Trees and Turf in the Landscape

Luqi Li Author

08/04/2020 Added

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Kim Todd - Trees and Turf in the Landscape

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[00:00:01.250](soft music)
[00:00:12.440]Hello, I'm Kim Todd, and we're going to talk about
[00:00:14.770]trees and turf or turf and trees, or let's talk turfy
[00:00:18.900]about trees and turf.
[00:00:20.620]And it's the long of it, and it's the short of it,
[00:00:23.780]whether it is 30, 50, 100 years
[00:00:26.510]and a hundred feet in the air, or it is mowing height
[00:00:30.590]three inches, both trees and turf have a fabulous place
[00:00:34.660]in the landscape.
[00:00:36.370]It's really great to see landscapes that are filled both
[00:00:39.340]with beautiful trees and with turf that is in good condition
[00:00:43.080]and serves either as the jewel or the setting for the jewel,
[00:00:46.730]depending on whether you're a turf guy or a tree guy.
[00:00:50.760]So let's take a little bit and talk about what exactly
[00:00:53.650]it takes to get those things to work together.
[00:00:56.673]We wanna start by talking about the roots and the shoots,
[00:00:59.700]because of course, trees grow up with those shoots
[00:01:03.590]if they have good roots, and what you have to start with is
[00:01:08.010]probably going to be an indication of what you're going to
[00:01:10.450]end up with for the rest of that tree's life.
[00:01:13.470]So take a look at the tree ball on the left,
[00:01:18.490]and that is actually what came out of this big pot,
[00:01:21.600]that little tiny ball.
[00:01:23.450]You look at the ball in burlap tree and the treated burlap
[00:01:26.420]on the right, that's also not a great situation.
[00:01:29.850]And then of course, what we really want is a beautiful
[00:01:32.210]root system because the root system is not only what anchors
[00:01:35.250]the tree into the ground, gives it its nutrients,
[00:01:38.840]but also is what causes a lot of that competition
[00:01:42.670]with the turf, and over time can really make your landscape
[00:01:45.950]change quite dramatically.
[00:01:48.180]So this is a really good example of the roots and the shoots
[00:01:52.100]on this big old silver maple, it's mulched,
[00:01:54.151]but you'll notice how those roots have worked their way well
[00:01:57.370]beyond the canopy of the tree.
[00:01:59.630]And they're on the surface, which is one of the things
[00:02:02.900]that happens with a lot of maples in particular.
[00:02:06.150]You can also see the damage that has occurred
[00:02:08.330]from the mowing, where the mower has run over these roots
[00:02:11.540]and really caused a lot of damage to it.
[00:02:14.710]So if we go on further and look at what happens over time,
[00:02:20.380]this big red oak has a huge ball at the base of it,
[00:02:24.210]so it is well anchored into the ground and that poor turf
[00:02:27.160]is absolutely struggling.
[00:02:29.080]This is a case where to protect that giant shoot,
[00:02:32.860]that huge, big old red oak,
[00:02:34.830]that's the kind of root system it needs
[00:02:36.680]and really the turf just doesn't stand a chance
[00:02:39.678]in this instance.
[00:02:41.890]One of the plants that has a tendency to throw suckers
[00:02:45.500]from the root system on a very regular basis
[00:02:48.480]is of course crabapples.
[00:02:50.550]And in this particular image you can see that
[00:02:53.330]an attempt has been made to manage or control or get rid of
[00:02:56.940]those side shoots or suckers and the chemical that was used
[00:03:02.480]also did a little bit of turf damage,
[00:03:04.500]there's no mulch around these trees.
[00:03:06.980]The trees themselves are really showing some suffering from
[00:03:10.640]trying to be managed in this way.
[00:03:12.440]And of course, somebody has to mow what passes for turf
[00:03:15.170]in between on those two,
[00:03:16.540]which is really not a great situation.
[00:03:19.430]So let's talk first off, if we're gonna use trees and turf
[00:03:22.520]together about intent.
[00:03:24.326]What do you intend to have that landscape do,
[00:03:26.940]what is its purpose, because that's going to tell you
[00:03:30.125]the form, the size and the placement, not only of the trees,
[00:03:33.820]but of the turf areas that are either a major part
[00:03:37.750]of that landscape or kind of the smaller pieces of it
[00:03:41.830]in different situations.
[00:03:44.210]So if we look at the image on the left,
[00:03:46.440]you can see beautiful tulips,
[00:03:48.250]a seasonal display around the base of the tree.
[00:03:51.190]And of course on the golf course,
[00:03:52.770]this is coming up the entrance drive.
[00:03:55.260]So you really don't wanna have to hit a ball into that
[00:03:58.210]particular spot in the landscape,
[00:04:01.410]but that also helps protect the tree a little bit.
[00:04:04.300]If you look at the upper right-hand corner, here we have
[00:04:07.230]a tree in an island and a couple of boulders
[00:04:09.840]and a couple of sorry junipers, and some turf,
[00:04:13.610]none of which have the actual room they need
[00:04:16.900]to be able to thrive and show their best advantage,
[00:04:20.350]especially if the tree begins to grow,
[00:04:22.819]fills in that space entirely,
[00:04:25.350]and then somebody has to figure out how to
[00:04:28.130]keep whatever turf is in there alive again.
[00:04:31.180]And in this bottom image, I, for the life of me,
[00:04:33.460]can't figure out why they would have wanted a turf
[00:04:35.610]to begin with in here other than a simple clean panel
[00:04:39.240]of a ground cover, in which case you use a ground cover.
[00:04:42.760]This is Japanese tree maple that was planted high
[00:04:45.520]in the ground, it was probably a construction soil.
[00:04:48.630]You can see the root system all over where, what was
[00:04:53.050]probably turf at one time when those trees were smaller,
[00:04:56.340]has simply given up the ghost and is no longer turf
[00:04:59.350]in any way way.
[00:05:00.794]So when we talk about intent,
[00:05:03.713]perhaps one of the reasons to blend turf and trees together
[00:05:07.590]is as a backdrop or a screen,
[00:05:10.000]even at a situation like ball fields or play areas,
[00:05:14.540]because who wants to sit at a soccer game, as an example,
[00:05:17.530]on the bleachers all day long without having at least
[00:05:20.660]a little bit of shade?
[00:05:22.110]But it's also an indication of making sure that the intent
[00:05:25.790]for the placement of those trees does not interfere
[00:05:30.900]with the quality of the turf that needs to be maintained
[00:05:34.000]in terms of sunlight, air movement, and all of those sorts
[00:05:38.190]of attributes that the turf really needs to thrive.
[00:05:41.940]If you look at this particular view of a golf course,
[00:05:44.750]it appears as though the trees in the distance on the berms
[00:05:47.990]behind the drainage area are a little bit of a privacy
[00:05:53.130]for the clubhouse, as well as providing vertical interest
[00:05:58.980]and seasonal interest for the game of golf itself,
[00:06:02.490]or for the turf in this instance.
[00:06:05.140]Oftentimes we use trees in parks,
[00:06:07.981]of course, and as street trees.
[00:06:11.230]Over time you can see the hackberries that lined the street
[00:06:14.530]have gotten larger and larger, which means
[00:06:16.810]the area available to the turf has gotten smaller.
[00:06:19.817]And of course, those roots extend well beyond
[00:06:22.900]that old sidewalk.
[00:06:24.090]So the turf is patchy, it's sort of a low input location
[00:06:29.150]to begin with, again, the enhancement of the street
[00:06:33.570]or the street experience with the trees is quite different
[00:06:36.510]than it would be if there were not any trees at all.
[00:06:38.730]So there's a pro and con always to what is going on with
[00:06:43.740]blending trees and turf in certain situations.
[00:06:46.992]If you look at this small sort of gardenesque...

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