Fall 2023 NEWSLETTER

President’s Message

Happy October, as another turn of the seasons is upon us. I am very happy to announce our three latest APA Certified Aesthetic Pruners: Shirley Brewin, Ethan Coté, and Michael Goertz! Shirley, Ethan, and Michael successfully went through the very rigorous process of certification, and are to be congratulated on their achievement and all their hard work. Our Craft Standards Committee, led by Dina Blackwell, has done much to streamline the process, including creating a new online-based method for filling out the CAP application as well as submitting letters of recommendation. I encourage everyone to take a second look at becoming certified, and congratulations again to Shirley, Ethan, and Michael – well done!!

As ever, feel free to contact me via email at apapresident@aestheticprunersassociation.org with thoughts or questions!

Lara Miranda

APA Certified Aesthetic Pruner® #65
President, Aesthetic Pruners Association
510.658.3438

Feature Article

Art of Pruning Garden Tour is a Wrap

by Jeff Becerra

Friends old and new came out for the 2023 Art of Pruning Garden Tour on October 8, which featured gardens in Oakland and Berkeley pruned by APA members Nancy Brown, Bill Castellon, Bruce Thompson, and Eric King.

The gardens showcased a balance of natural and Japanesque landscaping, meandering open spaces and cozy nooks. Three of the four gardens were created recently by Bill Castellon. The oldest garden, created in 1950 and now pruned by Eric King, was the home and tea garden of Homei Iseyama. Homei was one of San Francisco’s earliest bonsai teachers and a mentor to many of the region’s bonsai masters.

The APA wishes to extend a big thank you to our garden hosts for welcoming us into their gardens: Bronya Feldman, Gary Barg and Ross Jackson, Jason Graham and Kim Austin, and Mark and Eleana Wohlforth.

The experience from this recent garden tour will help the APA shape a tour we’re planning for 2024 in conjunction with the North American Japanese Garden Association (details to come).

APA Upcoming Events

Pruning for Birds

Revisiting Habitat Pruning in Fall

Allison Levin, CAP #34

This is my fourth quarterly column on Pruning for Birds, rounding out the seasons for the year. My goal has been to convey the urgency of protecting and promoting bird habitat in our work. I laid out the reasons for bird habitat protection in January’s newsletter. Nest-survey steps were included in April. As a follow-up, I described nest timing and related bird family activities that pruners want to consider in July’s issue.

So what’s the word (bird is the word!) now? In fall, most nesting activities have ended (although hummingbirds are one exception, and owl species are already starting their courtships). Many other birds are migrating to winter feeding grounds in the temperate areas of the U.S. and points south. This season, birds are mostly doing other things besides housekeeping and raising up young.

But fall and winter are the times when we pruners start scheduling our more dramatic cuts; it is also when we have time to reassess garden design. With that in mind, I’ll return to my suggestion that we embrace the art concepts of background trees. For background (and even transitional) trees and shrubs, layers that extend high to low as well as close and far create depth and interest. Fuller canopies, increased density, and —yes!—wildness can become desirable features that makes focal point pruning stand out, and bring a feeling of peaceful calm to a manicured garden.

Fall maintenance is another place where we can make a difference. Snags (dead limbs) provide habitat for many cavity nesters, and snags also provide a dramatic garden element. Leaf duff provides shelter for overwintering grubs and insects, and thus meals for overwintering birds.

Finally, fall is also garden planting season. While the APA’s mission doesn’t focus on garden installation and plant selection, many of us relish these creative tasks. And this is a great opportunity to grow bird habitat, by planting bird food. Go native! The plants that are native to your locale are the ones that caterpillars will choose, and the ones that provide nectars, fruits, and seeds that local bird and insect populations seek out. The researcher-educator Douglas Tallamy (author of Nature’s Best Hope) has documented increased, successful nesting in gardens with native plants and trees. You can find plenty of plant suggestions from your local native plant society, and garden photographers such as California’s Saxon Holt feature many native gardens to whet your imagination!

I hope these notes on pruning for birds have been inspiring and helpful. I’d like to hear from readers: what was relevant and useful for you? What challenges have come up? And, are there other aspects of pruning for birds that you’d like help in exploring? Send me a note, care of the newsletter! Thanks for reading.

APA Members-only Videos

Members can access video links to past APA Talks!

Such as: Tree Talks, APA Annual Meeting talks, and other archived presentations. Links are available on the APA Members page of the website. 

Exciting News for Members!

Video: “Benign Neglect”
with Dennis Makishima

A panel discussion with Dennis Makishima, Kenny Murakami, and Takeshi Moro recorded on September 24th, 2023 at the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center, Presidio, San Francisco, CA. This video will be available soon on the APA website!

Pruning Wisdom from Members

"What was your most beneficial hands-on learning experience when starting out as a pruner?"

The Hands-on classes (to state the obvious) helped someone like me, a total pruning beginner, to begin to understand all the rules and techniques discussed in the Saturday aesthetic pruning class series. There were so many unfamiliar aspects to this process for me, from the terminology to the plant material, that came alive in Hands-on.

I’m a good student who always works hard to get things right (you know, that annoying student in the front of the class asking too many questions…). Perhaps the most beneficial lesson I learned, however, is that there is more than one right way to prune any one specimen. I understood this to mean more than one right outcome in terms of design which is very liberating. But I think it also applies to the myriad pruning techniques.  

One example stands out in my memory: start at the apex and work your way down. I routinely break this rule. When approaching a tree, I do try to get a general sense of the degree to which I want to lower or reshape the apex but I feel I can’t see the desired shape of a tree until I am able to see through and define the lowest branches so I always start at the bottom. And sometimes it’s a practical matter that I can’t get close to the middle and top of a tree until I’ve worked the bottom. Having broken this rule for the entirety of my 9 years pruning, I can honestly say that I have never ended up with a problem when I finally reach the apex. 

It is hard to pick just one thing! All of the time spent in Michael Alliger's Hands-on class, the time with Dennis Makishima, the multitude of wonderful instructors at MCPC (Merritt College Pruning Club) events—all were tremendously helpful beyond words. Aesthetic pruning is a skill set that is very multi-faceted, and each class, each teacher, each tree taught me numerous lessons about the art and craft. That being said, as I reflected on the question a couple of key points came up for me. 

The first is that in the hands-on learning environment I was able to learn if I was really going to be able to make a career as a pruner. When I first started out I knew I really wanted to do this as a career, but did I have the skills? Being in a hands-on environment with other pruners allowed me to compare my work to theirs. Was it as good? Better? How was my pace? Was I able to successfully prune a wide variety of trees? How was my ability to figure out a good plan, verbalize it, and then carry it out? Getting positive answers to these questions really boosted my confidence that I could make a living doing this. I also saw what trees I was trusted to prune and what trees others were assigned. Getting to work on focal point trees and other challenging projects confirmed that those leading the classes also had confidence in my abilities. Developing that confidence allowed me to start my own pruning business—a step that we all know is not an easy one to take!

The second thing I kept going back to was how beneficial teaching the Hands-on class was for me. It is kind of cliche to say that teaching something is how you really learn it, but for me particularly it is very true. When Michael chose me to assist him in teaching the Hands-on class, I was in my first year of business. The next year when I took over leading the class I had only one year under my belt—and a lot of that was maintenance work as well as pruning. Needless to say, I felt a lot of pressure to live up to the high standards of the Hands-on class! Michael knew all this and still had confidence in me, so I hit the ground running, determined to do my best. I boned up on all of the science of pruning our local garden trees, timing, diseases, pests, etc. But mostly I really strove to apply the artistic principles that guide our work. I studied every tree I came across, whether I was pruning it or not, and approached them like they were to be turned into works of art. Any and every note I'd ever gotten about the art and craft of our work was studied and applied to trees with a real urgency given my new role as an instructor. All of that really paid off in improving my work. It boosted my skills tremendously and put my work at a whole new level.

The benefits of hands-on pruning with a more experienced pruner are really too numerous to list. We here in the Bay Area are so lucky to have access to generations of people who grew up in the program and continue to lead it today. Take advantage! It is an unparalleled opportunity no matter your level of experience.

Welcome New APA Members

Associate Members
Lauren Thatch - Snellville, GA

Affiliate Members
Jeanne Cosby - Palo Alto, CA
Carol Koffel - San Francisco, CA
Jennifer Luks Perarnaud - Petaluma, CA

Student Members
Kyle Edgren - Concord, CA
Beth Krebs - Oakland, CA
Karen Weins - Milpitas, CA

Book Review

Lary Huls, CAP #41

The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy

A professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife at the University of Delaware, Douglas Tallamy has become the rock star of the native plants fanbase. Beyond bugs, his knowledge of flora and fauna is encyclopedic. And he’s engaging enough to speak to the Back to the Natives Garden Tour here in the East Bay, in Northern California.

In his previous book, Nature’s Best Hope, he proposed a radical notion: the Homegrown National Park. We build a network of native plantings at households across the country replacing sterile monocultures of turf. If we could get a relatively small percentage of households to do this, we would have a national park with more square miles than several of our current parks combined. To help with this, he identified six ecosystems and then what he calls keystone plants for each. At the top of the list for every area is an oak. In The Nature of Oaks, he explains why.

Oaks support the largest populations of pollinators, and those pollinators feed the greatest numbers of birds. The book is arranged by month, and you learn that a caterpillar that can use an oak in, say, April, can’t use it in September so there’s a whole new guest list. You’ll see why leaf miners are small enough to hide between the top layer of the leaf and the bottom. Many different wasps play into the circle of life. There’s a lot of them laying their eggs in a caterpillar and then leaving to let the egg hatch and eat its way out. Sort of cringey.

Our friend Stephon [recurring character on Saturday Night Live, portrayed by Bill Hader] would say it best: Club Oak, designed by our oldest tree designer, has everything: masting, marcescence, pale and conehead diplurans, detritivores, ants for security guards, assassin bugs, and gregarious caterpillars. It’s the place to be this weekend. Check it out.

APA News

Lara Miranda, CAP #65

2024 APA/NAJGA Regional

The North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) is partnering with the APA to hold a regional event next Fall (2024) here in the Bay Area! We are holding our first APA planning meeting on Zoom on Thursday, November 2nd at 6:30pm. We will discuss what kinds of events we would like to participate in (such as pruning workshops, garden tours, and more), and then create them together. It is a great opportunity to make something happen which benefits everyone! If you'd like to be a part of this virtual committee, please drop me a line: apapresident@aestheticprunersassociation.org.

_____________________________________

Jeff Becerra

Do you know what your APA public listing says about you?

The newly updated APA website serves not only pruners, but potential clients looking to find an aesthetic pruner to help with their garden. The “Find a Pruner” section of the website does just that. We want you to find some great clients, and for the public to easily find tree care specialists trained in the art of aesthetic pruning.

To update your listing, sign into the APA website at https://www.aestheticprunersassociation.org/sign-in#myaccount, then click the “Profile” tab in the middle of the page. From there, it’s a straightforward process to upload a profile photo and/or some tree shots as well, and add a description of your business – where you work and what you specialize in. If you’re looking for ideas on what to say, check out the full member directory (https://www.aestheticprunersassociation.org/full-member-directory#!directory/ord=lnm) to see some examples.

Please take a minute to update your information so we can have this section of the website be as useful as possible!

Trade News

Melissa Hyams, CAP #55

North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) Regional workshop

Co-hosted by Gresham Japanese Garden Tsuru Island

Gresham, Oregon

September 21-24, 2023

The NAJGA Regional workshop in Gresham, Oregon was an inspiring, profoundly moving and sunshiny few days. 

On Day One, we started a day of garden tours with a visit to the gorgeous Conifer Garden at the Oregon Garden in Silverton with Maryann Lewis, one of the founders of the APA. The next was a uniquely moving experience in a one-of-a-kind Japanese Healing Garden at the Oregon State Penitentiary designed by Hoichi Kurisu and constructed and cared for by OSP inmates. And lastly, we visited Arbutus Garden Arts, a garden and nursery created and operated by botanists and plant collectors Norm and Deb Jacobs, where we learned a lot about plant propagation.

Day Two started with a presentation by Bartlett Tree Experts about root invigoration, and then we were off to three amazing tours of Oregon nurseries. We went to Iseli Nursery, known for their amazing conifers and Japanese Maple cultivars. We toured one of the largest wholesale nurseries in the country, J. Frank Schmidt & Son, where we watched Ginkgo grafting, learned about propagation and how long it takes to get a tree from the nursery and into the hands of gardeners. We finished the day at Bentwood Tree Farm, where we learned about Laura and Tom's growing and pruning techniques, and ended the visit with a delicious dinner in their garden.

Day Three was spent at the Gresham Japanese Garden, learning the inspiring history of and touring a ¾ acre Japanese garden rescued from utter neglect and created anew entirely from the skilled and tireless work of volunteers over the past 12 years.

On Day Four, we participated in a hands-on nobedan garden path workshop led by Francheska Snyder of Niwa Method. The Gresham Japanese Garden is working on a new entry garden to the Kyoudou Center that Francheska has designed. Participants completed four sections of the nobedan in small groups. Assisting Francheska in teaching the workshop were Lincoln Proud, Adam Hart, and Bill Proppe. 

____________________________________

Lara Netting, author and APA Member

Article: Aesthetic Pruning at the Hammond Garden by APA Member Ralph Padilla

https://www.hammondmuseum.org/aesthetic-pruning

In her essay for the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden in North Salem, NY, Lara Netting discusses how fellow APA Member Ralph Padilla’s process of pruning various pines and junipers is revitalizing this 60-year-old garden.

Committee Chair Reports

CRAFT STANDARDS COMMITTEE
Chair Dina Blackwell, CAP #53:

Committee members: Grant Foerster, Walt Fujii, Randall Lee, Maryann Lewis, Lara Miranda, Judy Thomas.

The committee would like to congratulate our three newest APA Certified Aesthetic Pruners Shirley Brewin CAP #66, Ethan Coté CAP #67, and Michael Goertz CAP #68!

The committee is working on streamlining the virtual testing process and on updating all of the documents required to run the testing process. 

If you would like to become an APA Certified Aesthetic Pruner® (CAP), please send in your application by March 1, 2024 to qualify for the spring testing period. We highly recommend joining the CAP Mentoring group for help with your portfolio and preparing for the 3-part CAP Test.

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EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Co-chair Lara Miranda, CAP #65: 

Committee members: Jane Chua-Couzens, Judy Thomas, Evelyn Borchert, Joe Ehrmann, Nicole LaPlante, Lara Miranda, Grant Foerster, Allison Levin, Ann Owen.

We have two more Tree Talks this year, as well as another New Professionals talk. We have already planned 3 new Tree Talks for early in 2024, which we are very excited about. Stay tuned! If you have ideas for a Tree Talk you'd like to see, send me a note!

We are always looking for new ideas from our members on what you'd like to learn more about and discuss! Share your ideas with us! Send any thoughts or comments to apapresident@aestheticprunersassociation.org, and see you at the next New Pros or Tree Talk.

_______________________________________________________________

FINANCE COMMITTEE
Chair Barbara Eaton, Treasurer, CAP #60: 

Committee members: Lara Miranda, APA President; Dina Blackwell, APA Board Member; Melissa Hyams; Nina Rizzo; Mark Mendell; Shivawn Layne, Accountant; Helga Mahlmann, former Accountant.

In the third quarter, the APA’s main sources of income were membership dues and garden tour tickets, as well as a donation to the Sachiko Umehara Scholarship Fund. The successful Art of Pruning Garden Tour on October 8th raised just over $2,100. Our third quarter expenses included general administrative costs, residual expenses from the Fruit Tree Pruning Intensive back in June, and design fees for our revamped e-newsletter. We welcome new Finance Committee members Nina Rizzo and Mark Mendell – many thanks for volunteering! Our next committee meeting will be in mid-November. Anyone interested in joining the Finance Committee is welcome to email Barb at apatreasurer@aestheticprunersassociation.org.

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MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Chair Denise Mason, CAP #61: 

Committee members: Dina Blackwell, Evelyn Borchert, Maryann Lewis.

July - September 2023:  158 active members, including 4 new members. New members consist of:
2 Associates
2 Students

Geographical distribution of new members:
2 from California (Bay Area)
1 from Georgia
1 from New Jersey

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NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE
Chair Dina Blackwell, CAP #53: 

Committee members: Barbara Eaton, Denise Mason, Lara Miranda,

The newsletter committee meets to put together content for our quarterly publication.  If you have any ideas for stories, or would like to write one yourself, please contact Dina at dinasgardens@gmail.com.

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PROMOTIONS COMMITTEE
Chair Jeff Becerra: 

Committee members: Dina Blackwell, Jane Chua-Couzens, Barb Eaton, Melissa Hyams, Nina Rizzo.

Recent APA promotions work has focused on supporting the recent Art of Pruning Garden Tour, and staffing a table at the Autumn Lights festival from October 12-14 at Lake Merritt in Oakland. Many a pruner has lent their ladder climbing skills to help hang the evocative lighted artworks for the festival, which draws thousands each year. The community-oriented fundraiser benefits the Gardens at Lake Merritt. Tres Lundquist, Shirley Brewin and Jeff Becerra staffed the APA table inside the Art Market to educate participants about aesthetic pruning and the APA.

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WEBSITE COMMITTEE
Chair Jeff Kowalski: 

Committee members: Dina Blackwell, Melissa Hyams, Jeff Kowalski, Lara Miranda

We hope you've been enjoying the new website, which has been active since early May.  See https://www.aestheticprunersassociation.org/.

Did you know the APA website has a terrific discussion forum?  There you can post and view messages about pruning, be they announcements, questions, tips and pointers, or job opportunities.

For simple instructions on how to access the forum, view and post messages, and how to subscribe to email notifications of new content, see https://tinyurl.com/apa-forum-instructions.

The website committee meets as needed. If you'd like to help/contribute to the website, please contact Jeff at jeff.kowalski@gmail.com.