From: GAILON HARDIN [ghardin@flash.net] Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2006 9:02 PM To: Gailon Hardin Subject: NPSOT Meeting Thursday May 11, 7 pm The following message replaces your NPSOT newsletter this month. See you Thursday. Hello NPSOT I would like to talk to you about two beautiful native trees that I would like to see stopped from being planted. I’m speaking about Red Oaks and Live Oaks. A graceful Live Oak is simply breath taking and a Red Oak in full red fall color is even more amazing. They are the most commonly planted native trees in north central Texas. In several neighborhoods, you have to plant them. While I would never want any one to cut down either tree, they both have severe problems. If you have them, cherish them. If you want to plant a new tree, pick something else. Texas has plenty of choices. So what is wrong with Live Oaks and Red Oaks? Oak Wilt! It should concern every one who owns a Red Oak or Live Oak tree. This is not a west cost problem. This is not a northeast problem, like Dutch Elm disease that you have heard about your whole life and is still not here yet. The Fort Worth/Dallas area is the heart of Oak Wilt country. Oak Wilt isn’t coming to here, it is coming from here. While yes, you can treat your tree and if treated soon enough you can prolong the life of your tree for three years. Well 80% of them anyway. Then after three years if it is still around you can start the treatment game all over again. What about the cure? There is only one. Stop planting and growing trees that are susceptible to Oak Wilt. This includes all 16 trees of the native Black/Red oak group along with the two live oaks from the White Oak Group. While all 23 species of trees in the White Oak group can catch Oak Wilt, only the Live Oaks will die from it. The other species of oaks in the White Oak Group including Post Oak, Bur Oak, Chinkapin Oak, Lacey Oak and White Oak can catch Oak Wilt, yet the disease moves so slowly through the tree that summer comes around & kills the infection. So how do you know if your tree is from the Red/Black Oak Group? Simple, look at the end of one of your oak’s leafs. Is there a hair like appendage (bristle tip) sticking out past the end of your leaf? If so, it is from the Red/Black Oak Group and can die if exposed to Oak Wilt. Another way to tell is by looking at their acorn cups. If they are fuzzy inside, it came from the Red/Black Oak Group, if smooth inside, it came from the White Oak Group and unless it is a Live Oak – it is safe from Oak Wilt. Another problem with Red Oaks is their habit of cross breeding with Northern Red Oaks. This makes them unable to feed properly in alkaline soil. They are easy to spot. As you drive around town, look for the lime green trees, they the ones with northern Red Oak fathers. Their owners will spend years and countless products trying to save them. Unless they dig them up and move them to Tyler or somewhere that has acidic soil, it is hopeless. Then there is the problem of Red Oaks that don’t have any red fall color. Like my two twenty six year old trees. While a minor problem, their red fall color was why I chose them. Thank you, John Bridges Hi, it’s me again. I just wanted to say a few words about this month’s speaker. If you are positive that chemical gardening is the perfect way to go, forget this month’s speaker. If you think organic gardening is just too hard or expensive for you, if you thought that organic gardening just involved too many different products for you to keep up with, then you need to be sure that you come to this month’s meeting with Lucy Harrell. I have been organic for twenty-five years and Lucy Harrell is the best organic consultant that I have ever known. I very seldom have any problems growing natives organically, but when I do, I go to Lucy for solutions. Even better, her solutions WORK! I first heard Lucy at Green Mama’s back in1998. She was giving free organic classes for beginners. I figured any free class was probably not worth my time, but it was free. I was extremely cynical about learning anything for free. The very first class she said something that I almost never hear a professional from anywhere say. I forget what the question was, but her reply was that while she didn’t know the answer, she could probably find out. What, she didn’t just make up something to make sure she “saved face” as the “expert”? I liked that. I decided then to invest some time to see if she was the real thing. Surely the next time I heard her I would catch her making a mistake. Well it is now eight years latter I’m still waiting for that first mistake. Her organic program will work for you in your yard too. In 2002 I asked her how to bring more birds to my pond. I explained that I already had three birdfeeders with three different kinds of birdseed for them. They had plenty of cover to hide in and nest in. What was I missing? She told me to put in a birdbath. I figured this time she had to be wrong. Putting a birdbath close to a pond, what nonsense. Yet everything that she had suggested up to then had worked for me perfectly, so I had to give it a try. Well the bird population around my pond tripled. This is the speaker to hear if you ever thought about trying organic gardening, or even if you are a confirmed organic gardener and wondering if there is anything left for you to learn. Every time I hear Lucy Harrel, I learn something new. May 11th at 7:00 PM is the time. The Orchid room at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens is the place. Her web site http://www.organicgardeningtx.com Natives & organics, they just go together.