Blog

Let us remember for you when your fruit trees need pruning. Learn more about our Annual Care Plan for fruit trees.

A yard filled with beautiful trees provides shade, privacy, and aesthetic appeal, but too much shade can be a challenge—especially for vegetable gardens. Many vegetables require ample sunlight to grow strong and productive. Strategic tree pruning is a great way to increase light exposure while maintaining healthy trees and a balanced landscape.

The most crucial element for the success of EVERY living plant or tree is healthy soil. By healthy we don’t just mean fertile, because that would simply describe the basic nutrients a plant needs to live such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Those are found in all fertilizers. We are talking about the life of the soil; whatever is active on a microbiological and fungal level.

An Arborist is, according to Google “a specialist in the cultivation and care of trees and shrubs”. This broad description can be confusing since Landscapers also do some of the same, the main difference is that Landscapers, unlike Arborists, work at ground level while Arborists ascend trees to access the parts that require attention.

This is a time of year when plenty are finishing the Fall clean-up by pruning back roses, cut dry stems of spent flowers, cleaning gutters and yes: raking leaves. Leaf blowers, rakes are pulled out, hours are spent making piles and most of the time, those piles are carried to the street to be picked up by the municipality Public Works.

Have you ever thought of not raking your leaves and see what happens during the Winter? If you pay attention, the leaves will quickly start their process of decomposition and inevitably break down to be pulled into the ground by worms and insects that count on that litter for food and shelter. Even the leaves left on lawn will disappear – even faster if you run your mower over them to be shredded.

Trees and other vegetation can improve our lives in more ways than one. From the air that we breathe, to the water that we drink, and the food that we eat, trees provide essential ecosystem services for us. Trees can help keep us cool or keep us warm. They can improve our mental state and increase healing rates. Trees can help build community bonds, fulfilling feelings of belonging, and create a sense of pride within a neighborhood.

This issue has to be the most common one of all when dealing with trees. I can’t tell you how many times – sometimes in a single day – that the neighbor’s tree(s) is in the conversation!

Well, that is easy to understand why, right? Most of us live in modest lots with (hopefully) a certain amount of vegetation in it. Landscapes are often designed with trees and shrubs on the perimeter and trees, even potentially large ones often planted within a few feet of the property line.

After a few years and especially if the owner has not really selected the right tree, the tree is growing and crosses the property line.

If you pay attention to the trees growing around you, it has become almost impossible for the last four or five years to avoid seeing Birches in trouble and displaying changes of color in the foliage and entire branches dying in the middle of summer. Chances are, the trees are being attacked by an insect from the Beetle order (Coleoptera) and from the Buprestidae family called the Bronze Birch Borer (Agrilus anxius.). This insect, native to North America started to appear or re-appear (some say it was in the area before) in Eugene and Springfield about 13 years ago, eventually migrating from Corvallis and Portland where it was well established before.

So, you have decided to plant a tree. Good for you! Trees are beautiful, provide shade, add to your property value and contribute to clean air in our community. In the Willamette Valley we are fortunate that many different kinds of trees grow well in our temperate climate and we have a plethora of options. The key to a successful tree planting is choosing the right tree for the right location. To help you with that we’ve put together a list of things you should keep in mind when planting a tree, along with a few helpful tips from our team of experts.