I’m in love…with arborist wood chips. These are not your beauty barks or other packaged mulches, but the chipped branches and leaves fresh from the tree crews. It’s a great way to keep this resource out of the landfill – and don’t even get me started about using this great mulch material for a “biofuel!” … Continue reading Wonderful wood chips
This month’s issue of the Oregon Association of Nursery’s Digger magazine includes the second part of a two-part article on urban foresters’ perspectives on nursery stock. It was interesting to note that some urban foresters felt they were in a quandary because their specs require removal of burlap from B&B trees, yet many nurseries will … Continue reading The Flap Over Burlap
The last few years have been a perfect storm for the resurgence of home vegetable (and fruit) gardens. Grapevines are trellised along sidewalks, herbs replace the grass in parking strips, and tiny gardens of carrots and lettuce are shoehorned into any available spot. It’s all good – but we need to be particularly careful about … Continue reading Eat your veggies! (But not the arsenic, or the chromium, or the lead…)
Nothing is more frustrating to a gardener than watching a newly installed tree or shrub slowly die. In performing “post mortem” analyses on failed landscape plantings, I’ve identified four common errors that can be easily avoided: inadequate root preparation improper soil preparation planting below grade inadequate aftercare This blog entry will be dedicated to the first … Continue reading Health care reform (of trees)
[Disclaimer: I do not endorse any particular product over another, nor do I receive ANY compensation (darn it), free stuff, etc. from any companies, whether recommending or dissing their product.] Seeing Linda’s favorite mulch fork prompted this post – scroll on down past the Great Root Debate (rowr)! I remember first laying eyes on this … Continue reading I *heart* My NRG Pro Transplanter
Following up on Linda’s earlier comments about potential problems with TreeGators, my summer interns and I did a random spot check of about 150 TreeGators currently in use on the MSU campus. As background, MSU Landscape Services plants about 1,200 trees and shrubs each year. All newly-planted trees which are not on an automatic irrigation … Continue reading Another look at TreeGators
For the past 11 years I’ve been running a nursery at the University of Minnesota called the TRE (for Teaching, Research, and Extension) nursery where we research all kinds of fun stuff like Dutch elm disease, the dangers of mulching, and what happens when you plant a tree too deeply. One of the most interesting … Continue reading Bare Root Trees
We never know who to blame (or, rarely, thank) for roadside or median plantings. State D.O.T.? Local municipality? Subcontractor to either of the previous? A few years ago, this appeared in the median of the Highway 460 bypass – the main road leading to Virginia Tech: I am somehow reminded of Sideshow Bob from The … Continue reading A Brief Discussion on the Wisdom of Barberry as Median Plant
I guess today’s blog should be entitled “The Cranky Garden Professor.” Really, I’m not always cranky, and when I am I go outside to do something constructive in my garden. Last weekend I finally tackled a 5-gallon container of lavender that I’d bought several weeks ago. I had intended to wait until fall to transplant … Continue reading Bad roots and deceptive marketing
Whenever I give talks to landscapers or gardening groups some of the most common questions that come up deal with various products promoted to provide ‘miracle’ results in the garden. These are usually various soil amendments; fertilizer additives, bio-stimulants, mycorrhizae, and the like. My initial reaction to these inquiries is, “What does your current basic … Continue reading Evaluating ‘Scientific’ Claims