Winter Kill

I'm not sure how many of you have noticed shrubs, especially evergreens such as Euonymus and Laurel, that either died completely or died off enough to make the plant look ugly.  Some evergreen trees have taken hits, too, such as Cedars and Sequoias.

Here is our sad butterfly bush (not an evergreen). It usually looks like this in very early spring, but it is getting to be late spring and there is no new growth on this bush. Not even one little bit that will help the plant recover. It's dead.  Bummer. 

It all started last fall. Actually, it started two falls ago, but this past one was enough to knock out more shrubs because many take more than one season to fully recover, especially the laurels. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last fall the weather stayed really warm until late November; up until nearly Thanksgiving Day it was, like, 58 degrees, 64 degrees, on and on.  Then came the "Storm of the Century."  Remember, we all had to prepare for the big storm with extra food and bottled water?  Well, that storm never came but the cold temperatures did.  One day it was 60 degrees, the next day 18.  Then 11.  Then 4.  Plants generally do not like that quick of a temperature change because they don't have time to harden off, to get ready for the cold weather.  That's winter kill.

Shrubs that were in the shade were able to harden off a bit more and survived the quick temperature change better than bushes in full sun. Here is a rose bush that demonstrates this perfectly.  The rose bush is in half sun and shade. The part in the shade made it through the winter.

 The same thing happen two falls ago, in 2009, but not as drastically. I noticed my butterfly bush was struggling last spring, but didn't think much of it, but now I realize that it was already compromised and when it happened a second time, it couldn't recover. 

Maybe this fall will be a little more normal, but I kinda doubt it. So, how to prevent this from happening again?  You'd have to recognize the extra warm temperature trends in fall and shade your plants to help them harden off. 

Or just replace those old roses and laurels with something else that's a little more forgiving. 

Our Conifers Don't Like Wet Feet

If you're thinking about planting a Conifer (a cone-bearing tree), please make sure the site has good drainage. Each yard has micro-climates, which means that each section of the yard has different amounts of light, water, temperature and soil conditions that have a dramatic impact on what you can plant and where. Evergreens, like Pines, Spruces and Firs need specific conditions in a yard to survive--most importantly, good drainage. If you think about where these trees grow in nature, it will help you remember where they will do best in your yard. Theses trees thrive on mountain sides which provide good drainage.

I have been called to customers' houses and asked why their evergreen might be looking so sickly.  It's almost always because of too much water, though there are some insect pests.  I'm no Paul Bunyan, but I've pulled fifteen-foot dead trees right out of the ground because their roots were all rotted away.

When we moved into our house about 15 years ago, we hadn't fully grasped our yard's microclimates and soil conditions. We live on a bit of a hill, with our east neighbor above us and our west neighbor below us. We planted three White Firs in a row to create a bit of a natural barrier. 

Now there's just two (The one on the left has a Cottonwood growing in the background).  The third was on the right, below the rock wall, on the lawn.  It was a great grouping.  There's a small Magnolia there now.  Imagine all the water from our neighbor's yard ending up where that Magnolia is, and you can imagine why it drowned.  The others get the same amount of water, but have much better drainage. Just to the right of the photo, we planted a row of River Birches that are extremely happy. They love wet feet and drink it up. We made a good decision on that one. 

I hope this entry helps prevent you from making the same mistake we made or identifying a problem you are having in your yard.

Gardening the Wasatch Front

It's been a while since I last posted, but we've been pretty busy.  We put out a bunch of flyers and we've had really positive responses.  This spring we've been busy aerating and doing Spring cleanups, but any of you who know me know I've been doing my most favorite thing of all:  Trimming trees! 

I'm tired and my hands hurt.  My left forearm feels like like Popeye's from all the squeezing of the pruners.  My hands are cut and scraped and rough, but I prefer having tough skin to wearing gloves all the time, so I'll just have to tough it out a little while longer.

I really do love this time of year.  I love being busy doing such fun work, especially after the tedium and uncertainty of winter.

Please read my blogs entitled "Tree Season" and "Why Aerate."  These are a few of my favorite things. 

Ready for the Storm

We're ready.  It's 3:20 a.m. and we're waiting for the rain to turn to snow.  The guys are snoozing in Gerardo's living room until they get my call.  I've been up since 2:00.  Well, really since midnight, on and off.  I went to bed yesterday at four in the afternoon.  Christy and the kids are so mindful about not making too much noise.

We are going to salt the parking lots, etc. before the snow starts, but we have to time it just right.  We don't  want the rain to wash it away.  It's hard when the snow starts in the early morning because we can't clear it before the business day starts.  But at least I got plenty of sleep.   

Update on Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 7:39AM by Bob Burns

Well, it never did snow here in the valley.  We stayed up all night for nothing.  We're so dedicated.

We didn't even put any salt down.  I always feel kinda weird salting parking lots anyway, and we try to use as little as possible.  It can't be that good for our environment, but I tell myself that it came from here, just a few miles downstream in the Great Salt Lake.  We're in the salt capital of the world, for cryin' out loud.  Still, we don't like to do it if we don't have to.

Glass

One of Christy's lifelong goals has been to do something about the lack of glass recycling activity in Utah, and we have talked about it on and off for about the last twenty years.  And I've been thinking about ways to expand our business to make it more profitable and interesting during the winter months, and throughout the whole year, really.

So I'm wondering if we could somehow make a glass service work.  "See a need, fill a need," right?  We'd have to provide affordable bins for our customers, and set up a pickup schedule and route.  We already have trucks and staging space.  We would get most of our income from the recycler  (in Wyoming?), and I imagine it wouldn't be much.  But with enough volume, over time, maybe we could pull it off.

Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Newman and Kramer try to take recyclable bottles to Michigan in a mail truck?