Ewing Grounds-Keeping

Cedar waxwings are one of the most handsome birds! They are very common, but are hard to get a look at up close, as they spend so much of their time high in tree canopies. I was given a great look at this little family from the bucket yesterday while cleaning up storm damage! Thank you Father God for your small wonders!

Hey, just reaching out to anyone affected by all the tree blow downs and threats of fire. If I can be of service with my saws, skills, and chipper, please let me know. I'm hoping to freely assist anyone truly in need of urgent disaster assistance! If yall know of any situation that fits that description, please let me know! Peace!

I’m just putting this out there to anyone who could use my help related to all the blown down trees and threats of fire. I have saws, skills, and a wood chipper! I’m ready to jump in this weekend where those can be most useful to help anyone who really needs it, to defend their home, open up their driveway, or get a tree off a house! I’m just reaching out to see how I can help!

This week we worked on a different kind of project!

We spent 2 days cleaning up this backyard space, cutting out the undergrowth and volunteer trees, and preserving the best saplings and young trees to create a shady area with so much potential! 🌳🌲

Check out the before and after photos, it’s hard to believe it’s the same space!

Another great elm tree project! Full of dead or crisscrossing branches, this tree greatly benefited from a canopy clean and end weight reduction to clean it up and prevent storm damage.

It was also chock full of aphids! If you look closely, the tiny green specks all over the pant leg in slide 6, are aphids. If you ever find yourself fighting a battle against this many aphids, lady bugs are a great way to do it! Introducing lady bugs into a tree are a good natural way to handle aphid issues.

Employee Highlight!

Kalub Sherrer!

Kalub is 18 years old. He is our veteran employee, having worked with us since 2019! Kalub says, “It has been really fun to work outside every day, even if the weather is bad.” (That’s the spirit, Kalub! 😉) “When I'm not working, you can often find me out in the mountains somewhere.” Kalub works the lawn crew during the summer but has also been excellent help with tree work. He is a highly skilled individual. “Although I love working at Ewing Grounds-Keeping, I have a desire to be a full-time pilot.” We are so grateful to have Kalub on our team! Thank you Kalub for your hard work!

We had fun pruning this one!
This tree was a perfect candidate for our “tag team” strategy; using both the bucket truck and a climber to access all parts of the tree!
We love getting to climb trees, and it’s always a fun challenge to access backyard trees by fitting the bucket truck into small spaces 🌳🌿
This elm tree was pretty typical in that it was full of dead wood and had long, overextended branches, and it looks so much better after we did end weight reduction and removed the dead wood!

Red maples, and their cultivars (such as the Autumn Blaze), are a very common landscape tree. They are hardy, fast growing, and produce wonderful fall color!

However, a significant weakness can be their branch structure. They are often prone to co-dominant branching and unions with included bark. These will look like tight "V" shaped unions with a seam or split, extending down the trunk below the branches. This structure is weaker than normal branch attachment and prone to storm damage. Recently, we've been working in a lot of red maples, pruning them for better structure. This involves removing one of the sides of the weak union wherever possible (in small branches), or heavily reducing or "subordinating" one side, when the branches are too large to remove. The timing for this work is important as maples tend to be a fast-decaying wood. Pruning during the growing season optimizes the tree's ability to wall off decay as well as some other benefits.

Also, ladybugs are aphid eaters! You can even introduce them to your trees to go after aphids if they're "bugging" you!

We were asked to remove this trio of dying spruce trees in a city park. Removals often have moments full of adrenaline, and this project was no exception! We’re grateful for our bucket truck that enabled us to work efficiently and fall these trees into a safe drop zone 🌲🪵

Employee Highlight! 😃

Sarah Davis!

Sarah is 28 years old. She has worked for Ewing Grounds-Keeping for 3 years. She is currently studying to become a Certified Arborist! Sarah says, “I love the atmosphere of team work and camaraderie when working with the crew, as we push each other to excel.” On a Saturday, Sarah could be found hiking, hanging out with friends and family, or taking care of chores. Sarah is currently working on her own adventure business! Sarah’s friends describe her as “Loyal, dedicated and compassionate,” and we couldn’t agree more. We are so grateful to have her on our team!!

Hard at work!😁

I don't make time to post very often, but here are a few pictures from our office over the past few months. We're loving the bucket truck, and we still get to do lots of climbing!

Where to Put Decay in Trees? Seems like an odd question, until you read further...

Anytime a living part of the tree is cut open through pruning, or broken open through storm damage, the remaining area will likely decay. It's important to make pruning (reduction or removal) cuts in the proper area for the health and longevity of the tree.

Written by Jeremiah Sandler .first

Read the full article at tcimag.tcia.org or through the link in our bio

Did you know that you can get a FREE print subscription to TCI Magazine - go to tcimag.tcia.org and have the monthly print issue sent directly to your mailbox today!

A recent removal where we tailor fit this large heavily leaning top into the drop zone!

Norway Maple Cable

Here's a neat tree rescue project we just got to do. This triple-stemmed Norway Maple was splitting at the base so we installed a static cable system to support the weak union! It's in a great spot in the landscape, so I'm very glad we had the opportunity to help preserve this tree!

JOB LISTING:
Have you ever been called an overachiever? Do you take pride in a job well done and enjoy fast-paced outdoor work with happy people? This could be your favorite job ever!

Ewing Grounds-keeping is a small, owner-operated Tree and Landscape maintenance service. We are looking for candidates for our Landscape Maintenance Lead role.

This position requires on-the-ball thinking; fast paced movement; an artistic eye and attention to detail; self-drive and coachability. People skills are very important for communicating with the owner, customers and leading your crew!

Helpful skills:
- Mechanically Inclined
- Trailer pulling experience
- Landscape maintenance experience

This position is full-time, seasonal, with the option of year-round work. We are a growing company hoping to bring on quality people to grow with us in developing roles.

Tasks/Responsibilities:
Lawn maintenance: Including mowing, edge trimming, weed-eating, fertilizing, possibly dethatching and plugging, sprinkler system maintenance, equipment maintenance and driving a pickup and trailer.

Landscape Maintenance: Pruning, ornamental shrubs, hedges and trees; weeding and cleaning beds.

Supervisor: The crew lead position is a supervisor role that reports to the owner and insures our high standard of quality for each job. The crew lead will be in charge of up to two other crew members.

Tree work: There will be some overlap with our tree service when we need additional ground crew. This will include chain saw use, hauling brush and logs, feeding the chipper and possibly running equipment.

Starting pay and hours are dependent on experience and ambition. Frequent pay increases are available to ambitious, committed individuals.

This is a great small business where we are friends first and have a lot of fun working together, beautifying properties. Our work culture is light hearted, competitive in a fun way and committed to excellence!

Candidates must be at least 18 years old and have a valid drivers license.

Please call 208-451-5996 to request an application.

Our long awaited bucket truck is finally here!! Here we're doing end weight reduction and storm damage clean up!

We advocate for tree preservation a lot. But sometimes a tree really should come down. This tree only had about 5% sound wood left in places! The extreme decay was associated with numerous large topping cuts and large limb removals in the past. This is one good reason we don't top trees!

"Earl," a big Silver Maple we did weight reduction in recently!

Here's an awesome English Walnut we recently did end-weight reduction and dead-wooding in!
End-weight reduction removes a relatively small amount of material from the ends of branches. This affectively changes the taper ratio of branches and reduces torque at the branch union, hugely reducing the likelihood of large failures! It's great to see how affective it has been this winter in the trees that have received this treatment in the last couple years!

The crew! L-R, Sarah Davis, Levi Ewing and Havilah Ewing and Kalub Sherrer.

Havilah does all of our supervising 😄