November 2024 Treecologist Tribune

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! I sure did.

It’s finally cold! I suspect the trees are rejoicing because it’s been a long growing season. Aside from a few days that hinted at the arrival of the dormant season, it has mostly been warm since I last wrote to you in late October. According to WRAL’s weather charts, almost 25 days in the past month have been warmer than historical average highs! On one of those days, November 8, we set a record high.

Then there is the matter of rainfall. After Helene passed through our area, we essentially had no rainfall until November 9! Since Helene, we have had 2.85 inches of rain, almost all of which fell on November 13 and 14. It’s shocking how dry the soil is right now.

The net effect is that trees are stressed. Surprise, surprise. Give them some extra TLC! You can do so by feeding them their three favorite foods (whole leaves, arborist wood chips, and compost) or by giving them their favorite drinks (water and compost tea). If your trees are extra stressed, they may need a day at the soil spa (aerate the soil in its root zone and add lots of compost). We can help you with all of this and more if you would like – contact us if you want to meet with one of our Treecologists.

Hopefully, this coming dormant season will be full of rain and very cold temperatures. Our trees would appreciate this very much.

Now, on to our reader questions. This month, Ashely writes: “I’m lucky to have a front yard with two big beautiful old oak trees. Since the yard faces a busy road, we don’t spend much time out there, and I’m working to make the whole space a native shade woodland garden (ferns, sedges, heuchera, a few understory shrubs, that sort of thing). I love being out there in the dirt, but I’m also a little overwhelmed. I’ve planted a few pockets of the yard so far, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve made a dent. How would you approach a project like this?”

I totally get it! I used to be a traditional gardener but had to change my approach due to lack of time. This is what led me to Piedmont Prairies, Pocket Forests, and thickets. You can fill vast areas with minimal effort using the methods I outline in Section 4 of our book From Wasteland to Wonder. Why? Because we manage communities of plants instead of individual plants. I recommend following those approaches for spaces such as the one you described. And if that’s too much, there is an even easier approach: allow things to grow naturally and remove the invasive plants to help promote the native ones. Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill any/all open spaces on your property.

Speaking of our book, we listened to your requests and have decided to list it on Amazon. The deciding factor was that more people would be able to find it and hopefully use it to help heal Earth where they live. We are still selling it for only the cost of printing and distribution, but for Amazon sales we have to add $9.25 to cover their 43% charge to do nothing except list our book (wild, right?!). So, the book is still only $10.75 on our website, but the Amazon price is $20. If you have read the book and are willing to post a review on Amazon to help people discover it, we would be most grateful. 🙏 🙏🙏

PS: Our book makes a great gift if you are looking for ideas that can make a positive difference!

One last item in closing: If you wanted to attend our Winter Celebration but were unable to do so because tickets ran out or you had a schedule conflict, please let us know. We are compiling a waitlist and thinking about hosting a second Winter Celebration in January or February, where we will give the waitlist first priority.

This will be the last Treecologist Tribune of the year. I hope you have a wonderful upcoming holiday season with plenty of time to relax and reflect.