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Five Tree Care Mistakes Homeowners Make: Five Years of Talking Trees! · Talking Trees with Davey Tree

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Deby Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Doug Oester.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees Podcast, we know trees are the answer.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a very special episode.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is our fifth year anniversary, and in honor of that, we're bringing back the first guest ever on the show.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's my friend Eric Countryman.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's a district manager for the East Pittsburgh Davy office.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Eric, thanks so much for coming back and celebrating our fifth year doing this podcast.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, hello, Doug.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh happy to be back.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's great, great to see you again and talk to you again.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And folks, hang in there for the entire episode because at the end of the show, I'm going to be giving away some 2026 Trees of Davy calendars.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, before we get to our topic, five tree and landscape mistakes homeowners make in the first five years.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see the theme there, five.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you about the calendars because people don't realize maybe that they haven't had the calendar.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: People, I've got I've got guys like all over the country that are begging for the calendar.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They they they've got it every year and they they want to keep getting it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've worked for Davy for uh about 20 years now, and they make a calendar every year, and uh they have done it even before then.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's um they use 12 pictures of trees.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now they get uh submissions in from other arborists at Davy, from outside people like like you, and um other people that can take a picture of a really pretty tree, and they have one a month and and they try to theme them to the month that it is.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you see more winter scenes in the winter, summer scenes, fall scenes.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they do a very nice job.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's well made.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: The calendar itself is a quality calendar.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's high gloss, it's not cheap paper, it's well put together, they last all year.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're they're well-made products.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you actually have one in your office, right?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I always make sure I've got one hanging in my office, and then I always make sure I get one from my mom because she always wants one every year.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so it's uh it it becomes a favorite if you're you know someone that can use or you know a wall calendar.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to our topic.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Five tree and landscape mistakes homeowners make in the first five years.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Eric, what comes to mind first?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say the first thing is even right as you're buying the house, um, so maybe not once you're in it, but even before when you're looking at it, is looking at the trees and the landscape that are around the property that you're gonna buy.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of people focus on the kitchens and the bathrooms and the square footage and the closet space and all that's important.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: But what they don't realize is how much uh they're signing themselves up for in landscape maintenance, in tree maintenance.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I get uh called out to a lot of properties.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: People have been in the house two years, they didn't realize how much it was gonna be to take care of the five oak trees that came on the property.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but they've got deadwood, they're unsafe, things are falling down, and then they have to see what pruning costs, which can be expensive.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think you need to, as you're looking at the house to buy, think about what level of input you want to have into taking care of the landscaping.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And now what a budget would be to do that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great point.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't think of that 30 years ago when I bought this house in the middle of an oak forest, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love living in this forest, even though, yes, uh, our friend Vince has to come twice a year to uh take a look and make sure everything's safe.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, there's something there's some comfort, believe it or not, in having all these trees around you and just the wildlife that enjoys the trees and the shade, just everything about it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I love it's definitely for the right person.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say the other it's not just you know the trees, which are their own level of maintenance, but we're talking about landscape in general.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how big are the flower beds, how much weeding are you gonna have to do?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are they full of flowers that have to be cut down twice a year?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of all of that maintenance that if you really uh don't know anything about it when you're buying your first house, um, and I would assume people listening to this podcast probably, you know, think about landscaping and stuff already, but I think that's the number one, you know, first-time homeowner kind of early call we get as arborists is oh my gosh, what do I do with all this?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and you know, it's so much I didn't realize.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a big one right at the beginning.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when we are looking at this new property, what are we looking for?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I like like you said, you love the woods.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if that's the property you're looking for, that's great.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's more you have to think about yourself, your family, your commitment level, your financial situation.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, can you afford to pay somebody to take care of all this?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you are you gonna have to do it all yourself?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have the time?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do you like doing it?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you hate doing yard work, you should not buy two acres of gardens.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a lot of work.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it it's really up to the person and how they feel about it, uh, of their level of commitment to a landscape.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a person that really doesn't like it, then maybe you buy the simple landscape property.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Makes sense.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh mistake number two.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: I would say once you start living there, um, you probably a lot of people then want to make some changes.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's we'll say two maybe and three go together a little bit here.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: But people want to start pulling things out and then they want to start adding in what they like.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I see the common mistake number one is overdoing it out.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a big install, lots of plants, lots of shrubs, lots of trees.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it comes down to can you take care of all of this?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can you keep it watered?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, is it, you know, or are you planting too much, too close?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Is it going to overgrow you?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking in the five years, you know, five years later, you could find out, wow, I've got twice as many shrubs than I should have.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think number three to jump a little bit is also the planting of everything just too deep.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So then everything struggles, nothing gets set, and then you spend that first five years either pulling dead plants out of the ground because they never rooted, or struggling to keep them watered and keep them alive because they are never really getting set because they were planted too deep.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think we're doing that as homeowners?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we planting our trees too deep?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've just learned from doing the podcast and from experience working with arborists how important it is not to plant too deep.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I put a Franklinia in, Eric, and so I wanted to make sure that thing was planted exactly right because that thing, uh yeah, I this is my second or third one.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the I I think you know, you see them come in pots, and you think that your soil needs to overwhelm the pot.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if you think about if you've planted flowers and vegetables in pots, you tend to put them under the soil.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's I think that common thread is you dig up the hole, you put it in, but you want your dirt to go over it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: You think it, you know, your dirt should be level and that root ball should be below ground.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's actually not what you want to do.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, keep it higher so it can the water can drain away, the roots have oxygen, and then they can actually grow into your topper, fresher, looser soil.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, putting it under underground and then over covering it, you know, you're kind of it's gonna struggle for drainage, it's gonna struggle for oxygen.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And how many times have you driven by new construction and seen exactly what you were talking about there for mistake number two?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Planted too much, too close together, and also too close to the home.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then just shaking your head knowing that in five years, and I see this every day, and it drives me nuts that in five years, all that money spent on that landscaping is gonna be wasted because it's gonna be either over the window, into the siding, uh, too close together for the plants.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know how it is.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and people who get paid like I do to prune things, it's a you know, dream come true because we're gonna you have to have us out twice a year to keep it under control.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I think there's that that problem that you know, you want it to look like the picture, you know, at the like on the internet, the moment that they're done, that whether you're done or you've hired a landscaper, it should look like the calendar picture.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I think, you know, and I I find this not only with homeowners, but also with people that go out and get a professional designer, that they the question that's not asked, particularly a professional, is how many, you know, can I get a 10-year landscaping, you know, for this to grow in?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you do want it to look like that, but you're probably gonna have to change it a lot over the years.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that asking your designer, how long will I get out of this before it's too much, is a good question.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: They should be able to answer that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in general, is it better to plant something smaller anyway?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, instead of putting in a big giant specimen uh over the years on the podcast, I've got that advice many times to pick up a little bit smaller tree because it catches on quicker.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I think so.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I I try to advise people that for like your larger shade trees, anything over three inches is a commitment level that as a homeowner, you're probably not gonna be able to do.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of that takes special drainage to put in.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: You need to know how to water it, take care of it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think, you know, the old adage, especially in our climates up here in Pennsylvania, is one inch of diameter of tree is about one year of transplant settling it's gonna take before it really takes off.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if you put in a big tree, you paid a lot of money for it, but it's really gonna kind of sit there for five, you know, four or five years before it really starts to flourish again.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I just don't think you get the the bang for the buck by going with a larger tree because it takes so long for them to settle in.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then shrubbery is the same way.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: You put in large shrubs, you're gonna have to put a lot more water on them.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just a lot harder for them to settle into the space that you're in.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's hard to convince homeowners that they should be a little patient?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's sort of an instant gratification thing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it's supposed to look like the picture, like after the five years on the very day you move in.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do you kind of change that perception for a homeowner?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you you have to talk to them about a couple of things, which again is how long this is gonna struggle and the work you're gonna have to put in to keep a big landscape like that alive from the beginning.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, also, just yeah, what's your success rate gonna be with something this big?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: It can be a little tricky.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and also sometimes the cost as you start getting into the lark, particularly trees, as that inch or two, you're talking years of growth that they're you know getting in the nursery before they're taken out, and that equates to money.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you can really you know triple your cost for you know two inches of you know diameter.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see, that's my uh inspiration as the world's biggest cheapskate.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want a smaller tree.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I want a I want a good tree, uh, but it uh as long as it's a little bit smaller, I'll wait.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I I have patience, I'll wait.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see uh uh a tree or a shrub come to maturity over the years and to look back and see like, oh my gosh, look at this picture.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Look at how big it was when we first planted it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's great.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I the other thing is you you say about the instant gratification, yes, it'll be big when you bring it in, but because it won't you know really settle from its transplant for so long, you're not really gonna get to see it at its best.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, whereas if you put in a two-inch tree in two years, you could really see it really flowering or really pushing new growth and really looking good.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've got three mistakes, part of our five trees and landscape mistakes homeowners make in the first five years.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: What's the next thing on your list, Eric?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say the uh next thing is once you've you're happy with the landscaping, you can take care of it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Then you want to put down fresh mulch, you know, make it look pretty every spring.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's always a good thing to do.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: It helps with the weeds, but most people over mulch and bury their trees and shrubs.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a giant mistake we see is that you have this healthy landscape and then you over mulch it and bury it, and now they're all struggling, just like we talked about with overplanting.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I recommend, you know, probably just enough to color it up.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, put some color, fresh color on it, just enough to keep the weeds down, especially if you already have a base layer of mulch there, and make sure that you're not mulching right up to the bases of your plants, that they have it's pulled back from the stems, it's pulled back from the trunks, so that there's room for that root collar to breathe.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And how often do you like to mulch?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is it just once a year, or do we do it early in the year and then rake it?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: What how do you like to make it look the best for the entire season?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say at my house, what I would do, or what I do is get a like natural double-sredded bark mulch and or triple shredded, but that breaks down, triple shredded breaks down very quickly.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I like the natural, I don't like dyed, uh, you know, processed mulch like that.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it goes down in the spring, does helpful with the weeds.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then if I if I think it's looking a little tired, you know, yeah, take a rake and spit, you know, rake it up, spin it over, turn it up a little bit.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You can get a little bit more weed problem there.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I think it depends how fast it's broken down.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you're down to bare dirt by the summer, maybe it's not a bad idea to spread another, you know, inch down just to keep you covered for the winter.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And also it does protect the root systems, you know, up here in our climate in Pennsylvania.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's well, we've just talking this week, it's been very cold.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And a little bit of mulch and a little bit of cover on those roots are are a good thing that can help them get through the winter.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you said double shredded, triple shredded.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: What do you when do you do each one?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: The triple to a lot of people, I guess looks better, but as you said, it decomposes quicker.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: How are you making that decision in your landscape?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd say almost like I kind of flip it once every other year.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the triple shredded breaks down, but then you kind of you're helping your soil a little bit.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, but you get a little bit longevity out of the double.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, and I don't think you need that decomposition every year.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: I that's a lot.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the the I kind of flip it back and forth.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're not a big fan of just doing your whole landscape in blue mulch?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I don't like dyed mulch.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think it the quality of the wood is not great.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times it's chipped up pallets, it's not, you know, bark natural wood mulch.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't decompose.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you've seen, you know, playgrounds where they put in like that solid black mulch, it looks like plastic for three, four years, which is great.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: It looks fine.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you keep the color, but that stuff has just basically become a lay thick layer.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And my, I guess this is another mistake involving mulching, we'll keep on that mulching topic.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you've moved into a new house and it was this, you know, red mulch all over the place.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: My suggestion is do the work and scrape it off because it's probably too thick, it's probably become this matted down, heavy layer, and it's you just if you even if you do the right thing and put a natural mulch on top of it, it's not gonna help you.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, my you unfortunately at that point, you kind of gotta go to bare dirt and start over.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be a lot of work, but I think it's better for you in the long run.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: That does not sound fun.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to continue with the the mulching because I've got two different things I want to discuss with you.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: One of my buddies put down like big river rock as his mulch, thinking, like, oh, if I just put a fabric layer underneath this and then I put this these big rocks there, and I mean, I'm talking an entire summer of putting those rocks in place that I will no longer have weeds.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't worked out that way, Eric.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, it never does.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know why people think that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know where that myth comes from.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think spreading a layer of mulch in the spring is not that hard, you know, unless you've got you know you're spreading 20, 30 yards, and then that can be a lot of work.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: But River Rocks hard.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, it's gonna take all summer to put down.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just think about the world we live in, um there's wind, blows dust around, dust is gonna fall down on those rocks and that weed paper, and then the weed seeds are gonna fall right on it, and then you've got a lot of weeds, and it's hard to go through and weed a rock bed.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's really hard.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is two sides of this coin.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: People then, once they have it, they realize it didn't really work, they go immediately to the pesticides and the weed killer and start spraying like crazy, not being careful, and hurt their plants.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So now they've got dead plants and a lot of weeds.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, or, you know, you're just sitting there pulling and pulling and pulling.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing I think about with rock is that, especially on a sunny, exposed area, they're gonna get hot, you know, and touch them way on a summer day.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And all that heat is sitting on your roots of your plants.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you're it's drying out, they're not getting water, uh, and you're burning the root system.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I just, you know, it's not good horticulturally.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's easy maintenance, it's certainly not an easy install or a cheap install.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, it's not my recommendation.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you think it's hard when you move into a place that has red mulch and you want to remove it?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when you move into a place with river rock and you're you're you have to remove all that?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to continue on this because when you're talking about that the heat effect, actually, he I think he has a lilac planted in in that bed, and and the lilac is just so sad with that that heat.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are they still offering rubber mulch out there?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are people still using that uh around their landscape?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because that stuff is is bad news.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's still offered, and I think because it's used in a lot of I think you see it more on playgrounds and that type of area, which you know for a safety thing, okay, but for uh landscaping, I think that's it's maybe worse than the rocks, but it's still pretty bad.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people always ask, like, well, I this stuff is great, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because you only have to put it down once, and I'm like, no, no, no, it is not great.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh again, it's it's it's heat and it's not adding anything to the soil, and it's just it's just not a good thing.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think it does anything for weed prevention either.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think you're not you still have the problem of the weed seeds and the dirt and everything falling in it.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So then you just get this dirt-filled pile of rubber that you can't get rid of.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's the other like, where do you take a truckload of used rubber like that?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's it's not easy to get rid of.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Eric, we've done four mistakes.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We've got one more.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are you thinking?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the the last thing is not, you know, we talked about mulching, which is I guess a maintenance, but not doing proper maintenance on your landscaping and either just sort of letting it go or not paying attention to what you're doing.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd say, you know, one thing is good fertilization goes a long way to keeping your property uh healthy for all the even the big trees, the small trees, you know, your shrubbery.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I'd say, well, oh, we get the lawn fertilized.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: So shouldn't the tree in the front lawn be perfectly fine?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is no, because that that's not leaching down enough to the trees.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: You need something injected, something to get to the root system to really help.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that the fertilization and the investment in it in your first couple years will pay off in your as you stay in that property because your stuff is going to be a lot healthier.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd say on that is also, you know, watering when appropriate.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we think our trees in our yard, oh, they've been there, we're fine, we don't need to water them.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: But then we go for a month and a half.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, say again, we're in Pennsylvania.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: I know this a month and a half without rain someplace in the country is no big deal.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but you know, we've gone so long, it's without rain and or meaningful rain, and then the poor trees curling and browning in June and July, and you don't know why.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's because it's struggling with water.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So you do need to supplement your watering.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, be people think, oh, yeah, I've got a sprinkler system.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, that's not usually enough for trees.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, great advice as always, Eric.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Want to thank you for being part of the show for these five years.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe we've been doing it for five years.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Eric and I do a lot of things together here in Pittsburgh.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I appreciate what you do, Eric.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for being part of the show for all these years.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've been happy to be on, and it's always fun to talk to you, Doug.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And a big thanks to you, whether you're brand new or have been listening with us for half a decade, we appreciate it for sure.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if you would like to win that 2026 Trees of Davey calendar, all you've got to do is send us an email with your mailing address to podcast at Davey.com.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S at d A V E Y dot com.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pick winners at random, and you will love this calendar.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Join us every Thursday for the Talking Trees Podcast from the Davy Tree Expert Company.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Doug Oester, and as always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees Podcast Trees are the answer.