It's All About the Water
This time of year there's really only one thing to do for newly planted trees: water and wait.  New trees shouldn't be fertilized until the third year of growth.  Right now just water.  Plan on delivering at least one gallon of water per week (every week that it doesn't rain at least 1" that is) per gallon of container size.  That water is best delivered by a slow-running hose.

Mulch is something that you need to keep an eye on by mid-summer.  If you've done your job watering, that mulch you layed down when you planted the tree will be running quite thin.  Add enough to have a layer 3-4" deep out just beyond the drip line of the tree.

Free Food!
I'm surrounded by foodies all the time and we all marvel at people walking right past the wonderful bounty on trees all over town this time of year.  I'm talking two things:  Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) and Mulberry (Morus spp.).  They are always ripe this time of year but this year, with the heavy winter rainfall, there are literally TONS of fruit waiting to be enjoyed in yards all over Austin.

Loquat is a Chinese native that has been cultivated for fruit all over Asia.  We know it as a beautiful small evergreen ornamental tree.  It looks similar to magnolia but has fuzzy, rather than glossy, leaves.  It blooms in mid-winter here in Austin.  Although the blooms aren't usually showy, they are very fragrant at a time of year when there isn't much else blooming.  Everyone likes loquat as a tree but most people let the fruit fall.  The 1-3" fruits ripen around the beginning of May.  They taste best when picked slightly soft and will not ripen further after they are picked.  The flavor is distinctly tropical:  somewhere between a mango and peach or apricot.  Although we love them fresh off the tree, they also make wonderful preserves, pies and cobbler.  Sadly, they bruise easily so they don't have much shelf life.  If you can't eat or cook your loquats right away, pick them, remove the seeds add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice or a sprinkling of fruit fresh (powdered vitamin C, available at most grocery stores) and freeze them.   Read more about loquats at this link and TRY THEM!

We have two native mulberry species.  The Texas Mulberry (Morus microcarpa) is a small, fast-growing tree that is most often "planted" by birds.  The fruit is small and varies in eating quality.  Even the lowest quality Texas Mulberry is still abundant, delicious, fresh fruit.  The other native mulberry is Red Mulberry.  Red Mulberries grow into a large, spreading tree 20-40 feet tall and up to 80 feet wide.  The fruit is consistanly larger and tastier than that of the Texas Mulberry. 

All mulberries are very high in protein (15-28%) and bioflavanoids and are also good sources of beneficial fatty acids.  They ripen over a long period (4-6 weeks) so you don't have to drop everything and freeze 100 pounds of fruit all at once.  They taste best picked when the "shoulders" of the fruit are still a little red.  Suppose you have a big, spreading red mulberry tree:  how do you pick all that fruit??? Our Shaun Lee lays old sheets under sections of the trees in the front yard here at TreeFolks World Headquarters and shakes the limbs above them.  Lift up the corners and voila:  gallons of fruit in a neat little pile!

Trees on the Beach

Galveston is a wonderful town in many ways.  It's Texas's most popular beach destination and there are many more attractions than waves and sand, too.  It's also very popular with fisherman who ply the Gulf of Mexico and the shallow bays.  But another of the outstanding characteristics of Galveston were the majestic live oak trees lining Broadway, the main thoroughfare through town.  Those trees were planted after the catastrophic hurricane of 1900 when over 8000 people lost their lives.  Modern weather prediction kept Hurricane Ike from taking so many lives  in September of 2008 but the storm surge and wind killed those historic oaks and many thousands of other trees.

Although we usually only work in Central Texas, we, along with our partners at the Apache Foundation, Randall's, the Texas Forest Service and the City of Galveston's Tree Committee, are taking on a multi-year commitment to rebuilding the urban forest of this great Texas community.  We know that Central Texans love their trees and we hope you can help us make this new project possible.  If you feel like a road trip please join us to volunteer passing out over 1500 trees or join a crew planting trees for the elderly or disabled.  We're headed down for the weekend of November 20.  If you can't come along, please consider donating some money to help us defray the cost of this major undertaking.

Farewell Paul Domaruk

On Wednesday, May 6, 2009 Paul Istvan Domaruk left this world after a long illness.  Pauly was a treasure and he is already missed in a way that it's hard to adequately describe.

Paul started work at TreeFolks after the unexpected death of our former Executive Director Mary McCarthy.  Mary's sudden, unexpected illness and rapid decline had left TreeFolks in a state of disarray that threatened our existence as an organization.  We had no money, sketchy prospects and a board and community in serious question of our continued viability.  Paul stepped in anyway but not out of need on his part.  He'd received a higher-paying, more secure job offer with the City of Austin.  But Paul had volunteered for TreeFolks and he was a casual friend and he felt that he could make a difference so he offered.

Those early times were very hard.  I couldn't begin to guess how many hours we worked to buoy the finances, continue the programs and reassure our constituents that things would be okay.  But days were long and grueling and often strung for weeks without days off.  Those sorts of situations can break different ways.  The pressure can easily drive people under and relationships apart but Paul and I forged a friendship that felt as natural as if it had formed under the best of circumstances.  Paul was Paul and circumstances were secondary.

That's not to say we always agreed, though.  At times we bickered like an old married couple but Paul was always  willing to admit when he was wrong and that made it completely easy and comfortable for me to do the same.  It was safe to disagree with him because you always knew, however strongly you felt in the moment, the love was waiting for you at the end.

Paul had a very strong sense of justice and fairness.  In our very public life we often run into situations that obviously don't serve the interests of everyone and everything equally.  Paul, to the very limited extent that he would become upset, would rail against those situations with strong but measured outrage. 

Pauly was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, a disease that is almost universally terminal and which has no known cause, in December of 2006.  Only months before, he had married his beautiful, loving wife Lydia and purchased his first home.  He had worked doggedly to make TreeFolks an easier and more secure place to work.  By any reasonable measure he had laid the foundation for the beginning of a wonderful life and had almost immediately been told that he wouldn't be here to enjoy it for long.  An ordinary person might have revolted against the grievous injustice of the cards he'd been dealt.  But Paul, so willing to fight for equity for others, only fought his disease, never the universe that put that burden on him.  A couple of weeks ago he visited us for a few hours.  He'd lost the ability to use more than twelve or so words. The three that he held on to and used in perfect context (as he had a thousand times before) as I got my last Pauly-hug were "I love you".  We love you, too, Paul.



















Carbon Offsets Help Erase Your Pollution

The carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of our modern society are a major contributor to rapid climate change. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon that has been locked away for millions of years is released into the air, causing the Earth�s temperature to rise and significant climatic changes to take place. We are already seeing an increase in extreme weather events, and indicators of imminent large-scale climate change, with serious implications for the world as we know it.  It is essential that each of us reduce our CO2 emissions.  However, it is not possible to eliminate all CO2 emissions immediately, so in the interim we can help to reduce the impact of those emissions that are unavoidable by planting trees.


Because trees take in carbon dioxide, split it apart, "exhale" oxygen and hold carbon in their tissues and deposit it underground, they are an excellent way to reduce excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Urbans trees also shade homes and mitigate the heat island effect which causes city temperatures to be several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside so they save the fossil fuels that are burned for eletricity while reducing power bills.  In that way they reduce carbon dioxide even more.  At the same time, urban trees increase property values, lower other pollutants like particulates, keep stormwater runoff cleaner and provide habitat for wildlife.

TreeFolks makes it easy for you to plant trees to erase your "carbon footprint." We grow our own native trees at our Austin nursery and, with your offset purchase, we�ll plant as many trees as you need to offset your carbon emissions through our established urban forestry programs. We have an easy online carbon calculator that tells you how many tons of carbon you are responsible for and gives you the opportunity to purchase "carbon offsets" in a secure on-line transaction.

Buying offsets from TreeFolks isn't exactly like buying trees.  It's buying one of the "products" of the trees.  It's sort of like buying fruit as opposed to buying a fruit tree except, in this case, you're buying all of the fruit that the tree will ever produce.  But that's not all.  By buying offsets from our non-profit organization your purchase is subsidized by thousands of hours of volunteer labor. Your purchase is also used to support our educational programs and can be used as a "match" for grant funds, allowing us to plant many more trees and to teach people to care for the trees we already have.  Now that's value!


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