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Please prune the shrubs, deer
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Deer are ready to start pruning our trees and shrubs. Although unconcerned with promoting plant health or aesthetics, in at least one situation, deer can actually help us prune well. Picture an overgrown shrub, especially one planted too close to a home. With age and a little neglect, said shrub begins to swallow up the home or at least block the view from a window. There are many approaches to dealing with an overgrown shrub. You could, over the course of a few years, renovate the plant by cutting some of the oldest stems to the ground to make way for younger, shorter ones each year. Or you could take the dramatic approach: Lop the whole plant to the ground and start anew with all young shoots, which will enthusiastically sprout forth from the established roots. Also worth considering is just grubbing out the shrub and replacing it with something else or even nothing. Deer aren't much help with any of these approaches. But they can help out with another that capitalizes on the venerability of such a plant: You and your hoofed friends can transform a selected portion of the plant into a picturesque, small tree. An ideal candidate for this operation is yew, a fast-growing evergreen frequently snuggled against home foundations. The first step in transforming an old yew — or any other old shrub — is to select two or three of the oldest stems to become the trunks of your tree-to-be. These stems should have pleasant forms and extend from ground level to as high as the future crown of branches. Once selections are made, cut away all other stems growing from the base of the plant. The next step — cutting away any branches growing off those new trunks between the ground and a few feet above the ground — is where deer help out. They'll enjoy munching on all those smaller branches. You and your deer helpers will want to remove branches high enough along the trunk so the plant looks like a tree, or, in the case of the deer, as high as they can reach. The final step in pruning will be to shorten and remove enough branches in the crown of your new tree to give it good shape. Do this step yourself. Yew is a particularly good candidate for this treatment because its reddish brown, peeling trunk is well worth exposing and highlighting, and age deepens its beauty. Yew also bounces back enthusiastically from virtually any type of pruning, so you can do the job fearlessly. In subsequent years, new sprouts will arise from ground level and off the trunks; after all, the plant was once, and really aspires to be, a bush. Deer will be eager to nip off all those young sprouts, but check on their work to cut away any they miss. 
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East moline, IL Details |
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Hummingbird Cake
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Today is Wednesday, June 19, the 170th day of 2013. There are 195 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: The treasurer of Mercer County has been instructed to sell all thespecie now in the treasury for the highest premium in legal tender and to report same atthe next board meeting.
1888 -- 125 years ago: J.S. Freeman has been elected president of the Recreation Club ofthe Rock Island YMCA.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Rock Island voters will decide next Tuesday on the proposal toconsolidate with South Rock Island Township.
1938 -- 75 years ago: The Rev. Frederick J. Rolf will round out his 30th year as pastor ofthe Evangelical Church of Peace at Sunday worship services.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Dennis Kelly, of Moline High School, has been named a winner inTime Magazine's 27th annual current affairs contest.
1988 -- 25 years ago: The Martin Luther King Community Center will participate in theSummer Food Service Program. Free meals will be made available to all children 18years of age and younger.
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