Evergreens

Before taking your Christmas tree to the recycling center this year, consider using it to create backyard habitat for birds. To attract birds, you must provide their three basic needs - food, water, and cover or shelter. Your old Christmas tree will provide excellent shelter for birds, providing protection from wind and predators. It can also serve as a feeding station, where you provide a buffet of food that our native birds love. 

Proper timing is one of the most important considerations for successful pruning. Getting the timing right helps ensure attractive, healthy, productive plants. Research has shown pruning wounds heal fastest when the cuts are made right before new growth begins. This knowledge guides pruning recommendations, with the goal of promoting fast wound closure and keeping plants as healthy as possible.

Whew, has it been hot! Scorching temperatures and dry conditions in the last few weeks have made it difficult for both people and plants. Our trees are still recovering from the last two years of severe drought and are not fully recovered yet. Fall watering is one of the best things homeowners can do to prevent further stress and help their trees continue to recover.  

But the drought’s over, why are trees still stressed? 

During severe drought, as we experienced in 2022-2023, trees were damaged in several ways as listed below.  

The keys to pruning trees and shrubs are a basic understanding of pruning techniques and knowing when to prune plants. For more information on these topics, check out the additional resources below.

But it's also important to understand the variety of tools available to make the job easier and use them correctly. The best tool for the job is determined by the size of the plant material to be removed and its location.

Cold temperatures, drying sun and wind, road salt, snow and ice can all take a toll on landscape plants during winter. But homeowners can use the strategies below to prevent major damage and minimize winter’s toll. Now, while daytime temperatures are still fairly warm, is the time to prepare your plants for winter.

Fall Watering

Did you realize some evergreen needles change color in the fall too, just like deciduous trees do? It's true and it often causes alarm in homeowners when their evergreen trees start to drop needles.

A wreath is an attractive, easy-to-make decoration for the upcoming holiday season. Materials needed to construct a wreath include pruning shears, scissors, wreath frame, No. 22 or 24-gauge florist wire, wire cutter, and evergreen branches. Decorative materials, such as ribbon, bows, pine cones, holly, various fruits, and ornaments, may be used to finish the wreath.

One of the most difficult weed situations to deal with on an acreage or large property is weedy vines growing in hedges or trees. Wild cucumber, burcucumber, and honeyvine milkweed are the most common culprits. These plants shade the foliage of the host plant, and interfere with their ability to photosynthesis. This is especially damaging to evergreen trees, which don’t tolerate shading well. Note: Field and hedge bindweed, and dodder can also be problematic, but will not be discussed here.

Just as drought has caused havoc in many lawns, we’re also seeing damage in trees. Even very drought tolerant trees like eastern red cedar and Colorado spruce have extensive damage or have been killed completely.

Death of branches or a whole tree are very obvious and visible effects, but drought can also cause damage in more subtle ways affecting trees and other woody plants for several years to come.