I keep my branches as low as possible without touching the ground. That makes sense to me. If I can't mow under it anyway, why not just have a shrub rather than a tree. I might have to bend over more to pick fruit but that can't be any worse than moving a ladder around. Does anyone else keep the branches low like that? Fruithack - What IS under your trees if you don't mulch?

I have planted many trees with Tubex or equivelent,and I'm not a big fan of them.How many of these trees do you have planted? What I have found is exactly what happens with the tree shelters.They allow your seedlings to start growing earlier in spring,which sets them up for damage from a cold snap,this also happens in fall.If you want a tree shelter try hardware cloth or somthing similar with openings to keep mice away from the tree. I know it looks bad and you think the tree is damaged but if they grow good,in a few years you won't even see the scar.I see your in z5,that is almost it's northern limit for Pecan trees.My brother planted some last year and he is seeing the same trend with the tips being nipped by frost.I have a few peach trees,and I' taking a risk that a late frost may ruin my crop for the year but the tree will live but with some damage.Good luck and maybe someone else in zone5 has pecans. lp

There is a number of different species of oak native to coastal California that are entirely evergreen, this is not an unusual feature there. Nor is Cork Oak particularly rare in west coast plantings - we even have some of it around up here in the Seattle area. It is also not a consistently smaller growing than usual species of evergreen oak. For instance: This tree, in Napa, CA, was nominated by Bill Pramuk in 2014. It measures 89 feet high, with a trunk circumference of 245 inches and a crown spread of 81 feet for a total of 354 points. http://californiabigtrees.calpoly.edu/tree-detail/quercus-suber/401

"If they can prove there was a sickness, weakness, breaks or dead wood and rot then it would be the responsibility of the tree owners." This. I have, in winter, photographed from multiple angles, a tree in my neighbor's yard to document that it has been extensively cabled. At least 3 cables that I can see. The local hayseed landscaper is telling this guy "I got this, man", as though the tree can be kept up indefinitely, when it really ought to be cut down. The landscaper just knows that if it falls one way (hopefully) and takes out this idiots deck, he's going to have an 'emergency call' on his hands $$$$. (I already had a run in with the guy, btw. Greedy bastard. I used someone else for my tree work) If it falls the other way and crushes a wing of my house? I will submit to my insurance company the pictures proving it was a weak tree that any responsible arborist would have removed. (The idiot local landscaper is MD licensed of course, but I don't believe he is a formally licensed arborist) A warning to the 0.0000001% of people who consider moving to a rural area to have a large 'country garden' as I did. Be careful which neighbors you 'choose' by your lot selection. Sorry to put it so bluntly but most Americans are f---ing inconsiderate morons when it comes to managing their own gardens. We just don't have an established tradition of thoughtful horticulture as they do in Europe or the Commonwealth. Not to say there are not problems, but I drove thru plenty of country towns in rural AU and NZ without seeing the nonsense you see in the US. So the biggest thorn in my side is dealing with idiots like the guy above, or another newer set of neighbors. Who, for example, just planted a ton of rose of sharons along the property line, when these are INCREDIBLY weedy here. They have been banned by some states along the eastern seaboard and ought to be banned by Maryland. *btw this something truly admirable about AU. As I think I posted in my trip report, they take invasive control terribly seriously, and even in a brief trip I saw two instances of spraying for non-natives* So in retrospect I might have been better off on a slightly larger lot, outside of a neighborhood, maybe one of those lots surrounded by farmland. Farmers actually have to be somewhat intelligent about how they manage their land. They can't let a bunch of hideous rose of sharon invade their crop because "they done look purdy".