Landscape Maintnance
Healthy trees provide valuable summer shade and protect us from severe winds. Healthy vegetation lets water infiltrate into soil faster, holds more water that otherwise might continue to find cracks in a basement wall, and extracts that water both cooling the area evaperatively and restoring the soils capacity to absorb the next storm.
However falling branches do costly damage, some vines send moist roots into the side of buildings, other vines leave sticky messes on the house, and most vegetation within 3 feet of of wood siding poses the risk of accelerating rot by raising humidity too high. Attracting wildlife toward the house is great until wildlife enters the house, disturbs ones sleep, makes a mess where it is a problem. A balance is to be maintained.
Disease can cause destroy benefits and increase costs we don't want so prevention is key. This means pruning at the right time of year for the tree (not when a pest is actively spreading a deadly disease among such trees), avoiding pruning paint that seals moisture in wounds (this promotes rot, yet at some times of year temporary protection from insects might be more vital), and pruning off bad branches before they are large enough to leave a large wound (>6" diameter may never seal). This means inspecting trees each year, and anticipating when we need an arborist. Which trees are worth more to us and why? Which might pose a hazard to neighbors, or the urban forest ecology? Which might harm our house.
Cautious DIY is the cheapest way to do most pruning of small branches before big wounds result. Every fall we should do some structural pruning. Bleaching blades between cuts and pruning at appropriate times helps us to not spread disease on or among trees we like. Please review MN Pruning guides before you start. What, where, how, when and how much you cut matter. Don't forget tool safety.
To remove a tree such as buckthorn, a stressful time of year and bad pruning scars is ideal. We tend to abuse such trees with a couple years of severe bad cuts before we try to remove the stump. We like to see fungus growing on unhealthy buckthorn because that helps control that invasive exotic when we pay less attention to it. We only get small buckthorn at the N. Lot because we removed all buckthorn of any size years ago. In S. Lot we began aggressively hurtful cut downs in 2013, so in 2016 we see the surviving large stumps to remove and perhaps poison.
Yes we do poison trees occasionally. We cant simply dig around an elm tree that routed between sidewalk and our alley parking. We can cut flush,, debark and burn, but when we have a lot of work to do painting concentrated gyphosphate onto a fresh cut before sealing in moisture with pruning paint can greatly reduce the work to kill each tree. We can sometimes get this from a hazardous waste exchange, and we can contribute our excess to that exchange.
Our large Deciduous shade Trees.
Many contractors can remove a tree, most arborists can properly prune a healthy tree that is not at great risk, but treating strategically valuable trees at risk of dying from, of causing damage due to, or spreading a serious ecological threat warrants an ISA or comparably certified arborist.
http://www.isa-arbor.com/findanarborist/findanarborist.aspx
All Oak Trees:
Bur Oak Blight rapidly kills Red Oak, yet proceeds much like Oak Wilt in Burr Oak and White Oak. Fortunately it does not spread so much by grafting among tree roots, and can be cured some of the time with fewer than 3 treatments. Arborists are still learning about this fungal disease, which tends to infect during wet Springs and die out naturally during dry Springs. Unfortunately climate change has resulted in many wet Springs here. Once Two-lined chestnut borer beetles infect a tree with BOB, that tree has about 5 years to live.
White Oak shading L-Hús:
Concerns:
Oat Wilt Disease reduces canopy cover depriving our house and yard of shade.
At half its original leaf density, treatment can restore the canopy density for about 50 years, which is many months in which air-conditionars and refrigerators would need to work harder within a solar heated home.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/treecare/forest_health/oakwilt/whatcanido.html
The USDA Forest Service has studied the progress of BOB in the Burr Oak shading L-Hús for 15 years as of 2017. We now informed the plant biologist inspecting our tree that Rainbow Treecare treated all 4 Oak Trees with Alamo in Spring of 2016, and that the residents desire such treatments as might cure the tree so we can grow replacements. We were advised to have arborists trim back dead wood this Winter and examine branches for Two-lined chestnut borer. If those beetles are under the bark the plan to replace and remove this tree would have a 5year timeline. We need to plant more tall trees.
Dutch Elm Disease:
We have no large Elm Tree, but one would definitely be desirable. Japanese Elm keep coming up in problem places, so we get practice debarking and burying.
Cottonwoods.
Wonderful trees. Disease resistant, but pruning needed because prone to structural issues.
Cedar:
At least one resident is a big fan of arbor vitae & cedar for Winter greenery. These can safely grow quite close to a home without roots hurting the foundation, and provide a good winter wind-break to enhance home insulation at the NW corner of a home
Black Wallnut:
Can't grow healthy vegetable garden within 50 feet of a mature black walnut. Squirrels love that it drops walnuts everywhere. These stain everything brown. Otherwise great.
Emerald Ash Borer:
Ash trees are to be avoided for the foreseeable future. We remove many saplings each year.
MN DNR Recommended tall trees
Deciduous:
Pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) 30' Ht, up to 8" diameter trunk. Deciduous. --1/4" diameter; light red skin, sour flesh fruit clusters.
Bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) 40' to 75' Ht, 10" to 25" diameter
Black walnut (Juglans nigra) 50' to 60' but often reaching 100' with a diameter of up to 36"; straight and clear of branches for half its height; when grown in the open, stem short
Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) 80'+ Ht , 24" diameter
Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) 55' to 80' Ht, 24"-36" diameter trunk, straight with clear trunk and narrow crown.
Pines (pine, spruce, fir, cedar, tamarack) have long needles.They usually prefer full or partial sunlight and well-drained sites to thrive.
Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) 25' to 50' Ht in good locations; trunk ≤ 24" diameter.