery

announces their newly designed

website!

The website is formated in a simple-to-navigate, user friendly format.

The site also has an easy to use on-line shopping feature, allowing purchases to be made right from home.

Other enhancements include pictures of finished projects, updates on its popular garden seminar series and information on its landscape design team. Specials, sales and promotions are also updated on the site.

                   

  

Visit our new website at:

   Rutgers Landscape & Nursery

The "Dirt" on Composting!

GO GREEN
WITH
COMPOSTING!!

Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil.

It is the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. Old time farmers refer to finished compost as “Black Gold”.

The necessities of composting are:

Air: To aid in the decomposition of your organic materials. Depending on the type of compost bin you are using you should either pitch fork your compost weekly or spin your compost tumbler.

Water: Your compost pile should be as moist as a ‘wrung out sponge’. If your pile is too dry, the microbes or composting rate will be slowed dramatically. If your pile is too wet, then your composting materials will become matted, thus lessoning the airflow = slow decomposition and bad smelling compost. If your compost bin is an open-air type, such as a screened in area and we are due for a significant, long period of rain, you may want to cover your compost pile with a tarp.

Food:  “Browns” and “Greens”. These are the necessary ingredients in your success to composting. Just like baking a cake, flour and sugar or water are necessary, thus a ration that contains equal portions of both and is well mixed works best.

Definition of Foods:

"Browns"

Brown ingredients are dry and dead plant materials such as:

• Straw
• Dry, brown weeds
• Autumn leaves
• Wood Chips and Sawdust
• Cardboard & Newspaper, shredded
• Peanut Shells
• Pine needles and Oak leaves
Notes:
- Coniferous trees will take longer to decompose.
- If you want to add fireplace ashes, do so sparingly, as they are mainly alkaline and will affect the PH level of the pile.

"Greens"
Green ingredients are fresh (and are often green in color) such as:


• Green grass
• Green weeds & green leaves
• Kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps
• Coffee grounds & tea bags
• Fresh horse manure
• Vegetable peels
• Eggshells


Items not suitable for composting are:

• Chemically-treated wood products
• Avoid diseased plants
• Human & Pet wastes
• Fatty foods and milk products
• Bones
• Morning glory/bind weeds, sheep sorrel, & ivy.

Types of Composters

There are many options today for containing and processing your compost from home made bins using untreated lumber, recycled pallets, wire caged containers to commercial bins which are upright, tray form or compost tumblers.

STARTING A NEW COMPOST PILE?

Try adding any of the following to the pile:

 Aged Manure

 Cottonseed Meal

 Alfalfa Meal

 Blood Meal

 Compost Starter or Compost Accelerator

WHEN IS YOUR COMPOST FINISHED COOKING?

There is no set time when a compost pile should be ready or done ‘cooking’. The process is heavily dependent on the organic matter you put in the bin/heap, the airflow, temperature of the bin and the aeration. Usually, if all these factors are prime, than your compost should be complete and ready to use within three to 12 months.
Finished compost is dark in color and has an earthy smell, like rich soil. Usually it’s hard to identify any of the original ingredients that you put in the bin other than fine bits of straw if you’ve used that.

Where to use your new compost?

Many will turn compost into their gardens prior to spring plantings giving the soil a rich organic matter content. In clay soils, compost helps to add tiny holes and passageways into the soil; making it drain more quickly thus not making it waterlogged and doesn’t dry out like a brick like substance.

On lawns, you can sprinkle it on as a top dressing to improve the soil for better grass growth.

It is also a great idea to add a small portion of compost to houseplants occasionally.

You can mulch with compost, but bear in mind that it will decompose further into your soil, thus if you’re mulching for aesthetic reasons, while it will look great in the beginning, as it decomposes it will not look as fresh as the day you originally spread it. This would also be considered “top dressing” your plants.



Composting is a cheap and easy way to create your own fantastic fertilizer and it's totally natural!

So instead of throwing out your food you can put it to good use. This will save some space in landfills. You also can save money not having to pay for fertilizer and save time by putting some of your grass clipping and leaves into your compost bin.

Preventing Garden Weeds

Spring showers bring flowers and also garden weeds!

Early spring is the best time to tackle the onset of weeds while the days are cooler. The most popular annual weeds are crabgrass, henbit, dandelions and chickweed. While they are considered 'annual' weeds they do reseed themselves every year.

How can you prevent weeds in your garden?

While some weeds are tougher than others to prevent, in general the following quick and easy tips will help you prevent weeds in your flower gardens and around your shrubs and trees.

Chemical Weed Prevention

Preen Weed Preventer stops weeds from germinating in flower and vegetable gardens, in ground covers and around trees and shrubs. Although Preen will not kill existing weeds, it can be used as a grass weed killing alternative. It will prevent new weeds from sprouting – eliminating the need for difficult and time-consuming hand-weeding. One container will last throughout the growing season for gardens up to 1000 square feet.

Organic Control

Products such as Concern Corn Gluten Meal or Espoma Organic Weed Preventer helps prevent unsightly weeds from popping up in your lawn while it nourishes the grass so that it becomes more resistant to heat, drought and other stress. Corn gluten is all natural, it is safe for your family, your pets, and the environment and is helpful in preventing weed seeds from germinating.

Mulching & Weed Fabric

Mulching is one of the best ways to keep weeds from taking over your garden by smothering weed seeds in addition to keeping the soil cool and retaining moisture.  The use of landscape weed fabric under mulch will double the prevention of germinating weeds.

Other methods of weed prevention

When purchasing plants, be careful not to plant any hitchhiking weeds that may be growing along with your new selection of plant material.

Hand weeding is also effective as long as you are thoroughly removing the entire root system of the weed. Often gardeners will snap off the heads of annoying weeds only to see them back a couple weeks later. Dandelions especially have very long roots, thus it will be necessary for the entire root to be removed to successfully combat this weed.

Early spring weed prevention will allow you to enjoy your yard and garden longer!

Bulbs for All Seasons

There is much to be
said about the addition 
of bulbs in your garden!

Spring flowering bulbs are usually the first sign of spring and they provide a reliable colorful display. After a long winter we are often excited to see crocus pop up through the snow or daffodil foliage emerge after the snow has melted. For many, it is truly a sign that spring is on its way! For those that are new to gardening however, it is often challenging to understand why the availability of these beautiful flowers are not available to plant. That is because, spring flowering bulbs are planted in the fall.


Spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, crocus, hyacinth require little care during early spring. If you have established bulbs, a light application of Bulb-Tone fertilizer should be applied in early spring just as the leaves begin to come through the soil, being careful not to get it on the leaves. The same holds true for bulbs such as alliums that are planted in fall but bloom in early summer.

After your bulbs have flowered it is very important to let the foliage remain on the plant for eight weeks after they've bloomed. The leaves of the bulb manufacture the food that is stored in the bulb and helps produce flowers for the following year. After the eight weeks you can cut down the foliage. When planted in borders, mix daylilies or ferns or other taller plants around your bulbs so that it hides the foliage of the bulb.


While the availability of spring flowering bulbs is at its best during fall, you do have one more opportunity to try your hand at planting spring flowering bulbs.

Do you usually receive a gift of daffodils, lily's, or hyacinths at Easter? Here's a chance for you to plant a spring flowering bulb! While the success rate will vary, as with all plants that have been forced to bloom, it is possible, and what do you have to loose?

Easter lilies have the highest success rate with this method.  However, daffodils will often take root and bloom the following year as well.

- For Easter lilies, wait until all the flowers have bloomed and withered. Keep the plant watered and in indirect sunlight until it is warm enough for it to go outside.

- Plant your lilies or daffodils to the same depth it was in the pot in a sunny area.

- Add an additional 2" layer of organic mulch.

- The original leaves will begin to brown. When this happens cut the plant down to a healthy green leaf. More than likely, during the rest of the season, the plant will grow green foliage and then in the fall the foliage will turn yellow and should be cut back.

- During the winter, apply a few inches of mulch to insulate the plant.

- In spring, remove the mulch as soon as the weather warms up.

- As soon as you see new foliage, begin applying a balanced fertilizer.

- Look for your lily to bloom in June/July as that is the time that these bulbs naturally bloom.

Summer and fall flowering bulbs are just the next dimension to a beautiful, colorful garden!  They add various colors and fragrances to a garden that annuals cannot provide. When talking 'bulbs', it is important to realize that often a bulb will also be called a rhizome, corms, or tuberous roots. Such is the case with the list of choices below.

A list of possible choices for your summer and fall blooming choices are:

- Caladiums  (Tuber) *
- Canna (Rhizome) *
- Dahlias (Tuberous Root) *
- Daylily (Tuberous Root)
- Gladiola (Corm) *
- Lilies (Bulb)
- Tuberous Begonia (Tuberous Root) *
- Elephant Ear (Tuber)
- Iris (Rhizome)
- Calla Lily (Rhizome & Tuber) *

Many of these choices are wonderful in containers such as Caladiums, Dahlias, Tuberous Begonias, Elephant Ears, Calla Lily and Fragrant Lillies. They provide color from summer through fall.  Most of these bulbs will require full sun to partial shade to provide the best color through the season.



* Will require to be dug up and stored inside during the winter. 

While summer flowering bulbs may require more work, they are well worth the effort!

Salt Damage to Landscape Plants

While de-icing salts are great for melting ice & snow on roads and walkways, they can do a lot of damage to landscape plants.

Salt can damage plants in two ways. First by the spray of salt that it receives which kills dormant buds by penetrating leaf scars and second, in the soil where it breaks down into sodium and chlorine.  

Damage can occur to plants located up to 50 feet away from heavily salted areas.  On evergreens, damage from salt spray first appears as browning of needles facing the road. Browning is noticeable in February and March but becomes more obvious in spring and summer as the brown needles will drop off. 

On deciduous trees the effects of road salt is noticed by many ways. Unopened flower buds, twigs that have died back. Leaves are sparse, stunted or show signs of leaf scorch.  In some cases, the tree will show its fall color sooner and many times leaves will fall off earlier. The good thing is that trees are are less likely to absorb a lot of salt when they are dormant.  However, young trees are more susceptible to damage because they have fewer roots.

While salt damage is more predominate near the roads where tons of de-icing salt is laid during the year, let's not forget about our front porch steps, walkways and patios, where there are landscape plants as well, such as junipers, small evergreens, etc. Careful application of de-icing salt should be used or substituting sand.

There are some things that you can do to help minimize the damage that salt spray can have:

- Avoid using salts, using sand instead.

- In early Spring, before spring growth occurs flush out the soil with an application of 6 inches of water to help leach out the soluable salts.

- Apply gypsum to soils that are high in sodium.

- Mulch should be applied to reduce water loss, as salt will have a tendancy to dry out the soil.

- Plants that show salt damage should be watered, fertilized and pruned .

- Plant salt tolerant plants near roads.

Spring and early summer may not seem like the time to worry about winter salt damage, however if you're choosing new planting sites or are a newcomer to landscaping here are some trees & shrubs that are more tolerant to de-icing salt.

- Norway Maple
- Birch
- Ash
- Ginkgo
- Honeylocust
- Eastern Red Cedar
- Cherries
- Oaks (most varieties)
- Elms
- Fringe Tree
- Golden Rain Tree
- Sweetgum
- Sweetbay Magnolia
- Colorado Spruce
- Yews

                    Beauty Berry                   
                    Cotoneaster                   

             Rose of Sharon           

  St. Johns Wort

   Japanese Holly

Bayberry

Mock Orange

Cherry Laurel

Pyracantha

Purple Leaf Sandcherry

Rugosa Rose

Spirea

Lilac

Viburnum

For more information on Winter Damage On Plants, please visit our website:

Rutgers Landscape & Nursery