LandscapExpert Tip of the Week, June 4, 2012

Factors Contributing to Landscape Decline: Plant Abuse

For years we’ve heard the phrase, “Plants are like people!” Landscape plants and particularly trees in public locations are often wounded and vandalized. Some of this is malicious, like the $43K worth of unspeakable vandalism recently at the Seattle public arboretum.  

Other abuse is inadvertent, but opens wounds and gives disease organisms an entry:

• Trees are used as posts and eventually girdled
• Signs are nailed to trunks
• Initials are carved in trunks  
• Lawn Mowers and string trimmers can damage bark (Crabapple LandscapExperts call this “lawnmower blight” with tongue in cheek)
• Cars hit trees scraping both trunk and car

 These are just a few of the plant abuse factors that contribute to landscape decline.