Dead Trees

Last year was hard on trees here.  Very dry.  And I only say that about MY local conditions.  It has been horribly drier in other places.  But I'm here and not there.  So I have my only experience "here".

Many years ago, I planted Golden Rain trees on either side of the driveway near the street.  I like "specimen" trees, small and interesting.  Golden Rain produces ping-pong-ball-sized seed packets in July that turn deep yellow as they mature.  The seeds never seem to grow, so I assume they are sterile hybrids.  And that is good; I don't want invasive plants.  But they ARE interesting in the middle of Summer (I have some other trees and shrubs for Spring and Fall color).

But, as I said, last year was harsh.  One is completely dead (it sent up one shoot from the trunk, but it didn't last long). 

 The other is half dead.  IT looks fine from the house, but dead from the street.  I'm not an arborist, but I have "enough" understanding of pruning small trees to remove the deadwood properly (undercut, then downward cut, then allow 1/2" "branch collar cut" for healing.

The surviving tree will look unbalanced for a few years, but the tree will send out new branches and I know how to direct them slightly if necessary.  

I also lost a beech tree.  I was slightly fooled at first, because there were vines growing on it and the vine leaves made it look like the tree was recovering.  When I pruned the vines at ground level, and THEY died, the sad truth was obvious.  

The tree was here when I moved in 35 years ago.  If you look closely, you will see that the top was literally "trunkated" but new branches arose to create a new canopy.  The tree can't very well have died of last year's drought; it is just a few feet from a drainage easement and there is "some" water flowing from the neighborhood above year-round.  That itself is actually amazing.  No matter how dry it gets, water flows...  I have no idea how old the beech tree was.  Maybe it just lived its full life.  But it sure had access to water!

Ground conditions can be strange.  When I first moved here, the lawn would get so dry that the soil would crack open.  I used to water the lawn, not realizing that it was natural for the grasses in my area to go dormant and grown in the hot days of July and August.  I've stopped doing that (waste of water and fertilizer to force the lawn to grow).

Instead, I started leaving the grass-clippings on the lawn and laid down corn gluten just twice a year (both a natural fertilizer and a weed suppressant).  I also bought a soil aerator I could drag behind the riding mower.  It brought up plugs of soil to the surface, allowed air and decaying grass in, and over the years, the soil greatly improved.  It hasn't cracked in a decade.  And the tall fescue grass stays green most Summers.  

A lawn-care company rep came by a few weeks ago.  I don't ever engage the services of "door-knockers", but I had time and was curious.  So we sat on the front step while he pointed out that I had a few weeds and a lot of clover in my lawn and his company could fix that.  I mentioned that I was an organic yardkeeper.  He said "we can improve your lawn".

My immediate thought was "welcome to my web, said the spider to the fly"...

So I asked him why my clover was so bad.  He said "it's not grass".  I pointed out that clover has deep roots and brings nutrients back up to the grassroot level, that it was pleasantly green, that it didn't need fertilizing, and that bees like clover blossoms.  

He got an annoyed look and decided he should move on to talk to other neighbors.  I LOVE doing stuff like that...