What is a contract grow? A contract grow is when we engage in a contract with a nursery to grow specific plant types and quantities just for your project, rather than depending on market availability at the time of installation. Why arrange a contract grow? Quality Control, Guaranteed Availability, Price Control Your project size is one of the largest factors, but it is important to consider your project schedule, cost, and the state of the market and nursery trade. If the nu

An upland tree strategy for Northern California Why and when to choose Oaks over Bays When managing the long-term health of rural properties, we often need to remove trees. While each situation has its own unique circumstances, as a general rule, we choose Oaks over Bays in most upland situations. Bay trees are hosts to Sudden Oak Death, with clear data showing higher Sudden Oak Death infection rates based on proximity to Bays. In most cases, this tends to be an easy decisio

At its' simplest, a shaded fuel break consists of a tree canopy that creates a shaded area that has minimal understory growth. This area is free of any large shrubs or tall grass that can spread fire to the tree canopy. Due to the shaded nature of the understory, the grass that grows there is more sparse and generates less biomass.  Less biomass= less that can burn. When fire reaches a shaded fuel break, the lack of fuel causes the intensity of the fire to reduce. This may al

The carbon footprint of any given material is not necessarily obvious or even intuitive. This brief intro should help you begin to wrap...

It's about ecosystem services, and carbon is a part of that. I obviously support balancing our landscapes within the carbon cycle....

Elder Creek said no to organic fertilizers back in 2010. Actually, we say no to all fertilizers wherever possible and use organics for...

While I don’t spend much time discussing whether climate change is real, I do spend a lot of time in discussions with varying viewpoints...

What is the moral and practical stance on claiming existing sequestration assets when developing a new project? This is a hotly debated...

What can i expect once my contractor finishes installing our gardens? The day your landscape is finished, the plantings will look more...

Congratulations! You finally wrapped up the journey of construction. It can feel long and arduous for some of our clients and exciting...

precision accuracy; exactness: the degree of refinement with which an operation is performed accuracy the condition or quality of being...

So your landscape isn't carbon balanced? It isn't even balancing out in the next 10 years? All I can say is, Welcome to the party!...

At last fall's ASLA Conference in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to share a table with a grad student committed to carbon solutions...

Probably Not at least not in any reasonable timeline. The truth of the matter is that many of our lifestyle choices and many of the...