JanisMurray's Blog

Hi everybody!

OK, here's the word on the Forst Park Field Day this weekend I was talking about on the news this morning. . . .

It's at Forest Park in the grove of trees just east of the History Museum so you can park in their lot.

It starts at 9a and runs to 4 on Saturday, 7/27

There's a fun tree climb for kids  . . . they wear a seat harness and

are helped with ropes plus kids corner activities such as leaf identification, bag stamping and seedling transplanting. There is also an outdoor trade show of the latest gadgets and machines used for tending to big trees.

During the entire day in the same area, professional athletes will be participating in the INTERNATIONAL TREE CLIMBING CHAMPIONSHIPS. The preliminaries are on Saturday, and the Championships are all day Sunday. There are several challenges like race climbing a tree to ring a bell, to prune off a branch, and to save a person stuck high in a tree in less than 4 minutes!  The World Champions will be there to defend their titles. They are Chrissy Spence travelling from New Zealand and Bernd Strasser coming in from Germany!

All of this kicks off the annual convention of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ARBORICULTURE . . .certified arborists who work for utilities and public parks and commerically for residences plus scientists and machinery makers from all over the world.

The INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ARBORICULTURE (ISA) is headquartered in Champaign, IL, and is a nonprofit org. supporting tree care research and education around the world. To promote the importance of arboriculture, ISA manages the consumer education we site, www.treesaregood.org.

For more info on the conference, visit www.isa-arbor.com/conference. It runs through next Wed.

For more info. on the field day, contact Sonia Garth, the ISA Public and Industry Relations Manager at 217-355-9411, ext. 217, or e-mail: sgarth@isa-arbor.com

And remember all family activities Sat. & Sun. including the championships are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

IF YOU GO, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, OK?

Tree care tips for summer include:

WATER YOUR TREES WITH A SLOW DRIP HOSE FOR ABOUT 3 HRS. EVERY TWO WEEKS DURING SUMMER. "SLOW DRIP" IS NECESSARY FOR THE WATER TO BE ABSORBED DEEP INTO THE ROOTS AND NOT JUST RUN OFF.

SUMMER IS ALSO A GOOD TIME TO CUT OUT DEAD WOOD.  YOU CAN RECOGNIZE IT EASILY NOW BECAUSE DEAD BRANCHES WILL NOT HAVE LEAVES AND WILL CRACK EASILY!

FERTILIZE TREES IN THE FALL WITH A LIQUID OR GRANULAR FERTILIZER. More on that later . . .

Best to all,

Janis