Treeology | Blog
DONOVAN ARBORISTS
Our goal is to provide a valuable resource for people who are interested in learning more about trees. We want to help people understand the importance of trees and how they can play a role in protecting our environment.
Tree Care Services
Our ISA Certified Arborists ensure that you get the highest quality tree care.
Free Estimates
We offer free estimates for tree planting, trimming, removal, cabling and bracing.
Plant Health Care Services
We believe in being proactive in preventing insect infestations and disease outbreaks.
WATER THAT CHRISTMAS TREE
While Donovan Arborist Paul Donovan has dedicated his life to the care and wellbeing of living trees, there’s one time of year that customers seek advice about trees that are no longer living: real Christmas trees.
There’s Still Time to Plant…and Prices are Great!
Fall is the best time to plant most deciduous (leafy) trees. It gives them a head start on spring growth while they concentrate on building a healthy root system over the winter.
As long as the soil is workable, trees can be planted, and in most lower-altitude Colorado locations that means planting time extends well into late fall and even early winter before subsoil freezing becomes an issue.
Make Your Yard Wildlife Friendly for Winter
Invite wildlife to your yard and neighborhood for the winter and keep them coming back year-round. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it helps keep important species thriving. With a few simple steps, you can beautify your landscape while enjoying sharing it with...
Put Your Fall Leaves to Good Use
Time was the smell of leaves burning was a sure sign of fall. While it was bad for the environment—and the occasional house or garage—the smoky aroma ranked right up with pumpkin pie and warm cider as a favorite seasonal scent until the practice was largely banned.
Today that aroma has been replaced by the ear-splitting sound of leaf blowers gathering leaves in a pile to be bagged and left out with the trash. And while that may be marginally better for the environment, there are far more productive ways to put your fall leaves to a use than slowly decomposing in a landfill.
The Science of Fall Color
If you’ve ever wondered why some leaves turn red while others turn orange, yellow, or brown—or stay green all year long—the answer hides just below the surface. The leaves, you see, aren’t naturally green at all.
Winter Watering Keeps Trees Healthy and Happy
Trees are living organisms that need nutrition all year round. Even in the dead of winter your trees and shrubs are busy underground, growing and storing food and energy for springtime emergence.
A 2018 Guide for Cutting Your Own Christmas Tree in Colorado
Did you know that by cutting your own Christmas tree (or Hanukah bush or Festivus pole) you‘re actually helping with forest management? Thinning forests lets sunlight reach deeper into the canopy, encouraging new, more diverse growth and reducing competition for nutrients.
Trees of Colorado: The Austrian Pine
While its name may evoke visions of the von Trapps singing their way through the Alps, the Austrian pine is most widespread in the higher regions of the Adriatic coast and Turkey. As for Austria, it’s found in the westernmost Alps near the Swiss and Italian borders. A western subspecies also grows in the mountain regions of Spain and Morocco.
Also known as the black pine, it was widely imported to England and North America. An extremely rugged tree, Austrian pines were widely planted as windbreaks in the Dust Bowl areas of the 1930s where they continue to be popular as landscape trees as well. It has naturalized in southern parts of the US Midwest.
Roses Are Right for Many Reasons
Maybe your landscape design already has Grandma’s roses. Or, maybe you’re ramping up to re-landscape. Either way, Old Garden Roses are a remarkably hardy plant in Colorado’s climate. And they provide security too. If you’ve ever tried to trim your rose bush, you know exactly what I mean.
A Tree Grows in Littleton
Almost 55 years ago, there was a house on South Broadway with a tree growing through it. Well, it was growing through the center of the attached carport roof which seemed an odd place to have a tree. It was a curious sight from the perspective of the back seat of the family car. Not much in suburban Littleton was curious, but instead homogenous.