Winter Yard Chores, Planting Trees and Fixing Your Soil

Winter is an excellent time to plant your new shade and fruit trees, as long as the ground is not covered with ice, snow or frozen solid. That's most of the time for clients living in Albuquerque and Valencia County's. It's very important to also make sure the tree was grown locally, as only then will it be best adapted to the seasonally changes and winter cold. Since Trees That Please is the only retail nursery in the Albuquerque market that grows its own trees, so we are your best option. Also, during the dormant winter months its easy to transport a tree, as you don't need to worry about protecting the plant as you buzz down the freeway.

For making your soil the best soil possible, use the exclusive product of Soil Secrets called TerraPro. This product is rich in the right stuff that will make your soil the best soil, as its full of Nature's miracle substance called Supramolecular humic chemistry. There's nothing else you can buy that has this substance as only Soil Secrets owns the molecular information as to what these molecules are, how they work, and how to manufacture them. To be clear, you cannot do the same thing by just adding compost, peat moss or other soil additives as they don't contain this molecular characteristics. Add TerraPro now so the winter freezing and thawing can help it work deep into your soil. It's great for existing or new lawns and trees love this stuff.

Fighting pesky rodents who are eating the roots of your shrubs and trees, called Gophers. Try blood meal by dusting the soil around the plant until the surface looks black and dusty. Then water it in. How does it work? Simple, to Gophers or rabbits the smell of blood makes them think there's a predator around, so they avoid that spot. A side benefit is that Blood meal is a rich source of soluble nitrogen, which plants can use. But because of that characteristics its important to not use too much or too often as you can kill plants with excess nitrogen fertilizers even from a natural organic source like blood. Trees That Please has blood meal available in handy size bags.

Michael Martin Meléndrez
Managing Member of Soil Secrets LLC

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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...

All About the Shantung Maple!

The Shantung Maple ( Acer truncatum ) is also known as the Purple Blow Maple due to the color of its newly emerging leaves which are red-purple (see photo below). These young expanding red-purple leaves change to green as they mature. Leaves are small, about the size of Japanese Red Maple leaves, perhaps 3’-4’ wide at maturity. The Shantung Maple grows 1′-2′ annually reaching 25″ tall and wide. This is our tree for all planting situations. This Maple does well in heavy clay, sandy soils, full sun, or part shade. It can be planted in a lawn or next to a hot asphalt street (see photo below). It seemingly is a happy tree enjoying life wherever it is placed. One place we would not recommend planting this tree is in a rockscape which is just too hot and inhospitable to support this beautiful tree. A smaller tree, the Shantung Ma...

How does nitrogen work in the soil, and where does it come from when we don't have a bag of fertilizer to supplement it?

I've spoken many times on this subject at conferences and it was the main theme of my talk when I represented North America at the World's 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Vienna Austria back in 2013. Most of the Nitrogen used by the vast tropical rain forests, or the fastest growing biomass place on Earth, the Coastal Redwood Forests of California, comes from the production of protein by the Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing bacteria in soil and the massive biomass structure of the mycorrhizal fungi. The proteins as it breaks down in the soil into amino acids are the building blocks of life and the explanation of the Soil Food Web. However, in order for those amino acids to enter a plant and be part of the nitrogen budget of the plant they must have the assistance of the mycorrhizal fungi. It's much more efficient for a plant to uptake amino acids whose molecules include nitrogen needed to build tissues than to uptake just nitrogen minus the amino acid. ...

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