Winter 2011 Newsletter
TLC UpdateCritters & Cruds
Tree of the Quarter
Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
Dear Friends and Fellow Tree Lovers
All of us at Tree Loving Care want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Christmas light season has been fun. I hope that all of you that can, sill come by and see our animated light display in person. It is located just west of Wolfforth on US 62. You can sit in the comfort of your car, tune into our FM signal and watch the lights being directed by the music. We also have these videos posted at our website. Feel free to share the link with your friends. Also, please join us at the Miracles Parade down 34th St on December 10th. It starts about dark from near Coronado High School and goes to University Ave.
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TLC Update
James Tuttle taught a class in November to many arborists and pest control operators on Critters and Cruds of west Texas. One class was in Lubbock and then another the next day in Wichita Falls. It was rewarding to see the level of interest in learning to effectively identify and manage insect and disease problems that we have in this area of the state.
Colby Hurd, Certified Arborist, Butch Lathey, Certified Arborist and James Evans from Tree Loving Care attended.
Critters & Cruds
There is little insect or disease activity in the dormant season. Plants are dormant, therefore not much for the critters or cruds to feed on. It kinda makes sense. On the other hand, since there isn’t much feeding, the critters that are around, if they aren't hunkered down too tight, can be more easily killed, in many cases. Call us about keeping your local insect population under control well into the next season 806-785-8733.
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Tree of the Quarter
Since we are now in the Chihuanuan desert, it is only appropriate that the tree of the quarter be a tree from the heart of the desert. Texas Madrone, Arbutus xalapensis, is also known as Naked Indian, Lady's Leg and Naked Lady due to it's exfoliating bark. The outer bark sloughs exposing the very smooth bark underneath that ranges in color from shades of red to orange to white.
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Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
The entire region is still in a severe drought. We have had about 1/3 our average moisture, which should easily break the all time lowest rainfall total for a calendar year after getting less than 3" for the last half of last year. All of this means desert. The northeastern line of the Chihuahuan Desert has moved and we are in it.
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12.20.2011. 12:30
Fall 2011 Newsletter
Inside this Issue: TLC Update
Critters & Cruds
Tree of the Quarter
Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
Dear Friends and Fellow Tree Lovers
The rain we had a little over a week ago was the most beneficial rain that the
Lubbock area has gotten in over a year. The Atacama desert in Peru is generally
considered to be the driest place on earth with an annual average of near 4.6” of rain, although some areas of the desert has gotten no rain since records have
been kept. Prior to the rain last week, we had gotten about 5” in 14 months. In other words, we were competing with
the average rainfall of the driest place on
earth.
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TLC Update
This last quarter, Anthony Rivera celebrated his 7th
anniversary with TLC. Thanks Anthony for your great
work. And welcome back to Steve Proa, who worked
for TLC for 4 years before going on to greener pastures. Steve and Anthony have both competed in the Texas
Tree Climbing Championship and we look forward to
their competing again.e
Critters & Cruds
Fall isn’t normally a period of high insect or disease
activity. It is a great time to apply TLC’s organic
fertilization, which is loaded with the flora and fauna
normally found in a forest soil and does wonders for
balancing the nutritional needs of trees. Ask about
our compost tea. Watch for
updates to our website that
will allow you to order the
compost tea directly from
the website.
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Tree of the Quarter
Texas Buckeye, Aesculus
glabra, is a large shrub to small
tree native to the Cross Timbers
and Edwards Plateau regions of
Texas. In the spring, the entire
canopy of the plant is covered
with pink blooms, an absolutely
gorgeous plant.
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Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
The rain in August and September (almost 4”) is
more than in the previous 13 months combined and
not everyone around got all of that. Our average is
over 18” per year and we are now at about 5 for this
calendar year, on our way to setting a new record low
rainfall total. Please remember that trees need moisture
to grow roots and fall is a main period of root growth
for almost all species of trees and shrubs. Please water
thoroughly now if you didn’t get any or much of the
recent rain and water thoroughly within a month if you
don’t get any more.
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Comments (0) 09.26.2011. 09:49
Summer 2011 Newsletter
Inside this Issue: TLC Update
Critters & Cruds
Tree of the Quarter
Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
Dear Friends and Fellow Tree Lovers
I shouldn't need to tell anyone, but IT IS DRY. Lubbock and the surrounding area is the driest we have been in recorded history. We have had about 3" of rain in the last 11 months. El Paso gets an average of about 6" per year. El Paso is in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert. If you haven't watered, you need to. If you don't, some of your landscape WILL DIE.
Having said that, watering 2-3 days a week is not the way to water. Water long enough to get the ground wet 2' deep. I have a Bermuda lawn that looks pretty good right now. I water it about every 3 weeks and have been since early May. If I happened to go an extra 2 weeks between watering, it wouldn't die, it would just be a little off color and would green up within a few days of watering. Remember, roots are lazy. If you water shallow, you'll have a shallow root system.
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TLC Update
The Texas Tree Climbing Championship was held in Ft Worth, May 20-21, in Trinity Park. It was a great learning experience. Anthony Rivera ended up not able to compete, but Dominic Rendon competed and Johnny Duncan was a technician on the Work Climb. James Tuttle was head judge on the Throw Line event. Dominic came in 37th out of 40, but still pretty good for his first competition to even attend and competing against a field consisting of some of the best climbers in the state
Critters & Cruds
There does seem to be a few insects that are a little less problem this year than normal. Could be the drought is affecting their ability to reproduce or, perhaps they are responding to less food. We certainly have had no problem with Powdery Mildew, a foliar fungus which flourishes after a week of cool rainy weather. It would be nice to have some Powdery Mildew problems about now.
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Tree of the Quarter
Hercules Club, Zanthoxylem clava-hercules, is also called Toothache Tree and Tingle Tongue. It is often found in the Cross Timbers in limestone hills, therefore pretty drought tolerant. It isn't a very showy tree and only gets 15-20'tall, which makes it a good little tree under power lines. It is somewhat of a novelty, probably to be only found in nurseries that deal in the obscure native plants of Texas. I've planted 3-4 around the South Plains over the last 30 years and they do well.
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Tree Care Tips - Give Your Trees TLC
It is difficult to explain just how severe this drought is without sounding alarmist. So . . . sound the alarm. It is extremely dry because rain simply hasn't come and the wind has been completely unrelenting. These 2 factors combine to produce the extremely severe conditions we are under. Please water your trees with a hose at least once this summer and the sooner, the better. Lay a hose down, let it run slowly and walk away.
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Comments (0) 07.07.2011. 09:42