Who we are and what we do

Shades of Green Horticulture strives to provide education and guidance, and to create optimal, sustainable plant health in your garden, woodland, orchard, or landscape. Based on firm tenets of organic gardening practice, using absolutely no toxic chemicals or inorganic fertilizers, we will assist all those desiring our expertise to become better stewards of their own piece of Mother Earth. Our professional staff is passionate about creating healthy, vibrant ecolandscapes by offering, and openly sharing, the best 100% organic management practices for trees and shrubs, food gardens, or open spaces. Whether your green space is large or small, the principles are the same--a healthy soil food web means healthy plants. We are here to answer your questions and solve the problems you have in your garden naturally. It is as simple as that.

Latest Articles

Fools at Work-Topping Kills Trees

12 Aug 2010

No Comment  Tree Care

Ultimate Stupidity

A tree which has lost its head will never recover it again, and will survive only as a monumet of the ignorance and folly of its Tormentor.  ~George William Curtis

 

 Burger King Flowering Pears Sacramento, CA

 

 

 For most of the arborists and tree lovers I know, driving around in winter time to look at bare trees and evergreens was once a pleasant pastime. Their form and grace was evident and their beauty unmistakable. Now it is an excruciating experience. Evidenced on almost every street is grim and absolute proof that tree pruning is becoming tree hacking or tree butchering. Crowns of once beautiful trees are reduced to pitiful eyesores of ugly stubs as the branches are rounded over with chain saws, as if shearing a giant shrub. Entire tops of magnificent old specimens are simply removed because they outgrow their boundaries whether too high or too wide. These negligent and widely used practices will contribute to the steady decline and eventual death of the trees they abuse for a number of reasons:

Read the rest of this entry »

How to Kill a Tree

07 Aug 2010

No Comment  Planting Your Tree, Seasonal Pruning Trees and Shrubs, Tree Care, WATER CONSERVATION

Topped with plastic flowers to accent workOn the wall of my office hang several brightly colored posters from the International Society of Arboriculture that demonstrate how to prune, plant, choose and correctly locate trees in the landscape. They are simple, easy to understand and offer sound advice. I’m amazed at how many people look them over and then exclaim cheerfully, “I like this one best!”

 They are talking about the poster titled  “HOW TO KILL A TREE”,  depicting a miserable specimen in great distress. The picture illustrates what people do, not usually on purpose, that not only injure and wound, but also stunt, drown, weaken, poison, torture and eventually destroy trees. Yes, it is a cartoon but these things happen for real–every single day. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Not Easy Being Green

26 Jul 2010

No Comment  Choosing the Right Tree, Going Green, Tree Care

Green tape bird's nest

Nest in azalea standard girdled with green tape-ironic, huh??

There is a myth that green plastic nursery tape cannot hurt a plant as it “just stretches as the plant grows”.  It has its limits, believe me . Let’s focus on trees as defenseless victims of  ”forgotten” green tape.  Most are grown by being tied to stakes, very tightly, as if they were going to try to escape. They go from being tied to little stakes to being tied to bigger stakes and often times, by the time the stakes are to be changed or removed, the green tape has reached its limits and has ‘grown’ into the bark of the tree. This is called “included bark”. Sometimes it ‘grows’ into the crotches of the branches, essentially separating the branch from its parent branch (the trunk or the nearest bigger branch.)  And, although it looks like you can just pull the tape out, (or clip off the ends so no one else sees it),  the damage has already been done. The slightest pressure on the branch separated from its parent by hidden tape (or old labels, or wire from some kinds of tags, or string) and off it comes, taking another part of the tree with it, many times with fatal damage. It has no choice but to die–in agony. OK, maybe that sounds a bit extreme, but do you know for sure that they don’t die in agony?  Read the rest of this entry »

Eco-care is Eco-chic!

27 Jun 2010

No Comment  Branching Out, Going Green, Organics for Your Trees and Landscape

butterflyOK, I confess- I am passionately, and up until now, quietly, working to remove toxic chemicals and toxic practices from the wonderful world of arboriculture (the art, science technology, and business of tree care). Most of us think trees are good, but we don’t all know why. We also don’t, for the most part, think much about them until they fall down, break something, turn brown, begin to lift the driveway, or start dripping sticky stuff on our cars. Sadly, most of us don’t know how to care for our trees and other landscaping. We trust that the mow and blow guy is a genius in all things and would never dream of doing anything to hurt our precious plants. This may not the way to handle these leafy creatures that can shelter, cool and please us, and make our properties look spiffy. We probably spend more time deciding where to eat lunch than we do making sure that the landscape we are responsible for, that we paid for, is well cared for by people who truly specialize in such things.

 Not to say that there aren’t mow and blow guys who know about trees, but I guarantee they are not likely to know the latest and most prudent practices of eco-friendly landscaping. Perhaps you have had such an experience in your own yard, where your prize ornamentals were all treated equally-sheared off at the knees, sprayed with who-knows-what and left gasping for proper attention. Proper pruning will never look bad.

It is finally becoming “chic” to be ecologically responsible for your trees, for your property-no matter how large or small. Many of you have been doing this forever-greenies to your souls. Not using toxic chemicals and unnecessary fertilizers on your trees and other landscape plants is the way to be “IN“, although millions have been living this way for totally different reasons having nothing to do with popularity-only a growing sense of comman sense. I assure you, this does not mean that you have to have a shabby looking landscape, insect riddled gardens, or anything less than absolutely beautiful! There are hundreds of very fine products out there that work without polluting the water sources, giving your children and pets cancer, killing every earthworm for miles, or murdering the birds that come to your place looking for a snack.

There are amazing professionals–gardeners, arborists, ecologists out there who specialize in these marvelous things and can guide you towards healthy and beneficial personal green spaces. You will have the best of gardens, “Eco-Chic” gardens, environmentally responsible practices abounding, birds galore (without hanging feeders), butterflies, ladybugs (without buying them in bags) and your friends, secretly jealous, because you thought of it first.
 2010 Shades of Green Horticulture

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