He Likes Them Topless

Try and keep up sonny!

 
As a small business owner, I find that it's pretty easy to follow the advice that "the customer is always right" ...  right up to the point where they're wrong.

More often than not this occurs when I'm asked to provide a quote for tree care. This happened again a few days ago when I met with an older gentleman (we'll call him Mr. Smith) to chat about trimming his trees.


Maybe "mutilating" his trees would be a better word? He wants every tree on his property topped, because you know, they're pretty out of control.




The victims...

The token Ash

The ubiquitous Crabapple

The handsome Japanese Maple

And finally there's a Weeping Cherry he wants pruned under the window (any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated).

After 20+ years in the biz, I've finally figured out that self-righteous monologues berating the prospective client doesn't make me any new friends. I just stuck with thoughtful nods and a forced smile or two. The fact that this was the father-in-law of a valued new client helped keep me on my best behavior too.

Still, a Certified Arborist can't be seen out and about making freaky head cuts on trees so what's a guy to do?  Conveniently, there is ISA approved  "Crown Reduction" pruning. Instead of performing topping cuts mid-branch, we can reduce a tree by pruning it down to lateral branches that are large enough to assume the new leadership opening.

I certainly wouldn't call this necessary pruning, but if it prevents something like this from happening I think I've done my job.

Kiva

The ruins of a 500 year old kiva was recently unearthed in the Boise foothills...

OK, well maybe not, but that's the feel we're going for on a new landscape construction project in the El Paseo Subdivision on the west side of Warm Springs Mesa.

Granted, the Pueblo culture didn't make it up anywhere near Idaho, but it's interesting to think how they would have used our local rock in their distinctive architectural style.



It wouldn't be the first time I've looked to the southwest for inspiration in our hardscape construction.

Four Corners region

Highlands in Boise

The Boise foothills is full of its own history though- this home is being built within a stone's throw of  Trail #14, which runs along the course of a tram that was once used at the Table Rock quarry. You can still see some of the dry stacked sandstone walls that were built over a 100 years ago.

Installing Andesitic Idaho Flagstone

Helleborus orientalis  First flowers in our garden!

     

I get as excited about spring flowers as the next enlightened, sensitive guy, but the thing that really tells me the season has started is when we get our first flagstone installation for the season.

This flagstone walkway I built for a  bungalow in the North End took me the better part of of last Monday to complete. There is truth in the term "hardscape".

The coolest thing about the walkway, other than the fact that our
client paid us instantly (thanks Beth!), is that all the stone comes from an easy drive's distance from Boise.

The downside of using this local stone is that while one side of the stone is generally pretty flat, the other side isn't. The stone also doesn't have a uniform thickness like Arizona sandstone, or some of the other rock quarried in Idaho. This makes installation of our local stone a little tricky.

Dreaming of flat bottomed pavers

Pavers and stones with even thickness are pretty straightforward to install. You have to...

- excavate the site
- install a course base and compact
- install a compacted & screed sand base

...and then you're ready to lay down your flagstone. If you've done a good job with your prep work, this last step can be completed pretty quickly.

Our local stone requires a couple more steps.

I use thicker pieces as a "keystone" within the patio to lock in thinner pieces of flagstone.
This requires you to excavate a bit of the sand you've worked so hard to compact.

I lock in the rocks by using a rock hammer to compact sand around and under the stones.

And then add another rock...

And then another 80 or so pieces until either I'm done or I can no longer hold on to my rock hammer.

I finish up each flagstone project by sweeping sand over the top of the rocks, filling in any voids to prevent stones from rocking.

Happy hammering.

Fruit Tree Pruning

People are indignant when I refuse to discuss fruit tree pruning in my basic tree care classes. Ornamental tree care couldn't be more different than pruning for fruit production so I rarely bring up the topic in the course of my presentations. These folks leave my classes disappointed and usually a little angry. Such is the life of a public speaker.

But I think any arborist should be at least a little uncomfortable uttering phrases like "reduction cuts" and (even worse) "heading cuts", so I'll start these instructions with the caveat: don't do this to shade trees. Really. Because I'll have to hunt you down if you do.

I keep my fruit tree pruning goals pretty simple:

1. Reduce the crown of the tree to short(ish) laterals that,
     a. are accessible from the ground or a short ladder and,
     b. reduce the possibility of branch failure under fruit load.

2. Keep the center of the tree open for good air circulation (and because it's hard to get fruit from the interior of the tree anyway).

3. Train the lateral branches to form an open lattice work to allow adequate light to the fruiting branches.

4. Remove dead, diseased and wounding crossing branches

Upright branches are vigorous in their growth, but laterals are better fruit producers.

Upright branches before pruning.

Half of an apple tree pruned to lateral branches.

Another shot of half the tree pruned.

First completed apple tree

Another completed apple tree at the same property

Another shot of the same tree.

Hey, did I happen to mention that if you do this to an ornamental tree I'll break your knee caps?

Next week I'm going to write about what happens when you do this to an ornamental (to the tree, not you) and the restorative pruning needed to, um, restore it.

Boise Right-of-Way Pruning

The City of Boise requires a special license in addition to ISA Arborist certification for any tree trimming in Boise Right-of-Ways. A few of our clients have recently asked for pruning in these areas so I met with Boise City Arborist Dennis Matlock today in order to be evaluated and licensed.

We met at a property a couple blocks north of Warm Springs with an approximately 40 year old maple that needed some basic maintenance pruning.


After roping in, my first target was the  removal of the many dead branches in the canopy.

The second priority was the removal of crossing subordinate limbs that were wounding major scaffold branches. 

Roped into a high branch in the canopy, I also found and removed several large broken off branches or "hangers" that had been hovering over parked cars

I wrapped up the work by removing epicormic sprouting caused by earlier road clearance pruning. A few weeks ago I wrote about the need to watch for this kind of follow up pruning.

All cleaned up!

A big thanks to Dennis for sticking it out when the snow started coming down hard midway through the evaluation. I'd highly recommend attending his pruning class at the Boise Public Library March 13; a presentation that will include detailed photos documenting the pruning response of Boise trees over the last 20 years 

"All About Trees" free classes begin Feb. 27. Go here for class details.

Protecting mature trees in a xeriscape conversion

Xericoasis would be a pretty stupid blog title if I wasn't at least casually interested in water conservation and zone sensitive landscape design. But the truth is, I'm getting increasingly annoyed at what I see as a "kill a tree, save the planet" attitude in a lot of xericape conversions.

It happens all the time in the urban forest of Boise's North End. Somebody decides that the Kentucky Blue grass in the front yard is sucking up too much water to be sustainable. Fair enough. But then they cap off the sprinkler system, rototill and remove the grass, install weed fabric and spread (God forbid) six yards of perma-bark over the whole area. They finish off the conversion by planting a handful of weedy looking natives and run single drip emitters to each plant.

I usually come on to the scene three to five years later when the eighty year old shade tree in their front yard starts dropping dead branches on the roof and they want an arborist to tell them why...

stressed tree in parking lot "xeriscape"

Tack isn't one of my strongest personality traits, but I do my best to politely explain to the client that:

1. the rototiller destroyed a large amount of the tree's fine water absorbing roots
2. the "perma-bark" superheats the soil
3. the weed fabric creates a hydrophobic dead zone, and,
4, the minuscule amount of water the drip line provides might keep a one gallon Eriogonum alive, but it won't do much for a tree that receives 30-60" of rainfall in its native range

Invariably, I hear the comment that that , "well maybe we shouldn't plant shade trees in our climate". Horse Puckey, I say. The benefits of our urban forest and it's role in such things as mitigating the urban heat island effect is well worth the investment of water it takes to sustain it. Besides, many properties in and around Boise are blessed with abundant non-potable irrigation water- a vestige of our valley's agrarian heritage.

Poor water coverage often seen in drip irrigation  systems

In Willowglenn installations, we often forego drip systems for a high efficiency broadcast sprinkler like Hunter's MP rotator nozzle. Efficient broadcast sprinklers more closely emulate natural rainfall, and encourage lateral root development. I've seen too many trees blown over because some genius thought that putting a bubbler at the base of tree was sufficient. It may keep the tree alive for awhile but it never develops decent lateral roots that would give it stability in the wind.

Integrating existing shade trees into a xericscape conversion can be done, but you have to be smart about it. The fact is, that 80 year old shade tree might have done OK hanging out with the turf grass, but turf grass and trees actually have quite different irrigation needs. Turf grass requires frequent watering but most trees prefer infrequent deep watering- a great starting point for the design of a mildly xeric design.

Choose an organic mulch and plant your xeriscape bed with a range of plants that provide four season interest. Take care to try and not damage the roots of your existing tree as you plant the shrubs and perennials and keep an eye on the tree for signs of stress.

How's this for an idea: let's keep our trees and save the planet. Brilliant.

Hazard pruning followup

Back in March of last year I wrote about the need for restraint when pruning mature trees. Hazard pruning is one instance where pruning a mature tree may be acceptable. Reasons for pruning might include: 

- pruning for road clearance 

- pruning away from roof shingles

- pruning away from chimneys

I was taking Christmas lights out of an enormous Rose of Sharon shrub last week when I snapped this picture of a maple tree that had been pruned for chimney clearance.

All three pruning cuts had been performed correctly and were almost entirely healed over. Looking closely though, you can see that in two out of the three branch removals, the tree has responded by sending out several epicormic shoots near each cut. Epicormic shoots lie dormant and are hormonally kept in check until damage or removal of a branch or leader occurs.

 Here's a closer look:

The first pruning cut healed over without any development of epicormic sprouting. The other two cuts have several new shoots apiece, growing right back towards the chimney, quadrupling the previous hazard.

So what's the take away? Don't forget to occasionally look up to see how the tree is reacting to pruning. Correctly pruning a tree is often not a one time event, but may need to be done over the course of several years. 


No shade tree? Blame not the sun, but yourself 
( Chinese proverb)