Socrates was a pretty smart guy. A philosopher from Ancient Greece, he is credited with advancing theories in Western Philosophies surrounding ethics, logic and epistemology. While his student Plato helped to make his words and thoughts famous after his death, one aspect of his life is well-known. After disagreeing with the State, as his punishment,… Read more »
Category: Nature
Back to School with CLC
Time for kids to head back to school! I know parents are itching to hand their little ones back to the teachers again. It has been a long summer. Whether your children are heading to preschool, kindergarten, or grade school, there is plenty they can learn about trees. From basic concepts, like “what is a tree?”,… Read more »
One, Two, Three; Don’t Touch Me!
We are blessed in Ontario to be surrounded by an abundance of trees, shrubs, vines and other flora. Some provide shelter and nesting places for birds, animals and a myriad of insects. Others are a great source of food for man and beast alike. They often improve air quality, can prevent soil erosion, as well as… Read more »
Back to School and Back to Nature
Back-to-School ads are all over the newspapers, tv, radios, and online. They are talking about backpacks, lunch bags, stuffed pencil cases, new outfits, and even electronics. Articles suggest how to introduce your child to kindergarten, when to bring bedtime back to a more reasonable hour, and why its important to provide healthy snacks and meals… Read more »
A Tree’s First Defense: Bark
Bark What is bark? Merriam Webster defines it as; “the tough exterior covering of a woody root or stem;specifically : the tissues outside the cambium that include an inner layer especially of secondary phloem and an outer layer of periderm” Interesting, but why are trees covered in it? Well, there are a few reasons. Bark acts likes… Read more »
A Home For…
Trees. They are glorious things. Trees provide us with oxygen, and use up some of our excess air pollution, like that nasty carbon dioxide stuff that we are so good at producing. They create shade in the summer, reducing our sweat equity, plus saving us money on air conditioning. Trees also bring us peace and… Read more »
Time to Water Your Trees
It’s that time of year again. After suffering through a heat wave last week that seemed like it would never quit, the City of London issued its first Tree Watering Alert. We might have had moisture in the air (felt like pea soup to breathe), but there wasn’t any water falling on the ground. That… Read more »
The Hawthorn: Mystic Powers or Sensible Shrub?
Do you have a vampire problem? Are the undead knocking at your door, trying desperately to get in? Never fear! There are ways to discourage this ancient beast from bothering you. Plant a Hawthorn at your door, a vampire shall visit nevermore! The Merits of Hawthorns The prickly Hawthorn tree (or shrub) has long been… Read more »
Dig These Cherries
One of the first trees to produce fruit in the summer is the delicious and nutritious cherry tree. Lucky for us the prunus is a native species and appropriate choice to plant in much of Ontario, including London and Middlesex county. So bring on the cherry pies, cherry turnovers, cherry cheesecake and cherries jubilee. Today we… Read more »
Emerald Ash Borer: Continuing the Fight
Yet more examples of what the deadly emerald ash borer (EAB) can do… This ash tree can be found in the playground of a local London-area public school. In their curiousity, the children there discovered that the bark was loose on this tree. Quick as a wink, they had stripped the tree of its lower… Read more »