A few years ago, our then-mayor was addressing the community association about her accomplishments. She proudly announced that she had spent $700,000 on trees. In conclusion, she asked if there were questions.
I asked why she hadn’t spent $400,000 on trees and $300,000 on watering and pruning? Two attendants promptly asked me “if I knew who I was talking to?” I replied that I was talking to someone who had no experience in the life-cycle of a city tree.
Now that the fall planting season is here, please be careful about your selection of new or replacement trees for your yard or on the street. Here are a few important but easy pointers:
- Be careful selecting your stock. Your choice must be guided by several important criteria. For example: be sure the terminal (tip-top bud) is very healthy, or the main trunk will never grow any taller than the day you plant it.
- Do not prune it in the spring, when the sap is on the rise.
- Consider eventual growth for pedestrians, cars, and cutting equipment. (In Bolton Square, people who bought new townhouses in 1968 planted two or even three small trees in their tiny yard. Today, some are four-stories high! The roots are dislocating walls.)
- Study the drainage in the immediate area. Do not mound dirt or mulch up into a pile. This only encourages water to run off, rather than to nourish, the tree.
- Take time to read about tree pruning (or call me) before you start hacking at the side (lateral) limbs.
Here are a couple of other critical truths: think about watering, feeding, and shaping the tree. Like a child, it should be nurtured for the first several years. And finally, no weed-eaters. String-trimmers are your enemy! The entire life of the tree is in its outside half-inch. Cutting a ring around the bottom, is like cutting its wrist.
As you start to understand your trees better, read up on nutrition, disease, pests, droppings, birds, foliage and other challenges. If you like, someday, we can sit with a white-board and a cup of your favorite beverage, and we’ll discuss how critical several fundamental “easy to remember” rules are.
–Thom Shipley can be reached at thomshipley@hotmail.com
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