You can feel the dryness beneath your feet walking on crunchy leaves that have dropped early. Our trees are thirsty and you can help! Please water all of your yard and boulevard trees, not just newly planted ones. Following are simple ways you can give those trees what they need:
1. Turn your hose on to a very light trickle and water for two hours at a time at each of the four corners of the tree.
2. Wrap a soaker hose around the base of the tree, at least a foot away from the trunk, and water for 6-8 hours at a low-flow rate.
3. If you do not have a hose that will reach the tree, you can use a five-gallon bucket to slowly pour a total of 25 gallons of water around the base of the tree.
4. Wrap a gator bag around the tree and fill it up. They are easy to fill and relatively inexpensive. Most garden centers carry them. Fill it up once a week, this will give the tree about 20 gallons of water.
Did you know?
Our city trees work hard! They help save on heating and cooling costs, clean our water and air, can increase our property values, and make for a more pleasant place to live. According to the USDA Forest Service “Trees Pay Us Back” publication (see at http://na.fs.fed.us/urban/treespayusback/vol2/page7.html) a 20-year-old tree in the Midwest provides $60 in net annual benefits. If that tree lives to be 100 years old that’s $6,000 in net benefits over its’ lifetime!
This information was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. The mission of the Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity our nations’ forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.
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