NoseToNoseWithNature

If you don't know the story of Jesse Owens, you ought to. Find out more about him from the Jesse Owens Museum in Oakville, Alabama, his home town. His performance in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany in front of Adolph Hitler was legendary. He was given a tree for each of his 4 gold medals. This is the story of one of them...

It's sad, but true. Most people and companies think the wrong things about trees, roots, soil, and water, and as a result, many trees are killed during building and construction projects. You just won't find out for a few years. If you want to learn about why, and what you can do about it, then watch.

As a Consulting Arborist, I'm the one that gets called when trees start to have problems. Sadly, many issues could be avoided if people were aware of potential problems when they buy trees. Many trees are grown in containers now. There are many problems with them. You just won't find out until years later. Save yourself some money and aggravation. Watch and learn.

If you want to know why so many people talk about these ornamental Pears in a poor light, this should help explain. It's just a bad tree in both the short and long term. And if you like native species, you'll like them even less, now...

Viewing a total solar eclipse was an amazing event. The reason I took this video was not to compete with NASA, because I couldn't. I wasn't even looking at the video while I took it. I was appreciating the most remarkable of celestial events with my own vision. My goal was to simply chronicle the responses of the people around me. It was a great day.

Are your Boxwoods looking a little "off"? It may not be typical winter color. And pruning Spirea to get them to look much better at bloom time.

Some thoughts, suggestions, and observations as our landscapes "awake" from their winter hibernation. The temptation is to start as early as possible, but that's not always advisable for plant and landscape health.

"Why are there leaves on my tree during winter? Is my tree dying?" Understanding why Nature does certain things can reduce blood pressure and damage to trees. Knowledge is power.

Maybe you've heard about stress in trees, but what exactly is it? A number of factors can cause it, and it reduces a plant's productivity. It can even make a tree more attractive and vulnerable to pests and diseases. Here's a perfect example.

Trees are like real estate. It's location, location, location. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what people were thinking when they planted trees. Sorry for the noisy video. It was a busy street.

There is a crucial relationship between the health of trees (and plants) and light. Light energy from the sun is essential to food production in plants and trees. But Nature shuts off the light every day, which is just as essential. We, on the other hand, keep the lights on 24 hours a day in some cases. And that's devastating to Nature.

If you've never seen the Spotted Lantern Fly, well you're in luck. I had an unexpected guest at the beginning of the video. Afterwards, let's talk about space for trees. Would you buy shoes that you knew were too small? That happens to trees all the time.

There are important considerations when planting a tree. First off, what does the tree need, which is different than what we want. It's also possible to waste money and resources when trees are planted without considering what they will develop into. Sometimes it's possible to plant too many trees...

There are sadly, so many examples of poor landscape design and tree planting, that I almost hate to look around while I drive. It's depressing. But, sometimes, I find things that raise my spirits a bit. There are standards that can inform landscape design and tree planting and care, and sometimes people follow them. Those should be celebrated.

Tree canopy goals are big news lately. Just about everyone agrees we need trees, but what is our response? Often it's doing things that make sense to us, but upon further examination, that may not be the case. We can do better. If we keep doing things the same way, we'll keep getting the same results. And apparently - at least according to recent news reports - that's not good enough. There is a better way...

Planting a tree in a city is a risky endeavor. If we plant it because we want to, we often doom a tree to a short, unproductive life. Neither we nor the tree benefit. We DO need trees in cities, but if we try to force trees to grow where and how WE want them to, we will most likely kill them. We can do better.

Late summer can be a good time to look for stress in trees. Some trees will start to show their Fall colors, sometimes only on individual branches. That's often due to stress or injury. The vascular (water and sap transport) system can be compromised or restricted and trees will start to shut down early because of lack of resources. Early Fall color may indicate poor tree health.

I'm not anti-development. I'm anti-bad policy and anti-bad implementation. We often think we're doing the right things around trees, but most of the time, we've simply convinced ourselves of that. When you look at the results, and the decline of trees around us, the evidence says otherwise. And that needs to change.

The problem can be seen everywhere. The first rain after your PG Hydrangeas bloom, and it's flop city. Why? Well, once again, understanding plant biology will be your friend. Like fruit trees, where you have too many fruit that weigh down and often break branches, it's the same with these Hydrangeas. Here's the solution.

Some more thoughts and techniques to consider when deciding whether or not to shear a shrub.

It may seem somewhat radical, but you don't have to use hedge trimmers on shrubs and hedges. They often don't make it easier on you. Or the shrub. And often, they don't look attractive afterwards. But there are techniques for pruning shrubs that you should know.

I see this from one side of the country to the other. Bad planning designs that GUARANTEE tree failures. I call it Deforestation By Design®. These trees were killed the moment they were planted. This kind of waste is foolish and avoidable. Professionals who work around trees often have no clue what they're doing or what trees need. It's time to change our ways or fire the designers. Your choice.

In 20 years of owning a landscaping company, I can't tell you how many people asked me for a small evergreen for their landscape. I had to tell them that generally, there isn't such a thing, outside of the standard Arborvitae. There could be some non-native cultivars, but many evergreens get large, and develop a different shape as they mature. Most garden centers don't tell you that. Like this one.

I get calls every week from people who find fungi or mushrooms on or around their trees. And they're concerned. Unfortunately, uneducated and unscrupulous tree "undertakers" use fear to sell tree removals, and many trees are unnecessarily killed as a result. Call an ISA Certified Arborist to get a true tree expert to assess your trees.

A lack of understanding of the value of trees, and how they are essential to our physical and mental health (and more) is prevalent everywhere. Maybe most concerning is in the Design/Build/Construction industries, and those who hire them. This is a cautionary story of how removing trees will harm students.