Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Planting a Potted Tree

The video below shows the process of planting a potted tree onto your property. Many times this is required to allow the tree to continue growth, but it also provides better sunlight and watering for the tree. Trees are potted for various reasons, such as allowing the planter to move their tree wherever they'd like, or selling it to potential customers. But unless those are the reasons behind you keeping your plant contained, it's best to plant the tree on your property to help it reach it's full growth potential.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Hatching and Raising a Robin


This video shows the process of hatching and raising your very own Robin! As someone that loves birds, this video was definitely very informational. I mean common, who doesn't want to raise a little bird as a pet?

Of course, it's not recommended to keep the bird after it's grown, but if you're lucky, it will come back to visit from time to time like this one did.

We have an article about birds on our website called All About Birds, where we talk a little bit about the habits of birds and what makes a bird a bird.

Friday, June 20, 2014

TreeSpeak101.com Video


First uploaded video on our YouTube channel! 


Don't forget to check out our website! TreeSpeak101.com

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree

The fiddle leaf fig tree is a plant that is not only gorgeous but one that costs a pretty penny. Many grown fiddle leaf fig trees that are around six feet tall fetch for $250 and above! If you are looking to add a fiddle leaf fig tree into your house plantation then you need to learn one or two things concerning the plant.
Look for the low season to purchase the tree at a bargain. When you take the fiddle leaf fig tree home with you, give it a lot of sunlight but do not expose it to direct sunlight. Keep rotating the plant once every week to help it grow up right and not lean towards where the light shine on most.
Fiddle leaf fig tree needs adequate amounts of water and hence you should feed it with enough water (A cup for every two feet once every two days).

Location, Location and Location

Before you put it in your home, try and find a perfect location to stuff the tree. A location that will encourage the growth of the tree and ample space that you can rotate the plant. As you shall come to realize, fiddle leaf fig tree leaves grow if only the tree absorbs as much light as it is supposed to and it’s tantamount that you find the perfect spot that has the perfect lighting.

Watering

If you have time you can do a DIY irrigation system. Get a big plastic soda bottle, drill a hole on the top of the bottle cap and slice a sizeable hole at the bottom of the bottle. Insert the bottle in the soil near your plants base in an inverted way and pour a cup or two of water every morning.
This is called drip irrigation and every drop that will drip will be consumed by the plant making it grow big the way it is supposed to without going thirsty or being deprived of any necessary nutrients. Go to your locale agro-shop or seedling shop and ask them to provide you with necessary nutrients that you can mix with the soil around the plant to make sure that it gets the right amount of food and water.

Taking Care of The tree

First and foremost, please note that taking care of your fiddle leaf fig tree will have you learning the different tips to use during winter months and summer months. During winter, when the ground is all wet and damp and the clouds are grew, make sure you shift you plant to a spot where the warmth of the dark sky reaches the room to left the plant feel warmth and avoid a scenario where it shrivels.
During summer months, always dust your plant. If you allow dust to accumulate on your plant then disaster is bound to happen. For instance; too much dust also means that your plants will be choked to death as it will not be able to breathe.
To clean the dust, use Luke-warm water and damp a cloth. Never use cold water. Fortunately, you can take your plant in the shower, put on the hot shower and use warm water (Not hot) to clean your leaves clean.
The cleaner the leaves the higher the chances of survival for your plant.

Trimming

Every tree just like any other type of tree, flower plant or crops we grow needs trimming. The best time to trim your plant is during summer and never winter. Summer time is great as the sunlight will continue shinning and giving your plant the warmth it needs to continue growing.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Feeling Peachy

Ever heard someone use the expression "I'm feeling peachy today"? It's quite a common expression, so even if you don't remember it, you've probably heard it once or twice. But where did it come from? Certainly you wouldn't think everyone just randomly started saying it, right?

There's actually various reasons this  expression is used, but it is thought to have originated from the fact that peaches actually help fight anxiety, and are even proven to relieve stress! If you didn't want a peach before, I'm sure you're more inclined to have one now.

Benefits Of Peaches

As great as it is that peaches are a natural repellent of anxiety and stress, peaches actually have many other benefits to the body. Let's take a look at four of the most interesting (even though there's much more than four).

Stress Relief

We already discussed this benefit a but, but just a a recap - Peaches are a great way to help you calm your nerves when you're feeling stressed, and are even called the "fruit of calmness" in Hungary.

Healthy Skin

Peaches contain phytonutrients which are great for the body, providing you with healthy and younger-looking skin. Some skin care products even use peaches as a primary ingredient, such as Skin Food. Having healthier skin will make you look better, and looking better makes you feel better about yourself, and can raise your self esteem, which goes along with the anti-stress benefits of peaches as well.

Weight Loss

You probably read the heading of this section and thought "what?? How is FOOD going to help me lose weight?". Well if you've ever had a peach, you may have noticed it was quite a filling snack, and you likely didn't eat too much more (unless you have a bottomless stomach, like some people I know). Peaches are a whopping 50 calories per peach, and that's a fairly high estimation, so eating peaches won't be packing pounds of weight onto your body, and they're delightfully tasty!

Aids Digestion

Research has shown that peaches are beneficial to those who are experiencing constipation or bloating. The peach contains a sufficient combination of phytonutrients, sugars, and juices in which are used to help fight constipation. So instead of paying an unnecessary amount of money on laxatives or stool softeners, try eating a couple peaches a day to see if it helps.

So if you haven't already done so, I'd suggest picking up a couple peaches from your local grocery store. Not only will you help yourself start eating healthier, but you'll likely feel better about life in general. You might even, dare I say it, start to feel "peachy".

Monday, March 17, 2014

Shade Trees

Silver Weeping Birch Tree
Trees provide us with delicious fruits and vegetables to satisfy our daily hunger, and give us the wood we use to create thousands upon thousands of products every day. But aside from the obvious, many trees provide us with something we use on a daily basis (without needing to chop them to pieces). During hot and sunny days trees provide us with valuable shade, which protects us from the blistering heat of the sun, and they do so freely. Everyone loves to sit in tree shade on hot days because they enjoy the soothing feeling it gives them. Not every tree is best for protection from the sun, but those which are can be categorized as shade trees.

Trees which are grown for the sole purpose of providing shade are referred to as shade trees, and are often easily recognizable. These trees are generally large with spreading canopies and can be very effective in reducing the energy required to keep your homes cool in the spring and summer. Oaks, maples, linen, ashes and elm are some of the most popular shade trees, but there are many other varieties that can be altered in their growth to become a shade tree.

If you would like a fast growing shade tree for your home for any reason, then river birches, Leyland cypress trees, tulip trees, and crepe myrtle trees are worth considering, and Sawtooth oak is often considered to be the fastest growing shade tree.  However, the faster these trees grow, the weaker the wood of the tree will become. Also, these trees are more susceptible to attacks by insects or diseases and storm damage, so these trees may not be in your best interest if you can afford to wait for a tree which takes longer to grow.

These trees can also enhance privacy of your garden by blocking the view from passerby's, which is a plus for those of you who aren't too fond of people spying on you and your garden. Also, be aware that planting these trees (or any tree for that matter) near chimneys is not a good idea, as branches of trees can be ignited by flying spark from chimneys.

There are numerous benefits of planting shade trees in your garden or yard. It adds beauty to your home and increases the value of your property. It has the ability to drop summer temperatures by 10 degrees under their canopies. Reflection of heat from paved areas is reduced considerably by these shade rendering trees. Depending on which shade tree you choose, your shade tree may also provide leaves for the compost bin and prevent soil erosion. The major advantage of shade trees is how it tends to reduce electricity usage and energy costs by up to 25 percent. The best shade tree is one which provides all the benefits listed above, and fits best with your home.

While planting shade trees you need to keep three major things in mind for the best results. Firstly, ensure that the one you choose is suitable for your area (You don't want a tree that looks ridiculous on your property). Selecting the right tree according to your region not only provides you the satisfaction of having a proper looking tree in your yard but also reduces maintenance concerns and costs. Secondly, plant them carefully and correctly. If planted in suitable soil and in the right climate, your tree will grow very quickly. Go through a planting demonstration before doing it yourself. Lastly, make sure to get a healthy and strong shade tree, take very good care of it when it is young until it gets established. Water, stake, fertilize and prune your shade trees properly, and you'll be certain to have a healthy and long-lasting tree for years to come.   

For more interesting information on trees, check out TreeSpeak101.com



    

Friday, February 7, 2014

A Little Bit About Leaves

Leaves are EVERYWHERE!... oh wait, never mind, it's winter and they're all gone. Why are they there one moment, and gone the next?

Let's talk about autumn for a minute, shall we? Autumn is the season where all of the
trees shed the leaves they grew over spring and summer. These leaves fall to the ground throughout all of Autumn, leaving all of their beautiful colors strewn about within a very large radius of themselves, which is why this season is also known to many as "Fall". But wait a minute, why do they shed their leaves? Don't they need them for breathing or something? Well yes, they do. But once winter hits, if those leaves are still there, it could seriously damage, or even kill the tree. Trees shed their leaves as a tactic of survival through the winter. 

How does shedding an essential part of the tree keep it alive? That doesn't seem to make any sense at all. Well you see, each and every one of those leaves contains water and energy given to it by the tree at some point and time. Once the temperatures start to drop and winter draws closer, the tree absorbs all of the energy from those leaves to sustain itself throughout the winter. You could almost consider the color of the leaves as an indication of the energy left in that leaf. If the leaf is green, there is energy that can still be taken by the tree. If it's orange or yellow, the tree has already begun to drain the energy from the leaf. Once the leaf has fallen off by natural means, it has little to no energy left to provide for the tree.

But a leaf "leaves" its tree for more than one reason. When the leaves have fallen off, it's easier for the wind to carry pollen from the tree to other nearby trees to pollinate. And leaves are actually considered a great fertilizer once they've decomposed into the earth.
 
There are some trees that don't lose their leaves during winter, such as the maple or the cypress tree, which are known as evergreens. Other trees that don't shed their leaves during winter tend to be in tropical climates where the temperature never drops low enough to harm a tree with the leaves still intact. An example of this type of tree could be the palm tree, which generally has no need to shed its leaves due to the warm climate it tends to live it.

Obviously there are leaves on plants other than trees, but do these plants generally go through the same process as trees?  Technically speaking, yes. Take a look at the mint leaves in this image. There isn't a tree that supports the mint
leaves and sheds them when winter is near, so how does the plant protect itself? During the winter, the mint plant, like many other plants, stops any of its procedures which require water and removes water from their cells to keep  those cells from bursting when the water freezes. It keeps itself in a stasis, much like trees do, throughout all of winter. Once the temperatures start to rise again, the plant will start up all of the processes that require water, and carry on the same cycle it had before winter had started.


So there's a few fun facts about leaves, and what they do for their respective plants. If you'd like to learn a few more fun facts about trees or plants, visit treespeak101.com. To read an interesting article on what you probably didn't  know about apple seeds, head on over to HubPages

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Palm Trees


The first thought that likely comes to mind when we think of palm trees is vacation (Which is something I could definitely use right now), and for good reason. Most Palm trees are only located in tropical and warm climates such as Hawaii or the Bahamas ; the dream vacation spots of thousands upon thousands of individuals. Thus, the palm tree is associated with vacationing and relaxation. But aside from the obvious, here's a few interesting facts about palm trees that you likely didn't know.

Palm tree roots are very unique in comparison to your average tree. The roots are much thinner than that of an oak tree, but there's a ridiculous amount of these tiny roots stepping below the palm tree.
If you were to try and dig a hole next to a palm tree, it's unlikely you would succeed since the roots are packed so tightly together. Essentially, the roots, although they are much thinner than the average root system, are impenetrable. Have you ever seen an uprooted palm tree? No? That's alright, not too many people have. The root system of the palm tree allows the tree to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes,  and floods without toppling over. This is also why the palm tree is one of the most popular types of trees in tropical areas, since it can withstand the many tropical storms thrown their way. If a tropical storm somehow hit a forest of pine trees,  there wouldn't be many surviving trees (if any).

Now that we've gotten that rooted into our minds (pun intended), lets discuss the remarkable age of some types of palm trees. The most remarkable palm tree in regards to life span is the Canary Island Palm, which can live up to 120 years old! It's really not too hard to believe once you take into consideration the rooting structure of the palm tree discussed earlier. The roots of a tree are essential to the life of the tree, so if the tree has good roots, it will probably have a healthy life, such as a lifespan of 120 years. On the other end of the spectrum, however, there are certain types of palm trees than can have a very short lifespan, such as the Bamboo Palm which only lives about 4 years. The Bamboo palm is different than most other types of palm trees though, and doesn't nearly have the same type of root system as the types I was referring to when discussing the crazy root system of palm trees. But whether it's long or short, it's remarkable how large of a gap there is between the lifespan of these different types of palm trees.

There are probably a few more things that could be discussed on palm trees, but for now we'll leave it at those two incredible facts. For more interesting information on trees and such, you can visit treespeak101.com. For a direct link to an interesting article about what you probably don't know about apple seeds, check out http://lmoyer92.hubpages.com/hub/The-Apple-Seed. Thanks for reading!