This months How to Blog post is about how to plant a tree. Planting a tree and watching it grow is a very satisfying experience. It’s also a great activity to involve children in. Do it right and you will need minimum intervention with maximum enjoyment. This how to post will offer good advice for anyone wanting to plant tree. Most importantly you'll learn how to give a tree the best start in life and every chance of surviving into the future. First, have a good look at your site. It may be that you only have one available position and must work with what you’ve got. If you do have a few options select the right site that has free space, good drainage and adequate sunlight. With some form of shelter from the wind and has the best soil. You can try and change conditions if they are not … [Read more...]
How to prune a tree and how you can manage the condition of your trees
How to prune a tree how to series. Welcome to the first blog post in a new series of “how to” instructional guides. These guides are aimed for tree owners who are keen to get their hands dirty. Get stuck in on some of their own tree maintenance. Carrying out minor upkeep on your own trees can be very rewarding. Will also give you an opportunity to notice the health and condition of your trees. So you can give them a helping hand where needed. This first blog of the series is aimed at pruning and will discuss the why, what, when and how of pruning trees. Why to Prune trees? Trees may require pruning for several reasons including for appearance, safety, light issues, fruit production, suitability for the situation they are growing in, to restore views, or to keep them away from … [Read more...]
How to mulch a tree and take care of your trees
How to mulch a tree guide. Caring for your own trees is fun and can be very rewarding. Often it is the simplest actions that can have the greatest effect. Mulching around the base of your trees has many benefits for their health and is simple to do. This how to mulch a tree blog post will talk about some of these benefits and how to mulch your trees effectively. The majority of tree management focuses on the above ground portion of the tree. For obvious reasons. This is the part you can see and the one which may be blocking your light or too close to your house. However, its the part of the tree you cannot see. The roots below the ground, that have the most impact on overall tree health. Trees evolved in forests where they had access to good quality soils with plenty of … [Read more...]
Tree ownership responsibilities to be taken seriously
Tree ownership Responsibilities Blog post. When viewed through a human lens trees do not seem to move or grow very quickly. For this reason they can often blend into the back ground and appear as part of the static scenery. Your dog on the other hand is not hard to miss. Dogs are able to command your attention easily as they run and jump around. A well trained dog and tree do have some similarities though. What are Tree ownership responsibilities? Although unlikely, they both have the potential to cause harm. For this reason both dog ownership and tree ownership come with certain responsibilities. Understanding your responsibilities and acting on them helps to prevent any harm from happening. This blog will cover some of your responsibilities as a tree owner. The main … [Read more...]
Best time of year to prune large trees is now
Understand the pruning needs of mature trees and the proper pruning techniques for their care. Pruning is the most common tree maintenance procedure. Although forest trees grow quite well with only nature’s pruning, landscape trees require a higher level of care to maintain their structural integrity and aesthetics. Pruning must be done with an understanding of tree biology. Improper pruning can create lasting damage or even shorten the tree’s life. Because each cut has the potential to change the growth of the tree, no branch should be removed without a reason. Common reasons for pruning are to remove dead branches, to improve form, and to reduce risk. Trees may also be pruned to increase light and air penetration to the inside of the tree’s crown or to the landscape below. In most cases, … [Read more...]
What to consider when planning a garden
Planning a garden for the NZ climate and weather conditions requires expert advice. Your very own garden is a very good addition to your home's property. We all love eating or dream about eating produce from our home grown garden :) And spending time planting flower beds, young trees and shrubs. I know my dream home was always the nice house with garden to spend my weekends outside in the sun. Important conditions to consider when planning a garden. Important condition number one is the type of soil and its composition - The most important condition to planning a garden is the composition of the garden soil. It's very important all the soil has plenty of nutrients and minerals. Speak with your local gardening expert or arborist. Important condition number two is the existing … [Read more...]
How to create a garden for the New Zealand habitat
How to create a garden requires expert advice and we have this blog post just for you :) Just like people, gardens can come in many forms. There are no hard and fast rules about how to create a garden. It can be your own canvas on which you can paint your own scene. The visual aspect of a garden however, only has one lens to view it through. What about other functions of a garden beside the aesthetic? How to create your garden could be so your garden becomes a home to a myriad of wildlife. Before we began digging up the bush and laying lawns, wildlife was spoilt for choice in where to roam. The situation they face today is somewhat different. Demands have been place on land that often leave the four legged and feathered amongst us homeless. This blog post will discuss how you can create … [Read more...]
Fungi friend or foe? Get Expert Arborist Advice and Help
Fungi friend or foe? Fungi (or mushrooms) can be mysterious things. Most peoples’ experience of fungi is limited to the 2 or 3 kinds that are most commonly eaten. It is estimated that there may be more than 3 million species of fungi, this outnumbers tree species by a factor of 5. It is an estimate because there is a constant stream of new species being discovered. Fungi were the first organism to make it onto land about 500 million years ago meaning that everything on land (including us) has fungi as a common ancestor. The vast majority of a fungus is contained beneath the ground or within whatever it is eating. The mushroom or conk that it produces is often only a small indication of what is actually there. There is evidence of a long historical use of fungi by humans for both food and … [Read more...]
Why we do not paint tree wounds
A question we asked from time to time at Tree Care Auckland is “will you be painting the wounds after pruning?” The purpose of this Blog post is to explain why we do not paint tree wounds and instead leave them open to the environment. In theory painting over a freshly cut wound on a tree seems like a good idea. There was no gap in the protective layer of the bark before pruning so surely reinstating a new one would help the tree. In reality painting over a tree wound can either have no effect at all or can actually increase the rate of decay and restrict the tree’s ability to callous over the wound itself. Our expert advice is do not paint tree wounds. Do not paint tree wounds after pruning trees Trees have been shedding and losing branches for as long as there have been trees, which, … [Read more...]
Go native planting NZ native trees
Planting NZ native trees is an important responsibility for all New Zealanders. It is not unusual to hear someone advocating the protection or planting of native trees, but why is this? Surely a tree is a tree and all trees will benefit the environment... Trees do benefit the atmosphere in terms of storing carbon and producing oxygen. They can impact the environment both positively and negatively in other ways. This blog post will discuss the role native plants play in enhancing the local environment and why it is important to protect them. Planting NZ native trees has a critical role in the NZ landscape and environment. Native plants have grown in balance with their local environment over a long period of time and as such are equipped to live with the local climate, soil types, … [Read more...]
