Johnny Appleseed

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Johnny Appleseed

Backyard Wisdom - October/November 2015

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Master Arborist

It’s Thanksgiving and time for apple pie and all good things to eat. So we think about Johnny Appleseed, a real American Folk hero who changed the kind of Apples we eat. Did you know that the apples we eat do not come from trees grown from seeds? In nature all species are kept healthy by sexual reproduction which insures genetic diversity to withstand a variety of challenges, from climate change to disease attacks.

For centuries orchardists have watched for fruit that is large, disease resistant and flavorful. When they find particularly good fruit the only way to reproduce it is asexually, using grafting. This is because seeds contain completely new genetic combinations from the parent tree. So apple seeds produce mostly what are referred to as “spitters”, apples that are too bitter for anything but making hard cider.

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Doing the Right Thing

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Doing the Right Thing

Mother Nature’s Moment
October/November 2015

Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

This fall I received a startling reminder of one of our core values as a company.  I drive a Volkswagon Jetta TDI, which was sold to me as a clean diesel engine with fabulous gas mileage.  For the last four and a half years I have been happily driving my car, thrilled with the sense that I was not polluting the air and getting terrific gas mileage of around 40 mpg. This month’s news has been saturated with stories about VW making choices over and over again to “do the wrong thing”.  To cheat, to lie to their customers and their dealers, and to the governments in the countries where they sell their cars. Yikes...what were they thinking??

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Silver Maple

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Silver Maple

Tree of the Month
Silver Maple, Acer saccharinum

by Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

The Silver Maple is one of those trees that gets a lot of bad press. It is not one of our favorites because it has a history of poor structure and due to it’s fast growth habit is considered to be a weak tree. But like any tree planted in the right location and given the necessary growth requirements it has much to commend it.  Personally, I love the view of a big Silver Maple on a windy day. That’s when we can see and appreciate the lovely silver greygreen undersides of the leaves contrasted against the dark green on the topsides. I’ve lived across the street from one for over two decades.

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Skunks and Japanese Beetles

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Skunks and Japanese Beetles

Backyard Wisdom

by ISA Master Arborist, Gilbert Smith

Have you noticed holes being dug in your lawn this fall? The most likely culprit is skunks. The Skunks are not eating your grass, but they are mining your turf roots for tasty grubs. The grubs are eating your healthy grass roots so we should be thanking the skunks.  In fact, the grubs are actually the larval stage of June Beetles and another beetle grub new to our neighborhood, the horrid Japanese Beetle. So, again, thank you skunks!  When the Japanese Beetle emerges from the grub stage in the summer it is the enemy of Rose gardens, Raspberries, Hydrangeas and Lindens to name just a few. I hate them, but the skunks think they are delicious.

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Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

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Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

Mother Nature’s Moment

Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Last week we flipped over from summer to autumn, when we enjoy warm sunny days and cooler nights just perfect for sleeping. As arborists we also begin to notice that the trees that are most under stress are showing us by displaying their fall color a little earlier than all their neighbors.

We cannot help but also notice that so many of the Ash trees we have lost from Emerald Ash Borer are being replaced by Maples.

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Cottonwood Dreams

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Cottonwood Dreams

Tree of the Month
Eastern Cottonwood • Polulus deltoides

A tree memory submitted by Nancy Anderson, Interior Designer, a gifted and creative designer, and a kindred spirit. nancyandersondesign@comcast.net

Behind our backyard, a few feet out into the nature preserve, stands a 60’ Cottonwood tree. Yes, I know that Cottonwoods are kind of considered big weeds, have soft wood, and make a mess. But this one is particularly dear to me. For the 20 years that we've lived here, we've seen it grow from a little twig into a large fine tree that provides shade, perches for more kinds of birds that I can count, and most of all, holds wonderful memories.

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The Sun is Finally Shining

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The Sun is Finally Shining

Backyard Wisdom

by: ISA Master Arborist:  Gilbert A Smith

You may not have liked the weather we’ve had this spring/early summer, the wettest June in Chicago area history. I did not enjoy it either, but your trees love moist cool weather. Have you noticed how verdant they look this year? Trees, even in stressed locations, like in your parkway or parking lots show a good healthy green. Stress related problems like Euonymus Scale or Apple Tree Borer are significantly reduced. This is because trees are getting plenty of moisture with none of the heat stresses. So they take advantage by over producing leaves to harvest as much sunshine as possible.  When it heats up the trees will dump some leaves. Don't be alarmed. The tree is just balancing itself out dumping lower food producers and bracing for the heat.

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Gratitude and Leading with the Good

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Gratitude and Leading with the Good

Mother Nature’s Moment

by Lesley Bruce smith, ISA certified arborist

Sorry for the delay this summer of our newsletter, my bicycle accident has taken longer than expected for recovery. I am finally feeling more like myself with almost 75% strength and 90% range of motion in my recently broken arm and dislocated collar bone. Gilbert has been a champion these last months taking care of me at home and filling in for me at the office. I am very grateful to him. I am very grateful for my strong body continuing in the healing process and I am grateful for all of you, our customers.

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Class at the Botanic Garden

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Class at the Botanic Garden

The Power of the Organic Landscape Garden

at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Wednesday, June 24, 6 – 8:30 p.m.

Join The Organic Gardener, Jeanne Nolan, acclaimed author of "From the Ground Up" and Master Arborists Gilbert and Lesley Smith, the North Shore’s acclaimed Arborsmiths for a fun and information filled evening.  

They will be sharing from their vast experience in growing and caring for both eatable and ornamental plants using organic earth friendly methods.

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Mulberry Memories

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Mulberry Memories

Lesley takes a licking and keeps on ticking
On May 18th Gil and I went out for a bike ride. At the end of our street I had a really serious accident that sent me catapulting over my handlebars and landing 12 ft away on a concrete sidewalk. The result was a broken left arm and a bruised, displaced and extremely painful right clavicle. Thankfully I was wearing my helmet, which I always do, or I probably wouldn't be able to write this. All this to tell you that it has slowed me down a bit. The remaining staff stand at the ready to serve you and I will be back in the quick as soon as I can!! - Lesley

Tree of the Month
Mulberry • Morus alba

A memory shared my Mike Kaniok, a compassionate and caring financial planner with Edward Jones  • mike.kaniok@edwardjones.com

When I was a little kid, all the way up to about 13 years of age, we lived across the street from my grandparents' house. In their back yard was a large Mulberry tree.
 
I loved that tree. We spent all summer every year climbing that tree. We would eat mulberries until we were sick. My grandmother would place a large sheet under the tree and we would shake the branches so mulberries would fall and she could use them to bake us a pie.

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Ants and Trees

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Ants and Trees

Backyard Wisdom
By: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Certified Master Arborist

Like the parable of the mouse and the lion, teeny tiny Ants can protect mighty trees. The lowly worm gets all the credit for tilling the soil and feeding the trees but the ant does as much good for trees and what does it get?  Stepped on! Ants do all the wonderful worm jobs, they aerate the soil, they open up air pockets so the roots can breathe and water can reach them. They excavate 30,000 lbs of top soil in an acre of land every year which is roughly 10 times as fast as those worms. They eat insects and poop out nutrients that give the trees their vitamins. They even alter the soil PH making it more friendly for tree roots.

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Trees That We Remember

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Trees That We Remember

Mother Nature’s Moment
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA certified arborist

As your arborist, you may remember me asking you if you have “any special concerns or things you want me to take note of” when we first reviewed your property together.  What I am really asking, or the question behind the question, is “Do you have a favorite tree? or “What are your stories with your trees?”  I often hear about an Arbor Day tree that was carted home by a small child, who is now grown and gone, and the tree stands as a living reminder of many good memories of family and loved ones. We have prepared many home landscapes for weddings that have used a tree as the altar or as a special photo opportunity for the bride and groom, or heard the story of a tree planted in someone’s memory.

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Tree of the Month

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Tree of the Month

Crabapple, malus

by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Photos by Lesley Bruce Smith

Crab trees are to the Chicago area what Southern Magnolias are to the State of Georgia, one of our most ubiquitous flowering trees. The amazing show of spring color that the Crab trees in the midwest display are among our most treasured garden treats. The Crabapple trees and all species of the rose family, of which they are a part, are the most cultivated tree species in the horticulturist’s palette. We have over 500 different varieties of Crab trees and that doesn’t even include all the Malus species that include the eating apples we have cultivated. But who can blame us, for the riotous spring explosion after our long hard winters and the long history of their use as food.

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Trees Need Birds

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Trees Need Birds

Backyard Wisdom
by Gilbert A Smith, ISA Certified Master Arborist

Every one knows that the birds need trees for protection, perches, for hunting grounds and to nest and raise families in. Did you know that trees need birds? Of course they do. This symbiosis or mutualism doesn’t just apply to worms, ants, people and trees it also is the case for birds. When you hear the knock knock knock of a woodpecker you’re hearing a bird mining a tree for insects that may be harming the tree. Some experts estimate that 17% of the Emerald Ash Borer are eaten by wood peckers. Unfortunately that’s not enough to keep the Borer from killing our Ash trees. Because it was introduced without its natural controlling insects and diseases the borer has gone wild and with it the population of wood peckers has soared.

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April is Arbor Day Month

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April is Arbor Day Month

Mother Nature’s Moment

by Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Did you know that Arbor Day was first instituted by Julius Sterling Morton, in April of 1872, in the state of Nebraska. Mr. Morton, who was then a recent pioneer to the state of Nebraska from his home in Michigan, missed the beautiful green of trees. Nebraska was a prairie state and devoid of trees in the 1800’s. On that first Arbor Day in Nebraska, over a million trees were planted, many by the school children of the state. During the later 1870‘s other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day and the tradition to observe it in schools nation wide began in 1882.

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Tree of the Month

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Tree of the Month

Tuliptree • Liriodendrum tulipifera

photos and text by: Lesley Bruce Smith

The Liriodendrum tulipifera was named by Linnaeus, the father of our binomial naming system, and it is a lovely name that means “lily tree bearing tulips”. It is a name that fits it perfectly. The Tuliptree is one of those trees that has many common names, Yellow Poplar, Tulip Poplar and was called Canoe Wood Tree by the native people of Eastern America where this tree originates. All these names point to some characteristic of the tree that was appreciated. The tulip references the beautiful pale yellow flowers that come out in our area in about June.

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The Remarkable Lifting Power of Trees

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The Remarkable Lifting Power of Trees

Backyard Wisdom

by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA B. Certified Master Arborist

Did you know that trees are weight lifters, and that they use that super human strength to get water to their leaves which are sometimes hundreds of feet above their roots?

Simply put, trees are like giant straws and the sun energy sucks the water up from the roots hundreds of feet to the leaves, just like we use a straw to suck water from the bottom of a glass.

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Landscaping for Wildlife

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Landscaping for Wildlife

Mother Nature’s Moment

text and photos by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on the management of our landscapes for wildlife. When we think of wildlife in “our habitat” areas we often think of raccoons, chipmunks, deer, squirrels, rabbits, maybe even coyotes. You may be surprised to know that we have 159 species of mammals in Illinois, mostly rodents, but almost three times the number of bird species.  By my count, we have 448 bird species that have been found in Illinois.

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Tree of the Month • Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica

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Tree of the Month • Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica

by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

Weeping Willows are one of those tree species that have captured the imagination of artists down through the centuries. This is a tree native to China, yet Linnaeus named the Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica to honor the willows mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrews, exiled to Babylon:  “wept when we remembered Zion (and) we hanged our harps upon the willow in the midst thereof”.

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Traveling South with the Arborsmiths - Part 3

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Traveling South with the Arborsmiths - Part 3

Backyard Wisdom

by Master, ISA certified arborists  Gilbert A. Smith

Driving south in October the fall color was in its early stages. In Wisconsin the colors were dramatic but the Tennessee trees had time to dawdle.  However, just south of Birmingham Alabama the fall color stopped altogether and we crossed over into the land of eternal summer.

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