May 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Dean wraps up his spring-themed show by diving deep into all things trees with certified arborist Bob Loft, from tree trimming and fruit-thinning tips to the environmental and real estate benefits of mature trees. Dean also shares his philosophy on integrating our homes with the natural world, not fencing it out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks for
joining us on the program, and welcome home Dean Sharp
the House Whisper. Here with you as I am every
Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time. We have
(00:22):
had the first two hours of the show, so informative.
If you've missed any part of the show, let me
remind you that this very program, this broadcast, this live
broadcast right now is also what's known as The House
Whisper Podcast that you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand,
as often as you like, as many times as you like.
(00:45):
Hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It is truly
a home improvement reference library that we have built for you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All you have to understand is that about an hour
after we go off the air of the live broadcast, boom,
all of this is podcast. And so if you've missed
any part of the show. The first hour of the show,
we were talking about birds. The second part of the show,
the middle hour, we were talking about bees. Because this
is our springtime, bring more nature back into your yard.
(01:15):
And now one of my favorite topics of all trees.
You hear me as a home designer and as a
landscape designer, you hear me talking about trees. The fact
that I mean, I love I love all plants. I
love them all native plants, shrubs, flowers, the entire, the
entire spectrum. But I tell you what, if you really
(01:36):
want to change the environment of your yard, if you
want to change the temperature in your yard, if you
want to change the wildlife in your yard, then and
if you want to By the way, one of the
biggest rois all right, so you know some of you
are listening here, like, all right, Dean's on his little
nature boy environmental kick today. All right, let's just talk
(01:57):
about pure ROI the National Association of Realtors have studied
this again and again and again, and they have yet
to change their mind on this. You know, as an
estate designer, there are times when a client will literally say,
I just want a fully mature tree in the front
of this empty lot. When we're done here, Dean, I've
got no problem. I got sources for that. I can
(02:19):
bring in a tree that's got a seventy two inch box, yeah,
six foot box by six foot or an eight foot box,
will plant it tomorrow, and you'll have a fully mature
tree sitting in your front yard. Yeah, that's going to
run you twenty thirty thousand dollars, depending on the species
of tree and the size of the tree, and the
crane service that we have to hire to bring it in.
(02:41):
But I will tell you this, a fully mature tree
added to the front of a an existing property, according
to the National Association of Realtor, will raise the property value,
the property value of that house by anywhere from five
to ten percent. Now think about that. Let's say you're
(03:04):
sitting on a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars home
and we invest twenty thousand dollars and put a mature
tree in your front yard. It just cost you twenty
thousand dollars. I'm not saying everybody should do. I'm just
saying we're just doing math. Okay, twenty thousand dollars Today,
(03:25):
we plant a tree, a mature tree in your front yard.
Guess what your home is worth by the time we
are done planting that tree. That's seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars home, Okay, is now seventy five thousand dollars.
Greater value twenty thousand dollars tree seventy five thousand dollars
ROI on that. Okay, this is real. It's a real thing.
(03:48):
But I'm not I'm not here to talk to you
about the the ROI on your property. Okay, the money stuff,
we can talk about that later. What I am here
to talk about is what to do with trees springtime
versus what we do at other times of year, what
we should and shouldn't be doing. And to accomplish this feat,
I now have sitting across the table, my third guest
(04:09):
this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Phew, a lot of guests.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Bob Lothed, certified arborist and my favorite arborist and tree
trimmer and good friend, is sitting across the table from me.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Bob. Welcome, thank you, the show, Thank you. It's good
to be here.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And I've had Bob on before, but he comes every
every autumn and every spring for our for our autumn
and spring backyard show. So all right, we're up against
a break. I've set it all up for you. We're
gonna talk trees, and Bob is going to give us
his expertise and his experience. He's also had an experience
with a Beastwarm not too long ago. So we're gonna
(04:46):
dovetail in what Nicole was talking about and get Bob's
experience of that whole thing. All of it happens.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You have dropped in, I hope pleasantly surprised to a
great little show that we're putting on for you this morning.
And I say that not because of me, but because
of the guests that I've had sitting across the table
from me this morning, everybody from Richard Armording from wild
Birds Unlimited, to Nicole Palladino from Bee Catchers, and now
(05:21):
sitting across the table from me, certified Arborus Bob Loft,
who is my local tree expert. And so we've talked
about birds, We've talked about bees. Now I want to
talk about that other critical component of habitat, trees and
other shows we'll do other landscaping shows where we focus
(05:42):
more on native plants and flowers and all of that.
So just know that we cover the whole spectrum here
on the show. But Bob Trees, my friend trees. How's
that ash tree looking in my yard? By the way,
your ash trees looking absolutely great. Could use a little
work next year. Fin it out a little bit next
year in the fall, in the fall fall. Okay, So
speaking of that, speaking of that, speaking of in the fall,
(06:07):
you know, I mean California, Southern California. We're we you know,
we we live here because the weather here is just
i mean, compared to other places, it is not extreme. Now, yeah,
we have our we've got our sant Ana wins, and
we've got our our one hundred plus degree days and
and all of that, and we've got our fire season
(06:29):
and all of that stuff. But the fact of the
matter is California remains a very very temperate place to live,
which means that when it comes to like tree trimming
and that, I mean, there's never really an awful season
to trim, per se just just because you know. But
but still trees are trying to They're they're pushing through
(06:50):
their beginning of their growth cycle right now in the spring,
and it's you know, we talked about autumn. Autumn is
really the optimal time if you're going to do a age.
You're trimming of a tree as opposed to shocking something
that's trying to grow right now.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Fall is always the most fun time because you can
take a lot more off a tree and not feel
like you're you know, making it scream. And so you
just don't want these guys that are coming there and
turn a forty foot tree into a twenty foot tree.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, and the.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Customer goes, well, they said it'll grow back, So you
got to be a little more selective on your pruning
cuts and you know, obviously shaping the tree up for
the environment that they're in.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So that's fun. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
But as far as mature trees right now in the spring,
believe it or not, a lot of these trees are
already self fertilized. I mean, they don't need a lot
of fertilizing. You probably need a lot more fertilizing on
some of the garden trees more than anything. Maybe some
evergreen pears, fruit trees especially, This is a great time
(07:54):
to put the fur I like job tree steaks, So
I'm just a big joe job tree steak guy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So it's a good time to inject nutrition into brooding
trees that time right now, What do you mean by
a big mature tree is self fertilized?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What just seems like.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
The roots have reached that level of of what not.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't want to use water.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
It just seemed to grab what they need out of
the soil around here, and you don't really have to
do a lot of fertilization on big trees.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, that's how I was baiting you into that that answer,
because because because that's one of the things that I
promote with people about trees so often, right, is that
once a mature, once a tree gets mature, right, and
its roots are deep. I mean, you know, all of
human history, we make metaphors out of mature trees, right.
We talk about you know, being planted like a tree, uh,
(08:51):
being being you know stable like all but the but
the there's a reason for that because once trees are
like up and running on their own, they don't need
to get watered the like everything else in the yard.
They don't need to be you know, fertilized like everything
else in the yard, because they have found their sources.
(09:12):
They've found their place.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I will never understand how some trees get water, but
they sure do and they look great. And so if
to me, if a tree looks good like a lot
of things, if.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It ain't broke.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Don't fix it, amen, But if you start to see
some things, you might have to call in a professional
who might be able to inject some nutrients into the ground.
But you know, kind of rare, kind of rare, and
out here in thousand oaks, it just seems like the
perfect environment for all of our stuff, for all of life.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
That's why we're here, that's right, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So so and I always give this metaphor to people,
or this an analogy metaphor and some okay, whatever it is,
this word picture to people when you talked about fall,
doing a major prune on a tree in the fall,
so it doesn't scream as much. I just tell people, listen, okay,
trees they start getting sleepy in the fall. They go
(10:08):
in their dormant cycle, right, And so it's just like
somebody going in for major surgery. You know, it'd be
better if we cut them open and did all this
major surgery while they were asleep.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It'd be better to do it while they're asleep instead
of just handing them like that tree branch here, Bite
down on this, buddy, we're about to take your leg off. Sorry,
we don't have any anesthesia. So the point is this,
trees naturally go into this dormant cycle in the fall,
and it's just safer too for the life of the tree.
If you're going to do a major cutback, to do
(10:42):
it then as opposed in springtime when they're literally waking up.
That's the last thing I want is I'm waking up
in the morning, is for a doctor to say, all right, buddy,
hang on because I'm about to cut into you. So
but there are things that we can do during spring
and are what are the kinds of things that people
(11:03):
should be looking for for their tree, Like when you
were saying when you were saying, if you know, if
it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if tree looks fine,
what are the kinds of things that people could be
looking out for that and to realize, man, that's not
such a good sign.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, if you see sections of the tree that might
get a lot of die back and you're not sure
what's going on, it's a good time to call somebody out.
Could be just a broken limb, you know. But there's
there's not a lot of pruning that you can do
to make a tree healthier. You can maybe save some
of the tree, but pruning it now is not a
(11:41):
big deal. But in the falls a good time. They're
gotten heavy, the winds come up, they start breaking limbs.
Always something to think about. So you don't can lighten
these limbs up, tipping back somethin out the tree, get
the get the sale off of them. For me. Right now,
a lot of it is fruit trees. This is a
very interesting year. We haven't had a seventy degree day.
I don't think since Christmas. It seems that way.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Sure s, I mean, I think we've had a couple
of But it's your it's sure. But we've been talking
about this all morning. You weren't here, but we've been
talking about the fact that this is like a legitimate
like eastern spring, where there's there's a little bit of
warmth in the morning, and then it gets cloudy and
then it rains for two hours and then and then
it stays cloudy, and then then the temperature drops twenty degrees.
(12:26):
This is a this is a very slow roll of spring.
It is very slow rollout. I think right now, fruit
trees are probably a big thing. Fertilize your fruit trees,
your citrus, your stone fruits, the stone fruits.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Everything is slow. But if you look, you see new
blossoms coming up. But maybe a month ago they would
have been there. But because we're cold, everything's been set
back a little bit. But I have noticed a lot
of the stone fruit putting out a lot of nice fruit.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And you could go through there and fin out on fruits.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
So if you have, you know, three pieces of fruit
on one branch really close to each other, take one
or two of them off so the other the other fruit,
can you know, expand and become bigger fruit.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Okay, So I want to talk about that, so that
there logic to be looking for about thinning out, especially
with a fruit tree, in order to increase its productivity
or the size of the fruit or whatever. All Right,
we're gonna go to break. When we come back, you're
gonna explain that to me a little bit better so
I understand it better. I am sitting here with certified
arborius Bob Loft, who is my personal tree expert, and
(13:33):
now yours, and we will continue to talk about the
life of your trees in this interesting springtime.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I wish you guys could just be sitting in studio
with me as Bob and I are just talking about
all things and all sorts of stuff. I am sitting
here with my certified arbor Bob Loft, who is my
personal tree expert. We've talked today about birds, We've talked
about bees. Now we're talking about trees. Because I am
(14:11):
on a mission. I'm on a mission as a home designer, Okay,
as a landscape designer. I'm on a mission to bring
as much nature back into our yards, back onto our
properties as possible. And I said this earlier in the show,
but for those of you who have just joined us,
I'm going to say it again. Anything, any creature on
(14:34):
this planet that builds a home displaces something that was
there before. Right when a gopher burrows a hole up
in the middle of a meadow, roots are displaced, plants
are removed, things that were there before get moved out
of the way. It is not something for human beings,
(14:56):
in my opinion, to feel guilty about that. We build
a structure, a build a home where there was a
prairie once before, or where there was an open field
of wildflowers once before. That is not the issue. We're
all entitled to our homes. But but, but, but but
what we don't do as well these days as the
other creatures around us is integrate our homes back into
(15:20):
the natural order so that nature stays with us and
stays around us. You know, once we built a home,
then we pave a street. Once we pave a street,
then we plow under everything in our backyard. I've literally
had clients and folks come to me over the years,
and you can relate to this. I've literally had folks
who have spent multiple millions of dollars on a home
(15:43):
away from the center of town, right on the edge
of open space, right so their home as a view
and they're out right on the edge of open space, wildland,
and then come to me and say, how do I
keep all these creatures out of my yard? How do
I keep you know, how do we kill the coyotes?
How do I keep this from happening in that? And
(16:04):
I just look at them and I say, how dare you?
How dare you pay extra money to live on the
edge of nature and then complain about nature being right
outside your door. So my point is this, I don't
care where you live. I don't care how far in
the inland you live or in the middle of town
(16:27):
that you live. When it comes to your home and
your yard, trees are one of those keystone elements of
bringing the opportunity for nature because trees, as we said earlier, Bob,
they dig deep, they find their own sources of water.
Trees through a process it's called transpiration. Trees don't perspire,
(16:51):
they transpire. They they the moisture that they find in
the soil they release out into the air around them.
They cool the air around them, not just from shade,
but also from the release of moisture. They become a
source of shelter and cover for all sorts of animals.
They become the nesting place of birds. And so the
(17:12):
more trees that we bring into our homes and the
more beautiful architectural structures they are when they're prune properly.
Which is one of the things that I love about
what you do, Bob, because you have a way of
approaching as an arborist, approaching trees not to mutilate them,
but to enhance their structure, their beauty. And before the break,
(17:34):
we were talking about fruit trees right now, and you
were saying that if we thin out, and I want
you to explain that to if we find like, let's say,
you know, because I've got some citrus right there, let's
say I've got three fruits all growing right next to
each other. You're saying, I can thin that out so
to give a little bit more space so things get bigger.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Explain that.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
You know, it's kind of funny that you would have
to go and mention citrus because probably schitrs are one
of the stronger produce so you might get they don't
seem to grow in such a clump like our stone fruits.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Okay, So stone fruits is what you were talking about.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, and the citrus, you know, they'll push one off,
but the stone fruits they all grow together.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And then now somebody out there is sitting there going,
what the heck? What the heck? Is a stone fruit?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Okay, plumb peach, anything that has a pit in the middle,
it's a fruit. It's all soft on the outside, it's
got a pit in the set. That's that's the stone there.
Get the stone fruit, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
So you take if you have three of them really tight,
take two of them off, and it's a lot of
work but at the end of the day, instead of
having three of them grow and fall off together, you
can develop one nice big plum which you would just
love with, you know, plum something plump something, plum something,
you know, nice cold plum, all the same peach. I
(18:51):
guess the biggest problem that you have, or the complaint,
is how do I keep?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I don't have a good answer for this. How
do I keep?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
If you asked the question right, how do I keep
all the critters from eating my fruit? The squirrels beat
me to it. Well, you can get you can get
netting and put them over the fruit if you have
the wherewithal.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now the tree is big enough that the fruit's high
enough off the ground that the squirrel can't make the jump.
The squirrels are damn clever. Well, if they just climb
up that trunk. Yeah, but what if I put one
of those Okay, so let me get your opinion about this,
Because what if I put like a metal collar around
the trunk, in other words, that eighteen in section, so
(19:33):
that as they climb up they just can't get any
traction on that.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Yeah, most fruit trees, ninety fruit trees don't grow like
that because we want to keep them low so we
can reach the fruit exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
And so if you have one.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Branch that's hanging down below the sheet metal cover that
you have there, and he grabs that and off he goes.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Or the birds, all the birds will come in.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
You know. I've had people go, oh, man, I came
out and there's like seventeen birds in there, and look
what they did to my fruit.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I don't know how you stop that.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
You could use the nylon, but then they get stuck
in the nylon, and then people are going.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Like, oh no, so I don't know. Hang possibly.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I've had actually people tell me that if you can
hang the real loose aluminum foil.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
The little ribbons, the reflective ribbons, that seems to help. Yeah,
they don't. Most birds are annoyed by that. They're not
sure what that's all about. It's too much motion. They're
just skittish of motion.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
In general. There's not just is.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Not really in any good way to protect the fruit
unless you have a nice, big yard, and believe it
or not, everything's grown away from everything. Then it's just
sometimes the squirrels just don't go that extra ten feet
or fifteen feet to go up the tree. To go
to the other one. There's no good at least I
have no good idea. You know, there might be some
(20:55):
what would you call that?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, but I so appreciate you saying this, okay, because
you know, people come to the show for answers, right,
but sometimes the answers that I have to give people
are not the clean, tight, tidy answers that they expect.
What you're talking about is realistic, and that's something that
Tina and I have experienced here.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
All right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
We wanted to have a vegetable guard. We had a
vegetable garden for quite a few years, and simultaneously I've
got it. I'm growing you know, raised bed vegetables while
I am encouraging every bird I know to come into
my yard. Well guess what. Guess what happens? Right, They're like, well,
thank you very much, Teane, thank you very much. So
(21:39):
it is just a reality that you have to work
if you want nature in your yard, you're gonna work
with the messiness that is that process. And you know
the idea of like, okay, well all that's important to
me is growing fruit for myself. Then then you're probably
going to discourage birds from coming into your yard in general,
(22:02):
just because you don't want them there.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You're right, But if you're mixing it all up, then
you're mixing it up.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And and of course I know we're not really talking
about that, but raised beds with a nice little cover
over it. I've seen some awesome gardens, So you can
do some things to protect your garden beds. But trees,
there's really no he can't put a glass dome over it,
you know, And.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That would be an idea. And wait a second, let
me think about that.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
It's a new business opportunity. But but I just and
then you go to people's yards that are like yours
here and they got fruit everywhere, you know, every one
of their trees.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Give them more, they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Well, I just gave seven pounds of peaches to my neighbor,
and you're going, really, I got guys that take care
of their trees and they can't get a pound off
of them. So you know, it's all such a just
like the climate in the Canalo Valley. It can change
from ghost Biento's to Calabasas, just like that.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Radical chance.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, microclimates everywhere, they're a microcs, all right, all right,
we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back.
And we've got just a few minutes. So you had
mentioned something. I think we were talking about it during
the break that with this slow roll of spring that
we're experiencing this year, people get a little worried that
the tree isn't coming in, that it hasn't greened in yet.
(23:18):
And you've got some advice for them. Don't give it
to them now. We're gonna make everybody wait. Everybody, you
hang tight. I've got more with Bob Loth, certified arborist.
When we return your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
We're not done yet. We are not done yet. And
I apologize. We've had so much to talk about with
my guests this morning. I have not had a chance
to get to the phones. Everybody who is on the
phone lines right now. If you give us a call
next weekend, if you call, if you've got time to call,
you let our call screen or know you, let our
producer know. Hey, I was on the phone and I
(24:03):
didn't get to get on the air and we will
give you a fast pass to the front of the line,
right because we treat everybody right around here. We honor
and we love our callers, love, I love, love our college.
We just had so much to talk about today, so
you remember that. And my apologies for not getting two
calls today. I'm sitting here. We've just got a few
(24:24):
minutes left. Bob with Bob Loft, certified arborist. And two things. One,
let's talk about what I had said before the break,
which is spring is sort of slow rolling it this year,
and some people are concerned that, oh, my tree isn't
greening in the way I thought. And your message to
them is patients, patients.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Just so I go out there and I go, no,
look and I pull a branch down and they go, oh,
there's green everywhere, but it just hasn't popped enough. And
I just believe it's because we haven't been warm enough yet,
you know, but it will in another month.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Everything. We're like a month behind I think where we
normally are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So just patience, that's rights.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I just thinking that all my years of you know,
experience and work, I don't see trees just going and
die unless something happened to the roots, or they may
have gotten a fungus. But so, but in general, this
time of year, a lot you have to do, you know,
maybe trim.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It up so it's not hitting you in the face.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So your message in general, your whole demeanor as a
person is just hey, chill out. Just everybody relax, that's right,
take it easy.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Now. I'm not saying that I don't do a lot
of pruning for people, because you do, you do well.
People are people and they want stuff done. Now, I
won't wreck a tree, but I might fin a tree
out a little more than would be the best, but
that's what the customer would like, and we talk about
it and it's fine and it's going to be fine.
But rather to almost see you do less is better, okay, yes, yes,
(25:59):
all right.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
So on that note, here's the last thing that I
want to talk to you about today, because I got
to get this off my chest, because this is my
little soapbox, because this just drives me crazy. When you know,
we lived in a condo complex at the beginning of
our marriage, and beautiful magnolia trees all through the complex, right,
and then one year the HLA decides, Oh, we got it,
(26:21):
we got it, We're gonna be We got the notice.
Trees are getting trimmed. All right, fine, great, great, these
trees could use some some pruning back. They could use
some trimming back. Got home. Oh my gosh. I mean,
it's the kind of thing you see everywhere trimming, trimming
that's not a trim that is all they left where.
(26:41):
I mean, they literally took everything off except maybe six
inch diameter branches and larger. I'm like, and now, what
happens every year? It's the same thing. Right go through fall,
that tree just is sitting there with just these nubs,
and then spring hits and all I see coming out
of those nubs are sprites, big green sprites. Now eventually
(27:04):
by summer there is a fullness to the tree, which
I mean, thank god they can kill the tree, but
the fullness to that tree is just sprites. And those
aren't actual real natural branches. They're they're a different kind
of growth, and uh, and it's not attractive.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
The sad part of that is that's just the kind
of pruning you do to get work done. Associations unfortunately,
and some homeowners all they want to do is make
the tree smallers, they don't really care because the common
word is don't worry, it'll grow back.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
And they do. That's the technically they do.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
And and I don't think I've seen many trees die
because of that kind of work, but I do not.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know, well, I mean it's not attractive. First of all,
it's not. There's nothing attractive. You've destroyed that that that beautiful,
that that beautiful structure of the branches to begin with.
So I asked you during the break, and I want
you to tell everybody when it comes that just because
this is a useful guy, because you know, I said
that they cut everything back except these big six inch
I mean six inch diameter branches. Where the minimum for them.
(28:14):
When you're pruning and you get to prune the way
you want to prune, let's just assume the whole tree
is healthy. That you're not you're not actually because you know,
I mean, if there's a big old branch that's about
to collapse and that you want to so you cut
off something big. But assuming everything is healthy on most trees,
(28:34):
you know, what's like the maximum diameter branch that you
that you feel comfortable taking off.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I think you can get away with an inch inch
and a half. See, that is so much smaller than
what these are. Yeah, right, And the old tree ordans
will tell you can't trim anything larger than two right,
but you can do a lot of thinning by what
they call drop crotching.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
So you could see it. That doesn't sound right, that
doesn't sound.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Right you, But you could have a really heavy part
of a tree and you could take one six inch
slim out of that tree, right, and it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Okay, so that's what they would call drop crotching, not topping.
Topping would be you come home and they cut seventeen
six inch.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Slims exactly, and all that's left is there's these big
bony stubs.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Right, and then they turn into big old bushes in
the following year.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Shrubs, not trees. Yeah, kind of like lowre flight shrubs.
So again, when you're pruning a tree, as a general rule,
you are preferring not to take off anything more than
you say you could get away with an inch maybe
an inch and a half. Yeah, pretty much, all right,
I want everybody to hear that.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
The certified arbiast who loves sculpting trees, does not want
to take off unless it's an unhealthy branch or something
that's about to collapse or something that's diseased. Does not
want to take off. Anything bigger than an inch and
a half in diameter, that's just that big.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Just think that most trees don't need heavy pruning except
the homeowner gets nervous, and they don't have to be
depending on the type of tree. But if you don't
ask the right person, then your tree is a problem.
If you ask the right person, then that person can
lead you to pruning it properly.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So this is why, this is why from the get go,
it's one thing to call a landscaping service or tree
pruning service. But I always recommend to people if you
don't know, and if you have any questions or whatsoever,
then then you need to call somebody who is in
fact a certified arborist, a tree expert, not just some
(30:44):
guy with a chainsaw.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
But everybody who trims a tree is an arborist. I'm
just saying that. Well, he said he was an arborist.
I says, yeah, that's because he trimmed trees. But he
just got your magnolia tree in half. Why did he
do that?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Right?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
They don't have to do that to ninety percent of
the trees. I'm out, get the wind blowing and you're
gonna be okay. Placement placement, placement, placement. You got some
wonderful big sycamore trees around here, and they're placed per there.
Oh my gosh, y'all, thank you. I don't think you'll
ever have to do much with them unless you find
something a deadlamb or something that's.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, that was the goal. That was the goal.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
The goal was not, you know, to put them in
the right place they're not threatening in the house, to
put them in the right place so that they're not
pushing into each other. No, really nice placement, all right.
So here's the gy once again. This is a continual
theme here on the program, and that is when you're
looking to do something right, find the right person, find
somebody who is passionate, not about cutting things, passionate about
(31:44):
the thing itself right. And that's what I love about you, Bob.
You love trees, and so you're never going to make
a suggestion to me about well, you know what, I'm
a little shy of work this week, so i'd like
to I'd like to completely, you know, murder and mutilate that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I give you a deal.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And that's the thing. It actually does cost a little more.
It's more labor intensive to go through a tree and
to prune it properly, selectively, kindly than to just just
again press the nuclear button and say, okay, it's all gone. Bob,
thanks so much for being here again. It is always
a pleasure. We have so much fun, and I wish
(32:25):
the listeners could hear half of what we're talking about
during the break. Anyway, all right, y'all, here we are.
It's at the end of another three hours. I hope
you are this much closer to understanding the role of
birds in your yard, how to bring them in the
role of bees, How when you see a swarm crossover
your yard. I know we didn't get to ask Bob
(32:47):
Bob experience that swarm and nothing happened to him, that
you're witnessing a birth, and that you just let it
be because they're so important to what's happening and your trees.
Don't overdo it. Call somebody with passion and use all
of these things, the birds, the bees, the trees to
(33:07):
literally get out there and build yourself a beautiful life.
All right, We will see you all here next weekend.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
(33:27):
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks for
joining us on the program, and welcome home Dean Sharp
the House Whisper. Here with you as I am every
Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time. We have
(00:22):
had the first two hours of the show, so informative.
If you've missed any part of the show, let me
remind you that this very program, this broadcast, this live
broadcast right now is also what's known as The House
Whisper Podcast that you can listen to anytime, anywhere on demand,
as often as you like, as many times as you like.
(00:45):
Hundreds of episodes, all searchable by topic. It is truly
a home improvement reference library that we have built for you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
All you have to understand is that about an hour
after we go off the air of the live broadcast, boom,
all of this is podcast. And so if you've missed
any part of the show. The first hour of the show,
we were talking about birds. The second part of the show,
the middle hour, we were talking about bees. Because this
is our springtime, bring more nature back into your yard.
(01:15):
And now one of my favorite topics of all trees.
You hear me as a home designer and as a
landscape designer, you hear me talking about trees. The fact
that I mean, I love I love all plants. I
love them all native plants, shrubs, flowers, the entire, the
entire spectrum. But I tell you what, if you really
(01:36):
want to change the environment of your yard, if you
want to change the temperature in your yard, if you
want to change the wildlife in your yard, then and
if you want to By the way, one of the
biggest rois all right, so you know some of you
are listening here, like, all right, Dean's on his little
nature boy environmental kick today. All right, let's just talk
(01:57):
about pure ROI the National Association of Realtors have studied
this again and again and again, and they have yet
to change their mind on this. You know, as an
estate designer, there are times when a client will literally say,
I just want a fully mature tree in the front
of this empty lot. When we're done here, Dean, I've
got no problem. I got sources for that. I can
(02:19):
bring in a tree that's got a seventy two inch box, yeah,
six foot box by six foot or an eight foot box,
will plant it tomorrow, and you'll have a fully mature
tree sitting in your front yard. Yeah, that's going to
run you twenty thirty thousand dollars, depending on the species
of tree and the size of the tree, and the
crane service that we have to hire to bring it in.
(02:41):
But I will tell you this, a fully mature tree
added to the front of a an existing property, according
to the National Association of Realtor, will raise the property value,
the property value of that house by anywhere from five
to ten percent. Now think about that. Let's say you're
(03:04):
sitting on a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars home
and we invest twenty thousand dollars and put a mature
tree in your front yard. It just cost you twenty
thousand dollars. I'm not saying everybody should do. I'm just
saying we're just doing math. Okay, twenty thousand dollars Today,
(03:25):
we plant a tree, a mature tree in your front yard.
Guess what your home is worth by the time we
are done planting that tree. That's seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars home, Okay, is now seventy five thousand dollars.
Greater value twenty thousand dollars tree seventy five thousand dollars
ROI on that. Okay, this is real. It's a real thing.
(03:48):
But I'm not I'm not here to talk to you
about the the ROI on your property. Okay, the money stuff,
we can talk about that later. What I am here
to talk about is what to do with trees springtime
versus what we do at other times of year, what
we should and shouldn't be doing. And to accomplish this feat,
I now have sitting across the table, my third guest
(04:09):
this morning.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Phew, a lot of guests.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Bob Lothed, certified arborist and my favorite arborist and tree
trimmer and good friend, is sitting across the table from me.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Bob. Welcome, thank you, the show, Thank you. It's good
to be here.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And I've had Bob on before, but he comes every
every autumn and every spring for our for our autumn
and spring backyard show. So all right, we're up against
a break. I've set it all up for you. We're
gonna talk trees, and Bob is going to give us
his expertise and his experience. He's also had an experience
with a Beastwarm not too long ago. So we're gonna
(04:46):
dovetail in what Nicole was talking about and get Bob's
experience of that whole thing. All of it happens.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
You have dropped in, I hope pleasantly surprised to a
great little show that we're putting on for you this morning.
And I say that not because of me, but because
of the guests that I've had sitting across the table
from me this morning, everybody from Richard Armording from wild
Birds Unlimited, to Nicole Palladino from Bee Catchers, and now
(05:21):
sitting across the table from me, certified Arborus Bob Loft,
who is my local tree expert. And so we've talked
about birds, We've talked about bees. Now I want to
talk about that other critical component of habitat, trees and
other shows we'll do other landscaping shows where we focus
(05:42):
more on native plants and flowers and all of that.
So just know that we cover the whole spectrum here
on the show. But Bob Trees, my friend trees. How's
that ash tree looking in my yard? By the way,
your ash trees looking absolutely great. Could use a little
work next year. Fin it out a little bit next
year in the fall, in the fall fall. Okay, So
speaking of that, speaking of that, speaking of in the fall,
(06:07):
you know, I mean California, Southern California. We're we you know,
we we live here because the weather here is just
i mean, compared to other places, it is not extreme. Now, yeah,
we have our we've got our sant Ana wins, and
we've got our our one hundred plus degree days and
and all of that, and we've got our fire season
(06:29):
and all of that stuff. But the fact of the
matter is California remains a very very temperate place to live,
which means that when it comes to like tree trimming
and that, I mean, there's never really an awful season
to trim, per se just just because you know. But
but still trees are trying to They're they're pushing through
(06:50):
their beginning of their growth cycle right now in the spring,
and it's you know, we talked about autumn. Autumn is
really the optimal time if you're going to do a age.
You're trimming of a tree as opposed to shocking something
that's trying to grow right now.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Fall is always the most fun time because you can
take a lot more off a tree and not feel
like you're you know, making it scream. And so you
just don't want these guys that are coming there and
turn a forty foot tree into a twenty foot tree.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, and the.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Customer goes, well, they said it'll grow back, So you
got to be a little more selective on your pruning
cuts and you know, obviously shaping the tree up for
the environment that they're in.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So that's fun. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
But as far as mature trees right now in the spring,
believe it or not, a lot of these trees are
already self fertilized. I mean, they don't need a lot
of fertilizing. You probably need a lot more fertilizing on
some of the garden trees more than anything. Maybe some
evergreen pears, fruit trees especially, This is a great time
(07:54):
to put the fur I like job tree steaks, So
I'm just a big joe job tree steak guy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So it's a good time to inject nutrition into brooding
trees that time right now, What do you mean by
a big mature tree is self fertilized?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What just seems like.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
The roots have reached that level of of what not.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't want to use water.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
It just seemed to grab what they need out of
the soil around here, and you don't really have to
do a lot of fertilization on big trees.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, that's how I was baiting you into that that answer,
because because because that's one of the things that I
promote with people about trees so often, right, is that
once a mature, once a tree gets mature, right, and
its roots are deep. I mean, you know, all of
human history, we make metaphors out of mature trees, right.
We talk about you know, being planted like a tree, uh,
(08:51):
being being you know stable like all but the but
the there's a reason for that because once trees are
like up and running on their own, they don't need
to get watered the like everything else in the yard.
They don't need to be you know, fertilized like everything
else in the yard, because they have found their sources.
(09:12):
They've found their place.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I will never understand how some trees get water, but
they sure do and they look great. And so if
to me, if a tree looks good like a lot
of things, if.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
It ain't broke.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Don't fix it, amen, But if you start to see
some things, you might have to call in a professional
who might be able to inject some nutrients into the ground.
But you know, kind of rare, kind of rare, and
out here in thousand oaks, it just seems like the
perfect environment for all of our stuff, for all of life.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
That's why we're here, that's right, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So so and I always give this metaphor to people,
or this an analogy metaphor and some okay, whatever it is,
this word picture to people when you talked about fall,
doing a major prune on a tree in the fall,
so it doesn't scream as much. I just tell people, listen, okay,
trees they start getting sleepy in the fall. They go
(10:08):
in their dormant cycle, right, And so it's just like
somebody going in for major surgery. You know, it'd be
better if we cut them open and did all this
major surgery while they were asleep.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It'd be better to do it while they're asleep instead
of just handing them like that tree branch here, Bite
down on this, buddy, we're about to take your leg off. Sorry,
we don't have any anesthesia. So the point is this,
trees naturally go into this dormant cycle in the fall,
and it's just safer too for the life of the tree.
If you're going to do a major cutback, to do
(10:42):
it then as opposed in springtime when they're literally waking up.
That's the last thing I want is I'm waking up
in the morning, is for a doctor to say, all right, buddy,
hang on because I'm about to cut into you. So
but there are things that we can do during spring
and are what are the kinds of things that people
(11:03):
should be looking for for their tree, Like when you
were saying when you were saying, if you know, if
it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if tree looks fine,
what are the kinds of things that people could be
looking out for that and to realize, man, that's not
such a good sign.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, if you see sections of the tree that might
get a lot of die back and you're not sure
what's going on, it's a good time to call somebody out.
Could be just a broken limb, you know. But there's
there's not a lot of pruning that you can do
to make a tree healthier. You can maybe save some
of the tree, but pruning it now is not a
(11:41):
big deal. But in the falls a good time. They're
gotten heavy, the winds come up, they start breaking limbs.
Always something to think about. So you don't can lighten
these limbs up, tipping back somethin out the tree, get
the get the sale off of them. For me. Right now,
a lot of it is fruit trees. This is a
very interesting year. We haven't had a seventy degree day.
I don't think since Christmas. It seems that way.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Sure s, I mean, I think we've had a couple
of But it's your it's sure. But we've been talking
about this all morning. You weren't here, but we've been
talking about the fact that this is like a legitimate
like eastern spring, where there's there's a little bit of
warmth in the morning, and then it gets cloudy and
then it rains for two hours and then and then
it stays cloudy, and then then the temperature drops twenty degrees.
(12:26):
This is a this is a very slow roll of spring.
It is very slow rollout. I think right now, fruit
trees are probably a big thing. Fertilize your fruit trees,
your citrus, your stone fruits, the stone fruits.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Everything is slow. But if you look, you see new
blossoms coming up. But maybe a month ago they would
have been there. But because we're cold, everything's been set
back a little bit. But I have noticed a lot
of the stone fruit putting out a lot of nice fruit.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And you could go through there and fin out on fruits.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
So if you have, you know, three pieces of fruit
on one branch really close to each other, take one
or two of them off so the other the other fruit,
can you know, expand and become bigger fruit.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Okay, So I want to talk about that, so that
there logic to be looking for about thinning out, especially
with a fruit tree, in order to increase its productivity
or the size of the fruit or whatever. All Right,
we're gonna go to break. When we come back, you're
gonna explain that to me a little bit better so
I understand it better. I am sitting here with certified
arborius Bob Loft, who is my personal tree expert, and
(13:33):
now yours, and we will continue to talk about the
life of your trees in this interesting springtime.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I wish you guys could just be sitting in studio
with me as Bob and I are just talking about
all things and all sorts of stuff. I am sitting
here with my certified arbor Bob Loft, who is my
personal tree expert. We've talked today about birds, We've talked
about bees. Now we're talking about trees. Because I am
(14:11):
on a mission. I'm on a mission as a home designer, Okay,
as a landscape designer. I'm on a mission to bring
as much nature back into our yards, back onto our
properties as possible. And I said this earlier in the show,
but for those of you who have just joined us,
I'm going to say it again. Anything, any creature on
(14:34):
this planet that builds a home displaces something that was
there before. Right when a gopher burrows a hole up
in the middle of a meadow, roots are displaced, plants
are removed, things that were there before get moved out
of the way. It is not something for human beings,
(14:56):
in my opinion, to feel guilty about that. We build
a structure, a build a home where there was a
prairie once before, or where there was an open field
of wildflowers once before. That is not the issue. We're
all entitled to our homes. But but, but, but but
what we don't do as well these days as the
other creatures around us is integrate our homes back into
(15:20):
the natural order so that nature stays with us and
stays around us. You know, once we built a home,
then we pave a street. Once we pave a street,
then we plow under everything in our backyard. I've literally
had clients and folks come to me over the years,
and you can relate to this. I've literally had folks
who have spent multiple millions of dollars on a home
(15:43):
away from the center of town, right on the edge
of open space, right so their home as a view
and they're out right on the edge of open space, wildland,
and then come to me and say, how do I
keep all these creatures out of my yard? How do
I keep you know, how do we kill the coyotes?
How do I keep this from happening in that? And
(16:04):
I just look at them and I say, how dare you?
How dare you pay extra money to live on the
edge of nature and then complain about nature being right
outside your door. So my point is this, I don't
care where you live. I don't care how far in
the inland you live or in the middle of town
(16:27):
that you live. When it comes to your home and
your yard, trees are one of those keystone elements of
bringing the opportunity for nature because trees, as we said earlier, Bob,
they dig deep, they find their own sources of water.
Trees through a process it's called transpiration. Trees don't perspire,
(16:51):
they transpire. They they the moisture that they find in
the soil they release out into the air around them.
They cool the air around them, not just from shade,
but also from the release of moisture. They become a
source of shelter and cover for all sorts of animals.
They become the nesting place of birds. And so the
(17:12):
more trees that we bring into our homes and the
more beautiful architectural structures they are when they're prune properly.
Which is one of the things that I love about
what you do, Bob, because you have a way of
approaching as an arborist, approaching trees not to mutilate them,
but to enhance their structure, their beauty. And before the break,
(17:34):
we were talking about fruit trees right now, and you
were saying that if we thin out, and I want
you to explain that to if we find like, let's say,
you know, because I've got some citrus right there, let's
say I've got three fruits all growing right next to
each other. You're saying, I can thin that out so
to give a little bit more space so things get bigger.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Explain that.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
You know, it's kind of funny that you would have
to go and mention citrus because probably schitrs are one
of the stronger produce so you might get they don't
seem to grow in such a clump like our stone fruits.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Okay, So stone fruits is what you were talking about.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, and the citrus, you know, they'll push one off,
but the stone fruits they all grow together.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And then now somebody out there is sitting there going,
what the heck? What the heck? Is a stone fruit?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Okay, plumb peach, anything that has a pit in the middle,
it's a fruit. It's all soft on the outside, it's
got a pit in the set. That's that's the stone there.
Get the stone fruit, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
So you take if you have three of them really tight,
take two of them off, and it's a lot of
work but at the end of the day, instead of
having three of them grow and fall off together, you
can develop one nice big plum which you would just
love with, you know, plum something plump something, plum something,
you know, nice cold plum, all the same peach. I
(18:51):
guess the biggest problem that you have, or the complaint,
is how do I keep?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I don't have a good answer for this. How
do I keep?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
If you asked the question right, how do I keep
all the critters from eating my fruit? The squirrels beat
me to it. Well, you can get you can get
netting and put them over the fruit if you have
the wherewithal.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now the tree is big enough that the fruit's high
enough off the ground that the squirrel can't make the jump.
The squirrels are damn clever. Well, if they just climb
up that trunk. Yeah, but what if I put one
of those Okay, so let me get your opinion about this,
Because what if I put like a metal collar around
the trunk, in other words, that eighteen in section, so
(19:33):
that as they climb up they just can't get any
traction on that.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Yeah, most fruit trees, ninety fruit trees don't grow like
that because we want to keep them low so we
can reach the fruit exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
And so if you have one.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Branch that's hanging down below the sheet metal cover that
you have there, and he grabs that and off he goes.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Or the birds, all the birds will come in.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
You know. I've had people go, oh, man, I came
out and there's like seventeen birds in there, and look
what they did to my fruit.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I don't know how you stop that.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
You could use the nylon, but then they get stuck
in the nylon, and then people are going.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Like, oh no, so I don't know. Hang possibly.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I've had actually people tell me that if you can
hang the real loose aluminum foil.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
The little ribbons, the reflective ribbons, that seems to help. Yeah,
they don't. Most birds are annoyed by that. They're not
sure what that's all about. It's too much motion. They're
just skittish of motion.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
In general. There's not just is.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Not really in any good way to protect the fruit
unless you have a nice, big yard, and believe it
or not, everything's grown away from everything. Then it's just
sometimes the squirrels just don't go that extra ten feet
or fifteen feet to go up the tree. To go
to the other one. There's no good at least I
have no good idea. You know, there might be some
(20:55):
what would you call that?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, but I so appreciate you saying this, okay, because
you know, people come to the show for answers, right,
but sometimes the answers that I have to give people
are not the clean, tight, tidy answers that they expect.
What you're talking about is realistic, and that's something that
Tina and I have experienced here.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
All right.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
We wanted to have a vegetable guard. We had a
vegetable garden for quite a few years, and simultaneously I've
got it. I'm growing you know, raised bed vegetables while
I am encouraging every bird I know to come into
my yard. Well guess what. Guess what happens? Right, They're like, well,
thank you very much, Teane, thank you very much. So
(21:39):
it is just a reality that you have to work
if you want nature in your yard, you're gonna work
with the messiness that is that process. And you know
the idea of like, okay, well all that's important to
me is growing fruit for myself. Then then you're probably
going to discourage birds from coming into your yard in general,
(22:02):
just because you don't want them there.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You're right, But if you're mixing it all up, then
you're mixing it up.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
And and of course I know we're not really talking
about that, but raised beds with a nice little cover
over it. I've seen some awesome gardens, So you can
do some things to protect your garden beds. But trees,
there's really no he can't put a glass dome over it,
you know, And.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That would be an idea. And wait a second, let
me think about that.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
It's a new business opportunity. But but I just and
then you go to people's yards that are like yours
here and they got fruit everywhere, you know, every one
of their trees.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Give them more, they don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Well, I just gave seven pounds of peaches to my neighbor,
and you're going, really, I got guys that take care
of their trees and they can't get a pound off
of them. So you know, it's all such a just
like the climate in the Canalo Valley. It can change
from ghost Biento's to Calabasas, just like that.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Radical chance.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, microclimates everywhere, they're a microcs, all right, all right,
we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come back.
And we've got just a few minutes. So you had
mentioned something. I think we were talking about it during
the break that with this slow roll of spring that
we're experiencing this year, people get a little worried that
the tree isn't coming in, that it hasn't greened in yet.
(23:18):
And you've got some advice for them. Don't give it
to them now. We're gonna make everybody wait. Everybody, you
hang tight. I've got more with Bob Loth, certified arborist.
When we return your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
We're not done yet. We are not done yet. And
I apologize. We've had so much to talk about with
my guests this morning. I have not had a chance
to get to the phones. Everybody who is on the
phone lines right now. If you give us a call
next weekend, if you call, if you've got time to call,
you let our call screen or know you, let our
producer know. Hey, I was on the phone and I
(24:03):
didn't get to get on the air and we will
give you a fast pass to the front of the line,
right because we treat everybody right around here. We honor
and we love our callers, love, I love, love our college.
We just had so much to talk about today, so
you remember that. And my apologies for not getting two
calls today. I'm sitting here. We've just got a few
(24:24):
minutes left. Bob with Bob Loft, certified arborist. And two things. One,
let's talk about what I had said before the break,
which is spring is sort of slow rolling it this year,
and some people are concerned that, oh, my tree isn't
greening in the way I thought. And your message to
them is patients, patients.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Just so I go out there and I go, no,
look and I pull a branch down and they go, oh,
there's green everywhere, but it just hasn't popped enough. And
I just believe it's because we haven't been warm enough yet,
you know, but it will in another month.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Everything. We're like a month behind I think where we
normally are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So just patience, that's rights.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
I just thinking that all my years of you know,
experience and work, I don't see trees just going and
die unless something happened to the roots, or they may
have gotten a fungus. But so, but in general, this
time of year, a lot you have to do, you know,
maybe trim.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It up so it's not hitting you in the face.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So your message in general, your whole demeanor as a
person is just hey, chill out. Just everybody relax, that's right,
take it easy.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Now. I'm not saying that I don't do a lot
of pruning for people, because you do, you do well.
People are people and they want stuff done. Now, I
won't wreck a tree, but I might fin a tree
out a little more than would be the best, but
that's what the customer would like, and we talk about
it and it's fine and it's going to be fine.
But rather to almost see you do less is better, okay, yes, yes,
(25:59):
all right.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
So on that note, here's the last thing that I
want to talk to you about today, because I got
to get this off my chest, because this is my
little soapbox, because this just drives me crazy. When you know,
we lived in a condo complex at the beginning of
our marriage, and beautiful magnolia trees all through the complex, right,
and then one year the HLA decides, Oh, we got it,
(26:21):
we got it, We're gonna be We got the notice.
Trees are getting trimmed. All right, fine, great, great, these
trees could use some some pruning back. They could use
some trimming back. Got home. Oh my gosh. I mean,
it's the kind of thing you see everywhere trimming, trimming
that's not a trim that is all they left where.
(26:41):
I mean, they literally took everything off except maybe six
inch diameter branches and larger. I'm like, and now, what
happens every year? It's the same thing. Right go through fall,
that tree just is sitting there with just these nubs,
and then spring hits and all I see coming out
of those nubs are sprites, big green sprites. Now eventually
(27:04):
by summer there is a fullness to the tree, which
I mean, thank god they can kill the tree, but
the fullness to that tree is just sprites. And those
aren't actual real natural branches. They're they're a different kind
of growth, and uh, and it's not attractive.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
The sad part of that is that's just the kind
of pruning you do to get work done. Associations unfortunately,
and some homeowners all they want to do is make
the tree smallers, they don't really care because the common
word is don't worry, it'll grow back.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
And they do. That's the technically they do.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
And and I don't think I've seen many trees die
because of that kind of work, but I do not.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know, well, I mean it's not attractive. First of all,
it's not. There's nothing attractive. You've destroyed that that that beautiful,
that that beautiful structure of the branches to begin with.
So I asked you during the break, and I want
you to tell everybody when it comes that just because
this is a useful guy, because you know, I said
that they cut everything back except these big six inch
I mean six inch diameter branches. Where the minimum for them.
(28:14):
When you're pruning and you get to prune the way
you want to prune, let's just assume the whole tree
is healthy. That you're not you're not actually because you know,
I mean, if there's a big old branch that's about
to collapse and that you want to so you cut
off something big. But assuming everything is healthy on most trees,
(28:34):
you know, what's like the maximum diameter branch that you
that you feel comfortable taking off.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
I think you can get away with an inch inch
and a half. See, that is so much smaller than
what these are. Yeah, right, And the old tree ordans
will tell you can't trim anything larger than two right,
but you can do a lot of thinning by what
they call drop crotching.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
So you could see it. That doesn't sound right, that
doesn't sound.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Right you, But you could have a really heavy part
of a tree and you could take one six inch
slim out of that tree, right, and it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Okay, so that's what they would call drop crotching, not topping.
Topping would be you come home and they cut seventeen
six inch.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Slims exactly, and all that's left is there's these big
bony stubs.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Right, and then they turn into big old bushes in
the following year.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Shrubs, not trees. Yeah, kind of like lowre flight shrubs.
So again, when you're pruning a tree, as a general rule,
you are preferring not to take off anything more than
you say you could get away with an inch maybe
an inch and a half. Yeah, pretty much, all right,
I want everybody to hear that.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
The certified arbiast who loves sculpting trees, does not want
to take off unless it's an unhealthy branch or something
that's about to collapse or something that's diseased. Does not
want to take off. Anything bigger than an inch and
a half in diameter, that's just that big.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Just think that most trees don't need heavy pruning except
the homeowner gets nervous, and they don't have to be
depending on the type of tree. But if you don't
ask the right person, then your tree is a problem.
If you ask the right person, then that person can
lead you to pruning it properly.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So this is why, this is why from the get go,
it's one thing to call a landscaping service or tree
pruning service. But I always recommend to people if you
don't know, and if you have any questions or whatsoever,
then then you need to call somebody who is in
fact a certified arborist, a tree expert, not just some
(30:44):
guy with a chainsaw.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
But everybody who trims a tree is an arborist. I'm
just saying that. Well, he said he was an arborist.
I says, yeah, that's because he trimmed trees. But he
just got your magnolia tree in half. Why did he
do that?
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Right?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
They don't have to do that to ninety percent of
the trees. I'm out, get the wind blowing and you're
gonna be okay. Placement placement, placement, placement. You got some
wonderful big sycamore trees around here, and they're placed per there.
Oh my gosh, y'all, thank you. I don't think you'll
ever have to do much with them unless you find
something a deadlamb or something that's.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Well, that was the goal. That was the goal.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
The goal was not, you know, to put them in
the right place they're not threatening in the house, to
put them in the right place so that they're not
pushing into each other. No, really nice placement, all right.
So here's the gy once again. This is a continual
theme here on the program, and that is when you're
looking to do something right, find the right person, find
somebody who is passionate, not about cutting things, passionate about
(31:44):
the thing itself right. And that's what I love about you, Bob.
You love trees, and so you're never going to make
a suggestion to me about well, you know what, I'm
a little shy of work this week, so i'd like
to I'd like to completely, you know, murder and mutilate that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I give you a deal.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And that's the thing. It actually does cost a little more.
It's more labor intensive to go through a tree and
to prune it properly, selectively, kindly than to just just
again press the nuclear button and say, okay, it's all gone. Bob,
thanks so much for being here again. It is always
a pleasure. We have so much fun, and I wish
(32:25):
the listeners could hear half of what we're talking about
during the break. Anyway, all right, y'all, here we are.
It's at the end of another three hours. I hope
you are this much closer to understanding the role of
birds in your yard, how to bring them in the
role of bees, How when you see a swarm crossover
your yard. I know we didn't get to ask Bob
(32:47):
Bob experience that swarm and nothing happened to him, that
you're witnessing a birth, and that you just let it
be because they're so important to what's happening and your trees.
Don't overdo it. Call somebody with passion and use all
of these things, the birds, the bees, the trees to
(33:07):
literally get out there and build yourself a beautiful life.
All right, We will see you all here next weekend.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and
(33:27):
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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