Tag: plant a tree

Ask Me Anything and tree planting deception

Sorry, but “Ask Me Anything” has been canceled because there have been too many trolls.

In my Hot Gardens newsletter in the winter of 2006 I suggested that my online gardening friends do just 2 things for the new year: 1) plant a tree and 2) change one lightbulb to LED.

Rio Grande Fax Tex Ash autumn
The large Fan Tex Ash tree thrives i hot dry climates and has gorgeous golden leaves in Fall.

Asking people to change light bulbs seems terribly out of date now–everyone has already done it.
But planting a tree in your own garden is as smart and timely now as it was then. Especially since many ads about tree planting around the world and the U.S. are, as I have recently learned, somewhat misleading.

Deceptive ads about tree planting

We’ve all seen the ads telling us that Nepal or Ethiopia or some other country or a mega-international company has planted millions of trees.

And those claims of tree-planting are true and so inspirational!

But the ads tell only part of the story. As it turns out, some uncounted number of these millions of trees are being planted in ‘tree plantations’ and will be harvested in 10 to 20 years.

In a tree plantation there is no attempt to restore a natural forest which is more complicated than just sticking little trees in the ground lined up in neat rows. Trees in a plantation create a monoculture, rather than a diversified ecosystem. Each tree is like the next one all spaced for optimum growth with no smaller trees or shrubs in between. That means in 10 to 20 years when these more mature trees are cut down and hauled away the benefits of the trees will revert back to zero. Tree plantations are a short-term fix to a long term problem of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide in the air and climate change.

Crape myrtle Lagerstroemia indica hot pink
When most other plants are wearing summer green, the Crape myrtle bursts into colorful bloom. In dry climates it is a relatively small tree.

So I urge you to plant a tree or a few trees or long-lived shrubs in your garden in 2020. Become part of a long-term solution.

Happy gardening in 2020!

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Texas Rangers are the earth’s “Thank You” to the monsoon

In recent weeks TV weathercasters in the desert Southwest have been laughingly referring to the “non-soon” as the annual summer rains got held up in West Texas. And, to make it worse, even fewer clouds came out of the Sea of Cortez. No rainstorms from either direction. Finally in late July one storm dropped enough rain to begin bringing Texas Rangers (Leucophyllum fructescens) into bloom.

Texas Ranger Leucophyllum frutescens in bloom

Since then even record setting temperatures have not slowed the rush to flowering by these heat loving shrubs, native to the Chihuahua desert. They are a visual joy in blue, purple, lavender, and white!

Texas Ranger untrimmed
Thanks to Starbucks in Marana AZ this Texas Ranger has been left untrimmed, although perhaps with too much shade on the plant. It prefers full sun.

Better yet, as SW natives the Texas Ranger thrives in very alkaline soil of .8 to .9 pH. While these 8 foot to 10 foot tall shrubs bloom in concert with the monsoon, they prefer fast draining soil to keep their roots almost dry so be sure to add plenty of organic material when you plant a Texas Ranger. And only irrigate them–lightly, if at all–during the summer months. Stop watering at the end of the monsoon in late September. And as for fertilizer? None needed at all. Fertilizer makes them spindly and weak.

NOW FOR MY RANT: Do not trim Texas Rangers into lollipops! Commercial groundskeepers seem to be the worst offenders of this practice, as you can see in the photo below. Texas Rangers have a beautiful loose shape and should be allowed to keep it. If you feel you absolutely have to cut back a plant, do it in March–one time during the year, only once! Or maybe plant a dwarf “compacta” variety instead. END OF RANT.

improperly trimmed Texas Rangers shrubs
These 4 Texas Rangers in a parking lot have been severely trimmed. Whoever developed the horticulture plan for this commercial area should have chosen the Leucophyllum frutescen ‘compacta’, the low growing variety of the plant.

Amazon Burning- what you can do

The new President of Brazil ran on a platform of developing the Amazon. What we are all seeing now is that landowners, particularly cattle ranchers, took that to give them a greenlight to start burning their way deeper into the life-giving jungle after he took office.

Now we can all be outraged as Presidents Macron and Trudeau have been on Twitter or we can actually do something about it in the real world. Countries like Pakistan, India, China, Senegal, Nigeria and even tiny Nepal have already embarked on programs to plant millions of trees.

While we can have no hope of getting support from the current administration in Washington D.C. for a massive tree planting effort in the U.S. I am confident that local groups, like the Tree People in Los Angeles or the National Forest Foundation, will continue and expand their Plant-A-Tree programs in cities, towns and forests across the country.

Crepe myrtless in bloom

If no organization near you is doing it at the very least plan to add a tree to your garden this fall when planting season begins. If every person in the U.S. planted just one tree we would have 329 million new trees which would help offset the damage being done right now in the Amazon.

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