Category: Tree Care

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Conservation / Food Forest / Foraging / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Mycorrhiza / Native Trees / Permaculture / Restoration / Sustainable Gardening / Tree Care / Tree Identification / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Beech, the Mother Tree, Queen of the Forest

A Mythic Forest The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, once covered most of North America from Canada to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.  Before colonists cleared our ancient forests for farmland, large beech groves grew as part of the climax forest community.  A single beech tree can live for centuries, and as it ages it surrounds itself with sapling trees growing as suckers from its relatively shallow root system, forming an expanding grove of graceful beech trees....

Carbon Garden / Conservation / Food Forest / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Keystone Species / Miyawaki Forest Method / Native Plants / Native Trees / Permaculture / Resource Protection / Tiny Forest / Tree Care / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Cultivating a Tiny Forest (Part 1)

  Our once shady front yard was left a bright expanse of coarse wood chips and mangled leaves after the arborists pulled out their heavy equipment and left, that hot summer afternoon almost a dozen years ago.  A freak summer thunderstorm had harbored a waterspout or small tornado when it blew in from College Creek a few days before.  Our first clue that something was wrong had been seeing the underside of a muddy root ball rising 8 feet or...

Conservation / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Tree Identification / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Beauty and Promise of Trees in Winter

  There is a special beauty in the form and structure of a bare tree after it has dropped its annual crop of leaves.  Like the beauty of a classical statue, one can see the truth of its bones.  Leaves, for all of their movement and color, veil the beauty of branches and buds. Looking at a bare tree is a study in pure potential.     All of the tree’s life  draws inwards to the wood and roots as...

Carbon Garden / Edible Plants / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Holiday Plants / Native Trees / Summer / Sustainable Gardening / Tree Care / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Regal Southern Magnolia

  The sweet fragrance of Magnolia flowers on a warm breeze announces summer in Virginia.  But that wasn’t the case 400 years ago, before European colonists began exploring for interesting tree species, transplanting them to new areas, and exporting them back to Europe.  The original native range of Magnolia grandiflora is only from the Carolinas south to Florida and westwards towards Texas along the Gulf Coast.  Our iconic Southern Magnolia trees aren’t indigenous in this region, but they have since...

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Weather

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Planting Trees and Other Hacks to Manage Wet Soils

  Water may be a blessing or a curse.  Gardeners usually want abundant rain to nurture their plantings and generally have a back-up irrigation plan for dry spells.  Providing the right amount of water for each plant is one of the keys to a gardener’s success. Working With the Water Cycle Just as leaves absorb carbon from the air, so roots absorb water from the soil.  The water, and any chemicals or elements dissolved in it, may be stored in...

Garden Maintenance / Tales from the Help Desk / Tree Care / Weather / Winter

 by Patsy McGrady

Tales From the Help Desk: Crape Myrtle Bark

Q.  My crape myrtles have splits on the bark.  What is going on? A.  Your crape myrtles appear to have sun scald.  Crape myrtles, Lagerstroemia indica, are considered a relatively problem-free tree. The Clemson Cooperative Extension website cites the most common problems as powdery mildew, Cercospora leaf spot, aphids, Japanese beetles, sooty mold, and the recently recognized crape myrtle bark scale. Clearly, the photo of your tree shows no indications of any of these diseases and insects. Your tree likely...

Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Tales from the Help Desk / Tree Care

 by Patsy McGrady

Tales From the Help Desk: Growths on Tree Bark

Q:  Something is growing on the bark of my tree.  Is that a problem? A:  It depends.  If it is flat and looks rather lacy, it’s lichen and does not harm the tree. If the growth on your tree bark is shaped like a shelf and looks like a mushroom, it is a conk. Conks indicate that the tree has internal decay. Lichen is a symbiotic relation between certain types of fungi and algae. They have a very shallow attachment...