Jess Wilkin's posts

A common myth about urban trees is that they cause damage to pipes and foundations. Roots can’t break through intact foundations or pipes. However, they can be attracted to areas where cracks in pipes or foundations offer the resources that trees are seeking, namely water and oxygen. There are two ways to greatly reduce this risk – ensure your property is in good repair and plant the right trees in the right locations.

When a tree is uprooted from the ground at a nursery, potted up, transported and replanted in your backyard, it will undergo a period of stress called transplant shock. Trees communicate this stress through a range of physical cues, which may become severe in certain cases. Thankfully, there are some easy steps you can take before and after planting that will help reduce the transplant shock in your newly planted tree!

It can be tricky to identify deciduous trees after their leaves drop. However, winter presents a great opportunity to learn about other tree features, like buds or bark, to identify your neighbourhood trees. Practice makes perfect, so get out this season and enhance your Winter ID skills with these tips!

What comes to mind when you think of pruning? For many people, it’s a topiary shrub clipped into an ornamental shape. Though we often think of pruning as an aesthetic practice, it actually serves a much wider purpose. Each pruning cut has the ability to change the growth pattern of a tree forever; making pruning young trees an essential practice in order to maintain health and encourage a strong structure as they mature.

Tree care tips and tricks that spread by word-of-mouth are often accepted as common knowledge over time. However, as theories and tree care practices evolve, new knowledge is not so quick to spread among the general public. As a result, many of today’s common tree misconceptions actually stem from out-dated practices or theories. Because these misconceptions can do more harm than good, it’s important to get to the bottom of the truth.