It’s No Accident When Plants Avoid Mishaps With Workers Around
Last winter, I watched in dismay as an electrician, with a sweep of his arm, accidentally knocked a large green tomato off a plant in a container on my patio. For months, I had coddled the winter plant so I could taste fresh tomato in February.
Snatching up the tomato, he awkwardly tried reattaching it to the plant. When he realized the task was impossible, it broke the tension, and we both laughed.
The tomato incident wasn’t nearly as heartbreaking as when I discovered the stub of my once-gorgeous bougainvillea, all that remained after painters had prepped my house.
These experiences taught me something critical about construction and plants--they don’t mix. If you want your plants to survive construction, do some planning and protecting.
Construction workers are accustomed to working with inanimate objects, such as building materials, rather than items that are alive and need to be cared for.
Plants are at great risk during construction, and some accidents can be fatal, says John Wirth, a landscape designer for Richard Cohen Landscape & Construction Inc., a design firm in Lake Forest.
“The landscape is at the mercy of several subcontractors who have little knowledge about the needs of plants,” he says. “If plants are damaged, construction workers think they’ll grow back, but that isn’t always the case.”
Common plant damage during construction includes limb breakage, bark wounds and scarring, and root disturbance from heavy equipment. Smaller plants, including lawns and ground covers, can be trampled and suffocated when construction workers use such areas to pile work materials.
Even areas accustomed to foot traffic don’t hold up under the constant pounding of construction boots.
During painting, foliage is usually splattered with paint, and roofers often slop tar onto nearby plants.
Worse, after work is complete, many subcontractors dispose of their waste products in the landscape, which can kill plants.
They pour paint and cleaning solvents into the ground, especially around the bases of trees. Tile workers rinse pails of cement, and some workers even dig holes and bury oil from their power tools, Wirth says.
“All this improper disposal creates minute toxic dumps in the land that we as landscapers come across,” Wirth says. “Sometimes, dumping spoils the soil and creates an area where nothing will grow.”
Landscape designer Greg Grisamore, owner of G. Grisamore Design Inc. in Corona del Mar, says, “We’ll put a new tree in the landscape during construction, and the next day there will be paint or varnish around its base. This can ultimately lead to the tree’s death.”
There are ways you can protect your plants during construction. Experts offer this advice:
* Communicate. Construction workers don’t set out to ruin your plants. Unless you tell them, they won’t know that certain plants are irreplaceable.
“Discuss plant maintenance requirements with the general contractor and give specific instructions,” says Erik Katzmaier, a landscape architect with Katzmaier Newell Kehr in Corona del Mar. “Or hire a landscape contractor to oversee the plants during construction.”
To protect your land, insist that workers properly dispose of waste products, such as unused paint, Katzmaier says.
* Create a staging area. To protect your landscape, cooperate with the construction crew so they can get their work done. Provide a staging area where they can put their materials. Large driveways or stone or brick areas are good places. If your lawn is the only possible location, protect it with plywood or another material before equipment is hauled in. During downtime, make sure the grass gets air, water and sun.
* Fence it. While making construction crews understand that you don’t want your plants damaged, fencing off your favorite plants is also recommended.
“If you don’t cordon off a tree, it will be used to store tool boxes and equipment because it is a nice, shady area,” Katzmaier says. “Most people won’t cross a boundary.”
You can put your plants off-limits with fencing known as Orange Safety Grid, which comes in 4-by-100-foot rolls for about $90 at landscape and building equipment stores, supply yards and large hardware stores.
Or you can use yellow and black caution tape to rope off an area.
* Protect roots. Regardless of a plant’s size, the majority of its root system lies in the top 18 inches of soil. These feeder roots take in the most moisture and nutrients. If too many of them are damaged, the plant will die.
It’s important not to compact the area around a tree or restrict air or moisture passage.
If working around a tree is necessary, build a wooden platform around its base to protect the root zone. The structure should extend to the drip line, which is the point on the ground directly under the tips of the tree’s outermost branches. The area within the drip line is where the plant gets most of its water and nutrients.
* Ensure proper root pruning. If there is excavation being done in the yard, see that the work is performed past the drip line of plants, especially trees. If this is not possible, make sure that any root pruning is minimal and that the cuts are clean, Katzmaier says.
Keep in mind that some plants tolerate root pruning better than others. To compensate for the roots removed, a proportionate amount of the plant’s foliage should be pruned. In the case of valuable trees, Katzmaier suggests calling in an arborist.
* Watch grade changes. In some instances the grade, which is the level of the soil, may change during construction. A plant left higher or lower than the new grade is in danger of dying. To protect the plant, a retaining wall generally must be built at the drip line or farther out. If the grade change isn’t substantial, materials such as broken concrete and stone can be used instead of building a wall.
* Cover plants. To protect plants from splattered paint or tar, cover them with a light cloth, such as an old sheet. For extremely delicate plants, use lightweight garden cloth, which lets in air and water. Plastic generally isn’t a good idea because it traps too much heat. Remove sheets when the crew isn’t working so the plants can get air and sun.
* Tie vines back. Sometimes it’s necessary to remove some or all of a plant so workers can do their job. With vines, you have two options, depending on the type of plant.
Vines such as Boston ivy, English ivy and creeping fig attach themselves to walls. Once they are removed, they can’t reattach. It’s necessary to cut these plants back. These vines will grow back fairly quickly or you can replace them.
For vines such as wisteria, jasmine and climbing roses that must be attached to a wall or trellis, gently remove them from the structure and tie them out of the way with rope and netting until construction is over. Then gently reattach them, using horticultural staples and wire when necessary.
* Prune properly. If pruning must be done to remove plants from danger, make sure the trimming is done by someone who is experienced so that the original form of the plant is retained.
* Move plants. “The best way to protect your plants is to remove them from the job site and have them maintained at another location,” Grisamore says. “If you can’t get them off the site, then move them to an area that is out of the way of primary construction.”
Many plants can be dug up and relocated in a similar location, or held and replanted in the same spot when construction is over.
The transplanting success rate for new plants and small plants is high. Some large, more established plants don’t move as well.
When removing plants to hold for replacing in the same location, make sure to wrap the roots well in sawdust and burlap, place the plant in the shade, and water it daily. If the plant will not be transplanted for more than two weeks, repot it in a container.
* Decide what is worth saving. “Prior to construction, a landscape consultant should make a determination of what plants are worth saving aesthetically and monetarily,” Grisamore says. “Often, even though a plant is large, it might be less expensive to bring in a plant of the same size than to try and dig it up and save it.”
* Design around it. “If a plant has taken 25 years to reach its present state and is irreplaceable, design around it whenever possible,” Wirth says.
* Don’t forget to water. During construction, irrigation lines are often shut off. If the automatic watering system is not working, remember to water by hand.
