Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us on the program, and welcome home Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: the House Whisper. Here with you as I am every
Speaker 1: Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time. We have
Speaker 1: had the first two hours of the show, so informative.
Speaker 1: If you've missed any part of the show, let me
Speaker 1: remind you that this very program, this broadcast, this live
Speaker 1: broadcast right now is also what's known as The House
Speaker 1: Whisper Podcast that you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand,
Speaker 1: as often as you like, as many times as you like.
Speaker 1: Hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It is truly
Speaker 1: a home improvement reference library that we have built for you.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: All you have to understand is that about an hour
Speaker 1: after we go off the air of the live broadcast, boom,
Speaker 1: all of this is podcast. And so if you've missed
Speaker 1: any part of the show. The first hour of the show,
Speaker 1: we were talking about birds. The second part of the show,
Speaker 1: the middle hour, we were talking about bees. Because this
Speaker 1: is our springtime, bring more nature back into your yard.
Speaker 1: And now one of my favorite topics of all trees.
Speaker 1: You hear me as a home designer and as a
Speaker 1: landscape designer, you hear me talking about trees. The fact
Speaker 1: that I mean, I love I love all plants. I
Speaker 1: love them all native plants, shrubs, flowers, the entire, the
Speaker 1: entire spectrum. But I tell you what, if you really
Speaker 1: want to change the environment of your yard, if you
Speaker 1: want to change the temperature in your yard, if you
Speaker 1: want to change the wildlife in your yard, then and
Speaker 1: if you want to By the way, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest rois all right, so you know some of you
Speaker 1: are listening here, like, all right, Dean's on his little
Speaker 1: nature boy environmental kick today. All right, let's just talk
Speaker 1: about pure ROI the National Association of Realtors have studied
Speaker 1: this again and again and again, and they have yet
Speaker 1: to change their mind on this. You know, as an
Speaker 1: estate designer, there are times when a client will literally say,
Speaker 1: I just want a fully mature tree in the front
Speaker 1: of this empty lot. When we're done here, Dean, I've
Speaker 1: got no problem. I got sources for that. I can
Speaker 1: bring in a tree that's got a seventy two inch box, yeah,
Speaker 1: six foot box by six foot or an eight foot box,
Speaker 1: will plant it tomorrow, and you'll have a fully mature
Speaker 1: tree sitting in your front yard. Yeah, that's going to
Speaker 1: run you twenty thirty thousand dollars, depending on the species
Speaker 1: of tree and the size of the tree, and the
Speaker 1: crane service that we have to hire to bring it in.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you this, a fully mature tree
Speaker 1: added to the front of a an existing property, according
Speaker 1: to the National Association of Realtor, will raise the property value,
Speaker 1: the property value of that house by anywhere from five
Speaker 1: to ten percent. Now think about that. Let's say you're
Speaker 1: sitting on a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars home
Speaker 1: and we invest twenty thousand dollars and put a mature
Speaker 1: tree in your front yard. It just cost you twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I'm not saying everybody should do. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying we're just doing math. Okay, twenty thousand dollars Today,
Speaker 1: we plant a tree, a mature tree in your front yard.
Speaker 1: Guess what your home is worth by the time we
Speaker 1: are done planting that tree. That's seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars home, Okay, is now seventy five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Greater value twenty thousand dollars tree seventy five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: ROI on that. Okay, this is real. It's a real thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm not I'm not here to talk to you
Speaker 1: about the the ROI on your property. Okay, the money stuff,
Speaker 1: we can talk about that later. What I am here
Speaker 1: to talk about is what to do with trees springtime
Speaker 1: versus what we do at other times of year, what
Speaker 1: we should and shouldn't be doing. And to accomplish this feat,
Speaker 1: I now have sitting across the table, my third guest
Speaker 1: this morning.
Speaker 2: Phew, a lot of guests.
Speaker 1: Bob Lothed, certified arborist and my favorite arborist and tree
Speaker 1: trimmer and good friend, is sitting across the table from me.
Speaker 2: Bob. Welcome, thank you, the show, Thank you. It's good
Speaker 2: to be here.
Speaker 1: And I've had Bob on before, but he comes every
Speaker 1: every autumn and every spring for our for our autumn
Speaker 1: and spring backyard show. So all right, we're up against
Speaker 1: a break. I've set it all up for you. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk trees, and Bob is going to give us
Speaker 1: his expertise and his experience. He's also had an experience
Speaker 1: with a Beastwarm not too long ago. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: dovetail in what Nicole was talking about and get Bob's
Speaker 1: experience of that whole thing. All of it happens.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: You have dropped in, I hope pleasantly surprised to a
Speaker 1: great little show that we're putting on for you this morning.
Speaker 1: And I say that not because of me, but because
Speaker 1: of the guests that I've had sitting across the table
Speaker 1: from me this morning, everybody from Richard Armording from wild
Speaker 1: Birds Unlimited, to Nicole Palladino from Bee Catchers, and now
Speaker 1: sitting across the table from me, certified Arborus Bob Loft,
Speaker 1: who is my local tree expert. And so we've talked
Speaker 1: about birds, We've talked about bees. Now I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that other critical component of habitat, trees and
Speaker 1: other shows we'll do other landscaping shows where we focus
Speaker 1: more on native plants and flowers and all of that.
Speaker 1: So just know that we cover the whole spectrum here
Speaker 1: on the show. But Bob Trees, my friend trees. How's
Speaker 1: that ash tree looking in my yard? By the way,
Speaker 1: your ash trees looking absolutely great. Could use a little
Speaker 1: work next year. Fin it out a little bit next
Speaker 1: year in the fall, in the fall fall. Okay, So
Speaker 1: speaking of that, speaking of that, speaking of in the fall,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean California, Southern California. We're we you know,
Speaker 1: we we live here because the weather here is just
Speaker 1: i mean, compared to other places, it is not extreme. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: we have our we've got our sant Ana wins, and
Speaker 1: we've got our our one hundred plus degree days and
Speaker 1: and all of that, and we've got our fire season
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. But the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is California remains a very very temperate place to live,
Speaker 1: which means that when it comes to like tree trimming
Speaker 1: and that, I mean, there's never really an awful season
Speaker 1: to trim, per se just just because you know. But
Speaker 1: but still trees are trying to They're they're pushing through
Speaker 1: their beginning of their growth cycle right now in the spring,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, we talked about autumn. Autumn is
Speaker 1: really the optimal time if you're going to do a age.
Speaker 1: You're trimming of a tree as opposed to shocking something
Speaker 1: that's trying to grow right now.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: Fall is always the most fun time because you can
Speaker 4: take a lot more off a tree and not feel
Speaker 4: like you're you know, making it scream. And so you
Speaker 4: just don't want these guys that are coming there and
Speaker 4: turn a forty foot tree into a twenty foot tree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the.
Speaker 4: Customer goes, well, they said it'll grow back, So you
Speaker 4: got to be a little more selective on your pruning
Speaker 4: cuts and you know, obviously shaping the tree up for
Speaker 4: the environment that they're in.
Speaker 2: So that's fun. Yeah.
Speaker 4: But as far as mature trees right now in the spring,
Speaker 4: believe it or not, a lot of these trees are
Speaker 4: already self fertilized. I mean, they don't need a lot
Speaker 4: of fertilizing. You probably need a lot more fertilizing on
Speaker 4: some of the garden trees more than anything. Maybe some
Speaker 4: evergreen pears, fruit trees especially, This is a great time
Speaker 4: to put the fur I like job tree steaks, So
Speaker 4: I'm just a big joe job tree steak guy.
Speaker 1: So it's a good time to inject nutrition into brooding
Speaker 1: trees that time right now, What do you mean by
Speaker 1: a big mature tree is self fertilized?
Speaker 2: What just seems like.
Speaker 4: The roots have reached that level of of what not.
Speaker 2: I don't want to use water.
Speaker 4: It just seemed to grab what they need out of
Speaker 4: the soil around here, and you don't really have to
Speaker 4: do a lot of fertilization on big trees.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's how I was baiting you into that that answer,
Speaker 1: because because because that's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: promote with people about trees so often, right, is that
Speaker 1: once a mature, once a tree gets mature, right, and
Speaker 1: its roots are deep. I mean, you know, all of
Speaker 1: human history, we make metaphors out of mature trees, right.
Speaker 1: We talk about you know, being planted like a tree, uh,
Speaker 1: being being you know stable like all but the but
Speaker 1: the there's a reason for that because once trees are
Speaker 1: like up and running on their own, they don't need
Speaker 1: to get watered the like everything else in the yard.
Speaker 1: They don't need to be you know, fertilized like everything
Speaker 1: else in the yard, because they have found their sources.
Speaker 1: They've found their place.
Speaker 4: I will never understand how some trees get water, but
Speaker 4: they sure do and they look great. And so if
Speaker 4: to me, if a tree looks good like a lot
Speaker 4: of things, if.
Speaker 2: It ain't broke.
Speaker 4: Don't fix it, amen, But if you start to see
Speaker 4: some things, you might have to call in a professional
Speaker 4: who might be able to inject some nutrients into the ground.
Speaker 4: But you know, kind of rare, kind of rare, and
Speaker 4: out here in thousand oaks, it just seems like the
Speaker 4: perfect environment for all of our stuff, for all of life.
Speaker 2: That's why we're here, that's right, all right.
Speaker 1: So so and I always give this metaphor to people,
Speaker 1: or this an analogy metaphor and some okay, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: this word picture to people when you talked about fall,
Speaker 1: doing a major prune on a tree in the fall,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't scream as much. I just tell people, listen, okay,
Speaker 1: trees they start getting sleepy in the fall. They go
Speaker 1: in their dormant cycle, right, And so it's just like
Speaker 1: somebody going in for major surgery. You know, it'd be
Speaker 1: better if we cut them open and did all this
Speaker 1: major surgery while they were asleep.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: It'd be better to do it while they're asleep instead
Speaker 1: of just handing them like that tree branch here, Bite
Speaker 1: down on this, buddy, we're about to take your leg off. Sorry,
Speaker 1: we don't have any anesthesia. So the point is this,
Speaker 1: trees naturally go into this dormant cycle in the fall,
Speaker 1: and it's just safer too for the life of the tree.
Speaker 1: If you're going to do a major cutback, to do
Speaker 1: it then as opposed in springtime when they're literally waking up.
Speaker 1: That's the last thing I want is I'm waking up
Speaker 1: in the morning, is for a doctor to say, all right, buddy,
Speaker 1: hang on because I'm about to cut into you. So
Speaker 1: but there are things that we can do during spring
Speaker 1: and are what are the kinds of things that people
Speaker 1: should be looking for for their tree, Like when you
Speaker 1: were saying when you were saying, if you know, if
Speaker 1: it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if tree looks fine,
Speaker 1: what are the kinds of things that people could be
Speaker 1: looking out for that and to realize, man, that's not
Speaker 1: such a good sign.
Speaker 4: Well, if you see sections of the tree that might
Speaker 4: get a lot of die back and you're not sure
Speaker 4: what's going on, it's a good time to call somebody out.
Speaker 4: Could be just a broken limb, you know. But there's
Speaker 4: there's not a lot of pruning that you can do
Speaker 4: to make a tree healthier. You can maybe save some
Speaker 4: of the tree, but pruning it now is not a
Speaker 4: big deal. But in the falls a good time. They're
Speaker 4: gotten heavy, the winds come up, they start breaking limbs.
Speaker 4: Always something to think about. So you don't can lighten
Speaker 4: these limbs up, tipping back somethin out the tree, get
Speaker 4: the get the sale off of them. For me. Right now,
Speaker 4: a lot of it is fruit trees. This is a
Speaker 4: very interesting year. We haven't had a seventy degree day.
Speaker 4: I don't think since Christmas. It seems that way.
Speaker 1: Sure s, I mean, I think we've had a couple
Speaker 1: of But it's your it's sure. But we've been talking
Speaker 1: about this all morning. You weren't here, but we've been
Speaker 1: talking about the fact that this is like a legitimate
Speaker 1: like eastern spring, where there's there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: warmth in the morning, and then it gets cloudy and
Speaker 1: then it rains for two hours and then and then
Speaker 1: it stays cloudy, and then then the temperature drops twenty degrees.
Speaker 1: This is a this is a very slow roll of spring.
Speaker 1: It is very slow rollout. I think right now, fruit
Speaker 1: trees are probably a big thing. Fertilize your fruit trees,
Speaker 1: your citrus, your stone fruits, the stone fruits.
Speaker 4: Everything is slow. But if you look, you see new
Speaker 4: blossoms coming up. But maybe a month ago they would
Speaker 4: have been there. But because we're cold, everything's been set
Speaker 4: back a little bit. But I have noticed a lot
Speaker 4: of the stone fruit putting out a lot of nice fruit.
Speaker 2: And you could go through there and fin out on fruits.
Speaker 4: So if you have, you know, three pieces of fruit
Speaker 4: on one branch really close to each other, take one
Speaker 4: or two of them off so the other the other fruit,
Speaker 4: can you know, expand and become bigger fruit.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to talk about that, so that
Speaker 1: there logic to be looking for about thinning out, especially
Speaker 1: with a fruit tree, in order to increase its productivity
Speaker 1: or the size of the fruit or whatever. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to break. When we come back, you're
Speaker 1: gonna explain that to me a little bit better so
Speaker 1: I understand it better. I am sitting here with certified
Speaker 1: arborius Bob Loft, who is my personal tree expert, and
Speaker 1: now yours, and we will continue to talk about the
Speaker 1: life of your trees in this interesting springtime.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I wish you guys could just be sitting in studio
Speaker 1: with me as Bob and I are just talking about
Speaker 1: all things and all sorts of stuff. I am sitting
Speaker 1: here with my certified arbor Bob Loft, who is my
Speaker 1: personal tree expert. We've talked today about birds, We've talked
Speaker 1: about bees. Now we're talking about trees. Because I am
Speaker 1: on a mission. I'm on a mission as a home designer, Okay,
Speaker 1: as a landscape designer. I'm on a mission to bring
Speaker 1: as much nature back into our yards, back onto our
Speaker 1: properties as possible. And I said this earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: but for those of you who have just joined us,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say it again. Anything, any creature on
Speaker 1: this planet that builds a home displaces something that was
Speaker 1: there before. Right when a gopher burrows a hole up
Speaker 1: in the middle of a meadow, roots are displaced, plants
Speaker 1: are removed, things that were there before get moved out
Speaker 1: of the way. It is not something for human beings,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, to feel guilty about that. We build
Speaker 1: a structure, a build a home where there was a
Speaker 1: prairie once before, or where there was an open field
Speaker 1: of wildflowers once before. That is not the issue. We're
Speaker 1: all entitled to our homes. But but, but, but but
Speaker 1: what we don't do as well these days as the
Speaker 1: other creatures around us is integrate our homes back into
Speaker 1: the natural order so that nature stays with us and
Speaker 1: stays around us. You know, once we built a home,
Speaker 1: then we pave a street. Once we pave a street,
Speaker 1: then we plow under everything in our backyard. I've literally
Speaker 1: had clients and folks come to me over the years,
Speaker 1: and you can relate to this. I've literally had folks
Speaker 1: who have spent multiple millions of dollars on a home
Speaker 1: away from the center of town, right on the edge
Speaker 1: of open space, right so their home as a view
Speaker 1: and they're out right on the edge of open space, wildland,
Speaker 1: and then come to me and say, how do I
Speaker 1: keep all these creatures out of my yard? How do
Speaker 1: I keep you know, how do we kill the coyotes?
Speaker 1: How do I keep this from happening in that? And
Speaker 1: I just look at them and I say, how dare you?
Speaker 1: How dare you pay extra money to live on the
Speaker 1: edge of nature and then complain about nature being right
Speaker 1: outside your door. So my point is this, I don't
Speaker 1: care where you live. I don't care how far in
Speaker 1: the inland you live or in the middle of town
Speaker 1: that you live. When it comes to your home and
Speaker 1: your yard, trees are one of those keystone elements of
Speaker 1: bringing the opportunity for nature because trees, as we said earlier, Bob,
Speaker 1: they dig deep, they find their own sources of water.
Speaker 1: Trees through a process it's called transpiration. Trees don't perspire,
Speaker 1: they transpire. They they the moisture that they find in
Speaker 1: the soil they release out into the air around them.
Speaker 1: They cool the air around them, not just from shade,
Speaker 1: but also from the release of moisture. They become a
Speaker 1: source of shelter and cover for all sorts of animals.
Speaker 1: They become the nesting place of birds. And so the
Speaker 1: more trees that we bring into our homes and the
Speaker 1: more beautiful architectural structures they are when they're prune properly.
Speaker 1: Which is one of the things that I love about
Speaker 1: what you do, Bob, because you have a way of
Speaker 1: approaching as an arborist, approaching trees not to mutilate them,
Speaker 1: but to enhance their structure, their beauty. And before the break,
Speaker 1: we were talking about fruit trees right now, and you
Speaker 1: were saying that if we thin out, and I want
Speaker 1: you to explain that to if we find like, let's say,
Speaker 1: you know, because I've got some citrus right there, let's
Speaker 1: say I've got three fruits all growing right next to
Speaker 1: each other. You're saying, I can thin that out so
Speaker 1: to give a little bit more space so things get bigger.
Speaker 2: Explain that.
Speaker 4: You know, it's kind of funny that you would have
Speaker 4: to go and mention citrus because probably schitrs are one
Speaker 4: of the stronger produce so you might get they don't
Speaker 4: seem to grow in such a clump like our stone fruits.
Speaker 2: Okay, So stone fruits is what you were talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the citrus, you know, they'll push one off,
Speaker 4: but the stone fruits they all grow together.
Speaker 2: And then now somebody out there is sitting there going,
Speaker 2: what the heck? What the heck? Is a stone fruit?
Speaker 1: Okay, plumb peach, anything that has a pit in the middle,
Speaker 1: it's a fruit. It's all soft on the outside, it's
Speaker 1: got a pit in the set. That's that's the stone there.
Speaker 1: Get the stone fruit, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4: So you take if you have three of them really tight,
Speaker 4: take two of them off, and it's a lot of
Speaker 4: work but at the end of the day, instead of
Speaker 4: having three of them grow and fall off together, you
Speaker 4: can develop one nice big plum which you would just
Speaker 4: love with, you know, plum something plump something, plum something,
Speaker 4: you know, nice cold plum, all the same peach. I
Speaker 4: guess the biggest problem that you have, or the complaint,
Speaker 4: is how do I keep?
Speaker 2: And I don't have a good answer for this. How
Speaker 2: do I keep?
Speaker 4: If you asked the question right, how do I keep
Speaker 4: all the critters from eating my fruit? The squirrels beat
Speaker 4: me to it. Well, you can get you can get
Speaker 4: netting and put them over the fruit if you have
Speaker 4: the wherewithal.
Speaker 1: Now the tree is big enough that the fruit's high
Speaker 1: enough off the ground that the squirrel can't make the jump.
Speaker 1: The squirrels are damn clever. Well, if they just climb
Speaker 1: up that trunk. Yeah, but what if I put one
Speaker 1: of those Okay, so let me get your opinion about this,
Speaker 1: Because what if I put like a metal collar around
Speaker 1: the trunk, in other words, that eighteen in section, so
Speaker 1: that as they climb up they just can't get any
Speaker 1: traction on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, most fruit trees, ninety fruit trees don't grow like
Speaker 4: that because we want to keep them low so we
Speaker 4: can reach the fruit exactly.
Speaker 2: And so if you have one.
Speaker 4: Branch that's hanging down below the sheet metal cover that
Speaker 4: you have there, and he grabs that and off he goes.
Speaker 2: Or the birds, all the birds will come in.
Speaker 4: You know. I've had people go, oh, man, I came
Speaker 4: out and there's like seventeen birds in there, and look
Speaker 4: what they did to my fruit.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you stop that.
Speaker 4: You could use the nylon, but then they get stuck
Speaker 4: in the nylon, and then people are going.
Speaker 2: Like, oh no, so I don't know. Hang possibly.
Speaker 4: I've had actually people tell me that if you can
Speaker 4: hang the real loose aluminum foil.
Speaker 1: The little ribbons, the reflective ribbons, that seems to help. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't. Most birds are annoyed by that. They're not
Speaker 1: sure what that's all about. It's too much motion. They're
Speaker 1: just skittish of motion.
Speaker 2: In general. There's not just is.
Speaker 4: Not really in any good way to protect the fruit
Speaker 4: unless you have a nice, big yard, and believe it
Speaker 4: or not, everything's grown away from everything. Then it's just
Speaker 4: sometimes the squirrels just don't go that extra ten feet
Speaker 4: or fifteen feet to go up the tree. To go
Speaker 4: to the other one. There's no good at least I
Speaker 4: have no good idea. You know, there might be some
Speaker 4: what would you call that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I so appreciate you saying this, okay, because
Speaker 1: you know, people come to the show for answers, right,
Speaker 1: but sometimes the answers that I have to give people
Speaker 1: are not the clean, tight, tidy answers that they expect.
Speaker 1: What you're talking about is realistic, and that's something that
Speaker 1: Tina and I have experienced here.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: We wanted to have a vegetable guard. We had a
Speaker 1: vegetable garden for quite a few years, and simultaneously I've
Speaker 1: got it. I'm growing you know, raised bed vegetables while
Speaker 1: I am encouraging every bird I know to come into
Speaker 1: my yard. Well guess what. Guess what happens? Right, They're like, well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much, Teane, thank you very much. So
Speaker 1: it is just a reality that you have to work
Speaker 1: if you want nature in your yard, you're gonna work
Speaker 1: with the messiness that is that process. And you know
Speaker 1: the idea of like, okay, well all that's important to
Speaker 1: me is growing fruit for myself. Then then you're probably
Speaker 1: going to discourage birds from coming into your yard in general,
Speaker 1: just because you don't want them there.
Speaker 2: You're right, But if you're mixing it all up, then
Speaker 2: you're mixing it up.
Speaker 4: And and of course I know we're not really talking
Speaker 4: about that, but raised beds with a nice little cover
Speaker 4: over it. I've seen some awesome gardens, So you can
Speaker 4: do some things to protect your garden beds. But trees,
Speaker 4: there's really no he can't put a glass dome over it,
Speaker 4: you know, And.
Speaker 2: That would be an idea. And wait a second, let
Speaker 2: me think about that.
Speaker 4: It's a new business opportunity. But but I just and
Speaker 4: then you go to people's yards that are like yours
Speaker 4: here and they got fruit everywhere, you know, every one
Speaker 4: of their trees.
Speaker 2: Give them more, they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 4: Well, I just gave seven pounds of peaches to my neighbor,
Speaker 4: and you're going, really, I got guys that take care
Speaker 4: of their trees and they can't get a pound off
Speaker 4: of them. So you know, it's all such a just
Speaker 4: like the climate in the Canalo Valley. It can change
Speaker 4: from ghost Biento's to Calabasas, just like that.
Speaker 2: Radical chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, microclimates everywhere, they're a microcs, all right, all right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back.
Speaker 1: And we've got just a few minutes. So you had
Speaker 1: mentioned something. I think we were talking about it during
Speaker 1: the break that with this slow roll of spring that
Speaker 1: we're experiencing this year, people get a little worried that
Speaker 1: the tree isn't coming in, that it hasn't greened in yet.
Speaker 1: And you've got some advice for them. Don't give it
Speaker 1: to them now. We're gonna make everybody wait. Everybody, you
Speaker 1: hang tight. I've got more with Bob Loth, certified arborist.
Speaker 1: When we return your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1: We're not done yet. We are not done yet. And
Speaker 1: I apologize. We've had so much to talk about with
Speaker 1: my guests this morning. I have not had a chance
Speaker 1: to get to the phones. Everybody who is on the
Speaker 1: phone lines right now. If you give us a call
Speaker 1: next weekend, if you call, if you've got time to call,
Speaker 1: you let our call screen or know you, let our
Speaker 1: producer know. Hey, I was on the phone and I
Speaker 1: didn't get to get on the air and we will
Speaker 1: give you a fast pass to the front of the line,
Speaker 1: right because we treat everybody right around here. We honor
Speaker 1: and we love our callers, love, I love, love our college.
Speaker 1: We just had so much to talk about today, so
Speaker 1: you remember that. And my apologies for not getting two
Speaker 1: calls today. I'm sitting here. We've just got a few
Speaker 1: minutes left. Bob with Bob Loft, certified arborist. And two things. One,
Speaker 1: let's talk about what I had said before the break,
Speaker 1: which is spring is sort of slow rolling it this year,
Speaker 1: and some people are concerned that, oh, my tree isn't
Speaker 1: greening in the way I thought. And your message to
Speaker 1: them is patients, patients.
Speaker 4: Just so I go out there and I go, no,
Speaker 4: look and I pull a branch down and they go, oh,
Speaker 4: there's green everywhere, but it just hasn't popped enough. And
Speaker 4: I just believe it's because we haven't been warm enough yet,
Speaker 4: you know, but it will in another month.
Speaker 2: Everything. We're like a month behind I think where we
Speaker 2: normally are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So just patience, that's rights.
Speaker 4: I just thinking that all my years of you know,
Speaker 4: experience and work, I don't see trees just going and
Speaker 4: die unless something happened to the roots, or they may
Speaker 4: have gotten a fungus. But so, but in general, this
Speaker 4: time of year, a lot you have to do, you know,
Speaker 4: maybe trim.
Speaker 2: It up so it's not hitting you in the face.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: So your message in general, your whole demeanor as a
Speaker 1: person is just hey, chill out. Just everybody relax, that's right,
Speaker 1: take it easy.
Speaker 4: Now. I'm not saying that I don't do a lot
Speaker 4: of pruning for people, because you do, you do well.
Speaker 4: People are people and they want stuff done. Now, I
Speaker 4: won't wreck a tree, but I might fin a tree
Speaker 4: out a little more than would be the best, but
Speaker 4: that's what the customer would like, and we talk about
Speaker 4: it and it's fine and it's going to be fine.
Speaker 4: But rather to almost see you do less is better, okay, yes, yes,
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 1: So on that note, here's the last thing that I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about today, because I got
Speaker 1: to get this off my chest, because this is my
Speaker 1: little soapbox, because this just drives me crazy. When you know,
Speaker 1: we lived in a condo complex at the beginning of
Speaker 1: our marriage, and beautiful magnolia trees all through the complex, right,
Speaker 1: and then one year the HLA decides, Oh, we got it,
Speaker 1: we got it, We're gonna be We got the notice.
Speaker 1: Trees are getting trimmed. All right, fine, great, great, these
Speaker 1: trees could use some some pruning back. They could use
Speaker 1: some trimming back. Got home. Oh my gosh. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing you see everywhere trimming, trimming
Speaker 1: that's not a trim that is all they left where.
Speaker 1: I mean, they literally took everything off except maybe six
Speaker 1: inch diameter branches and larger. I'm like, and now, what
Speaker 1: happens every year? It's the same thing. Right go through fall,
Speaker 1: that tree just is sitting there with just these nubs,
Speaker 1: and then spring hits and all I see coming out
Speaker 1: of those nubs are sprites, big green sprites. Now eventually
Speaker 1: by summer there is a fullness to the tree, which
Speaker 1: I mean, thank god they can kill the tree, but
Speaker 1: the fullness to that tree is just sprites. And those
Speaker 1: aren't actual real natural branches. They're they're a different kind
Speaker 1: of growth, and uh, and it's not attractive.
Speaker 4: The sad part of that is that's just the kind
Speaker 4: of pruning you do to get work done. Associations unfortunately,
Speaker 4: and some homeowners all they want to do is make
Speaker 4: the tree smallers, they don't really care because the common
Speaker 4: word is don't worry, it'll grow back.
Speaker 2: And they do. That's the technically they do.
Speaker 4: And and I don't think I've seen many trees die
Speaker 4: because of that kind of work, but I do not.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I mean it's not attractive. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's not. There's nothing attractive. You've destroyed that that that beautiful,
Speaker 1: that that beautiful structure of the branches to begin with.
Speaker 1: So I asked you during the break, and I want
Speaker 1: you to tell everybody when it comes that just because
Speaker 1: this is a useful guy, because you know, I said
Speaker 1: that they cut everything back except these big six inch
Speaker 1: I mean six inch diameter branches. Where the minimum for them.
Speaker 1: When you're pruning and you get to prune the way
Speaker 1: you want to prune, let's just assume the whole tree
Speaker 1: is healthy. That you're not you're not actually because you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, if there's a big old branch that's about
Speaker 1: to collapse and that you want to so you cut
Speaker 1: off something big. But assuming everything is healthy on most trees,
Speaker 1: you know, what's like the maximum diameter branch that you
Speaker 1: that you feel comfortable taking off.
Speaker 4: I think you can get away with an inch inch
Speaker 4: and a half. See, that is so much smaller than
Speaker 4: what these are. Yeah, right, And the old tree ordans
Speaker 4: will tell you can't trim anything larger than two right,
Speaker 4: but you can do a lot of thinning by what
Speaker 4: they call drop crotching.
Speaker 2: So you could see it. That doesn't sound right, that
Speaker 2: doesn't sound.
Speaker 4: Right you, But you could have a really heavy part
Speaker 4: of a tree and you could take one six inch
Speaker 4: slim out of that tree, right, and it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: Okay, so that's what they would call drop crotching, not topping.
Speaker 4: Topping would be you come home and they cut seventeen
Speaker 4: six inch.
Speaker 1: Slims exactly, and all that's left is there's these big
Speaker 1: bony stubs.
Speaker 4: Right, and then they turn into big old bushes in
Speaker 4: the following year.
Speaker 1: Shrubs, not trees. Yeah, kind of like lowre flight shrubs.
Speaker 1: So again, when you're pruning a tree, as a general rule,
Speaker 1: you are preferring not to take off anything more than
Speaker 1: you say you could get away with an inch maybe
Speaker 1: an inch and a half. Yeah, pretty much, all right,
Speaker 1: I want everybody to hear that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: The certified arbiast who loves sculpting trees, does not want
Speaker 1: to take off unless it's an unhealthy branch or something
Speaker 1: that's about to collapse or something that's diseased. Does not
Speaker 1: want to take off. Anything bigger than an inch and
Speaker 1: a half in diameter, that's just that big.
Speaker 4: Just think that most trees don't need heavy pruning except
Speaker 4: the homeowner gets nervous, and they don't have to be
Speaker 4: depending on the type of tree. But if you don't
Speaker 4: ask the right person, then your tree is a problem.
Speaker 4: If you ask the right person, then that person can
Speaker 4: lead you to pruning it properly.
Speaker 3: That's all.
Speaker 1: So this is why, this is why from the get go,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to call a landscaping service or tree
Speaker 1: pruning service. But I always recommend to people if you
Speaker 1: don't know, and if you have any questions or whatsoever,
Speaker 1: then then you need to call somebody who is in
Speaker 1: fact a certified arborist, a tree expert, not just some
Speaker 1: guy with a chainsaw.
Speaker 4: But everybody who trims a tree is an arborist. I'm
Speaker 4: just saying that. Well, he said he was an arborist.
Speaker 4: I says, yeah, that's because he trimmed trees. But he
Speaker 4: just got your magnolia tree in half. Why did he
Speaker 4: do that?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: They don't have to do that to ninety percent of
Speaker 4: the trees. I'm out, get the wind blowing and you're
Speaker 4: gonna be okay. Placement placement, placement, placement. You got some
Speaker 4: wonderful big sycamore trees around here, and they're placed per there.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, y'all, thank you. I don't think you'll
Speaker 4: ever have to do much with them unless you find
Speaker 4: something a deadlamb or something that's.
Speaker 2: Well, that was the goal. That was the goal.
Speaker 1: The goal was not, you know, to put them in
Speaker 1: the right place they're not threatening in the house, to
Speaker 1: put them in the right place so that they're not
Speaker 1: pushing into each other. No, really nice placement, all right.
Speaker 1: So here's the gy once again. This is a continual
Speaker 1: theme here on the program, and that is when you're
Speaker 1: looking to do something right, find the right person, find
Speaker 1: somebody who is passionate, not about cutting things, passionate about
Speaker 1: the thing itself right. And that's what I love about you, Bob.
Speaker 1: You love trees, and so you're never going to make
Speaker 1: a suggestion to me about well, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: a little shy of work this week, so i'd like
Speaker 1: to I'd like to completely, you know, murder and mutilate that.
Speaker 2: I give you a deal.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. It actually does cost a little more.
Speaker 1: It's more labor intensive to go through a tree and
Speaker 1: to prune it properly, selectively, kindly than to just just
Speaker 1: again press the nuclear button and say, okay, it's all gone. Bob,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for being here again. It is always
Speaker 1: a pleasure. We have so much fun, and I wish
Speaker 1: the listeners could hear half of what we're talking about
Speaker 1: during the break. Anyway, all right, y'all, here we are.
Speaker 1: It's at the end of another three hours. I hope
Speaker 1: you are this much closer to understanding the role of
Speaker 1: birds in your yard, how to bring them in the
Speaker 1: role of bees, How when you see a swarm crossover
Speaker 1: your yard. I know we didn't get to ask Bob
Speaker 1: Bob experience that swarm and nothing happened to him, that
Speaker 1: you're witnessing a birth, and that you just let it
Speaker 1: be because they're so important to what's happening and your trees.
Speaker 1: Don't overdo it. Call somebody with passion and use all
Speaker 1: of these things, the birds, the bees, the trees to
Speaker 1: literally get out there and build yourself a beautiful life.
Speaker 1: All right, We will see you all here next weekend.
Speaker 1: This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1: every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
Speaker 1: anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app