Daily Learnings: Thu, Jun 27, 2024
Tree Maintenance Learnings
We had a pest control manager come by to treat our place for wasps and voles, and turns out she’s got a Master’s degree in botany. I was literally just talking to my wife about the stress that I’m feeling about our trees, given that we planted them ourselves, and I want them to grow.
When this person reviewed our trees and made some comments on things to do, I quickly noted down some awesome learnings:
- Front yards, especially close to streets, are usually on average about 10ºF warmer than backyards
- This needs to be considered when choosing a tree for a front yard near the street
- We have a juniper tree that appears to be dying from the inside out, she reviewed and said:
- Trees often prioritize pushing nutrients to the outer-most and top branches, which is why you’ll see the inside getting brown first
- For this situation, we should cut away the landscaping layer that was placed, double check the drip system is working, and then bury a fish (yes, a whole fish bought from an grocery store) near the roots
- We should water the tree aggressively every day, and the fish will decompose, provide lots of calcium and potassium to the soil and roots
- Our oak tree needs to be pruned, but only in the fall, not during the summer heat
- Oak trees like to grow almost like bushes, so we’ll want to prune away small, tender branches that are super close to the trunk (not all, but a lot) in the fall to help prioritize nutrients and water to the mature branches and to the overall growth of the base
- We also need to buy some “neem” oil, mix it with water, and then spray the tree regularly to help prevent some small wasp eggs that we see being laid in the branches