Late Summer Sick Trees

Do you know what is ailing your tree in late summer?

This time of year I always get a few questions about sick trees, often times they were planted within the previous year. Sometimes the conversation goes like this:

Me: When did you notice the problem?
Client: Oh, for a while.
Me: Beginning of September?
Client: Yea, I guess so.
Me: What tells you the tree is sick?
Client: The leaves don't look right.
Me: What color are they?
Client: Kinda yellow and maybe some red. I guess there is some brown around the edges of the leaves.
Me: Are there spots or anything that might look like a fungus or infection?
Client: I mean the leaves are really sick looking, but there are no spots.
Me: I think I know what is causing the problem.
Client: Really? You didn't even look at the tree!
Me: You know I am good at what I do, don't you?
Client: Come on, please just help me. I don't want to lose my tree!
Me: Ok, your tree is having an onset of Early Autumn.
Client: What?
Me: Your tree is going dormant early. Some trees do it quicker than others. Some are a little stressed, but they got everything they needed in the summer, so they are turning color early. They will be fine.
Client: Are you sure they don't need to be sprayed or something?
Me: No they are fine.
Client: Could you come and look at them anyway?
Me: Sure, at my usual rate.
Client: What is that again?
Me: $100 an hour. One hour minimum.
Client: I'll let you know if things get worse.

Saving Bees with a Bee Feeding Guild

A honeybee on an ornamental crabapple.

When the subject of bees comes up with my friends many of them are worried. Often they talk about becoming beekeepers as a way to help. While I try not to discourage beekeeping in general, in these cases I encourage them to think of other ways to help the bees first. I always recommend that they cut back on or quit using pesticides, ask them to read books about bees and beekeeping, and I ask them to grow more plants for bees.

While any plant with a flower is an improvement, not all of them are great for helping the bees. This is a list I put together to provide lots of bee food on a quarter acre lot. I focused very heavily on late summer blooms because that is when the bees in my area struggle the most to find food. I highlighted those plants, so if you are limited on space you can focus on those first.

This is only one set of plants I could have used, so feel free to study and come up with your own bee guild (community) that meets the needs of where you live. And remember to plant in groups so that clusters of the same plants are at lease three feet across. The bees will find them easier that way.

Oh, this plan leaves enough space for a veggie garden and some grass. The clover is on the list to make the grass more bee friendly!

Enjoy yourselves, manana!

Common Name	Scientific Name	Start of flowering	End of flowering	Width
Trees
Bigtooth Maple	Acer gandidentatum	April	May	25'
Peach	Prunus persica	April	April	18'
Apple	Malus domestica	April	May	25'
Black Locust	Robinia pseudoacacia	May	June	30'
Linden 'Green Spire'	Tilia cordata	June	July	30'
Shubs and Perennials
Fragrant Sumac 'Lowgrow'	Rhus aromatica	April	May	6'
Dandelion	Taraxacum officinale	April	May	6"
Blackberry	Rubus spp.	May	June	As pruned
Chives	Allium schoenoprasum	May	June	10"
Woodland Sage	Salvia nemorosa	May	July	18"
Lavender	Lavandula angustifolia	June	July	3'
Red-Flowering Thyme	Thymus praecox	June	July	Creeping
Catmint	Nepeta x faassenii	June	August	18"
Melissa, Lemon Balm	Melissa officinalis	June	August	18"
Fireweed	Epilobium angustifolium	June	September	3'
Oregano	Origanum vulgare	June	September	2'
Purple Coneflower	Echinacea purpurea	June	September	2'
Milkweed	Asclepias spp.	July	August	2.5'
Peppermint	Mentha piperita	July	August	3'
Russian Sage	Perovskia atriplicifolia	July	September	4'
Bluebeard	Caryopteris x clandonensis	July	September	4'
Blanket Flower	Gaillardia aristata	June	October	10"
Anise hyssop	Agstache foeniculum	July	October	3'
Garlic chives	Allium tuberosa	September	September	12"
Stonecrop	Sedum spectabile	September	September	12"
Aster	Aster spp.	September	October	2'
Goldenrod	Solidago spp.	September	October	4'
Lawn Addition
Dutch White Clover	Trifolium repens	May	August	Creeping

Talking about pruning and trees with Brian Brinkerhoff

My talk on pruning and trees with Brian Brinkerhoff of Western Life Radio at the 24:30 mark.

http://www.backcountrynetwork.com/Download/WesternLifeRadio59-1-26-14.mp3

Pruning Safety

Self inflicted damage from fruit tree pruning
in 2012.

Most of the pruning saws now sold are the Japanese or "razor" style. These cut quick and easy and save a lot of time and effort when pruning. Unfortunately they cut human flesh even more easily. Here are some safety tips for pruning with a saw around the home.

1. Wear gloves. Some pros choose not to wear them when climbing because they need a reliable grip, but a home owner isn't going to climb that aggressively.
2. Always be aware of what your saw is cutting into and anything else that is near its edge. This seems like a no-brainer, but it is easy to lose track of it when you get moving.
3. Be more careful when you wear gloves. Gloves can save cut down on damage if you slip, but a sharp saw will still go through gloves and sloppy pruning will increase the damage.
4. Make sure you have good footing. Whether you are on the ground, on a ladder, or on a branch, if you slip you are in danger of a nasty cut.

Be safe and remember that pruning can be good for your tree and fun, but only if you are not hurt in the process.

Manana!

What to do with a Dead Tree?

Trees in urban areas suffer from hard surfaces blocking roots and water, abuse from passersby, bumps from cars, and pollution. When they finally die there is no chance they can fade back into the ecosystem. Most of the time they get the chainsaw and chipper treatment, but sometimes they just get left.

Maybe it is because of cost, maybe it is the lost hope of the tree recovering, and maybe it a plan to give the tree one last bit of glory.

I can't say this ivy treatment works for me, but for others it might. What do you think?

Manana!

Drought Loving Flowers

Roses are often thought as being wimpy,
but I find them on many foreclosures. The
white ones with pink blush seem to be
common survivors.

When you live in semi-arid (read that as what most people call a desert) place it makes sense to use plants that don't need a lot of water. I have taken classes and read books on the subject, but the best information I have found on the drought resistant plants is from foreclosed homes.

Foreclosed homes usually don't have sprinkler systems running, so anything surviving there is bound to be tough and adapted to the area. Sometimes a plant will get help from a neighbor overwatering or runoff from the roof. But that's ok, when it is dry you take all the help you can get!

Here are some of the tough plants I have found, tell me what you think:

Apricots are the most drought hardy of the common fruit
trees. This one has gone at least two and a half years
without human irrigation.

Hollyhocks reseed freely and I find scraggly survivors every-
where. This one is flowering better than most seedlings,
likely because of the soil storing extra water from the
downspout. 

Lavender thrives on the dry, even after a
couple of years.

Permaculture or just lazy?

These fruit tree trimmings are going to a
friend's house to be used for heating.

I know people who drop their garbage where ever they are. It doesn't matter if it is on the road, in the yard, or in their homes, they just drop it. Oddly enough, I have friends who leave garbage in their trees. Sick branches ooze plant puss, dead limbs block light and fresh air, and rubbing branches cause open wounds begging for disease and insects to come and partake.

All in all, it is as disgusting as six months of leftovers sitting on the floor.

The funny thing is, those branches could be doing something productive for tree owners if they just had the heart to cut them off. Large and medium limbs make good fuel for the stove or BBQ and are useable for building anything from fences to furniture. Smaller branches or larger pieces ground down make great mulch and all sizes of wood are game for making crafts.

Look around, turn your waste into a resource, and give the world a little more life.

How to Treat Trees

Trees don't heal...

My summer job of mowing foreclosed lawns has started up. It is not bad job; and I have lots of leeway to take on my more preferred work of designing and installing sustainable landscapes.

The mowing gives me a great chance to get out and see what the rest of the world is doing in their gardens, both the good and the bad. In the case of the poor tree in the photo above, it is definitely bad.

Most people don't think of anything of tying or wrapping something around a tree. They assume because the tree seems tough, it will take it without a problem. But as you see, that is not always the case. In fact, it is rarely true. Even a temporary string put around a tree can cause damage to a thin barked tree if there is any movement.

Lots of damage is done by things that are on the tree for more than a day or two. I can't count the number of times I have tried to pull tree variety tags off of a tree and found that the tree has already grown around the tag. I have no choice but to leave parts of the tags still stuck in the tree. I have had the same problem with professional grade tree ties. These two items are made to be used with trees for a limited period of time, but need to be removed when that time is up.

Now, I am sure there is someone out there that is worried that I am telling them to quit using their hammock between their two favorite trees. And I am not--as long as they have a system to prevent damage and the trees can handle the stress created. This also applies to tree houses.

I can't go into the details of each and every way to protect a tree because there are many systems that are marketed to prevent problems. But here are a list of things to pay attention to:

• If you are wrapping or tying something around the trunk or a limb, make sure it spreads the pressure across the widest area possible.
• Wraps and ties are for temporary use only, know when to take them off. The maximum time for any of them is one year, this includes ties for staking trees down. If you don't feel the tree is ready to take the tie off, call in a reliable tree professional to help.
• If you are going to drill into a tree or puncture its bark in any way, make sure you get something that has a long reputation for safe use with living trees.
• Be carful getting advice from your hardware store, lawn man, or nursery. Each of these is an expert in their own area, but rarely do they have the long term experience with old trees to give the best advice.
• The best place to start is with an ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certified arborist. Unfortunately, not all of them are as reliable as they should be, so don't be afraid to ask several sources for help, even those outside of the ISA.

And lastly, remember that a good tree is likely to outlive you, so it deserves the same time, expertise, and money that you expect to give anything that is worth keeping for a long time.

I Dance with the Trees

Photos courtesy of Troy Nuttall

Yesterday, I finished a few last minute pruning jobs. As I did so, I thought of some of the tree trimmers I've worked with in the past. Each of those climbers have their own style and rhythm. 

Ryan roots himself to the ground so that no matter how high up he is, it looks like he is strolling through a spring day. Kevin hot dogs around the trees on his ropes, swinging from branch to branch like Tarzan. If he still doesn't have his adrenaline rush he takes his glasses off and lowers himself out of the tree upside down, like a spider. Max takes a calm, long term approach. I've seen him ride a tree to the ground after the roots gave out and walk away with nothing more than a calm smile.

Me? I'm not in the same athletic class as my friends, so my style depends a great deal on how my limbs connect with the tree's. Foot work is vital to me. Often times my feet point in opposite directions. They balance on bumps that don't exist and get wedged into angles that must be too tight for a guy wearing a wide shoe.

My arms are not left out. They move intricately around and through branches to hold myself in the tree, but still let me get a clean cut. My wife compares it to dancing, though I can't quite see the comparison. Each step is a tentative shifting affair, relying on an individual branch to tell me if it can handle what I am asking it to do.

There is a distinct rhythm as well. Not one that can be defined as something so simple as a three-quarter time or a standard category like a waltz. No, the rhythms I move to are deeply connected to the trees and to the earth itself. Deep, long, intricate rhythms.

Yes, I dance with the trees.

Winter Sucker Removal

Photos courtesy of Troy Nuttal.

Winter is a great time to take care of those tree chores that don't get done in the summer. A perfect example of this is clearing out fruit tree suckers. Suckers are shoots that come out from the roots of the tree. The best time to take out suckers is as they appear in the summer. Just rip them off away from the tree at an angle and they will often come right out.


That is, they will if you get them while they are still young. If they have time to age and harden off they must be cut out. Once you start cutting, it gets harder and harder to just pull them off.

As a gardening tradesman, I often don't get to fix a problem until it is too late for the best solution. The suckers in these photos are being removed at the same time I did my annual fruit tree pruning in the winter. 


Suckering on this peach tree was worse than usual this year because the tree owner had his mowing crew clear away the weeds and place mulch around the tree base. In the process the roots were damaged and encouraged the growth of more suckers.

Removing the suckers now is just a matter of cutting them down at soil level and removing the cuttings. If the suckering continues heavily for a few years I will have to carefully dig down to where the root is and cut the sucker stump off there. Sometimes a stump gets so big and woody that I have to remove it to cut down on future work.


Some fruit trees will go many years without having suckers removed. In these cases the suckers get large and compete for sun and other resources with the fruit producing parts of the tree. The competition cuts down on quality and quantity of fruit produced, so I try to avoid it.

Good luck with your winter garden tasks! And remember, spring planting is just around the corner.

If You Must Poison a Tree...

If you must poison a tree, do it right! Most of my readers prefer organic methods, but once in a while a stump is in a difficult spot, cannot be visited regularly enough, or is maintained by someone so feeble that poisoning is a justifiable option.


Here are a few steps to doing the job right:


Consider whether poison is the best option. Most of the time a truly organic option is best. A thirty dollar pick and an hour swinging it would take care of this stump for good. The pick will last a life time, but a bottle of weed killer costs between ten and twenty dollars and has a limited shelf life.


Understand the biology of the tree. The wood where this cross has been cut has tubes transporting water and nutrients up the tree. The green layer under the bark transports water and sugar down into the roots. Put the poison only on the green portion where it will go down into the roots.


Minimise the amount of poison you use. If some is good, more is not better.


Plan for re-sprouting. You may find it is better to cut the sprouts down every two weeks, than to cut and poison them every four weeks.


Anytime you use a chemical, even an organic one, it should be the last viable option. What is viable is your determination, but chemicals should never be your first and most trusted options.

A Small Green Job

As a gardener I have to provide a wide variety of services to keep myself busy most of the year. The fall can be problematic because things aren't growing, nurseries are often out of plants, deciduous trees are at a risky time to prune, and most clients don't realize what a great time it is to design.

Fortunately, lowering the ears on an Austrian pine is not a plant health taboo in the autumn.

Before.

After.

The trimmings filling the back of The War Machine.

The trimmings at the green waste disposal for recycling.

This job was small, but I had great fun after all the boring mowing I did this summer!

Please Meet a Few of My Friends...

An Austrian pine in a local park.

Fall is the time of year to start designing next year's gardens. To help you with your designs I would like to introduce you to a few of my friends:

Big tooth maple is one of the best trees for Utah homes. It is short so it does not overpower the house, has awesome fall color, and if you wait long enough it can be tapped for maple syrup. It will be a long wait though, this is one slow growing tree!

Bur oak is one of the grandest trees imported to my area. It has few breakages, does not let the pests bother it, and provides abundant food for those who have the patience to collect it and leach the tannins out of the acorns. Its downfalls are that it is big for the average quarter acre lot and the acorns make dangerous ammunition for the kids.

European beeches come in different styles, colors, and shapes. Leaves can be green, deep bronze, or touched with pink around the edges. In form it can be oval, columnar, or weeping. The nuts are edible, but small and hard to get at. The bark is a smoothish gray that makes you want to reach out and touch it. The lower branches should not be removed since they protect the trunk from winter sun scorch.

Gingko is a mixed up tree. It is never sure what shape it wants to be and is regularly accused of changing its gender. Its leaves are to die for though, they have veins in them that run in such a way as to give the tree the name maiden hair tree. These leaves turn gold in the autumn and pave the ground in such a way as to prove the world has magic. 

The one downside to this tree is that the male tree that you bought might decide to prove its femininity somewhere around its twentieth year. The fruit stinks worse than just about anything I know.

Honey locust is a landscape workhorse. Despite its heavy use I still love it because the feathery leaflets let sun shine down on plants growing under it. It has wonderful fall color that is a cinch to clean up in planting areas because the leaflets are so small you just leave them in place. 

Honey locust faults include shallow roots, a tendency to sucker, and vicious thorns on some of the younger branches and all of the older varieties. Of course the best varieties have marvelous corkscrew seed pods that have sweet, honey tasting pulp inside. Good for man and beast!

Crab apples exist in enough varieties to satisfy any taste. And many of them have tasty crabs. Enough said!

Eastern red bud is a friend from the other side of the country. It is small enough for many of today's small lots. The green pods are supposed to be good for people food and the older seeds can be used for the animals. The best thing about the red bud is the hot pink flowers in the spring. 

As I organize my photos, I will be introducing you to more of my friends....

October Country

Welcome to autumn sights!

Fall is my favorite time of year. Here is a selection of photos I've taken in my recent travels. Feel free to post some of your own literary pictures in the comments section.

Enjoy!

Native oaks. The coloring is so subtle it defies the 

camera.

Pink banana squash, a favorite in Utah.

Lovely color on this ash tree. I just wish
it were easier to keep the bugs out.