12/14/2019 Gardens Aren't Always Dormant in the WinterSnow falling softly over shrubs and trees, covering perennials and stopping fall season chores. The white blanket delicately lies over the garden, putting all to sleep. The garden appears so calm and quiet. Gardens are dormant in the winter, right? There is lots of winter garden activity, but not all is seen. Before the dirt freezes, plant roots are continuing to absorb nutrients and moisture from the soil. Warm winter days pull moisture from foliage and evergreen needles. Snow acts as a natural temperature moderator, stopping the ground from warming too fast and shielding plant roots from cold, bitter temperatures. Foliage Offer Refuge Shrub and perennial foliage provide a lot of refuge for small winter wildlife and birds. Also, last season’s plant seeds are a food buffet for hungry critters. The tender bark of young shrubs and trees is quite beautiful to animals seeking a snack. Safeguard your defenseless shrubs and trees by creating a barrier with metal mesh, chicken wire, or plastic tree protector. This will stop snow from mounding up around younger shrubs and trees as well as stop animals from using the snow as a ladder to get access to upper parts of your plants. On a side note, this is also why homeowners need to get stump removal service so animals will not have a stump to make a home. While you might have warmer temperatures during winter months, plants aren’t ready to begin growing. Swelling buds on shrubs and trees might look as if it’s spring. But, as long as the soil is still cool, growth is at a standstill. This safeguards plants from hard freezes that Rochester will probably experience in March and perhaps beyond. As you look out your window on those dreary, cold winter days, and desire warm spring weather, bear in mind, your garden is still working diligently. Dormancy is crucial for plants in the northern landscape since if they were actively growing in cold temps, their leaves and stems would freeze, killing or destroying them. They would fight to thrive in the reduced sunlight of shorter days. Their roots would know it’s practically impossible to get water from frozen soil. 12/7/2019 Choose a Live Christmas Tree This YearIf you desire a live Christmas tree this year, you will be happy to know there are plenty of choices. Here is a closer look as the most well-liked live Christmas trees so you can pick the right one for you. Douglas Fir The Advantages The sweet smell of this tree is one of the numerous reasons why it's such a well-liked Christmas tree. Additionally, the Douglas fir lives for four weeks, which is excellent if you like to keep your tree up past January 1st. Disadvantages The Douglas fir is a colossal tree. So, it wouldn't be appropriate for a small space in a home or a small apartment. Blue Spruce Advantages The silver-blue color of blue spruce makes it a favorite choice for numerous households around the holiday season. The limbs of this tree have a skyward tilt, allowing ornaments to hang easily. The branches give this tree its distinct appearance. Disadvantages One disadvantage of blue spruce is that the needles usually begin to fall off sooner than other tree types. Besides, this tree lives for just two weeks, and the needles have a nasty odor when crumpled. Fraser Fir Advantages A Fraser fir keeps its needles for an extended period when it's watered accurately and kept away from the heating vents. Be sure the family pet doesn't use your Fraser fir stand as a water bowl. The tree’s needles have a coating that lets them glow under your Christmas lights. A Fraser fir typically lasts for about 35 days, giving off a pleasant fragrance. This tree is slim, making it right for small spaces and small rooms. Disadvantages A Fraser fir is shorter and doesn't possess the fullness of a Douglas fir. Norway Spruce Advantages Want a medium-sized, cone-shaped Christmas tree? If so, take a look, at a Norway spruce. This tree has deep green needles and reveals a subtle scent. Disadvantages This tree drops its needles easy if it's shaken in its stand or someone brushes past it. Don't forget to recycle your tree or call a stump grinding company to come to get your tree. Your beautiful Christmas tree can be helpful to the environment after making your holiday celebration special. 11/23/2019 How to Prune Holly BushesHolly bushes make a gorgeous winter plant, with tiny red berries delivering aesthetic appeal in a cold and bleak season. While holly makes a festive holiday decoration, gardeners must perform a more vital pruning of this bush than collecting greens for a table display. When you know how to prune holly bushes, you keep the plant healthy and cosmetically attractive. When to Prune A common question is when to trim a holly bush plant. Most folks can prune a holly bush when the plant is dormant in the wintertime. December is an excellent time for pruning holly bushes. Trimming holly bushes aids in giving them a neat appearance and keeping them in shape. However, not all types of holly bushes are pruned at the same time. It is vital to know when to prune the different varieties of holly bushes. Otherwise, you could unintentionally get pricked by holly leaves. Examine your holly bush for diseased, dead, or damaged limbs. Dead wood will be hollow to the touch. Damaged and diseased wood will have nicks and cuts as well as being physically marred with discolored timber. How to Prune Mix a solution of water and bleach in a bucket. Dip your pruning shears into the solution, then cut away the rotten wood. Cut off these branches at their intersection with the main branch or trunk. Use pruners for tiny cuts and lopping shears for thicker limbs that are difficult to cut with the small pruners. Clean your pruners between cuts. Throw away all dead and infected wood in a garbage bin, then sterilize all your gardening equipment and wipe them dry with a towel. Get rid of the bleach solution. It’s okay to perform a DIY holly bush trim job. However, if you need tree cutting or stump grinding service, you should call a professional stump service company. Thin out packed areas of the canopy to encourage air circulation, which keeps your holly healthy. Use pruners to take off weak limbs and branches that push up against other branches. Chop all the growth off at the base. Take off downward-growing or low-growing branches from the holly bush by cutting them off at the bottom. Don’t cut into the swollen tissue or the collar on the trunk that indicates the branch intersection with the trunk. Evergreen shrubs can be used as an anchor, screen, or focal point in a mixed border or landscape. Learning how to identify your evergreen shrub is the first step in making sure it’s the right one for the growing conditions. There are three fundamental kinds of evergreen shrub leaves: scale-like, awl-shaped, and needle-like. After you identify the right leaf-shape category of your evergreen shrub, you can narrow down the evergreen shrub types. Customary types of evergreen shrubs are yews, firs, junipers, Siberian cypress, hemlock, Douglas fir, spruce, false cypress, pine, and arborvitae. When distinguishing evergreen shrub leaves, you can match the leaves with pictures in tree care and stump removal guidebook. Decide the Right Leaf-Shape Step 1 Distinguish awl-shaped evergreen leaves by their thin, long formation. Scale- and needle-shaped leaves are more significant than awl-shaped leaves and reach outward from the center stems. Step 2 Search for evergreen shrub leaves with a host of needles that flourish uniformly from the center leaf stem. These are referred to as needle evergreen leaves. Step 3 Pinpoint the evergreen shrub leaves by its scales that develop away from the center leaf stem in uneven lengths. Scale-like evergreen leaves possess a coarse triangular shape. Classify the Evergreen Shrub Step 1 Feel the foliage to characterize the right type of evergreen with awl-like leaves. If the foliage is piercing to the touch, it’s a juniper. If the foliage is flexible and soft, it’s a Siberian cypress. Step 2 Examine the needles’ length, growth habit, and coloring to detect the needle-leaf evergreen shrub type. If the needles are entirely green, flat, and ¾- to 1-inch long, the shrub is a yew. If the needle possesses two white bands down the length of its bottom, is around ½-inch and is united to the branch by a tiny stem, it's hemlock. Pinpoint pines by needles that grow in bundles of two, three, or five and spruces based on their square needles. Step 3 Look at the specific shape and size of scale-like leaves to identify the evergreen shrub type. Arborvitae shrubs have flat fan-shaped and tiny leaves that grow to only 1/16 to 1/8 inch in size. Imitation cypress types have less flat and bigger scale-like leaves. If you need help identifying trees and shrubs in your landscaping or need stump services, contact a local professional stump removal service today! Is that pretty little holly next to the front door now threatening to grab your arm as you walk by? This is the best time to transplant trees and shrubs in the winter from one part of your landscape to the other. Transplanting Trees and Shrubs Transplanting shrubs and trees can be an overwhelming task. You might be frightened that you could kill your plant in the process. Here’s what you need to know: the plant isn’t doing you any good in its present location. Otherwise, you probably would not be thinking about moving it. You aim to have it gone. Though, if you’re going to get rid of it, you may as well use it somewhere else. If it lives, consider it a blessing. Let’s come up with some ideas to make your transplant a success. Here are some tips:
The objective is to keep as much of the soil intact with the roots as you can. Have a piece of plastic, burlap, or tarp ready to put the root ball in. Try to raise the plant out of the ground from the underside instead of pulling by the branches. Have the new hole already dug so that you can put your tree or bush in it quickly. You should dig a hole at least twice the size of the rootball and around the same depth. When you are replanting, tamp the soil around the rootball as you go along, so you don’t have pockets of air and pockets of water. If you dig and discover that the tree is dead, call a tree and stump removal company to get rid of it correctly. Mulch covers the soil and helps it retain water, stay frost-free, and keep nutrients. There are several different mulch types, each one with a somewhat different function. Cedar and pine mulches are both wood-chip mulches. However, the difference between pine and cedar mulch are significant, as they benefit the soil differently and have to be used in separate sections of your landscape. Advantages of Mulch Mulch comes in several forms, acting as a defensive layer for both the plant's roots and the soil. A few inches of mulch placed on the ground before the first frost will shield your plants' roots and guarantee that they live through the winter. Also, wood mulch breaks down and reloads the soil's nutrients that the plants use to thrive and flourish every year. A generous amount of mulch around your trees also deters weed growth. Pine Mulch Pine is a soft wood that breaks down easier than hard wood. This means that the soft wood mulch created won’t last as long as a hard wood mulch made with cedar. Pine mulch is best used in places that have a good number of plant turn-over, are replanted every year, or in spots with a considerable amount of plants where the plants are taking in a significant number of nutrients. Cedar Mulch Cedar mulch is a hardwood mulch that doesn’t break down quickly. It is best used on plants that grow gradually and in spots where there isn’t a lot of plants turn over. Cedar mulch is typically used around grown trees and shrubs. Also, cedar mulch is suitable for lining your garden paths, since it won't break down when you step on it. Cedar mulch lasts a very long time. How to Use Wood mulch is best used in autumn to safeguard your plants from frost and heavy rain. It shields the soil and halts a snap freeze from destroying the roots of your plants. You must cover all unplanted and exposed ground with around two inches of mulch. You can get organic, fresh mulch from any Rochester stump grinding business. Tip Pine is an acidic wood. Even though it breaks down gradually, it could still affect the pH balance of your soil. Therefore, be careful not to apply it around any plants that are sensitive to acidic soils. 10/26/2019 Halloween Ideas for your LandscapingHalloween night brings plenty of foot traffic to your house, making it one of the best holidays for decorating. It’s also the heart of fall season, which is why so many Rochester homeowners are thrilled to give their yard a festive facelift as soon as October comes. If you’re looking for some Halloween ideas for your landscaping, here are a few tried and true favorites. Countryside Porch The porch is the best place for mums, pumpkins, mums, and other fall goodies. If you’re not the one who likes goblins and ghosts, an old-school country porch is an excellent way to ring in the fall season. Your decorations will be right until Thanksgiving. Keep your pumpkins upright on your porch using mulch. You can find mulch at any stump grinding business. Spooky The best Halloween decorations don’t have to be the scariest. Keep your props lighthearted and cute, instead of putting the highlight on fall annuals and a bright green lawn, with your house as the centerpiece. Halloween Scene If you’re going to go all out for Halloween, have a good time. Don’t stop at just decorations. Picture your yard as a blank canvas to produce an entire Halloween landscape. The more you can pull everything together, the more exciting your final presentation. Pathway to Patio If you have a patio or backyard, you can imitate a haunted house with a dimly lit path with scary surprises. Safe by the Fire There’s no better time than now to have a fire pit built so you can enjoy it through the cold months. Contact a local stump removal company if you want help getting wood for your fire. Most significantly, have fun and don’t forget to get lots of candy and goodies for the trick-or-treaters. There are lots of fun ways to assimilate some spooky ideas into your landscape. From witches to ghosts to skeletons, there are plenty of ways to have some fun with your outdoor space while delivering some frightening fun. Regardless of how old you are, Halloween decorations can help you make the most of your landscape. If you want to get trick-or-treaters to come by, you want your outdoor space to catch everyone’s attention. People love a good scare this time of year. 10/19/2019 Improving the Clay Soil in Your YardIf your yard has heavy clay soil, you understand what a challenge it can be for plants. Heavy clay drains gradually. This means it remains wet longer after rain. When the sun dries the soil, it forms a hard surface. Below are some ideas about improving the clay soil in your yard. On the positive side, clay soil has more minerals than sandy soil. And clay's inclination to hold water can be an advantage. Healthy soil possesses clay particles, sand, and silt. Heavy soil has too many particles and not enough sand or silt to give plants the nutrients and moisture they need to grow. Soils with too much clay in them get waterlogged when wet, choking out the oxygen to plant roots. When dry, it compacts easily, stopping roots from getting into the soil and withstanding drainage. Amending the soil correctly enhances texture and reinforces plant growth. Improve Your Clay Soil Dig the soil and do a soil test to get the pH and nutrient level of the soil. Spread some compost over the soil and work it in with a spade or garden fork, breaking up any chunks of clay. Put on another layer of organic matter, including fertilizer and work the mixture into the soil with a spade. Turn the soil until the compost is distributed evenly. Rake the area smooth and plant according to the spacing and depth for the specific plant. Construct raised beds. Since clay soils hold water, build raised beds can help perfect drainage by making the water runoff. Raised beds can be just a pile of dirt or can be made out of stone, wood, or brick. To reduce compaction, measure the beds so you can get to the middle without walking on the bed. Mulch beds over the wintertime. Heavy rain hardens bare soil. So, beds should be applied with eco-green mulch both in the winter and the growing season. You can get organic mulch from a stump grinding business. Putting some straw over the beds will reduce erosion and safeguard the soil from compaction. It can also aid in reducing weed growth. 10/12/2019 Common Diseases of the Ficus TreeFicus trees are grown for their fantastic foliage and are standard houseplants. The species include the Weeping Fig, Fiddleleaf Fig, and the Rubber Tree. Ficus trees are simple to maintain. Avoid over watering or wetting the leaves to help stop diseases. Below are some of the common diseases of the ficus tree. Fungal Leaf Spots Ficus trees that are set outside during warm weather could develop fungal leaf spots, but they never happen inside. Leaf spots usually aren’t harmful, though they affect the look of infested trees. Care for leaf spots with a fungicide particularly for ficus trees. Anthracnose created by Glomerella fungi or Colletotrichum darken yellow spots to brown and produces hordes of spores. Botrytis blight creates large brown or tan spots with concentric rings and multitudes of fuzzy gray spores. Little raised red or dark green spots on the bottom part of the leaves are symptoms of Cercospora leaf spot. These spots emerge on young leaves as red spots. Fungal Diseases Many other fungal diseases influence ficus trees. Twig blight makes small twigs turn brown and die. Twig cankers produced by fungi are lesions that can encircle and destroy the infested limbs. Trim and extinguish infected plant material to stop the spread of disease. The fungus Sclerotium rolfsii produces Southern blight. Loads of white cottony mycelium develop on the leaves and stems of infected plants and make them die. There is no treatment or for Southern blight. Infected trees have to be destroyed. Contact a tree and stump removal company to get rid of the diseased tree. Bacterial Diseases These maladies are deadly to ficus trees. Galls on ficus trees are created by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Swollen areas on infected stem, roots, or develop and get corky. No chemical control will work. Affected trees have to be destroyed to stop the spread of infection. Xanthomonas leaf spot starts as little water-soaked spots on the tree. The spots multiply and might produce yellow margins. Using bactericides according to the manufacturer’s instructions can stop Xanthomonas leaf spots. Infected trees and their stumps have to be cut down so the disease won’t spread in your lawn. 10/5/2019 How can I get my Magnolia Tree to Bloom?Magnolias are a desired tree among many gardeners. They are simple to maintain, needing just a good start in most cases to thrive into a self-sustaining, healthy tree. Though, magnolias have been known in some cases to have a hard time flowering. There are many things to consider when you want your magnolia tree to bloom. If your tree isn’t growing, there are reasons you can explore that may help the tree start to grow once again. If your magnolia tree hasn’t ever bloomed, you may be in for a long wait. Magnolia trees are grown from seeds that could take up to 20 years to bloom. It will probably be close to three years after planting before the roots are set enough for the tree to flourish. Verify Your Variety Flowers are a fragment of the reproductive cycle of plants. Based on the variety and type of plant, flowers come forth at various times of the year according to the climate. Magnolia trees early-blooming happens in late February or March. As such, it can be vulnerable to harmful late frosts that can disturb flower blooming. Test the Soil Nitrogen-rich soil assists magnolia trees in producing beautiful vegetation but could constrain the number of blooms the tree makes. You can call your local tree care and stump removal service business to test the soil and decide whether you have too much nitrogen. You may need a more significant amount of phosphorus or other nutrients that will invigorate the roots and help the magnolia tree to develop more flowers. Feed the roots by creating some deep holes near the drip line of the tree. Put the holes at least six inches apart. You can make the holes with a crowbar, and they have to be big enough to add the nutrients. Add phosphate to the holes. You also can use the holes to put in any other micronutrients that are suggested based on the outcome of your soil test. Eliminate any barriers that could block the magnolia tree’s sun. Magnolias require at least six hours of full sun every day to get to their full potential. Contact Rochester Stump removal if you have any questions about the health of your trees. |
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December 2020
CategoriesAll Insects & Diseases Questions & Answers Tools & Safety Trees & Landscaping Tree Stump Basics |