These oaks were expesive to bring in and transplant. I don't know exactly when but 'sgreenbeans' might. Now look at them.
Jeff
Jeff
Canyon Hills
- Thread starter jefflovstrom
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Seems construction and grade changes were not thought about.
Jeff
Jeff
Mikecutstrees
ArboristSite Guru
Wow that sucks, That is one of the big reasons I don't plant. What happens when something like that craps out? Does the guy who planted it have to buy a new one and replant? It sure is a big bill board saying don't use ____ tree service they do bad work. A company near me transplanted a big jap maple and had their sign by it when it was all wilted and dead. Bad advertising.
Mike
Mike
You know that was alot of money to dot it. I got a pic of one of them up close at the base. Scott knows these trees and he lives in Iowa and has more info than me. I will post a pic of the base.
Jeff
Here.
Jeff
Jeff
Here.
Jeff
Oops!
Mikecutstrees
ArboristSite Guru
Wow, they planted that POS. And they buried it from the looks of it. Yikes....
Mike
Mike
Hi Mike, I can't sat they were planted that way. I noticed a couple of years ago they were declining. Maybe when they put in that monument wall and path-way behind the monument, it was done with-out thought to the rz.? Look at them, dang near all of them are, well, you know. Scott knows more about the history than me.
Jeff
Mikecutstrees
ArboristSite Guru
Oaks don't like their roots buried. People are always amazed when I ask them how long ago the fill was applied. Like I'm a damn magician or something. Haha.... Mike
Think about this, the monument and path way are constructed inside the drip line. They have amazing old oak's all around, but I think they or someone had an idea to center-piece these monuments with oaks and did it backwards. Just my opinion.
Jeff
Jeff
How long you guarantee a tree you planted is a negotiated item between you and the customer. If the customer wants a year guarantee, then you have a good opportunity to sell a 'tree maintenance package' which could include mulching, fertilizing, watering etc. Personally, I would never guarantee a tree longer than 1 growing season.
We plant a lot of trees and hedges. Some die for whatever reason, but when you plant a 50 tree hedge and a couple die in the middle, I usually put it down to poor individual plants. However, I don't think that have planted trees die has ever affected us from a marketing perspective.
sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
Valley Crest installed them for Gothic/Pardee. We took over maintenance after the 90 day turnover. They had drip emitters installed to all trees and vertical mulch tubes, the trees sat lower in the median and was landscaped in a manor to accommodate that, very heavy maintenance to keep the irrigation system going, they use reclaimed water and the pump house had bad filters( could never convince Pardee what was needed) filters would clog with Toilet Paper (GROSS!) We would spend hours cleaning all the emitters every week, and had to constantly reset the DX-2 timer, as we believed another company had a key (one key fits all) and would shut it off! Another issue that was a constant battle with the HO's, was they would always want to walk in the median and steal the annual's, when doing so, they would walk around the trees, stepping on the emitters that where hidden, smashing them.
Originally they installed rock around the tree (like a dry creek bed). Looks like at some point they filled the medians up with mulch to match the grade. Trees had issues from the beginning with the irrigation Had several proposals to Pardee to correct them,we wanted to remove the drip and have a quick coupler installed so we could manually water. They never did anything, "can it wait till the HOA takes over" was the common reply. Im not sure the actual cost of the trees, wasn't involved in that part, but was told around 400,000 for all. I will find out actual cost. We didn't have the monuments then either. Trees did well while Gothic had the contract, we lost to LDI in 03 (we increased our bid to accommodate all the irrigation issues) Probably why we lost it. It sucks to see that, like I said before, lots a work went into them to keep them going. To bad, looks like the pocket book took them out. HOWEVER!! I am very happy that, since the had to come out, that JEFF got them! I was told a few years ago that a kid hit the tree down at the entrance and was killed, you know about that Jeff?
MAN O MAN, I hated that place! CANYON HELL! If a pop up Rain Bird head clogged for 1/2 a day, that spot would be BROWN the next day! All my crews had about a $2500 "quick fix" irrigation kit with them, just for that place! I carried one too! Never painted grass until I got to Cali!
Originally they installed rock around the tree (like a dry creek bed). Looks like at some point they filled the medians up with mulch to match the grade. Trees had issues from the beginning with the irrigation Had several proposals to Pardee to correct them,we wanted to remove the drip and have a quick coupler installed so we could manually water. They never did anything, "can it wait till the HOA takes over" was the common reply. Im not sure the actual cost of the trees, wasn't involved in that part, but was told around 400,000 for all. I will find out actual cost. We didn't have the monuments then either. Trees did well while Gothic had the contract, we lost to LDI in 03 (we increased our bid to accommodate all the irrigation issues) Probably why we lost it. It sucks to see that, like I said before, lots a work went into them to keep them going. To bad, looks like the pocket book took them out. HOWEVER!! I am very happy that, since the had to come out, that JEFF got them! I was told a few years ago that a kid hit the tree down at the entrance and was killed, you know about that Jeff?
MAN O MAN, I hated that place! CANYON HELL! If a pop up Rain Bird head clogged for 1/2 a day, that spot would be BROWN the next day! All my crews had about a $2500 "quick fix" irrigation kit with them, just for that place! I carried one too! Never painted grass until I got to Cali!
treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
Wow 400K to have those trees for what 10 years , thats some expensive scenery , and to use waste water with solids , disgusting to say the least , and a sprinkler system directly hooked up with a drip emitter, those tree didn't't have chance ...
sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
Yep! You HAVE NO IDEA!!! Those builders out their would spend money like there was no end! we would go to the model homes, rip out all the landscape and replace it every year so it looked fresh! Near the holidays,any holiday, we would install hundreds of flats that had a 16 count of some annual, it usually would be schemed to match the current holiday, we would do this every couple of months to the tune of about 15g's, it was crazy out there, landscaping basic fronts, about 75-100 house a week @3500 a piece, money was moving real fast! I loved it, very fun. Just wish I was making all the money, I was just an employee. I was the maintenance side or "Red G" Account/Operations Manager for San Diego and Riverside county's. "Blue G" was installation. I tried getting my own tree div set up, "Green G". But then I was done with Eastlake, time to go back to Iowa.
The HOA just turned Phase 4 over to us. Canyon Hills is getting huge. We do a lot in Eastlake also. Park West is all over Eastlake.
Jeff
Jeff
sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
Just seen this one! Yeah they buried those! Geez, wonder how much mulch is in there? those where kinda deep medians, I'm sure that is the reason for the decline and rot down at the base, thats gotta be over a foot of mulch there! I know that when we had them, we put or best effort into keeping them healthy, they needed LOTS of water, after we lost it, cant speak on what they did, but it doesn't look good!
Jeff do they even still have the timers there anymore, big silver tower, with a flip up lid, DX-2 Irritrol(sp?), the things where 40g's apiece at Hydroscape, should have been one in the big lower median and one on the corner of Railroad?
I'm guessing here but this is what I bet happened, HOA took over, Landscape company probably didn't have the history, that median was HIGH maintenance, lots of hours every week to maintain, HOA wants to spend less, cut out all the pretty stuff that is hard to take care of, fill in with mulch, dowse with weed killer, buried the drip system, or took it out altogether, new company to manual water but didn't, then, tree started to stress, landscapers blamed, told to water,when they did, the saturated it, soaking the mass amount of mulch, essentially burying the tree in a nice warm,wet environment, condusive to all things bad! this was probably a cycle that happened over and over, poor tree!
While I was their, I had 1 crew there all week, on thur/friday, my mow crew would show to cut grass and do extra's, Blue G had 2 crews on site all week installing, I would constanley "steal" the Blue G guys to help us.
When LDI took over, they sent one crew with 3 guys, not enough, each of my crews had six guys. And that wasn't enough, like I said before, we where loosing money in labor, about 80% of budget, so when it was time for renewal, we bid it to make the bare minimum 11% net. This worked out to like 58'g a month, we where getting 27g's, Pardee told us to get lost!
Glad you brought this on here Jeff, good times out there, I learned a tremendous amount of knowledge there and met several, really cool people. I have always said I will make it back some day as I believe that SD is the "BigShow"
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sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
Do you see Gothic in SD anymore?, Mike over at Brickman Group was my Branch Manager, he told me that after me and Dana left, Reg left, then he left. Gothic essentially dried up and blew back to LA.
The market here is surely different. Pardee is still buiding in Canyon Hills. I don't think the oaks get any water. you are right about how much they buried those trees. Great deals on homes in foreclosure there. You can google Lake Elsinore map and click satellite and see how huge it is getting.
Jeff
Jeff
I see Gothic some in San Marcos, but not like before. The competition is tough for landscapers here.
Jeff
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