Category Archives: Trees

February in the Garden—A To Do List

YOU can help to make the world a better, a more friendly, loving and beautiful place by tending your spot on this earth that has been given to you—your garden. Here is a to do list to help you to do just that…

Tree and Shrub Care

This guide is tailored for the western valleys of Oregon and Washington

Fruit tree pruning. Prune your fruit trees for fruit production. You can also prune grapes, can and trailing berries once the threat of major frost is past.
Plant fruit trees.
Mulch. Apply two to three inches of mulch around all trees and ornamental shrubs. This helps to fertilize the plants and feed the soil, and also protects them against weed growth and loss of water when the warmer weather returns.
Pine tree pruning. Prune coast/shore pines (Pinus contorta) and Scotch/Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris). These two pines are especially susceptible to the sequoia pitch moth whose larvae burrow into the tree trunks during the growing season (April through September) causing the trees to exude large amounts of unsightly pitch globules. While this seldom kills the tree, the bleeding of sap is not good for the overall health and vigor of the tree. It is advisable, therefore, not to prune these pine trees during the growing season, since the pruning cuts attract the moth, which then lays eggs on the tree, which hatch into tree-burrowing larvae. Pruning should be done on your pines from November to March.
Plant or transplant trees and shrubs. Winter is good time to plant or transplant ornamental trees and shrubs. Cooler weather means less transplant shock to the plants, and over the winter and spring, they will have time to begin to acclimate to their new environment before the stress of the next summer season occurs.
Pruning of ornamental shrubs. Do major pruning (called heading back) of rhododendrons (or rhodies) and other similar ornamental shrubs back to latent buds in trunks and stalks. Do this before spring growth begins in a couple of months.
Pruning of large trees. Winter is a great time to do aesthetic and structural pruning of deciduous trees and shrubs, since the structure or architecture of the plant is clearly visible making aesthetic pruning easier than when plants are foliated. Structural defects, which can cause tree failure, are more easily spotted as well. Also remove of dead wood, and pruning to reduce hazards. If you’re not sure what to do, or how to do it, call Good News Tree Service, Inc. for a consultation, pruning lessons or to have them do the pruning for you.
Roses. The best time to prune roses is after the threat of major frost is past.
Tree and shrub removal and stump grinding can be done all year long.
Trees. Have an ISA Certified Arborist with an ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (like Good News Tree Service, Inc.) inspect your large trees for the potential of failure due to weak root systems and defects in trunks and branches. This is best done when the leaves are off the trees.
Trees and Storms. Storm proof your larger trees. Checking your trees for hazards and then take the appropriate measures to protect your trees from storm damage. After each major weather event, check your trees for damage such as broken or hanging limbs. If you have concerns or questions about your trees, have an ISA Certified Arborist with an ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (like Good News Tree Service, Inc.) inspect your large trees for damage or the potential of failure due to weak root systems and defects in trunks and branches. If you’re not sure about the condition of your trees or even what to look for, call Good News Tree Service, Inc. for a free on-site consultation.

Plant Health Care

Good News Tree Service, Inc. provides full plant health care services as listed below.

Arborvitae Berckmann’s Blight (Platycladus orientalis): Spray in the fall (late Sept. and early Oct., and again in early Nov. Spray again in early spring (Feb to Mar) if disease is severe.
Dormant Spraying of Fruit Trees: Apply dormant sprays against insects and fungi.
Lawns: Fertilize yellowing lawns.
Piercing/Sucking Insects: Begin applying systemic insecticides against piercing sucking insects (aphids, lacebugs, scales, weevils, etc.) via soil injections (one treatment gives season-long control).
Photinia leaf spot. Spray a fungicide early in February of four applications at two week intervals afterwards. Early spray is key to controlling this fungus.
Powdery Mildew: Apply a fungicides as soon as symptoms appear. Best efficacy if used before symptoms appear. Use fungicide at seven to fourteen day intervals, or more often if conditions warrant it. If a plant is known to have had powdery mildew previously, apply as buds start to open.
Tent Caterpillar: Apply systemic pesticide for season-long control.

Elsewhere in the Garden

Put slug bait around winter flowers. Though the weather may be cold, slugs are still active.
Rake and dispose of ornamental tree leaves, or better yet, compost them and then spread the decomposed leaves back onto your shrub beds as a mulch next year.
Mulch all of your shrub beds. Put a two to three inches of mulch (e.g. bark dust, garden compost or wood chips) around perennials and other plants that might be sensitive to subfreezing weather. Also, spread a fresh layer of mulch (e.g. bark dust, garden compost or wood chips) on all the bare dirt areas in your yard to prevent soil compaction from rains, to prevent weed growth and to enrich and help to condition your heavy clay soils.
Cut English ivy off of the base of trees. (This can be done any time of the year.)
Feed the birds. Dutifully maintain your bird feeders. As winter comes, birds have a harder time finding food. Bring life and excitement to your backyard by turning it into a bird sanctuary. The birds will thank you for your generosity by providing you with hours of entertainment, and by eating insect pests that harm your ornamental trees and shrubs. Remember to feed the humming birds, who have few flowers to feed on during the winter. Birds in the yard are not only fun to watch, but they perform the vital task of eating harmful insects.

January in the Garden—A To Do List

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Tree and Shrub Care

Fruit tree sanitation. To prevent possible spread of leaf diseases, rake up and remove leaves from around the base of fruit trees.

Fruit trees. You can be pruning your fruit trees and continue all the way up until February.

Storm proof your larger trees. Checking your trees for hazards and then take the appropriate measures to protect your trees from storm damage. If you’re not sure about the condition of your trees or even what to look for, call Good News Tree Service, Inc. for a free on-site consultation.

Plant or transplant trees and shrubs. After the cold, seasonal rains have started is a good time to plant or transplant ornamental trees and shrubs. Cooler weather means less transplant shock to the plants, and over the winter and spring, they will have time to begin to acclimate to their new environment before the stress of the next summer season occurs.

Prune your trees and shrubs. This is a good time to start pruning your deciduous trees and shrubs after the leaves have fallen and a tree’s branching structure is clearly visible making pruning easier. If you’re not sure what to do, or how to do it, call Good News Tree Service, Inc. for a consultation, pruning lessons or to have them to the pruning for you.

Prune coast/shore pines (Pinus contorta) and Scotch/Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris). These two pines are especially susceptible to the sequoia pitch moth whose larvae burrow into the tree trunks during the growing season (April through September) causing the trees to exude large amounts of unsightly pitch globules. While this seldom kills the tree, the bleeding of sap is not good for the overall health and vigor of the tree. It is advisable, therefore, not to prune these pine trees during the growing season, since the pruning cuts attract the moth, which then lays eggs on the tree, which hatch into tree-burrowing larvae. Pruning should be done on your pines from November to March.

Large trees: After each major weather event, check your trees for damage such as broken or hanging limbs. If you have concerns or questions about your trees, have an ISA Certified Arborist with an ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (like Good News Tree Service, Inc.) inspect your large trees for damage or the potential of failure due to weak root systems and defects in trunks and branches.

Prune deciduous trees: This is an excellent time of the year to aesthetically prune deciduous, since without the leaves a tree’s branching structure or architecture is easily visible.

Elsewhere in the Garden

Put slug bait around winter flowers.

Plant fruit trees.

Rake and dispose of ornamental tree leaves, or better yet, compost them and then spread the decomposed leaves back onto your shrub beds as a mulch next year.

Mulch your shrub beds. Put a two to three inches of mulch (e.g. bark dust, garden compost or wood chips) around perennials and other plants that might be sensitive to subfreezing weather. Also, spread a fresh layer of mulch (e.g. bark dust, garden compost or wood chips) on all the bare dirt areas in your yard to prevent soil compaction from rains, to prevent weed growth and to enrich and help to condition your heavy clay soils.

Cut English ivy off of the base of trees. (This can be done any time of the year.)

Feed the birds. Dutifully maintain your bird feeders. As winter comes, birds have a harder time finding food. Bring life and excitement to your backyard by turning it into a bird sanctuary. The birds will thank you for your generosity by providing you with hours of entertainment, and by eating insect pests that harm your ornamental trees and shrubs.

Fertilize yellowing lawns.

Trees Benefit Everyone and Everything More Than You Know

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Trees are a vital part of every day human quality of life

They provide us with shade.
They cool our homes.
They provide us many products we use daily: Paper, wood, chemicals, oils, resins.
Trees promote feelings of well-being and peace among people.
The foliage of trees help to mark the changing seasons, thus helping human to mark time.
Trees are a place for children to play in, under and around.
Because trees can survive for hundreds of years, they serve as property boundary markers, memorials of important historical events. Trees thus help bring people together, to unite people and to help people stay connected to their historical roots.
Trees act as gathering places for social activities and events. They can act as places of unifying people, families, communities and generations.
Trees provide visual barriers, create screens, promote privacy, and make separations between divergent and sometimes conflicting elements of society.
Trees serve as wind screens and to buffer the impact of storms.
Trees increase property value.
Trees provide wood for fuel.
Trees improve the livability of cities for countless reasons. Trees add visual, emotional and psychological appeal, since few things can compare with the aesthetic impact and seasonal interest that trees offer the urban setting. They provide huge visual appeal to any area and can significantly enhance the design of a streetscape. Trees adds aesthetic beauty to one’s living space and improves the quality of life.

Trees are an essential economic asset for people and they create economic opportunities Continue reading →

December in the Garden—A To Do List

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Tree and Shrub Care

Fruit tree sanitation. To prevent possible spread of leaf diseases, rake up and remove leaves from around the base of fruit trees.

Fruit trees. You can start pruning your fruit trees and continue all the way up until February.

Storm-proof your larger trees. Checking your trees for hazards and then take the appropriate measures to protect your trees from storm damage. If you’re not sure about the condition of your trees or even what to look for, call Good News Tree Service, Inc. for a free on-site
consultation.

Plant or transplant trees and shrubs. After the cold, seasonal rains have started is a good Continue reading →

November in the Garden—A To Do List

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Tree and Shrub Care

Fruit tree sanitation. To prevent possible spread of leaf diseases, rake up and remove leaves from around the base of fruit trees.

Fruit tree pruning. After the leaves drop, begin pruning fruit trees for aesthetics and fruit.

Prune your trees and shrubs. This is a good time to start pruning your deciduous trees and Continue reading →

Are your trees hazardous? Are you sure? Here’s how to find out…

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Are your trees safe, or are they dangerous, hazardous and at risk of breaking or falling down during the storms, wind, snow and ice that will inevitably pummel the Wilsonville region this winter?

Trees are a major part of our lives. We love trees! They’re nearly everywhere including where we live, walk, play, drive, work, eat, recreate and go to school. Sometimes we even plan activities around them. We take them for granted because they are big, old and seem so permanent, stable and immovable. Most of the times, trees cause us no problems. However, trees can, at times, become dangerous. If they fall over or break apart, they can cause serious injury or death to humans and animals, and major damage to property.

How do you know if your trees are at risk of blowing over or breaking when the storms come? What are some signs that your trees might be dangerous and hazardous and might become victims to the ravages of winter storms including ice, snow, wind and rain?

Here are some signs that your tree might be a hazard tree: Continue reading →

How to “Storm Proof” Your Trees and Shrubs

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Are your trees ready for our fall and winter storms? Winds, ice, snow and even rain can cause damaging (and expensive) tree failures. The twisting and torquing force of wind on trees combined with soils super-saturated from rain can cause trees to break or uproot. Ice and snow are heavy, which can put stress on trees, causing them to break apart.

What can you do to prevent the uncontrollable forces of nature from indiscriminately, and without your permission, “pruning” your trees often resulting in damage to property and injury to people not to mention loss of property value due to broken, decimated and just plain ugly trees? If you are in Wilsonville, Oregon or the nearby cities including Tualatin, Canby, Aurora, Hubbard, Sherwood and the surrounding areas, we can help!

Be proactive and have an expert ISA Certified Arborist examine your trees before the winter storms hit the Wilsonville region causing damage to your trees.

Even better, the check up on the health and stability of your trees is absolutely free—without any cost or obligation to you. All you have to do is to call Nathan Lawrence at the Good News Tree Service, Inc. in Wilsonville at (503) 682-9466 to schedule a free consultation and Continue reading →

The Hymn of a Ponderosa Pine

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The inspiration of this poem and its birth occurred, while meditating next to the Deschutes River in La Pine, Oregon, during Sukkot (the biblical Feast of Tabernacles) in 2018, while gazing admiringly at the mighty, towering ponderosa pine trees (Pinus ponderosa) that stand as sentinels gracing its banks. At the same time, the words of the biblical First Psalm were floating around in the author’s mind.

By Nathan Lawrence

La Pinus¹ ponderosa² at De Falls³ River waters⁴;

A weighty⁵ giant pondering⁶ heavenly matters.

Rejecting your former blackjack⁷ past,

Basking now in heaven’s light at last.

Arms and trunks are tanned a bright orange hue⁸,

With muscular limbs upraised in praise to You⁹—

To the Messiah, the radiant Sun of Righteousness^10!

Part 2 Continue reading →

Nathan in Search of Giant Trees—Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Hawaii (and beyond…)

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Because of his passion for trees, Nathan, the Treevangelist, is magnetically drawn to large trees. Wherever he goes, he seeks out giant trees and gets up close and personal with them. Please enjoy these photos of some amazing trees!

Nathan and the largest Banyan tree in North America in Lahaina on Maui, Hawaii.

Nathan and the largest diameter ponderosa pine in the world located in La Pine, Oregon at 9 feet two inches in diameter at breast height.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Torah-law of Yehovah; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1–3)

Nathan with a giant Sitka spruce on Baronof Island in Alaska.

Continue reading →

How Trees Benefit You

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Trees improve water quality by taking up ground water, filtering it through their vascular system and then releasing it in a purified state into the atmosphere. This along with a trees releasing of pure oxygen is why the air feels so clean and refreshing in a forest.
Tree roots help to hold soil in place, especially on slopes, along roadways and on riverbanks, thus helping to prevent soil erosion and valuable topsoil from washing away. Topsoil, which takes hundreds and even thousands of years to produce is necessary for growing food crops.
Trees planted in urban areas soak up surface water that would otherwise run into storm sewers thus reducing the amount of polluted water going into our watersheds.
Trees help to reduce energy consumption by humans. Trees lower ground temperatures by blocking sunlight from hitting the ground. The shade that trees produce benefits both humans and animals. For example, a house shaded from the hot sun can be 10 degrees cooler than a non-shaded area, thus saving money and valuable energy needed to cool a house in hot weather. In a general sense, shade from trees makes living conditions on earth more tolerable in hot climates for both humans and animals. They act as air conditioners in that on sunny days they release huge amounts of water which helps to cool the atmosphere. This natural process is called evaporative cooling.
Trees block harmful ultraviolet rays from hitting people who take shelter under them.
Trees also cool the air around them, since their leaves release water, making the earth more temperate.
Trees soak up large amounts surface water runoff (in their roots and leaves) from rain thus reducing soil erosion especially on hillsides, riverbanks and along roads (and loss of valuable food producing topsoil) and water-born pollutants that would otherwise flow into lakes, stream, rivers and eventually oceans.
From trees humans make many products essential to human life including wood and paper products, pharmaceuticals and food.
Trees provide habitat for countless animals and mircro-organisms that are essential to human survival.
When trees take in carbon dioxide (CO₂), they strip the carbon atom from the oxygen atoms, thus releasing the oxygen back into the atmosphere, but they keep the carbon with which they combine minerals from the soil to produce tree food. The food that trees don’t use immediately is stored in the roots, trunks and branches of the tree for later use. This is called carbon sequestration, and is a good thing in that this helps to reduce atmospheric “green house gases.”
Trees reduce air pollution by scrubbing the air of pollutants as they trap airborne particulate in their leaves, trunks and branches.
Trees promote physical, emotional and psychological health and healing of people as well as feelings of peace and well-being.
Trees in retail business areas help to increase business.
Trees mark the changing of the season, thus helping humans to mark time.
Trees create countless economic opportunities for humans (logging and wood products, arboricultual services, firewood, food and agricultural production and more).
Trees provide places for children to play and people to gather around for social functions.
Trees have served as memorials, historical markers, landmarks and property boundaries since time immemorial because they live for so long. A tree memorial can become a living legacy to a loved one or an important historical figure. As such, trees help to give humans a sense of history, identity, permanency, and a connection to their past history. Trees also help to bring the generations together by giving people a sense of unity and a connection to the past.
Trees provide visual barriers from unsightly objects and views. They provide hedges, create screens, fences and separations between people when privacy is needed.
Trees create wind screen, thus protecting people, structures and crops from damaging weather (e.g. heat, wind and frost).
Trees are a valuable fuel source providing heat for homes and are an energy source to generate power.
The presence of trees increase property values.
Trees, in general, make the earth, our homes and cities a more visually pleasing, hospitable and inhabitable place to live.