Author Archives: admin

The Case of the Fruitless Plum Tree

I wanted to share a short story about a plum tree. I’ve been working on a plum tree for a client for the past 3 years. They originally got in touch because their 8 year old plum had only been … Continue reading

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Decay as Habitat

I knew chickadees nest in trunk cavities, but I didn’t realize they would take advantage of something this small and so close to a house. I spotted this black-capped chickadee nest in a partially decayed lilac branch.   Dead and … Continue reading

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Callus Growth

An example of how allowing new shoots to grow at the margins of a pruning cut help it heal over quicker. Ideally large cuts like this would never have to be made, but sometimes we don’t get around to pruning … Continue reading

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Strawberry Tree Pruning

This Arbutus unedo, or Strawberry Tree, had been hedged years ago. The client wanted it to look more like a tree. Hedging creates lots of new growth points in the upper canopy, and generally trees have fewer growth points. By … Continue reading

Posted in Before & After (photos) | 1 Comment

Monkey Puzzle Tree

Did you know the seeds from monkey puzzle trees are edible? Latin name Araucaria araucana. I’ve been out collecting the fallen seeds around my neighborhood in Seattle a few times recently. Boiled for 5 to 10 minutes, and then cut … Continue reading

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Silver Spotted Tiger Moth

In early May I noticed some caterpillars in a Douglas Fir I was pruning away from a roof in Seattle. A little investigating online and in a few of my resource books confirmed that they were silver spotted tiger moth … Continue reading

Posted in Pests and Diseases | 1 Comment

Cherry pruning

I wanted to share a couple photos of a cherry I pruned last week. I started a multi-year process to create more healthy fruiting branches lower in the canopy where fruit can be reached. This first pruning in many years … Continue reading

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Planting Trees

When planting trees it’s important to remove all the soil that it comes with. Besides making sure you’re planting it at the correct depth (very important!) which is very hard to tell without removing the soil, you’re helping the tree … Continue reading

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Kretzschmaria deusta

It may sound like some kind of monster, and in some ways it is, though normally it just appears as in innocuous fungus at the base of hardwood trees. It’s a fungus called Kretzschmaria deusta found in temperate climates worldwide … Continue reading

Posted in Fungi, Tree Care | 1 Comment

Prune in Moderation

Another reason not to prune a lot out of a tree all at once- I was working in Seattle in the upper canopy of a narrow leafed Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia) last week, and noticed the top of a number of … Continue reading

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