GL(N) Farm and Forest Research Co. Ltd.

03/14/2019

Our Tree Preservation Plans are 100% organic and guaranteed gluten-free!

06/24/2016

04/26/2013

Happy Arbor Day 2013 from your friends at Farm and Forest! Hug a tree today, and you could win!

11/02/2012

Farewell Ronda, our work horse over the last 29 yrs. We will miss you dearly, and know that no truck will ever compare! You pulled many a load, and always got the job done! Best GMC 3500 ever!
Ronda - GMC 3500 Sierra - 1983 - 2012

06/18/2012

Landscape Tip

Summer is fast approaching and this june there are some key pests to keep an eye out for. One of these pests, and our focus for this post, is wooly beech aphid. This little insect attacks beech trees, latching on to the undersides of the leaves and feeding vigorously until serious damage is done to the plant! To check for these little bugs look on the undersides of your beech leaves and see if there are little white wooly looking clumps present. This white substance is actually a waxy coating that protects the insect making it harder to control with contact applications. However fear not! A local professional can help to eliminate this pest as they will have stronger controls available to them.
So take a look at your beech trees this week and check to see if this pest has taken root on your specimens. Early detection will help to make controling this pest easier.

05/04/2012

05/04/2012

Landscape Tip of the Week

Hello again everyone! As the weeks keep rolling by many of us are now starting to enjoy the new green growth on all of our plants. But with this new growth comes the inevitable maintainence of our various plants. So in order to help you identify some problems that will be arising in the coming weeks, this week we'll be focusing on a common plant pest, the dreaded Euonymus Scale! Many of us have large quantties of euonymus on our properties that we rely on for various uses in our gardens, ranging from foundation plantings to groundcover to even grafted ornamental tree form varieties. This insect however can impact the health of your euonymus and left unchecked can even result in the loss of the plant. When checking for scale insects on euonymus the first thing to know is what they look like. These insects are quite small and will look like small grains of rice that are white in colour (Refer to our pictures for a shot of this pest). Check for them on the undersides of the leaves and on the stems of your plant! If found they can be controlled using a landscape oil product (dormant oil/horticultural oil) which can be obtained through your local garden center or Home depot/canadian tire type store (use as directed on the label). Make sure when applying the oil to the plant to get good coverage of all leaves (undersides of the leaf) and stems of your plants! For best results applications should be done in the last week of May to the first week of June. Not interested in treating this pest yourself?? A Landscape professional or horticulturalist can help! Check out our website for more details.
Hope all of you enjoy the weekend!

04/19/2012

Landscape Tip of the Week

Hello everyone! As our plants continue to leaf out in the GTA through this spring, the foliage can be susceptible to fungal attack! Most commonly seen on plants such as apple, and pear, many fungi will affect the aesthetic appeal of the plantings on your property. Fungi such as apple scab will be a continual problem as the seasons progress, as many spores are airborne and are carried on the wind; but don't worry it can be treated!!!! As new foliage is emerging, treat the plant with a fungicide, such as copper or lime sulphur that can be picked up from your local garden center. treat these issues again as you see them arise through the year and repeat about once every two weeks. Alternatively, you local plant health care specialist can also help treat these issues, and will often have more powerful treatment options availalbe to them! Here at Farm and Forest we offer multiple options for controling fungal problems on your plants! for more info visit our website!
Take Care Everyone!

04/11/2012

Landscape Tip of the Week - April 11

Hi again everyone! This weeks tip has to do with identifiying a common pests on you spruce tree, and how to control it! This pest is the unsightly Spruce Gall Adelgid!!!! At this time of year these pests have overwintered in their little (or not so little) adelgid galls, which can be easily identified, and removed from the plant. These galls look like a little miniature pineapple at the areas of 1 year old growth at this time of year.
If you are seeing these in your spruce trees they can be controlled by removing them from the plant, or alternatively by spraying. In the spring, applications of dormant oil work well, but if these pests are on blue spruce, oil application will wash out the blue color of the plant and as such is not advised for that species of spruce. However, you can also controll this pest by applications of insecticides later in the season (approx. 1st weeks in sept.).
Take a look at our photos to see for yourself the look of this landscape pest in both Blue spruce, and other species of Spruce.

03/29/2012

Landscape Tip of the Week - March 29th

Hello there everyone! We've had some fluxuating temperatures lately in the GTA and i'm sure many of you are wondering how this will affect your flowing plants this spring. At this time we haven't had a hard freeze but we have had an overnight frost. This frost will cause some damge to any plantings that are in flower currently, as a result of the unseasonable warm temperatures we've had over the past weeks allowing them to flower early. Most noticable will be the browning and mortality of flowers on magnolia and forsythia plantings. If your noticing brown, wilty flowers on these plants don't worry too hard! Although this is unsightly and is not ideal for your plants, they should be able to bounce back from this frost injury. Magnolias will likely drop these flowers and try to push new, using up some extra resources in the process, and forsythia will likely just shed their flowers as a result. Assuming your plantings are well maintained and fed, they should bounce back from this injury.
On the plus side of this frost, many insects that may have been moving early after hiding through the winter will now be greatly hampered by these cold temps! Hopefully all those pesky plant invaders will get a taste of a little canadian freeze and their populations will be reduced, meaning less stress for your plantings this spring!