Improving Your Home Landscape

(gentle music) - My sister is a very good real estate agent.

One of the things she was telling me is having a nice landscape can add 10% to the value of your home.

In fact, she said it can even be as high as 15% if the landscape is really nicely done.

I got to figuring, and that means on a $200,000 house, the landscaping may add an additional 20 to $30,000 in value.

I'm Mary Holm, host of "Prairie Yard and Garden," and let's get some great ideas on how to create and cash in on those landscape improvements.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Yard and Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years.

In the heart of Truck country, Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

And by Friends of "Prairie Yard & Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of "Prairie Yard & Garden," visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(soft upbeat music) (soft upbeat music continues) - In May of 2022, we had several terrible windstorms that came through our area.

There were so many trees damaged or even destroyed in the wind, plus homes and farm buildings too.

We had several friends who lost over 30 large evergreen trees in their yards.

It was a real mess, and many people were wondering, where do they start in replanting?

I remembered a landscape improvement class given by Don Kinzler.

So I called and he said, "Come for a visit."

Welcome, Don.

- Well, thank you and welcome you.

It's great to visit with you today.

- Don, how long have you been involved in horticulture?

- Well, I actually started about 60 years ago when I was five and my mom took me out into the vegetable garden, I suppose, to keep an eye on me, and I've never left the garden.

And I'm the NDSU extension agent for horticulture here in Cass County, North Dakota.

- Tell us the story of your beautiful home and how it came to be here.

- And of course you mentioned the tragedy sometimes of people, you know, windstorms or weather events.

We needed to relocate and start over by a less, probably, tragic event.

But our house, which we had actually moved to Fargo 30 years ago, was in an area that was in the way of Fargo's flood protection.

So we needed to relocate the house again.

So we found a lot that was basically empty, and we moved the house onto this lot six years ago in 2016.

- [Mary] So what was the yard like when you moved the house here?

- [Don] Well, of course when the house was moved in, of course, with the excavation, the basement excavation, et cetera, everything was total bare dirt.

And so the house was moved in, excavation, basement poured, and then started over basically from scratch with a blank canvas.

- [Mary] So where did you start?

- Well, the first thing we did was we seeded the backyard.

My wife Mary and I did all the grass seeding ourself, and we started the backyard seeded first, just because, when you're coming and going, we needed cover on that.

And after that, we started in the front yard.

And of course before seeding the grass, we first wanted to establish landscape beds so that we didn't end up having to remove grass from areas we wanted to plant.

- When you start, especially in the front, what do you think is the most important thing to do?

- Well, in any of our home landscapes, the most important thing to create is what's called a focal point.

And the focal point is the spot at which, if you were standing out on the front street facing your house, the focal point of your landscape should be the area that people's eye is drawn to.

And the focal point should be created around the front entry, because that creates a welcoming, kind of an unknown quantity, but a welcoming atmosphere to your entire property.

So if that focal point is created around the front door, which will welcome the eye in, and then the rest of the landscape is constructed around that.

- [Mary] How do you do that?

How do you create a focal point?

- There are a couple of ways.

For example, some people will paint their door a unique color would be one way.

But, of course, being in gardening, we like to create a more plant-based focal point.

So a couple of ways we can do it is with ornamental shrubs that are concentrated around the entry, maybe it's colorful type ornamental shrubs.

But also we have a great opportunity in our area to plant colorful container-grown annuals, and that will funnel the eye towards the front door.

- [Mary] Should you plant trees in front of your house?

- We mentioned creating a focal point.

And if we locate trees in the front yard that will block that focal point, we're kind of defeating the purpose.

Again, we mentioned that the focal point should be visible.

And if we plant low-headed trees, they're going to block not only the focal point, but oftentimes they'll block the view of your very beautiful home.

And so you kind of defeat the purpose by planting too many trees too close in the front.

- [Mary] Can you plant them off to the side then too?

- [Don] Off to the side is a great alternative, because sometimes trees planted off to the sides will help funnel the vision to the front entry and that can create a very nice vision to the front focal point.

- So what should we do on the corners of the house?

- Well, on the corners of the house, now most homes are fairly angular in structure, hard lines, and so around the perimeters, a curving landscape is oftentimes a good compliment to the straight lines of a home.

And in nature, the curving lines are part of nature.

And so by duplicating the curving lines around a home's foundation, we not only imitate nature and give it a good natural feel, but we also soften the straight lines of a home.

- [Mary] Can you use groupings of shrubs too?

- [Don] Groupings of shrubs are great, because, again, that can consolidate the view up towards the front focal point.

And sometimes rather than dotting individual shrubs, groupings of shrubs make such a much more natural feeling to the landscape.

- [Mary] How about flower pots?

- [Don] Yes, annuals in containers are beautiful placed in groupings.

Oftentimes that will almost make a little miniature landscape of its own.

So sometimes rather than an individual pot, a grouping of pots of different size containers also will be beautiful, and then it gives a little more impact also.

Each of us can give our own landscape that individual look that makes it so interesting.

And so the use of color, the different colors that you like yourself, for example, I like to use light colors.

Especially in the evening, those are the colors that will show up on annual flowers, whether it's in a flower bed or containers created by your focal point.

As the evening is getting a little bit dim, the light colors such as bright yellows or whites are those that will show up better in the evening landscape.

- [Mary] Don, this front area is absolutely beautiful, but can we see some of the other sides of your house and some of the plants you use there too?

- Of course, let's take a look.

(gentle guitar music) - A lifetime of healthy eating starts in childhood, working with young people to teach them the basics about nutrition.

But healthy eating is more than just knowing your vitamins and nutrients.

It's about having meaningful connections to your food and knowing where it comes from, how it's made, and how it helps us to grow.

Educating children about their food is also good for farmers, because it fosters important connections between producers and consumers to ensure our food is healthy and valued.

That's why Minnesota's new Farm-to-School program is such a win-win-win for kids, farmers, and communities.

Aimee Haag is the Farm-to-School liaison with Hutchinson, Litchfield, and Cokato-Dassel School Districts.

- The kids here at Litchfield schools get exposure to new ingredients, new varieties of vegetables, and they often get a little bit of a hands-on learning experience through the Farm-to-School Initiative.

The Farm-to-School program impacts the community positively by engaging in the local economy with all of our farmers.

We work with several different farmers that supply us with produce, so fruits and veggies coming locally and seasonally.

And we also feature beef, milk, and honey, right now, We're working on going into wild rice and dried beans as well.

- Prairie Drifter Farm is nearby in Litchfield, Minnesota where owners Joan and Nick Olson work with Aimee on a regular basis to provide fresh, nutritious food to students' meals.

- So we've been farming for about 13 years, and we've always been very interested in the Farm-to-School program.

One, we have two small children in the schools, so we would love for them to have access to really good local food.

We also think it's really important for all kids to have access to healthy, local organic produce.

So when the Farm-to-School program got ramped up in this area a few years ago, we were super excited to be able to participate.

- And if you'd like to learn more about a Farm-to-School program in your community or anything with Minnesota Grown, visit minnesotagrown.com.

- Anyway, this is the south side of our house.

So in this area, we've chosen shrubs and perennials that do well in full sun and they can take some heat also.

So we've got a combination of daylilies, which do well in full sun as long as you keep the moisture up well.

And also the potentilla that we've planted is Dakota Sunspot, which is an an NDSU introduced variety.

One of the nice things about Dakota Sunspot is that it remains in very nice shape.

It doesn't get so woody quite so quick, and it rejuvenates very, very well.

And, of course, daylilies, this one is Primal Scream.

Isn't that a great name for a daylily?

And now in this area, we mentioned how the use of curved lines is such a natural, and it can kind of compliment the structure of the house.

So in order to get the curved lines like this, I used a garden hose, a flexible garden hose, and you can put that down and kind of massage the curves into the area you want and then begin digging your edging.

Also, many of us, when we landscape, put the landscape too close to the house foundation.

And, of course, needing to redo, we can avoid some of the mistakes we did the first time around.

(chuckles) And so I started out at least 16 feet from the house for the widest area, and the narrowest is about 12 feet.

And so that may sound like a lot, but with a taller structure, you really need that far out.

You know, over the years, I've never heard anybody say, "You know, we planted our foundation planting too far out."

Usually, it's the opposite, you know, many of us planted just too close to the house foundation.

And in 10 or 20 years, it's so crowded, so just the concept of bringing the planting out far enough from the foundation.

And in future years, most of us are gonna be really happy that we came that far out.

Also, in a landscape planting like this, I think it's so fun to combine all the different colors and textures, such as the low-growing creeping junipers.

There's the green types, the blue types, and that they mesh together so well.

And those can filter along the ground in between like the yellow potentillas and the ninebark with the dark colors and then the different daylilies.

And so with the use of combining textures, textures and colors, I think, really adds pizzazz to the landscape.

And then we can also add in some touches of color with annual flowers as well.

- I absolutely love this yellow.

What is that shrub behind?

Because that just makes that shrub pop.

- And that is one of the wine-colored ninebarks called Summer Wine.

Doesn't that look beautiful in contrast?

And also, you notice that we had a young little shrub, a newly planted shrub, and I'm concealing some of the mechanics of the house, the furnace exhaust pipes.

I'm concealing that by, I planted a small double flowering plum, which will easily get, even with pruning, probably at least head high and and that wide.

And that will help conceal the exhaust pipes from the furnace.

- Don, what do you do to control weeds?

- Well, one of my favorite ways is with mulch.

And, of course, if a person puts mulch alone on the soil, usually weeds will find their way to poke right on through.

And so first of all, the mulch needs to be fairly thick.

I like shredded wood products versus wood chips.

Wood chips tend to float and blow, and the shredded product meshes together better.

So I really like shredded wood.

- When you have these plants, how do you know how big they're going to get when you are planning where you should put them?

- You know, that's a great question, because most of us have made the mistake of planting too close, because the plants in the garden center look so cute when they're small.

And what I like to do is study the label very carefully and give each of those plants the footprint that it needs.

For example, if a spiraea says three feet, that it has a width of three feet, then I will measure that and make sure that that plant has its footprint before it will touch the next one.

So if this one has a three-foot footprint, the next shrub a six-foot diameter footprint, making sure that each has its footprint.

'Cause sometimes when you read spacing, it can be a little deceptive, but I think of it as the footprint needed for that shrub to occupy.

- Do you have to be careful with the plants that you put together so that you have sun lovers together or shade lovers together?

- You know, that's a good point, because we're on the south side, and so everything here, the creeping junipers, the aronia, the daylilies, the ninebark, all love full sun and they can take a bit of heat.

On the north side of the house, we have the shade loving plants, the hosta, the Annabelle hydrangeas.

So very important not to mix shade loving with sun loving.

If I put these shade loving plants that we've got on the north side, if we located those here, chances are they would not do well at all.

- Do you need to have shrubs all along the foundation?

- No, and one purpose of landscaping is just to make the house look like it's a part of the entire yard.

And so the concept is not to try to hide the foundation.

And sometimes if we concentrate all of the plantings just along the foundation, it looks like we're trying to hide something instead of making the house appear like it's part of the greater landscape.

And of course talking about foundation plantings is it's very important to get positive drainage away from the foundation so that we don't have basement problems.

And the use of shrubbery along the foundation also, in the areas that you do plant shrubbery, can help utilize the moisture too.

Rather than not having landscape shrubs, many of the shrubs and perennials are good moisture users out along the foundation as well.

(cheerful piano music) - I have a question.

How can I grow big, beautiful dahlias?

- Oh gosh, dahlias are one of my favorite plants.

They were one of my grandmother's favorite plants, and I grew up with dahlias.

So you've got these beautiful pom-poms that are like perfect, and then you have the dahlia flower dahlias.

There are so many different dahlias, they're just gorgeous.

They are a tropical.

They come from Mexico.

They love heat.

They take our whole growing season in the north and then, just before frost, they're like at their peak.

But dahlias won't live outdoors in our climate.

So you can let them get a frost, they can die right at the tips and the top can die back.

But you've got to dig up the tubers, the roots, and store those inside where they won't freeze.

Some people write with a magic marker on the tuber to remember what color or what kind it is.

But you've got to store them where it won't freeze and there's some humidity.

And then next spring, you can start them indoors or plant them outside after all frost is is done, but they take our whole growing season.

But I can guarantee you if you start growing dahlias, you may never quit.

And you may just get more and more and more.

They're a fabulous flower even for the North.

- [Announcer] Ask The Arboretum Experts has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, dedicated to welcoming, informing, and inspiring all through outstanding displays, protected natural areas, horticultural research and education.

- Well, we talked about bringing the landscape out into the yard so that all the landscape isn't just crushed up against the house foundation, but instead making the house look like it's part of a broader landscape.

And one way we can do that is to have planting beds away from the house also that kind of echo the plantings closer by the foundation.

And so what I've done is echo some of those plantings with the flowers that are out here.

And so a planting like this gives us a kind of a chance to give some individual flare to a landscape also.

Now I like annual flowers.

Now there are a couple ways to incorporate annuals into a larger bed, such as I've done.

I've planted the annuals all on the outside, because this is a younger planting and, until the perennials got more established, I wanted a little more color.

Now the second way of doing this would be to incorporate annuals in throughout, which I may do.

As these perennials become a little larger, I may put these splashes of color throughout.

One thing I love about perennial flowers is they teach us patience.

(Mary laughing) You know, it's not an instant color.

Most perennials take 2, 3, 4 years.

Peonies sometimes don't come into their glory for maybe even four or five years.

So perennials teach us patience, and annuals can give us a good bridge of color while we're waiting for the perennials to do their thing.

And also we've combined them with shrubbery.

The dwarf blue spruce makes a beautiful blue contrast against the the purple and the light green of the iris.

And I like the Canadian-developed roses.

We've got a small rose here called Never Alone, which is a beautiful red and white two-tone rose.

It's young yet, a beautiful glossy foliage called Never Alone, developed in Canada.

And right beside the dwarf blue spruce is a Canadian rose that's just going out of blossom, but it's blossomed all summer called Campfire.

And Campfire Rose is a beautiful blend of colors, yellow, cream, pink, almost reddish, all on the same shrub.

So Campfire, well named.

Well, some of my favorites, well one is right here in front of us.

In marigolds, I love a variety called Yellow Duck Marigold, it's an All-America winner from a couple of years back.

Yellow Duck Marigold developed such big, healthy, beautiful, clear-colored marigolds.

And I like these short zinnias, the Profusion and Sahara series.

And I love daylilies also, the daylilies that we saw up along the house foundation.

There are so many different, beautiful kinds of daylilies.

Some of my favorites are Buttered Popcorn, which is a tall, beautiful daylily with a bright yellow with a little bit of white markings.

I mentioned Primal Scream, the very vibrant orange daylily.

So combining these really makes a nice, very nice landscape.

- Don, is it important to have lawn also in the landscape?

- It is.

The lawn makes such a beautiful canvas on which the rest of the landscape can be featured.

So the lawn isn't really the landscape itself, but the lawn really just makes the that blank canvas that you can put the rest of the good stuff on.

It makes such a nice feature.

And so a healthy lawn, I think, is an important part of a good landscape.

And of course to keep a lawn healthy, there are a couple of key points.

One of those is to mow high.

For our areas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, a mowing height of three inches keeps the roots cool, it helps outcompete weeds.

It conserves moisture because the sun can't penetrate, so mowing height of three inches.

And a couple things we can do to keep our lawns nice and healthy so they're kind of a nice adjacency to the rest of your landscape is to fertilize in the fall.

You know, in the fall of the year, the grass plants are busy preparing roots and a good crown structure to carry them through the following year.

And if we give them that nutrition that they need to produce the deep roots, then in future years they can get better moisture from the sub-soil, and it makes a much healthier plant.

So if we were to fertilize one time a year, labor day would be the time.

- Should you water your lawn all summer long?

- Well, lawns of course thrive when they're getting enough moisture, but it's important to water deeply.

A deep watering encourages the roots to go deeply.

Frequent shallow waterings creates shallow roots.

The roots will stay where the water is.

And so to get deep roots, the preferred is about one inch per week in one application.

Or if you have sandy soil, maybe divide that into two but much better than frequent light sprinklings.

The deep watering, less frequently, will encourage deep roots.

Now sometimes we might ask, well how do I know if I'm putting one inch of water on my lawn when I do water?

And I like the tuna can method, a tuna can or a soup can set under the sprinkler out on the lawn.

And when you have an inch collected in that straight sided can, then you know you've got your inch.

- Don, we have a lot of people that had damage to their shrubs or trees falling on them.

What should they do?

- Well the nice thing about deciduous, leafy type shrubs is that they can be rejuvenated and will oftentimes come back better than ever.

And now by rejuvenating, I mean cutting the entire shrub back to about six inches above ground level.

Now the time to do that is in the spring, and not here, but shrubs such as dog woods, the ninebark that are right behind me with the wine colored leaves, potentilla, spiraea, most leafy type shrubs, lilacs can be rejuvenated very well, and they'll come back better than ever if cut back to that height above ground level.

Now unfortunately evergreens don't have that capacity.

So evergreens, if they are damaged, they have a much more difficult time of recovering.

- What do you do for fall care for all of these perennials and shrubs in your yard?

- Well the annuals, actually, with the annual flowers, I take our mower and set it low and I mow right over the annual flowers.

That kind of composts them back.

And then I rototilled them in, provided that they don't have any disease.

Now the perennial flowers, most of the perennial flowers I like to leave the tops, the above ground portion on during winter for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, when you're looking out the windows, the perennials look quite nice in brown, the brown, the seed heads, they give some interest in winter color against the snow.

So there is something to see in a perennial bed.

Even during wintertime, it it can be pretty.

So that's one reason.

Secondly, I leave the above ground portions on most of them, because they survive winter better.

That helps catch snow, and they'll usually winter better with the tops left on.

Also important for our pollinators, many of our little pollinating bees, the native type, survive in the hollow stems of perennials.

That's where they use and make their nests in the wintertime.

So by leaving the above ground parts of most perennials on, you're also giving a nesting spot for little pollinating bees, which are so important for fruit trees and cucumbers and squash and apple trees.

But not all perennial tops should be left on over winter.

There are some that should be cut back in the fall.

One of those is peonies, which tend to get disease.

And so removing them back to close to ground level, maybe an inch above, and then disposing of those tops so that we don't leave that diseased material on over winter.

Also, hosta, daylily, and iris, they just flop apart so badly in the fall of the year.

And by next spring, they turn to mush.

And so it's much easier on hosta, iris, and daylily to cut those back in the fall after a heavy frost.

- [Mary] So the rest of that you leave in the spring, when do you cut them back?

- Usually in April.

On a nice April day, I cut the above ground portions back to an inch or so above.

And it's important to do that before the new growth starts emerging or about the time that that new growth is emerging from ground level.

Otherwise, if you wait too long, the new growth is intermingling with the old dead tops, and it's harder to cut it back.

(soft upbeat guitar music) - [Mary] Don, this has been so wonderful.

You've given us great information, and your yard is so beautiful.

Thanks for letting us come visit.

- Well, thank you.

Obviously this is not only my line of work, but it's a wonderful hobby and a wonderful pastime.

Come back anytime.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Prairie Yard & Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years.

In the heart of Truck country, Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering Acira, pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

And by friends of "Prairie Yard & Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of "Prairie Yard & Garden," visit pioneer.org/pyg.

(upbeat music)