Garden with Betty Cahill: Tree Stories Part 1

When walking around my neighborhood and nearby park with Ferris on cold winter days I find enjoyment staring and studying leafless trees. A bare tree has a story to tell. Even the bark has something to say.

A tree's life story can be anywhere from happy to kind of sad.

Many of the trees I come upon are fine specimens, real beauties. It's obvious that someone planted them correctly and spent time with hands on care as they grew up.

When you think about it, growing a tree is a lifetime commitment. It's pretty much like raising a person, sans the crying, unless the tree develops cankers or other obvious owies which in my eyes look like a tree in tears.

Healthy trees always get an extra smile and "atta tree" when I walk by. These trees often share the characteristics from the list below.

Branches are spaced and growing evenly around the trunk.
Branches are mostly distributed in the upper 2/3s of the tree.
The tree has only have one central, dominant leader unless it's growing as a clump form.
Looking at the base trunk of the tree, it should gradually be more slender toward the top of the tree.
Correctly planted trees should have a visible basal trunk flare. The opposite of not having a flare would be a tree that grows out the ground looking like a perfectly straight telephone pole.
Healthy trunks have no oozing (including cankers), trunk wounds from lawn mowers or exit holes from pest insects.
A great looking mulch ring around the tree should be wide around the trunk but not up against the trunk.
Remember, tree roots will always win out over grass roots in time which means the grass will die or die out in areas. Mulch rings are the way to go.

Here are two tree stories, please come back for more in the next blog.

I. When you look at the tree below does it make you sad, angry or perhaps you're indifferent? I walk by this tree almost every afternoon. It's not far from the owner's house and in my opinion it would be hard to ignore. The straps should have been removed six months to possibly a year after it was planted (less time is better unless it is located in a very windy location).

There are several owies on this tree that could have easily been avoided by an observant home owner. The straps will be difficult if not impossible to remove. The wounds caused by the straps are areas that insects or disease can access. The damage that remains when the straps are removed will be visible for the life of the tree.

II. The basal flare shown below is very noticeable on the tree, the mulch ring is adequate. What's with the thick visible roots showing?

Most trees are planted too deeply where the basal flare isn't apparent at all. In this case, the tree roots are visible due to improper planting with the basal flare being too high. It should have been planted to just where the flare is evident from the rest of the tree as in the diagram below.

What I'd do with this particular tree is snip off the two sucker branches and refresh the mulch, adding no more than a couple of inches in depth to protect the visible roots.

The mulch ring can easily be widened another foot or two or more.

Never cut out or bury visible roots with too much added soil or mulch.