Green tip: MAY 2012

Landscaping Your Swimming Pool For Summer

Ah, summer! Everyone looks forward to this warm, sunny, lush, carefree time of year. Finally, we can put away the sweaters, gloves and warm coats and break out the shorts, tank tops, sandals and swim suits.

For many people, summertime is also the season to enjoy their swimming pool. Nothing celebrates summer like taking a dip and cooling off in the pool. Whether you have an in-ground pool or an above ground pool, it can provide the perfect reprieve during those hot summer days.

However, a pool can sometimes be difficult to integrate within your existing landscape in an aesthetically pleasing way. Most pools are bright blue in color, and tend to really stand out among the more serene and subdued green tones of the surrounding foliage. One of the best ways to integrate the pool with your existing yard and landscape is through the use of strategically placed plants, trees, shrubs and other foliage. The goal is to surround, frame and complement your pool, merging it as much as possible with the decor and flow of your yard and existing landscaping.

However, there are a few important things to consider when making the greenery selections for the real estate around your pool:

1) Choose Wisely!

Some species of plants, shrubs and trees quite simply just do better than others around a pool, for a variety of reasons. Some have a higher tolerance for the chlorinated vapors that can emanate from a pool.

Other factors to consider is how the plants and trees will do in the spaces they will have to be planted. How much sun and shade is already there in the space around your pool? What sorts of plants and trees will grow and thrive best in the space available?

2) Favor Greenery with Manageable Root Systems

You'll also want to consider selecting greenery that is fairly self-contained, so that it will be manageable and easy to control in terms of growth and they way it spreads. Trees with compact root systems are most desirable. Avoid trees with notoriously aggressive root systems. Cottonwoods, mulberry trees and sycamores should definitely be avoided.

Make it Tropical

One of the best overall choices in terms of trees to have around your pool is the palm tree. One good reason for this is that they have a very small root system (or "root ball"), so their root system is highly unlikely to encroach upon the walls of your pool. There are a number of varieties of palm trees to choose from, and most of them will shed very little debris into your pool, or around it for that matter.

In addition to all of these practical reasons to select a palm tree -- there is another good reason to choose them: they look great! What better way to add to and enhance the relaxing, tropical effect of your pool than with a palm tree or two?

Another thing to keep in mind is that palm trees grow very slowly, so it might be a good idea to select a mature tree if you want shade and "tropical presence" right away. Some other good tree choices in this general category are the umbrella tree, the banana tree and just about any succulent plant or tree.

Avoid Trees that Shed

Some trees and plants to avoid if you want to minimize the mess include: pine trees (falling needles can be a major nightmare!), hibiscus flowers, eucalyptus, nut trees or citrus trees. Generally, any tree with nuts or fruit that could potentially fall from the tree and into the pool should be avoided, for obvious reasons! Flowering trees, while beautiful to see, should also be avoided if you don't want to spend a lot of time cleaning flower petals out of your pool.

It is a good idea to choose foliage that sheds its leaves in as short a period of time as possible, so that it will only require one cleanup session. Maples and forsythia fall into this category. Needless to say, you should also try and avoid pest and disease-prone plants and trees. It's also a good idea to avoid plants with lots of sap, pollen and thorns, as well as ones that tend to attract stinging insects.

Keeping these simple tips in mind when landscaping can help you to enjoy your above ground pool for many, many years to come!

5 Surprising Household Items You Can Compost

To Compost Or Not To Compost

If you're like me, you try to compost as much as you can. I've been known to keep apple cores in my pocket after a snack break at work or school and carry them around till I get home just so I don't have to throw them away. Even if you don't go that far, there's probably more that you can do to reduce the amount you're contributing to landfills and to enrich the yummy black finished compost you can feed to your garden.

More and more people are learning the basic guidelines of composting, and starting their own compost piles or participating in the growing number of municipal compost collecting programs. So you probably already know that you can compost the parts of fruit and vegetables you don't eat, as well as the dead leaves and grass clippings from your yard. But the world of potential compost is much broader than that. Here's a quick tour of things that are probably in your house right now--things you might normally throw away--that you can biodegrade instead.

1. (Almost) Any Kind of Paper

While your morning newspaper might not look like the brown leaves you're used to composting, chemically they're pretty much the same. They both come from trees; they'll both break down in your compost pile. The same goes for pretty much any kind of paper, except for glossy paper (like most magazines) or waxy paper. Remember to shred larger items like newspapers. Here's a short list to get you inspired:

• Junk mail (after you've removed the plastic window from the envelopes)
• Cereal boxes
• Paper bags
• Napkins
• Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
• Old receipts

2. Fur, Feathers and Hair

As natural byproducts of your body (or the body of a pet) all of these are great to compost. Nail clippings too! So the next time you comb your hair or brush your cat or dog, save the hair or fur for your compost bin.

3. Dryer Lint

The same goes for the fun colored clumps of lint that you pull from the dryer with each load of laundry. That's one more thing you can save from the landfill.

While you're in the laundry room, you can also compost some of the clothes you don't want anymore. Whether they're old, stained, or ripped, they can be thrown into your compost pile. Just make sure that you rip or cut them into smaller pieces and that they're natural fabrics, like cotton, wool or hemp.

4. Stale Bread

Some people think you can't use any cooked food in compost. That's not true. It's a good idea to avoid meat products, as well as fatty or oily foods, since those can attract hungry critters. But bread is generally fine. As are most grain products. Here's a quick list of possibilities:

• Stale crackers
• Stale pretzels
• The heels of bread loaves (if you live with picky eaters)
• Rice
• Pasta

5. Moldy Cheese

Here's another one some folks are unnecessarily leery of. When food gets moldy, it's already starting the natural processes of decay that makes compost work. So throw that moldy cheese in there. Expired milk is fine too.

Jenna is a freelance writer, stay at home mom and avid geocacher. She contributes on behalf of a site dedicated to the comparison of New York internet providers.

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Spring Shade Trees for Your Yard

We are right in the middle of that perfect season of the year: spring. The biting chill of winter is becoming a distant memory, and we have not yet been forced to remember the sweltering heat of summer. This is all about to change, though. In just a few months, you may walk into your yard and find yourself longing desperately for some shade that will provide relief from hot summer sun. If that thought aroused unpleasant memories of past summers, take action now and create natural shade in your yard. Unsure of what trees make the right additions? Here are some great ideas of shade-providers.

Ginkgo Tree

For small spaces, the Ginkgo is the perfect shade provider. The trees grow tall and slender, so they remain compact enough to inhabit a small backyard. Despite this, they still provide a great amount of shade under their dense branches. Ginkgoes also provide gorgeous yellow color for your yard in the fall. Another benefit of these trees is that they require very little maintenance.

American Beech

The American Beech trees are known as an incredibly dignified-looking species due to their massive height. The great benefit to you is this height and the dense canopy it creates is that shade is phenomenal. However, this also means the trees require a great deal of room and can prevent sun-loving plants form growing nearby.

Read more tree care and landscaping tips in our Green Tip Archive.

Sawtooth Oak

These trees are one of the fastest growing oak tree varieties, which is perfect when you’re too hot to wait for your shade. Grown Sawtooth Oaks produce a large, spreading, cone-shaped canopy that makes it such a great shade tree. The trees are also very adaptable, so they grow without much effort in most soils.

Weeping Willow

Weeping Willows are one of the most picturesque and stereotypical shade trees for good reason. If you have enough room in your yard to plant one, they provide an abundance of shade thanks to their drooping branches that reach down to the ground. This one is also easy to grow and is great if you live near water.

Autumn Blaze Maple

For a tree that delights you through all season, invest in an Autumn Blaze Maple. As the tree’s name suggests, the Autumn Blaze Maple has splendid, fiery red foliage in the fall. For the warm months, though, their bulbous, thick shape provides wonderful shade. Another benefit is that they are the fastest growing maple; plus, they are resistant to insects and disease

Terry Carter, a blogger at Apex Creative, writes for Grandview Outdoors. If you’re looking for NJ Landscaping to add a few shade trees to your yard before the summer arrives, they’d be happy to help!

Read more tree care and landscaping tips in our Green Tip Archive.

By: Chris Arader