Hi, Last year the tree looked fine. You are right, it is usually the last tree to leaf out every spring / summer. But this year, there are branches with no leaves. The tree is in our lawn on the side of our house, and we have not fertilized much at all in the last 5 years. Someone recommended "Tree & shrub food = 19-8-10" to try out on the tree. So maybe if i just water and fertilize the "dead" branches will produce again? thanks, dennis

I planted a swamp white oak 18 months ago. Was just under 5' tall container, mail order from Forest Farm. I had read that swamp whites are slow growers, but mine has been very vigorous. I think buying small is a good strategy because the 10' B&B's at the garden centers will stare at your for a couple years before taking off and require a lot more watering. This guy will catch up with the bigger ones. I just watered mine weekly during the first summer, but did not water at all the second year. Generously mulched w/ leaf compost. Grew like crazy. I had to re-establish the central leader due to heavy deer browsing. After protecting, it easily put on 2-3 feet in height and a ton of density in the second summer. The trunk really bulked up quickly too. Looks like a winner. Fall color is better than expected, kind of a pale orange. In an area like NE Ohio, which is often pretty wet but also goes through some dry spells, swamp whites seem to thrive. Unlike a lot of oaks, they can supposedly handle wet or dry. Northern reds seem to prefer somewhat drier sites. Of course, Northern Reds are still very good trees. If you are dealing with wetness and/or clay soils, an alternative is the Nuttalli. They have the best form of the reds from what I have seen around here and are starting to gain traction. Guy Sternberg developed a nice cultivar (New Madrid) that you can buy mail-order. Just got one of those too.

"The Cooperative Extension System is a nationwide, non-credit educational network. Each U.S. state and territory has a state office at its land-grant university and a network of local or regional offices. These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes." - USDA Basically, your tax money goes to pay experts in your area to help diagnose agricultural/horticultural problems, provide information and education, identify and report certain problems, etc. Sometimes, they can be very helpful. Their expertise and resources may vary from location to location. They should be familiar with conditions and issues related to your local area and be able to assist you in possibly diagnosing your tree's problems. Here's a link to help locate your local extension service office. Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Cooperative Extension System Locator

Hard to know where to start. For mature grass in your area you should be watering more like 3 hours once every 2 weeks. For new grass seed you should water 5 minutes, 3x per day, for 2-3 weeks until you get 80% germination. Now that you're into September and sitting with this lawn, I think I would go with seed again. June and July was the absolute two worst months of the year for new grass seed. NOW IS THE TIME for new grass seed in the north. Don't wait for spring. Rake up the dead looking grass. It might be alive, but rake through it anyway to get it off the soil. Seed, walk on the seed to press it into the soil, and start watering as above for new seed. All you have to do is moisten the surface of the soil, not saturate it into a muddy mess. If you use Kentucky bluegrass seed, you'll need to keep up that watering for 3 weeks. Then start to back off. By next spring you should be watering once a month. Here's more on how and why. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.