For people with oaks, I've written a more detailed article here on proper watering and care. After five years of drought here in Southern California we have a tree crisis – in our city alone (Redlands) we have 1400 dead street and park trees. Some are young, but many are old ones that take decades …
Taking Care of Our California Native Oaks
9/5/14 Note: I've added an article on care of oaks during drought I love our majestic old native oaks here in California. And like many, I get distressed when I see one dying, especially from improper care. Background: There are nine species of native tree oaks in California - In SoCA most of our …
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Pesticide Use: Consider the Collateral Damage
A couple things have prompted this post. First, we have a potentially devastating disease hitting citrus trees in SoCal with the arrival of an insect Asian Citrus Psyllid. To combat it, a pesticide spray composed of two common insecticides is being applied to local trees. Second, I read a Sierra …
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Wine Drinkers: Choose Corked Wine
During the last year I've read about the importance of cork trees and recently read another article on the topic in Living Bird magazine, which expressed concern that wine bottlers were replacing cork stoppers with plastic or screw caps. Main takeaway: The cork stopper in your wine bottle …
Tree Pruning: Resist Topping Trees
Here in southern California, and especially in our city of Redlands, which is bestowed with 100+ year old trees, we have an epidemic of terrible tree trimming. Also, tree topping or pollarding -- where main branches are trimmed to stubs -- seems to be rampant. Here are two good references on what …