Please, don't do this to your trees

This is a good example of how NOT to prune crape myrtles.

I about had a heart attack one fine fall day as I was walking with my family around my neighborhood. I was chatting idly, when suddenly I looked up and saw three of my absolutely favorite trees had been BUTCHERED.

Yes... butchered. Three magnificently tall crape myrtles with gorgeous trunks and beautiful stark bark had been hacked to half their size.

From across the street, I could see the the residents had been trying to do one of two things... make the trees short enough to not touch the power/phone/cable lines going to their home OR follow the very bad old wives' tale.

And that's just what it is... an old wives' tale, perpetuated by tree trimmers, landscapers and neighbors who just don't know any better.

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Forlorn fig

This fig tree's roots are snarled.

My neighbor's been just dying to plant a shade tree in her front yard. Problem is... the only space available is inhabited by a little fig tree planted by the previous residents.

She hummed and hawed for a while over what to do, and finally settled on transplanting the fig to another area. She tackled the job over the weekend.

I advised her -- since the tree is small, but not as small as most nursery plants -- to dig a wide area around the trunk to accommodate the root ball. The tree has been in the ground about four years, and it should have put down some roots.

I was wrong.

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