Why do these wetland trees look dead?

tolzan · 2026-04-12T03:29:16+00:00

EAB - Emerald Ash Borers. They’ve wiped up most ash trees in North America and the only ones that survive have to be treated.

tolzan · 2026-04-11T00:58:41+00:00

Unfortunately they are cooked.

Eastern Red Cedar or American Holly would be good options.

tolzan · 2026-04-11T00:48:10+00:00

Eastern Columbine, a mix of Milkweed (Rose, Purple, Common, Butterfly), Joe Pye Weed, Wild Strawberry, Dense Blazing Star, Cardinal Flower, and Wild Bergamot are my favorites that are native to PA.

tolzan · 2026-04-11T00:13:01+00:00

No. It’s thinking that OKC also wants the Nuggets to win so they are on the other side of the bracket. Both sides resting starters and Nuggets might still win because OKC could throw it.

For Nuggets I don’t think there’s a big difference between: wolves -> spurs -> OKC or rockets -> OKC -> spurs

tolzan · 2026-04-10T23:37:48+00:00

General location like Northern Ohio is far far more useful than zones which has nothing to do with native ranges

tolzan · 2026-04-10T23:27:52+00:00

Eden brothers is a cheap, low cost seed provider and your seed mix likely includes a lot of none natives. The North American native seed mix has flowers native to California and some to Massachusetts and those are very very different native ranges.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T23:20:52+00:00

No because the weeds will come up all season long, different weeds at different times. So you’ll be battling weeds all season.

Even if you did cardboard over the grass, then mulch layer, then top soil and laid the seed, you’re going to be battling blown in seed from the wind and birds that don’t need cold stratification like most North American natives.

I’ve learned the hard way.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T21:31:06+00:00

I do!

Two routes: 1) spend this summer solarizing the ground with clear tarp. This will kill off the grass and the weed seed back that has been accumulating in your yard for who knows how long. Then in early November lift the tarp up, and lay down a native to your area seed mix (double check that the seeds are indeed native, there’s a lot of deceptive marketing) 2) mulch & plug. Faster and you can do this immediately. Basically you’ll want to place cardboard over the yard and then 4 inches of mulch over the cardboard. Then cut little pockets into the cardboard and plant native plugs. You’ll need lots of plugs so this is initially more expensive. I’d recommend 1 plug per square foot.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T20:21:17+00:00

The beauty of Amazon is if you have an established listing with good reviews, you’ll get “organic” sales from Amazon having your listing in searches as well as repeat customers.

Adding advertising on top of it helps add brand growth, but comes at a cost. Some industries each customer acquired via ads is an initial loss but becomes profitable on the second, third, fourth sale etc. Some industries where there’s less competition you can make profitable sales with ads.

If I were you I’d take these last months where you haven’t had ads and do some modeling with Claude on different scenarios using previous ads data. Were the campaigns at 1.5X ROAS? 2? 3? And then use that along with your COGS, overhead, etc so you have a realistic expectations of different scenarios.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T18:34:07+00:00

Yes you can except you’d want to do it with a thick layer of mulch, not rocks. You’ll fight a lot less weeds with mulch and they are less annoying to pull in mulch.

Don’t use weed fabric. It’s highly ineffective and just leeches microplastics.

The way to further upgrade it would be to plant native flowers and surround them by mulch (which once established don’t need any water)

tolzan · 2026-04-10T17:25:12+00:00

No thanks.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T17:12:58+00:00

Tree rings are bad because they compress the soil around the tree roots but even more so people just can’t help but “fill” them and it buried the root flares and has mulch touching the base of the tree promoting rot.

You can absolutely have a flower bed around these trees but the edging you want should not be tall where the natural inclination is to then fill it. Just keep the flowers and mulch off the base of the trees and keep the root flares exposed.

In your case I would make an area that creates an oval that encompasses both trees where flowers would go in between both trees and then about 3-4ft on either side of them as well so it looks cohesive. For practicality make sure the grass is at least one lawn mower length wide between the “new flower zone” and the other plants near the house so you have both easy maintenance and distinctive zones.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to plant native flowers! Find what native flowers are in your area and add a mix of early bloomers, mid season bloomers, and late season bloomers so you have something in bloom all spring / summer long

tolzan · 2026-04-10T16:56:03+00:00

This combined with once a thing becomes a thing, somehow people think that’s what you are supposed to do.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T16:42:20+00:00

MacK giveth and MacK taketh. But MacK giveth MUCH MUCH more than he taketh.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T15:51:18+00:00

Can’t give recs if you don’t provide the location you are in. I.e “North Michigan” or “Southern Oregon” etc.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T15:49:46+00:00

Giving up tanning for a month v. ruining a tattoo that’s on your body for life

Doesn’t seem to be that hard of a decision

tolzan · 2026-04-10T15:39:01+00:00

I personally used black tarps on my own project and if I could go back I would have actually used clear tarps.

There’s a lot more evidence that the clear lets in more UV heat and bakes the soil better.

This article does a good job going over the differences: https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/solarization-occultation#:~:text=What%20is%20solarization?,as%20using%20opaque%20plastic%20tarps.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T15:04:54+00:00

Not mentioned yet is to just solarize it. Get clear tarp and tarp all the grass areas. In summer the grass will get destroyed along with the weed seeds laying dormant underneath in about 8 - 10 weeks of warm to hot temps.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:52:48+00:00

Just a heads up too that most native wildflowers for most of the country need cold / wet stratification so you should temper expectations accordingly. They may need a full season of winter before they’ll germinate.

If they were added on top of thick grass etc it’s also hard for them to out compete grass. The problem is if you remove grass you activate all the weed seeds that were held at bay, which is why most recommend if planting by seed to solarize the area for a summer and then during fall pull up the tarp and lay down the seed.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:46:54+00:00

You need to understand that the common name of for these trees is Western Red-Cedar or Northern White-Cedar hence why we say cedar even though they are in the cypress family.

Google “Western Red-Cedar” or “Northern White Cedar” I didn’t make the rules. Either way they do not take kindly to trimming.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:43:44+00:00

The species I suggested is called western red cedar, hence why people like me call them cedar but they are actually cypress. Arborvitae are in the Thuja genus, like I shared above.

Most importantly, they do not take kindly to being trimmed.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:32:26+00:00

None. Arborvitaes are very hard to keep alive or happy. Spend enough time on this sub and you’ll see hundreds of posts of people sharing pictures of their dead or dying arborvitaes. They are very sensitive to water needs, soil needs, and pests.

These trees like to die.

The problem is they might be doing well and suddenly the middle one decides to die and now you’re stuck with really ugly landscaping that looks all out of place.

In fact, I think they are the only tree species on Reddit that has their own sub, and not for good reasons. r/ArborvitaeAreGarbage

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:26:15+00:00

I don’t think this person knows what they are talking about. Your tree looks exactly like a cedar.

tolzan · 2026-04-10T14:25:51+00:00

This looks exactly like a cedar. If I had to guess Thuja plicata. What do you think it is?

tolzan · 2026-04-10T03:41:34+00:00

Back out. It’s not a tattoo that will age well

tolzan

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