Category: Northwest U.S. Gardeners

Q. Dear Peter, over the last couple of years, some sort of moss has invaded my garden, especially my strawberry patch. It looks like Spanish moss but I am not sure. I have tried spot treatment with Roundup and other moss killers, but it keeps growing back. Is there anything I can use to wipe…

Q. Noticed, about a year ago, these horizontal lines of holes on two trees in our yard; one is a maple and the other an ornamental cherry and they are both about 20 years old.  The pines are unaffected.  We do have woodpeckers but I don’t hear them and they don’t seem to stay on…

Q. I have a Japanese Red Maple whose leaves on a few branches started to die during the summer of 2005.  Most of the tree’s branches are fine, but I am concerned that the problem will spread.  Could you please let me know what you think the issue is and how I can solve it?…

Q. I have a very small maple tree in my front yard, transplanted this spring from a shoot that sprang up in my flower bed! It was doing quite nicely; however, a recent windstorm broke a couple of its branches (and it only has a few!) Do I need to cut these broken branches back…

Q. In our condominium complex we have several English oak trees. We had an arborist prune those plus another 40 trees of different species. The English Oaks are getting to be approximately 30 plus ft. tall. I hear that they may grow to 40 to 70 ft. tall. The arborist told us that they should…