I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for some time! There is so much mis-information out there about tree care that I would like to help educate people. I want to go through some of the proper ways to plant and maintain trees in the future on this blog.
I will try to post weekly tips that apply to the current season. Some of these tips will only be applicable to those of you that live in the desert Southwest (how to take care of your citrus trees), while others will apply universally (the proper way to trim off a branch).
The other thing I want to do is show you some of the many interesting things we do each day. From taking down a huge tree to beautifying a small desert native specimen. Not a day goes by without some drudgery, but there are always interesting aspects. My goal is to post at least once a week with photos from some of our jobs.
Today I went out to a golf course community in our area to visit with a woman about several plants in her yard. She has a huge, old yellow Banksia rose growing on a trellis along the front of her guest house. The 6×6 posts of the trellis are rotting in spots and a contractor is planning to start replacing some of them on Monday. We inspected the posts and the way the rose is growing on the trellis roof. There should be no problem with temporarily supporting the rose during replacement – no trimming necessary for now!
Banksia roses are one of the “once-blooming” varieties. These plants bloom on older wood, so you will get more blooms the next year if they are trimmed immediately after blooming. Standard roses bloom on newer wood, so should be trimmed in the winter, before they start actively growing. This will encourage more new growth, hence more blooms.
We also talked about a large pine tree which is actually leaning against the roof of the house. It provides a lot of shade for the house on summer afternoons, but is cracking the floor tiles inside! They need to decide if they want to remove the tree! Once they do, I will develop a plan for removal and a cost. Access with a standard 30 or 40 ton crane will be tight, so we might have to use a crawler – stay tuned for photos if the tree comes out!
We also talked about the different palm trees that grow well in our area, the advantages and disadvantages of each species , as well as their appearance (frond type, size, etc). We may plant several palms in the front yard. Check back for a summary of our discussion and photos of the trees going into the ground!
Next week we have 3 large removals to do in Phoenix. One is a crane job! I’ll try to post photos once I get rested up!