Plant Health Care or PHC is a comprehensive and holistic approach to maintaining the health and longevity of our landscape trees and shrubs. It starts with the proper understanding of what a “healthy” tree is, then proper identification of current and potential problems as well as their causes.

For Example

A 100-year-old red oak growing in your back yard “suddenly” has symptoms of decline (crown die back) due to a variety of insect and disease complications. Further investigation revealed that there was a severe change in the grade of the yard within the root zone due to the installation of a pool on the other side of the yard 6 years prior. This caused a decline of the sensitive absorbing roots, resulting in reduced water and mineral uptake to the canopy, resulting in reduced defensive compounds, resulting increased insect feeding (carriers of disease), resulting in disease and dieback throughout the canopy.

What does this mean to you?

It would be a severe waste of resources to simply prune the deadwood from this tree, or to treat the disease that will continue to be spread by insects, or to treat for the insects that are merely feeding on a weekend tree. We must bring into focus “the big picture” and get to the “root” of the problem, if we are to have a “healthy” tree.

“Through the forest of houses, we see the trees”

-Jason C. Miller, CA