The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Improve Your Home Landscaping

A healthy turf will not in itself combat insects, but they will not be able to do as much damage if the grass is strong. If you suspect insects, such as grubs, roll back a foot of sod. The presence of some insect infestations in your lawn may be disclosed by flocks of birds, such as sparrows, starlings and grackles; they drill holes in the ground with their bills to feed on the grubs, sod webworms and other pests.

Moles are seldom a bother in turf areas except when attracted to grubs or other soil insects in the area. This provides the key to getting rid of moles—getting rid of grubs. Actually, moles can be beneficial, they eat bugs, beetles, earthworms, spiders and grubs. But they do harm a lawn when they cause bumpy ridges, which then become runways for mice—and mice feed on bulbs and roots.

Trees

TREES can be broken down into three main parts: the roots, the leaves and the woody structure between them. The roots' function is to bring raw materials—water and mineral salt dissolved in water—to the tree. The leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use the sun's light energy to combine this gas with the moisture from the roots, thus making the simple sugars which are the basic nutrients of the tree. The trunk, limbs, branches and twigs hold the leaves in position to receive the life-giving sunlight and air; they also act as transportation, carrying raw materials between roots and leaves. The materials absorbed by the roots are pulled up by capillary attraction and the osmotic action induced by evaporation of water from the leaves. Loss of water through the leaves is called transpiration. On a summer day, a single birch tree may transpire 700 to 900 gallons of water. It is this enormous flow of water that causes a continuous flow of sap from the roots to the topmost twigs.

In planting or transplanting a tree, and in building on a lot where you wish to preserve the trees, the gardener's chief consideration must be to protect the root structure of the tree. The big roots near the stem anchor the tree to the ground, while the fine root hairs at the ends of the rootlets absorb the water from the soil.

The stem or trunk of a tree has three parts: the bark, the wood and the pith. The pith is the central part and around it is the wood. Between wood and bark is the cambium, a thin layer that produces new wood and bark. When the cambium ring is severed, as by a wire cable, the tree is killed, and since the cambium
protects against insects and disease, anything driven into it can wound the tree severely.