Dr. Dan Herms, vice president and general manager of the Davey Institute, takes us through Davey's newly completed SEED Campus. Since its opening in August 2025, several programs, trainings and initiatives have started taking place there, which is strengthening safety, training and research in the green industry. You can watch this podcast in video form to see the completed property come to life. Watch the YouTube video, Tour the Completed SEED Campus with Dr. Dan Herms.

In this episode we cover: 

• What does SEED stand for? (0:46)
• Climbing center (1:12)
• Sustainability (1:36)
  • SITES certification and the stormwater retention program (2:00)
• Dan's feelings about the SEED Campus opening (2:42)
• Research initiatives (3:09)
• Arboretum (3:48)
• The Davey Institute offices, classrooms, archives and event center (4:17)
• Golf greens (5:16)
• Bog (5:41)
• Training programs at SEED (6:38)
• Utility training (7:29)
• Canopy walk (8:21)
• Greenhouses (9:28)
• Tree research plantation (9:54)
• Why is SEED important for Davey's clients? (10:35)
• What's next for the campus? (11:11)
• What are Dan's hopes for the future of the SEED Campus? (11:54)

To watch Doug's tour of the property with Dr. Herms, watch the video on YouTube here. 

To learn more about the SEED Campus, visit www.Davey.com/SEED.

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Throughout the Talking Trees podcast, we’ve asked Davey employees questions like "How did you become an arborist?" and "Why is this job right for you?" In this special episode, we’ve compiled eight arborists' inspiring answers that share the journeys that brought our team to where they are today. 

In this episode we cover the stories of: 

• Brad McBride, district manager of Davey's West Cleveland office (0:46)
• Chelsi Abbott, plant pathologist with the Davey Institute (2:04)
• Aaron Hoot, district manager of Davey's Dallas office (3:47)
• Jason Parker, district manager of Davey's Warminster office (6:49)
• Kevin Sproule, assistant district manager of Davey's Edmonton office (7:54)
• Taylor Judd, sales arborist at Davey's East Denver office (9:02)
• Joe Berg, district manager of Davey's East Bay office (11:05)
• Natascha Batchelor, sales arborist at Hartney Greymont, a Davey company, in Cape Cod (12:31)

To learn more about careers at Davey, visit www.Davey.com/Careers.

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Jacob Ryg, district manager of Davey's South St. Paul office, debunks common winter tree care myths and shares practical tips to keep your landscape healthy throughout the season. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Does a tree need water in the winter? (0:45)
• How much watering does your tree need? (1:58)
• Minnesota's season so far (2:30)
• Should all pruning wait until spring? (2:52)
• Snow and ice damage trees (4:38)
• How to manage wet snow on trees (5:22)
• Prune before winter sets in (6:33)
• Can tree care wait until spring? (7:34)
• Tree wraps (9:20)
• Should you let trees heal themselves? (11:05)
• Don't rake up all your leaves (12:29)
• Prairie lawns (14:57)
• Plants and grasses for prairie lawns (16:44)
• Environmental impacts of prairie lawns (18:42)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Matt Scott from Davey's Raleigh office talks all about tree pruning, including best practices, safety, ideal times to prune and why a certified arborist is best for the job. 

In this episode we cover: 

• What can homeowners prune themselves? (0:46)
• Assess if your tree needs pruning or not (1:42)
• Safety while pruning (2:57)
• Teaching clients to prune from the ground (4:00)
• When is the right time to prune a tree? (5:45)
• When to prune an oak or elm tree (7:28)
• The worst things homeowners can do to trees (8:22)
• Have a certified arborist prune your trees (9:24) (20:45)
• The importance of the right tools (10:43)
• Pruning cuts (12:36)
• Fixing bad pruning mistakes (14:40)
• The artistry of pruning (18:15)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about pruning and tree care, read our blogs, What is Pruning? Importance, Benefits & Methods of Pruning, Signs Your Trees Need Pruning and our other pruning blogs. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Lou Meyer from Davey's Mid-Atlantic region talks all about the sweet gum tree, including its biology, unique features and pros and cons. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Sweet gum's spiky seeds (1:35)
• Why are they called "sweet gum?" (4:12)
• How large do they get? (6:00)
• Sweet gums aren't planted much (7:03)
• What to do about your sweet gum's surface roots (9:07)
• Where do they grow? (10:52)
• Are the black gum and sweet gum related? (11:39)
• Sweet gum identifying features (12:42)
• Crafts with sweet gum seeds (14:54)
• Fruit regulators (16:00)
• Do sweet gums belong in the forest? (18:15)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about tree species, read Davey's Tree Identification blogs, such as Tree Identification: Do I Have a Sweetgum Tree and more. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Michael Cassidy, sales arborist at Davey's West Columbus office, shares his list of scary movies featuring spooky trees, eerie forests and creepy plants just in time for Halloween. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Doug's favorite horror movie (1:22)
• Doug and Michael's Halloween traditions (2:40)
• Scary movies with scary trees and plants  
  • Pumpkinhead (4:34)
  • The Wicker Man (5:01)
  • Ernest Scares Stupid (6:02)
  • Blair Witch Project (7:26)
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers (8:13)
  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (11:39)
  • Color Out of Space (12:06)
  • Moonstruck (12:38)
  • Midsommar (13:14)
  • Jumanji (14:02)
  • Predator (15:01)
  • Alien (15:44)
  • Wrong Turn (16:41)
  • The Watchers (17:02)
  • The Evil Dead series (17:35)
  • Gaia (19:57)
  • The Wizard of Oz (20:27)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about scary trees and plants, read Davey's blog, Zombie Trees: What You Need to Know. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Sam Heywood, area manager for Davey Resource Group (DRG), talks about urban forestry and answers listener questions about planting native species in urban environments and how climate change is affecting the species we plant. 

In this episode we cover: 

• What is DRG? (0:48)
• Tree inventories (2:01)
• How did Sam start working at Davey? (3:55)
• Why should we have trees in cities? (4:45)
• DRG's impact on urban forestry (7:17)
• Listener questions
  • Ecological benefits of native trees in urban environments (9:08)
  • Tree that provide ecological benefits in urban environments (15:42)
  • How do Davey arborists plan to keep the benefits of urban forestry alive throughout the years? (17:53)
  • Lifespan of urban trees (21:20)
• DRG's work to help cities with their trees (22:35)
• Sam's favorite trees (24:17)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about DRG's work with urban forestry, visit our webpage, Urban & Community Foresty Services. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Adam Passo, district manager of Davey's Milwaukee office, talks about all kinds of trees and plants with winter interest, explaining how their berries, bark and foliage stand out during colder months. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Evergreens (0:44) (8:42)
• Trees with four-season interest (1:27)
  • Three-flowered maple (2:09)
  • Paperbark maple (3:39)
• Do trees with winter interest shine in other seasons? (5:14)
• London plane vs. Sycamore (5:55)
• Concolor fir (7:41)
• Sunkissed arborvitae (7:47) (10:01)
• Blue juniper (8:01) 
• How do arborists recommend unknown trees? (9:09)
• Japanese white pine (10:20)
• Winter interest trees' berries (11:05)
• What was Wisconsin's summer season like? (12:42)
• Shagbark hickory (13:11)
• Stewartia (14:35)
• Red twig dogwoods (15:13)
• Peach hydrangeas (15:57)
• Adam's experience and travels as an arborist (16:44)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about trees and plants with winter interest, read our blog, Best Trees to Plant for Winter Color. 

To read our blogs about tree care in the winter, read our blogs, Can You Plant Trees, Shrubs or Evergreens in the Winter? and Winter Watering Tips for Evergreens. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Craig Stone, assistant district manager at Davey's South Pittsburgh office, talks about unique trees that can increase landscape diversity, along with key characteristics homeowners should consider when selecting the right tree for their yard. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Silverbell trees (0:55)
• Diversity in our landscape (1:53)
• Client responses to unique species recommendations (2:25)
  • Characteristics for homeowners to consider (3:18)
• Magnolias (5:32)
  • Where should you plant a magnolia tree? (9:01)
  • Can Southern magnolias survive in Pittsburgh's climate? (10:21)
• Stewartia trees (11:20)
• Dogwood trees (12:14)
  • Where should you plant a dogwood tree? (14:03)
• Sentimental value of trees (14:36)
• How did Craig become an arborist? (15:38)
• Black gum trees (16:49)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about unique tree species, read our Tree Selection Guide blogs. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!

Zane Raudenbush, manager of research operations at the Davey Institute, shares expert tips on managing your lawn during the fall season, including turf health, grass types, sodding and more. 

In this episode we cover: 

• Zane's role at Davey (0:32)
• How the Eastern U.S. drought is affecting turf health (1:17)
• Can dead turfgrass recover? (3:44)
• Turfgrass seeds (4:35)
• Watering (6:38)
• Sod (8:04)
• Fall weed control (12:11)
  • Nutsedge (12:17)
  • Now (early fall) is the best time for fall weed control (14:00)
• Fall fertilization (15:11)
• Can you overseed your lawn to make it look healthier? (17:31)
  • Buy high-quality seeds (18:00)
• How Zane keeps his lawn green (21:30) (27:19)
• When and how to cut your grass in fall (24:10)
• Stoloniferous and rhizomatous grass (26:05)
• Bring a professional in to look at your grass (29:00)
• Should you leave fall leaves on your grass? (29:28)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about keeping your landscape healthy this season, read our Lawncare & Maintenance blogs. 

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!