Mimic Mother Nature – Protect Your Soils!

Whether you’re hiking on the mesa or in the mountains Mother Nature has her soils covered. Look down and you will rarely see bare soil, more often it is covered with decaying leaves, sticks, branches, and other debris. You will also notice that most often if you do see bare soil there is nothing growing there! Seemingly the message is without mulch – life is hard!

All this decaying plant material serves to protect the soil. It helps retain moisture, cool, and feed the soil. Bare soil gets hot and rapidly loses its moisture. This surface layer of decaying plant material feeds the soil as decomposition releases required plant nutrients back into the soil. If deep enough this layer also reduces the number of annual weeds that germinate up through it. All this good stuff also feeds the beneficial soil microorganisms which associate with the roots of your plants – making them healthier!

Trees That Please Nursery offers both bagged

and bulk mulches like Pecan Shell

and Shredded Wood Mulch.

Come by the nursery and get some mulch and apply generously to your soils especially around your plants like we do at the nursery!

Photos & Narrative By:

Stephen Sain
Staff Plant Physiologist

Comments

Question: How close to my house can I plant a Cottonwood tree?

Cottonwoods grow to be immense trees attaining dimensions of up to 40 - 50 feet tall and wide with a root system to match. Cottonwoods have a surface root system that can heave sidewalks, crack walls and home foundations if planted too close. Cottonwoods should be planted a minimal distance from structures of at least 25 feet if not further. Trees That Please Nursery carries two varieties of cotton-less, Cottonwood Trees. Please contact us or stop by the store for more information.

Afghan Pine

The Afghan Pine ( Pinus eldarica ) is also known as Desert Pine, Eldarica Pine or Mondell Pine. Afghan Pine is native to low rainfall areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and southern Russia . In fact, when planted in areas of high rainfall (> 20” per year), it becomes susceptible to a number of diseases and rapidly declines. This problem has occurred in East Texas. The Afghan Pine thrives in heat, wind, and tolerates drought. Afghan Pine must be planted in soils with good drainage like sand. It is not suitable for poorly drained heavy clasy soils. Afghan Pines are generally pyramidal or Christmas tree shaped in form when young becoming more oval or irregular with age. The leaves of the Afghan Pine are evergreen needles usually found in groups of 2 per fascicle or sheath. Needles are shed after several years and make excellent mulch as they fall around the trees base. It has attractive trunk bark that becomes dark and furrowed with...

Weed Identification: Goatheads or Stickers

Goatheads ( Tribulus terrestris ) are native to Southern Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Goatheads are also called stickers, sticker weed, bullhead, devil’s weed, and puncturevine. Goatheads are easily recognized by their prostrate growth form, leaves with leaflets, yellow flowers, and stickers (Goatheads). If you miss’em visually then they will stab you painfully in the fingers as you work your garden, or stick to your clothing and shoes. Goatheads are the primary reason local bicyclists must get “thorn proof” tires for riding on area trails and streets. Goatheads have prostrate stems that radiate outward from one central point. Leaves are compound with smaller leaflets. Lemon yellow flowers form along the stems and fertilized flowers form fruits. Fruits consist of several attached structures called nutlets (Goatheads). Each nutlet is a single seed that becomes hard or woody when mature. Each seed has two sharp spines that easily pene...

Trees That Please Nursery

Search This Blog