No slowing down for Tree & Turf Team this season

Well, things aren’t slowing down for Tree and Turf team this season. After the earliest start for team back in March, the newly combined team has been meeting weekly at Caldwell Extension office going through new client call-ins, emails and walk-ins. We’ve stayed busy researching through numerous education web sites, reading through extension office library books to come up with best answers to help with client’s questions.  A good part of weekly meeting involves research and follow ups with clients.
  

LISA Training

Setting out measuring cups

The team has also continued the process of its own learning by taking class at Rich’s house back in early May. The new educational service called LISA “Lawn Irrigation System Audit” allows anyone to call extension office and schedule Master Gardener to come out to their home.  The MG can perform water irrigation test that determines how well your lawn irrigation system is performing across your whole lawn. So, if you notice any dry brown areas or soggy wet areas in your lawn, this service could be a benefit that could help determine if you need to move or adjust your irrigation water flow.

then measuring each cup

Watering for a set amount of time

The service is reasonably priced at $20.00 per call.  The overall  time to do the whole service at the client’s place is about an hour.

What we have seen lately are clients calling a professional landscape person to help in planting a new tree into their yard. Then a short time later [4 to 12 months], the tree starts the slow die-off process because it was improperly planted.  They then call the Extension Office asking "Why is my tree dying?". Notice the triangle wires sticking out of the ground, this is part of wire basket in which the tree was shipped.⇓

We’ve had several clients call in the past month where landscaper dug too small of hole for that size tree. Then just rolled the root ball wrapped in burlap sack along with thick wire basket into hole. This didn’t allow roots to grow and be healthy, instead the roots were stuck in very small space and tree started slow death.

This is what you want to remove before putting your tree root into the ground:  All of the Wire rack and burlap sack ⇒⇒

I’ve included a couple of very good Education web sites that show the proper way to plant new trees and a good maintenance schedule to help your tree stay healthy.

Monday is just around the corner for us with more new client questions to research for right answers. 

So, until next month, keep on digging!

The Tree and Turf Team