Trees Owners' Workshop Manual

Book excerpt: Trees is a comprehensive manual showing how to select, plant and maintain trees, and focuses on finding the right tree for the right place. It explains some of the many benefits of trees that are applicable to homeowners. For example – as well as being attractive garden features, trees planted in the right position can reduce your heating bill, lower noise levels and filter air pollution. There are many other practicalities and issues associated with trees, such as subsidence, proper care and maintenance, legal issues and choosing a reputable tree-care professional. However, there are a lot of urban myths and misconceptions around trees too. This manual shows readers how trees ‘work’, including the huge advances in our understanding of trees over the last 20 years, what they need to survive and thrive in our urban environments and how to use trees (as a biotechnology) to improve our immediate and wider environment. The manual includes sections on: - Selecting and buying a tree - Tree benefits to the home, health and environment - Preparation and planting - Care, maintenance and pruning - Pests and diseases - Tree species profiles - Troubleshooting Which species of tree is best for your home and garden? How should you look after it to get the most out of it? How and where do you get impartial advice? What will a changing climate mean for your tree? These are just some of the questions we will be answering in this book. The manual guides the reader through selecting the right tree for the right place, planting, and how to establish, care for, prune and maintain your tree. For professionals engaged in managing and maintaining trees there already exists a vast array of technical books and manuals. However, there is nothing practical written for the homeowner, despite around 60–70% of all trees in towns and cities being in private ownership. Your tree may be important to you, but it is also part of a greater whole, what some call the ‘urban forest’: the collection of trees, shrubs, grass and plants in and around human settlements. Whether your tree is already established or yet to be planted, it could be providing pleasure (or pain) to many different people for generations. Kenton Rogers has worked with trees for over 25 years, including positions with the Duke of Wellington’s estate as assistant forester and as a Trustee for the International Tree Foundation. In 2011 he co-founded Treeconomics, a social enterprise with a mission to highlight the benefits of trees. He is a Chartered Forester and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Tony Kirkham started at Kew as a student where he gained the Kew diploma at honours. In 1981 he was appointed manager of the North Arboretum, from where he progressed to become Head of the Arboretum and Horticultural Services. Tony is best known for his appearances in the BBC series ‘A Year at Kew’ and ‘The Trees That Made Britain’.