This is Rodney with Zebra scapes

landscaping Podcast. I'm here with Edwin, and we're here going

to talk about trees. The trees are very valuable in this

community, especially in Prescott, in the high grounds.

Edwin's got a vast knowledge of trees, not just cutting them and

or dropping them and cleaning them up. I mean, it comes from

proper cuts to healthcare on the tree, and you have tons of

experience. And we could not be more thankful and excited to

have you part of zebra scapes. I mean, that's what this we're all

about. We thrive for excellence, we strive for quality, and we're

only as good as our guys here. So I'm very excited to have you

part of the team and part

of the podcast. Yeah, I love to be here. You know, it's

easy for me to sit and talk about trees and zebra scapes.

You know, as soon as I heard about zebra scapes, and I got

your core values, actually, I read, you know, on the internet

about you guys. You guys wanted to give quality to the

customers. And just another standard, excuse me, a higher

level. Everything I do, I try to go at the highest level. And,

um, you guys have given me the ability to do that, you know,

take a little extra time, sit and talk with the customers and

really teach them what we're doing, not just coming in and

doing it, you know, teaching them what to look for, let them

know when they're doing good job, and things like that. So

this is a perfect fit for me.

You said you, you know, you're passionate

about trees, and now you say it, but you can definitely see it,

and that's exciting. Everybody has their passion. It's great to

tell me, like, the importance of trees, stuff that, like, lights

you up when you see a tree.

You know, it's weird. Like, trees is my thing. It's,

it was my first job in between junior high and high school.

Wow. Yeah, that was my very first job. Was dragon brush.

And, you know, climbing, the climbing aspect is fun, but, you

know, obviously we need trees to live, and they're a living

thing. And there, there's just so many different aspects and so

many different things to learn. And no two trees are identical.

So every day, you know, there's something different that I'm

facing. It's not just a mundane, everyday thing. There's just so

many different things. And to save somebody's tree, you know,

somebody's my husband planted that 40 years ago, and it's

dying, and then I'm able to come in and save it. You know, that's

fun. It's very gratifying. But then, you know, to climb 100

foot pine tree that's over a house and be able to safely get

it down. You know, there's a sense of satisfaction in that.

So, you know, it's just fun all the way around for me.

Yeah, it's interesting. You have two

things. One, you're you're kind of a sensitive side. Let's keep

a tree, keep it healthy, but also live on the edge

of that tree. Yeah, that is, that is actually the funny

thing for me, like, so customers have been drawn to me because

that, because if, if it's up to me, I want to save the tree.

I've talked to people in neighborhoods, you know, they

had a 200 year old Juniper in the city. He's like, we're gonna

get rid of that. And, you know, I explained, just the best tree

in the whole neighborhood. And I talked her into letting me bring

it down a little bit. You know, she was happy with it. She was

actually really happy she didn't do it. She didn't understand

what she had. But my first goal is always to save the tree. But

if a customer needs a tree gone, or if it's safe to issue, I have

no problem removing it. And I love solving that, that puzzle.

Yeah, I get it. I'm at clients houses and

you see a tree and they want to remove it. I personally look at

two things. One, is it damaging foundations to septics or

sewers? Is it damaging the real estate, or is it blocking an

amazing Mountain View? And other than that, it's hard for me to

is like, I mean, sure, really, it's question this client,

because trees are valuable

absolutely, yeah, it, you know, it adds to your real

estate value. It lowers your energy costs. And they are

beautiful, you know, occasionally you do get them

blocking a view and whatnot. But, you know, I've seen

customers, you know, because we've had the same customers for

years and years. You go back to some where you remove the tree,

you know, that was on the east side of the house, and they say

my energy bill doubled, you know. So you over the years,

I've got to see, I've got to see the, you know, on flooding too.

Like, oh, we're getting so much more water here now because the

trees not soaking up, you know. So there's just a lot of

different things to think about when you're removing a tree or

adding a tree.

Yeah, that's very good point. People don't

realize that I know. When I do landscaping and they want to

plant a tree, if it's the west side, let's plant a tree, like

an autumn Blaze, or a big Sycamore or something, into the

main window. If it's not a focal viewpoint window, because the

leaves are there, stopping the heat. The leaves fall in the

wintertime and heat comes in, yep. So you look at those

things, like trees. I mean, that's a good point. Trees are

very valuable outside of just shade and look so you can, you

know, soak up water in the wet areas, low grounds, and then use

them for shade and heat Absolutely.

Yeah, they look good, you know. And Chino, a lot people

use them for the wind blocks, noise. Blocks. You could tell

when you're on a property that's by a road, you know, you're at

one house that has a good wind block, a bunch of Arizona

Cypress or something, and you don't hear the traffic as much,

and you're at the neighbors, and, you know, you really

notice, like, wow, this wind block makes, makes a huge

difference. You know, strategically planting, not

planting too close. It's why it's good to use people like us,

you know, I see people that you know will plant Arizona Cypress

within three feet of each other, and these trees grow over 40

feet, you know, and they're six feet from the house. And like I

don't that's a waste of money. You're gonna have to remove this

later, you know, it's all kinds of problems. So that's why I'm

pleased to be in the community and be a knowledgeable tree guy

to help help things like this. And it goes all the way down to

our crews being knowledgeable in the install side, you know,

because they need to know that too. So it's good to have a tree

team within the

company. Yeah, it is very good. It's

something that, you know, honestly, I didn't even want a

tree division. People ask, how'd you grow out of zebra? Get where

it is? I i only grow what we have, okay? And I don't go on,

let's say, Hey, let's go and jump into this area. Let's start

doing pools. We have no experience to start doing this,

but I remember when you came to my house, like, hey, I want to

run a tree division. I'm like, I don't do trees. And you're like,

Well, I got it. And you, I mean, your arborist license, you walk

through everything and spent your persistent and I'm like,

you know, if I got the guy, we know we got the work, let's

tackle it. And so that was a year you came in with tons of

experience, and that's where we are today. Is years later, we

have a tree division, and we're got multiple equipment, and it's

such a huge help when you're the client's house. I got a tree, or

we can, you know, we, I don't. I honestly, when they say, What's

wrong with my tree? I said, I'm not qualified, right? Because I

just, I'm going to refer you to the arborist, Edwin. So that's

what's awesome about being diversified and being a part of

zebra scape. So how we expand quickly?

Absolutely

everybody has trees.

Well, yeah, the customers benefit, you know, from all the

way, you know, from the ground up with their landscaping, and

to have, you know, people spend good money on their landscaping,

and to have something as important as trees that are

going to outlast, you know, could Outlast everything you

know, to have a strategically placed so to have, that's why I

was so drawn. Because when I came from Phoenix up here, I

already knew I was going to do trees, but I wanted to do it on

a large scale and actually have an impact. And zebra scapes had

the great reputation. And you guys have the foundation to, you

know, you could start somebody's house, you know, from the ground

up, and we could take care of it for 30 plus years, you know. So

that's something I'm happy to be part of,

yeah, one thing you talked about is the

health of the tree. So how quick are you to see it? How can we

tell people, like, what to look for, like, trees not going

various?

I always tell people, if you see something, say

something. So we'll get a lot of calls, and the customer won't

say it just died overnight, and, no, it didn't, you know, and

then I'll get other customers that'll call and they're like,

oh, this, you know, there's just two yellow branches here, like

on Arizona Cypress, say, and I'll go look at it, and it has a

Beetle in it. And they caught it, you know, the other ones in

the neighborhood are all dying. I'm just thinking of somebody

recently, and he said, Yeah, well, I saw my neighbor's tree

die. So I saw these two yellow ones. I had actually snapped it

and saw a Beetle in there. I said, You saved your tree. So,

you know, pay attention to your trees. Look at them, and if

anything's out of whack, you know, give an expert a call. And

you know, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg and the investment you

already have in the tree. And like we talked about the power,

you know, saving on your energy bill, but you know, just to look

at your property, it increases the value of your property

having nice trees. So you know, just if you see something, say

something, yeah,

that's very true. I remember clients like,

hey, my tree's dying. I'll just cut it down if it dies. I'm

like, Well, I understand, but we can treat it right for a lot

less than cut it down Absolutely. So why would you

want to cut it down for Well, I don't want to just treat it and

it not work. I mean, to me, it's worth the investment, because

replacing that tree is a lot more money.

Well, yeah, you got to get rid of that tree, and then

you got to get rid of this time, and then all the years you have

to get that back, because you're not going to get them that size

again, you know, so and I don't, I don't recommend things that

don't work. I don't I feel that's why I have a good

reputation. Because I I offer quality items, or we offer

quality items, and it works. We know what we're after, and we

save the tree. You know, there's not, there's a lot of different

things that can happen to the trees up here, different fungus

and whatnot. There's nothing new we're seeing now, like, I don't

see anything. Oh, I've never seen that before, you know. So

we pretty much know what's going on with the trees. Most things

are typically common, and we already have the solution to it,

so I would just call

Yeah, yeah. I know there's some trees that

they're not curable, and that will happen,

yeah, yeah. Like the Leland Cypress. It has what's

called the ceritium. Canker. It's so bad, they're not even

selling them anymore, and there's nothing you could do do

with it, and things like that too. It's good to have

knowledgeable people, because if I cut a Leland Cypress that's

infected, and I use that same tool and I go cut a tree that's

not I just infected that tree. Wow, really? So, yeah, the

Leland cypresses are bad. There's, there's no cure to it.

I say it's terminal. So those ones are just best to get rid

of. The nurseries aren't even selling them up here anymore.

Like, that's how bad it is. So, yeah, some of them are not

fixable, or some of them have reached a point too far gone.

They call it the permanent wilting point, and you just

can't say that. That's why I say, if you see something, say

something. And a lot of people think that trees can't come

back, especially with the pinion scale. Some trees look horrible.

I mean, horrible, and we'll take care of them. And, you know, get

calls in three, four weeks. Oh my gosh. Like my trees better? I

didn't think it was possible, you know. So let, let us be the

judge of people who deal with trees every day. Take a look at

it and let you know if it's savable or not.

That's interesting. You talk about a

chainsaw. So you treat the chain you put on. How do you how do

you stop if someone has a tree Leland, they would cut the dead

branches off of it. What should they do before they put their

blade? Yeah,

treat it with alcohol, like the rubbing alcohol and

water will scrub it off. So I won't, I won't even do, if I

remove a Leland and I have to do another Leon, I only use that

same equipment that day, you know, on on the uninfected one,

I would just use a different tool. But, yeah, you do treat

everything with alcohol. We'll even run the blades of the

chainsaw through the alcohol. But then, if we're doing a tree

the same day, we'll just use different item,

clean it later. Yes, gotcha. We talked a

lot about treating of the trees. What do you do? How important it

is to fertilize trees and then how often you should do it?

What's your thoughts on that stuff?

So fertilizing, fertilizing is huge. You want to

do it in the spring before they have all this growth, they're

going to be putting out a lot of good energy. They're going to be

fighting bugs. So you want them to be as strong as possible.

Like you talked about Leland Cyprus being

contagious, and you talked about opinion, if I understand being

contagious, is that right? Yeah, with the scale, so what if you

have a neighbor or two houses down that have scale? What would

you do if you're a client and you're trying to keep your trees

on top and great, and you see your neighbors like that,

so, and this will actually go into fertilization,

keep your trees and, you know, I don't want it to sound bad, but

keep your trees healthier than your neighbors, because bugs go

for the weak trees. They can sense the weak trees, the

stressed out trees. So if, if you're keeping your trees

fertilized, you're keeping them water properly, and they're not

under a lot of stress, the bugs are going to go somewhere else.

They're going to go to the easier trees. So, yeah, I would

definitely there are preventative things that you

could do for scale and whatnot. Could drench, you know, even if

you don't have it, it's not going to hurt your tree. Some

people do that. Some people, you know, I've made a large

investment on their properties, and don't want anything to

happen to their trees. So there is preventative maintenance, but

let nature do its thing. You know, give it supplemental

water, give it fertilizer, and just keep your trees healthier

than the trees around it, and the bugs will go other

directions. Gotcha. So kind of like, put in

the human standpoint, yeah, there's a flu going around.

Start taking vitamins Exactly, yeah, to keep the you stay

immune to it.

Yeah, you know, like somebody who's healthy, strong

athlete, eats well, exercises, they're not going to get the

sickness, you know, as easily as others. So yeah, it is the same

exact concept.

That's great. Well, Edwin, I want to

appreciate you joining. I learned a lot, even though I've

been doing this for many years, just watching you work and very

knowledgeable. And it's exciting to have you part of zebras case

and part of this podcast. And I want to have you over again and

talk about fertilizing and what can we do? So we'll meet up

again. Appreciate it. Thank you, Ronnie.