Weekly Garden Tips

February 12, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

As we move into our early spring weather which will be arriving shortly, many people start thinking about putting in some replacement trees for ones destroyed by last fall’s storms. Our hot dry spring months will soon be upon us and we won’t get a lot of rain and relief until early June. Trees are invaluable in the landscape for providing welcome shade and more importantly for providing cooling since they lose hundreds of gallons of water a day and help air condition the air around your home keeping it much cooler.

With the experience learned from two years of hurricanes many nurseries can direct you to choice of trees that withstood high winds and storm related problems. For the most part many native trees fared very well and native trees evolved here and have had to deal with hurricanes for hundreds if not thousands of years. Also native trees are more adapted for our various disturbed soil types and have fewer nutritional or other chronic problems that may show up with other types of trees.

When installing trees bear in mind that many can get quite large at maturity unless a pruning program is followed in future years. This means you do not place them too close to buildings, sidewalks, driveways or close to above ground utility wires. Proper placement is very critical with trees and hopefully they’re going to be there many, many years and maybe outlive you.

Also trees aren’t super fast growing like shrubs are and most trees average less than 3 feet a year growth rates. You’re not going to get a giant tree in just one or two years no matter what type you put in so try and buy as large a one in the beginning as possible if you’re a type person that worries about having to wait for things to grow.

Trees also need regular fertilizing and watering the first year or two to insure rapid establishment and development of a good strong anchoring root system. Trees that are ignored or not given proper attention will take much longer to become firmly established and are more likely to get blown down or uprooted if we get storms again this year or next year.

If you’re unfamiliar with the types of trees commonly used in our area, the Palm Beach County Extension Service has some free publications on trees for south Florida and you can, of course, get good information at most landscape companies and nurseries that sell trees.

If you want advice over the phone, you can call the Extension Service, too, during normal weekday work hours. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.