MENUYou may have received a thick envelope from Birchcrest Tree & Landscape or may receive one soon. I urge you to open it and act now to save a significant amount of money. Sent to all our Plant Health Care and Lawn Care customers, it’s their 2023 contract renewal. And it contains a time-sensitive financial incentive. If your valuable landscape isn’t currently protected by this service, one of our consultants would be happy to inventory your property and make a proposal.
Some people have told us that this mailing looks so intimidating that they just set it aside. If this includes you, please accept our apologies, but every paper in the packet is mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
We must provide you with all kinds of technical information on every material we are apt to apply, and we need your signature on the contract that is also in the packet before we can provide any Plant Health Care or lawn care services.
Returning the contract with payment for the full year before the date on the contract can save you a significant amount of money. The saving is often more than that money will earn in a bank account.
Why do we offer this incentive? Because it results in savings for us, and we are sharing those savings with you. For example, knowing how many customers need each product allows us to more accurately determine how much to buy and get our orders in early. It also reduces accounting costs for you and for us. You don’t have to write and mail a check after each visit, and we don’t have to process it. Offering this discount is our way of saying Thank You.
You’ll still receive a form in a plastic bag hung on your front door each time we perform a service. The form will contain information on the services performed and the care you need to take to assure that any treatments will be effective. The payment section will include the cost for that visit but the balance due will be zero.
When you trust the health of your valuable lawn and landscape plants to us, you can be sure that the work will be done by one of the 12 New York State Certified Pesticide Applicators on our staff. To obtain this mandatory state license, a person must successfully complete a rigorous examination. To maintain their license, they are required to take continuing education throughout the year. The chances are good that the professional visiting your home will also be one of the nine people who have earned the voluntary Certified Nursery & Landscape Professional and/or one of the nine who have earned the voluntary Certified Arborist credential.
The benefits of being on a Plant Health Care and/or lawn care program far outweigh the hassle of having to deal with the renewal packet. First and foremost, we have diagnostic responsibility rather than saddling you with it. Our professionals can diagnose problems when they are in their early stages, so we can often treat with less aggressive materials and methods. Second, our service is automatic. You don’t have to call; we visit at the optimum time to take care of each problem.
At this time every year, many are faced with a big decision. Do we want a live or artificial Christmas tree? There are many factors in play when making that decision. Some involve family traditions, others social concerns and still others involve environmental issues. I’m not qual
ified to offer advice on keeping family traditions or social concerns, but I am qualified to advise you on environmental issues.
There are some Grinches out there who would like us to believe that we’re upsetting the balance of nature if we have a real Christmas tree. They want us to believe that cutting a real tree is a waste of natural resources. Christmas trees are grown by tree farmers as a crop to be harvested, just as wheat, corn and other crops are planted to be harvested.
Christmas tree farmers must wait longer than other farmers to harvest their crop. They don’t plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. All the while Christmas trees are growing, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it as they grow. They also return oxygen to the atmosphere – the oxygen we breathe.
Christmas tree farmers don’t just sit back and wait a decade or so for their trees to grow to a salable size. They must tend to their crops just as other farmers do. They need to control insects and diseases. They also have to prune them to maintain their desired shape. They may have to fertilize them as well. Then when it’s time to harvest the trees, they cut them, package them in nets and ship them to tree dealers.
If you opt for a fresh cut Christmas tree, cut about an inch off the base diagonally as soon as you get it home. Then place it in a bucket of water and leave it in the garage at least overnight. This will reduce the shock of going from the cold outdoors to the warm indoors.
When you set up the tree indoors, be sure that it’s kept watered throughout its stay. Keep candles and other open flames away from it. But most of all, enjoy it without feeling any guilt about the environmental impact. Remember, Christmas trees are renewable resources. Christmas tree growers are farmers who use sustainable techniques, usually planting three or more seedlings for each tree cut to assure that we have plenty of trees each Christmas.
Finally, recycle your tree after Christmas. Take it to one of the many recycling stations around the area to have it ground into mulch to either be used in municipal parks or returned to you for mulching your landscape.
For the ultimate in environmental consciousness, consider a live, potted tree. If you think this is a great idea, dig a hole for it now, before the ground is frozen and cover the backfill with a tarp to keep it from freezing. Cover the hole with a piece of plywood or other protection to keep people from falling in it. Keeping a live tree in the house for more than a week isn’t recommended. And, you should plant it as soon as you remove it from the house. It’s also a good idea to spray the tree with an anti-desiccant after planting.
Ever wonder what arborists do in the winter? Practical wisdom might lead you to answer that they go skiing, ice climbing or go to Florida. The truth is, though, that they stay here and continue working.
Arborists dress for the weather and take extra precautions on slippery surfaces. They’re used to it and trained to avoid hazards because they know winter is the ideal time to work on deciduous trees. The trees are dormant and that’s like nature’s anesthesia. Pruning, cabling & bracing and most other repairs are invasive procedures. Performing them now is far less traumatic than when sap is flowing, and the tree is foliated. Then the leaves are actively making food through photosynthesis.
Pruning cuts provide pests and pathogens with easy access to the interior of trees but many insects and disease organisms are dormant for the winter. Pruning now will give the wounds plenty of time to callous over before the insects and disease organisms become active again.
Defoliation allows our arborists to see the tree’s skeletal structure. With the leaves gone, our arborists can stand back and inspect the tree’s architecture and determine which branches need to be removed for health and aesthetic reasons. When in leaf, the leaves cover up problems and may present a different shape.
Frozen ground lets us better position equipment. A tree in the middle of your front or back yard may be difficult to reach with our bucket trucks. In spring, summer and fall, we’d have to physically climb such trees. In winter, though, when the ground’s frozen, we can often maneuver closer to the tree and prune it faster and safer.
Clean-up is also faster and easier in winter. This saves money because less debris falls by the wayside as we drag it across a snow-covered lawn. (Less friction)
It’s best to schedule your winter tree pruning now. As the winter progresses, we’re bound to have some days when the weather is just so bad that even we can’t work. Early scheduling better assures you of a time that’s most convenient for you and gives both of us plenty of options should we have to postpone.
As always, I urge you not to attempt to prune your own trees. It’s dangerous in the best weather and even worse in inclement weather. If the tree’s a flowering tree, you may unwittingly remove flower buds. Most spring flowering trees and shrubs bloom on old wood, which means this spring’s flower buds are already on the branches. To the untrained eye, they’re indistinguishable from the new leaf buds. However, our arborists are trained to identify both types of buds.
Trees with broken, hanging, crossed or rubbing branches should be professionally pruned at any time of the year. These are hazardous and should be removed before they can do any damage to people or property.
It’s that time of year again when families gather to give thanks for all that has been good this year. This gathering centers around food, the universal symbol of hospitality.
Our Birchcrest family will be gathered with their families, secure in the knowledge that we have done our best to serve every customer with the same consideration and professionalism that we would the people gathered around our dining room tables.
On behalf of our Birchcrest family, I thank you for the confidence you’ve placed in us, and pledge to continue serving you with the most knowledgeable, professional tree, landscape and tree services. Happy Thanksgiving from our Birchcrest family to all of your families.
Your landscape trees and shrubs are worth a lot of money, and, as they grow, they increase the value of your property. To the wild animals living nearby, however, they just represent a tasty meal when the winter pickings are slim.
Dining in the wide open may not be their idea of a great experience. They may not even consider your trees and shrubs gourmet fare but when their favorite food is inaccessible, they’ll turn to whatever’s available.
Persistent as these critters are, you can take steps to discourage them from dining on your growing green investment. Deer are the most difficult to discourage. They’ve become so bold that they’ll rise up on their hind legs if necessary to reach a tender tree branch. When they’re hungry enough in winter, they aren’t fussy about their diet. They’ll even eat plants you wouldn’t think they could swallow – plants like holly and barberries.
People try all kinds of deterrents but there’s no one technique or product that’s foolproof. Fencing may be the most effective but it has to be at least eight feet tall. Netting is said to work on shrubs and small trees. Tenting can also discourage deer. Drive poles into the ground around the trees and wrap burlap around the poles and attach it with staples. These tents have to be at least 12 feet tall and should be left open at the top to allow sunlight and water to reach the trees.
One deer deterrent may work for your neighbor but not for you. You’ll just have to experiment. There are repellents, which can be purchased or made using household items, and deer resistant plants like herbs. Deer love tulip bulbs but not daffodils. Mixing the two types of spring flowering bulbs in a single bed may discourage them. Hopefully, it’ll be like one food on our plate making the entire meal distasteful. If the ground hasn’t frozen, there’s still time to plant such a bed.
Don’t concentrate all your effort on discouraging deer and forget the mice, rabbits and voles. These animals are smaller and sneakier, and they can kill a tree or shrub while deer usually only disfigure it. That’s because mice and voles eat tender bark around the base of trees and shrubs. Rabbits eat bark and twigs further up the tree or shrub. They’re attracted to smaller, younger plants because they’re most tender. Mice have been known to kill plants by girdling all the way around the trunk or stem.
Mice and voles don’t like dining in public. They burrow under the snow when possible. When that’s not possible, they often dine at night. Rabbits, on the other hand, aren’t quite as paranoid. They’ll stand on top of the snow and eat. While they, too, tend to be nocturnal, they can also be seen dining by daylight at times.
There are a number of ways to discourage mice, voles and rabbits. The most basic deterrent is to keep mulch and snow away from the trunk and stems. This open space will eliminate a hiding place so the animals (mice in particular) feel vulnerable. Barriers are also effective. The easiest barrier can be made by wrapping the trunk with hardware cloth, plastic pipe or tree wrap. Some barrier directions say to offset the hardware cloth out from the trunk with wooden or PVC frames. Installing barriers can be done now before winter arrives with its full fury. However, you’ll have to keep pulling snow away from the base of your plants after every snowfall.
There’s still time this season to take any of the actions presented here. But I wouldn’t wait too long. Any measure that involves pounding poles into the ground or digging has to be completed before the ground freezes.
Your deciduous trees and shrubs have lost their leaves and the perennials are standing but brown. So, here’s the answer to the title question. Mulch is a regulator. It moderates the temperature of the soil beneath it and regulates the rate at which moisture seeps into the soil. Organic mulch like wood chips provide the bonus benefit of returning essential nutrients to the soil as it decomposes. Inorganic mulches like stone chips are only decorative and don’t provide any environmental benefits.
While the above ground portions of your trees, shrubs and perennials may appear to be dead, they’re not. They’re dormant and the roots are still alive. I compare plant dormancy with animal hibernation. In each case, the organism is alive but functioning at a significantly slower pace. As a result, plant roots continue to benefit from the regulation that mulch supplies.
It could be argued that plants need winter mulch more than summer mulch. We recommend four inches of mulch in winter but only two, and under certain conditions three, inches during the growing season.
Mulch regulates the amount of water reaching your plant roots by absorbing some of the moisture from rain and melting snow and then releasing it into the soil over time. It moderates temperature by acting as insulation, protecting the roots from the freeze/thaw cycles that we experience every winter.
When spreading mulch, don’t pile it up the trunk in a mulch volcano. Mulch provides the perfect cover for small rodents like mice as they dine on tree and shrub bark. Also, mulch touching trunks releases its water on to the trunk, rather than into the soil. Any crack, cut or break in the bark can create a perfect environment for rot and other microbes.
I recommend double ground hardwood mulch because it’s made from recycled debris from tree trimming operations. Recycling this material contributes to plant health while reducing the stream of waste going to landfills.
If you spread four inches of mulch for the winter, don’t forget to remove an inch or two in the spring. Four inches is too thick for the growing season. Measure the mulch depth before removing any in spring. Some may have already decomposed.
You can buy bags of mulch at garden centers and home stores but that’s expensive, especially for large areas. We can deliver it in bulk much less expensively. We can either dump it in your driveway for you to spread or one of our professional landscape crews can spread it for you.
It won’t be long before winter descends upon us. If you’ve lived in the Rochester/Finger Lakes area for any length of time, you know that winter scenery can range from a few flurries now and then to months of snow covering your entire landscape. How boring!
The best way to break up the visual monotony is to include winter color in your landscape design. You’re probably not going to invest in winter interest plants at this late date but there are several things to do, or not do, now to add interest to a plain vanilla winterscape.
Ornamental grass is one of the most popular winter interest groups of plants. By now, they’ve turned brown, tan or gray and have seedheads that blow and rustle in the wind. Hopefully, you resist the temptation to cut them back in the fall. If you’re one of those in the minority that does cut ornamental grass back in the fall, wait until spring this year and let nature take its course. I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see those fuzzy tan, brown or gray whisps swaying in the breeze after the first good snowfall.
You’ll still have to cut ornamental grass back but you will have deferred the job until spring. It’s important that you do cut it back in spring to make room for next year’s growth. As soon as you can get out in spring, probably in April, grab your favorite cutting tool – usually hedge clippers work best – and cut each clump of grass back as close to the ground as possible. You’ll soon see new, green shoots growing among the stubble. If you see the new shoots when you begin cutting, adjust and cut above the new growth.
Ornamental grass isn’t the only “dead” plants that can add winter interest to your landscape. Leave the stems and flowers on tall perennials for the winter, too. Perennials like Black Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) and Cone Flowers (Echinacea) come to mind because they’re tall and add color and dimension to your landscape when they’re in bloom. Keeping the stems and the last spent flowers in the fall contributes to winter interest. What more could you ask from such a plant?
Use your judgement when deciding whether to cut other perennials or let them stay until spring. For example, keep tall hostas that will peek up through the snow. Cut the shorter varieties to keep the planting bed looking clean and neat on those days when you have little or no snow.
If you like the contrast these dead plants add to your landscape this winter, plan on augmenting them next spring with plants with specific winter features. Their familiar red berries make hollies good winter interest shrubs. Most holly varieties have separate male and female plants. Be sure there’s a male in the mix to enable the female plants to bear the red berries that provide the winter interest.
A few other plants that provide winter color include red stemmed dogwood, witch hazel and hellebores. A good winter activity would be to work with one of our professional landscape designers to expand your landscape to one with four season color, rather than the three season color that’s so common here. Do this during the winter so you can be all set for our landscape professionals to install first thing in the spring and you can enjoy winter color next year.
If you haven’t battened down the hatches and prepared your landscape for the onslaught of Ol’ Man Winter, here are a few tasks that you should surely make time to complete before the snow flies:
• Clean up debris. If any debris has blown in from the neighborhood and is laying on your lawn or under your shrubs, it would by wise to remove it. Debris on your lawn can mat the grass, trap water under it and create an environment for winter fungal diseases. Debris under shrubs can limit water and air getting to the roots before the ground freezes. Besides they make your shrubs look unkempt.
• Take in ceramic & terra cotta containers. Terra cotta and many types of ceramic containers will break when frozen. Even empty containers made of these materials will break.
• Check tree crowns from the ground & arrange for professional inspection if necessary. Walk your property and check the trees. Look up in the crowns to see if you have any broken, drooping or hanging branches. Check the trunk from the ground up for damage to the bark or the presence of mushroom-like fungal fruiting bodies. If you see anything out of the ordinary, contact us for a professional inspection so any necessary repairs can be made before winter storms cause disastrous damage to people or property.
• Compost fallen leaves. Unless your home is in the middle of a forest, leaves shouldn’t be left right where they fall. Like other debris, they can mat, trap water and you’ll have to deal with renovating your lawn because of winter fungal diseases. An easy way to compost those leaves that fall on the lawn is to mulch them in your mower as you mow the grass short at the end of fall. You’ll have to rake or blow those that fall in your beds and then throw them on your compost pile.
• Winterize tools. Winterize your gardening tools before you put them away for the winter. Then you won’t have to remember to do it during the winter or get caught with servicing undone when you need them next spring. At the very least, clean both hand and power tools before putting them away for the winter. Also, drain the gas from the power equipment tanks. Gas can become contaminated if left in the tank for long periods. If you sharpen cutting surfaces, change oil, air filters and spark plugs now, you won’t have to do it in the spring. You’ll be all ready to mow when the grass is ready.
• Don’t Forget The Garden Hoses. If you watered your landscape this past summer, be sure to disconnect the hoses, drain and store them in your garage, shed or basement. Those left out for the winter can crack or break when frozen, especially if they have water in them. If you have no space inside to store them, disconnect them, drain them, coil them and store them in a sheltered place in your yard.
Spring is aptly named here in upstate New York. It often tends to spring forth on us unexpectedly. Unless you’re an avid gardener eagerly awaiting spring’s arrival, it may be here before you’re ready. However, you’ll be a step ahead if you take care of the details recommended here before winter arrives. Then you’ll be prepared when it leaves.
In my humble opinion, anti desiccant is the most economical protection against winter burn that you can provide for your evergreen trees and shrubs. That’s why I remind you of it every fall and encourage you to plan ahead for its application.
Anti desiccant’s application is very weather dependent. It can’t be applied when the temperature is too high or too low. It’s a wax-like liquid. Consequently, it can freeze when it’s cold and melt when it’s warm. We apply anti desiccant on days when the temperature is below 50ºF and above 32ºF (freezing). If we get sustained warm spells during the winter, additional applications may be necessary. Nothing needs to be done in spring, though. The anti desiccant just melts when the weather warms up.
Why apply anti desiccant? Unlike deciduous trees and shrubs that go dormant in winter, evergreens just slow down their life functions. This applies to both needled conifers like pines and broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons.
Evergreens’ leaves or needles continue to manufacture food through the energy trapping process of photosynthesis. That process requires water, which is normally absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves by the plant’s xylem. Water, also a byproduct of the process, is given off through the leaves. This is called transpiration.
When the ground is frozen, the roots can’t absorb water, so the plant reabsorbs transpired water and recycles it during photosynthesis. This is fine until the wind blows. Wind picks up transpired water droplets and carries them away before they can be reabsorbed. When this occurs, photosynthesis shuts down and the affected leaves, needles and branches die.
Desiccated leaves and branches turn brown but the whole plant rarely dies. It just has ugly brown patches, and the only remedy is to cut out the deadwood. This affects the aesthetics of an otherwise graceful, beautiful evergreen.
Evergreens provide winter interest to your landscape. The various textures and shades of green break up the otherwise desolate sea of white that greets you when you go out the door or look out the window. It’s also a much more interesting view than that of tan shrouds where your evergreens stand in summer. Before anti desiccant, it was common to wrap all evergreens in burlap. Today, only plants affected by salty road spray, young trees and shrubs that are still getting established, or tender plants that may be near the limit of their hardiness zone benefit from wrapping. The others are sufficiently protected by anti desiccant.
Garden centers and home stores sell anti desiccant in spray bottles. The most familiar brand is Wilt Pruf, and it’s in easily recognized green bottles. Buying one or two of these bottles to apply to a couple of evergreen shrubs is a good DIY project. Any more and your hand will let you know how hard it is to squeeze those spray triggers.
For properties with many or large evergreens like towering conifer trees, it’s more economical and efficient for one of our Plant Health Care professionals to apply anti desiccant. We buy it in bulk, which is considerably less than buying those consumer-size containers at retail, and you don’t have to worry about properly disposing of the empty containers. Our PHC pros apply anti desiccant with backpack sprayers that have enough pressure to reach the tops of tall trees.
You planted evergreens to enhance your landscape 12 months a year, and anti desiccant is the most economical insurance policy you can buy to protect them during our severe winters.
With autumn officially beginning, winter can’t be far behind. With it comes snow, ice, cold and swirling Arctic winds. While we retreat into our nice, warm homes, our landscape plants have to stay put. The least we can do is put a coat around their cold-sensitive roots.
That coat should consist of an extra layer of organic mulch like wood chips. Sensitive roots can be compared to human nerves. Both like the status quo and react adversely to radical changes. Mulch reduces those radical changes in several ways.
Mulch moderates soil temperatures, reducing the impact of their frequent swings on plant roots. These swings are year-round considerations. In spring, summer and fall, however, temperature swings aren’t as significant as they are in winter. They fluctuate only a few degrees in a 24-hour period. In winter, that fluctuation can be much greater and plant roots don’t like these wide temperature changes, especially those that drop from warm to below freezing and vice versa.
Mulch will minimize the effect of temperature extremes on your plants. During the spring, summer and fall, two to a maximum of three inches of mulch are sufficient. Any more is too much. In winter, however, three or four inches are preferable. Be sure to remove any mulch over three inches in the spring.
As you prepare your yard for winter, start by fluffing up the mulch already in place. Using a leaf rake, fluff it up similar to the way you would mashed potatoes or rice. Once the existing mulch is fluffed, you can measure its depth with a yardstick. Add enough new mulch to bring the depth to four inches; no more. Moisture still needs to soak through the mulch to reach the plant roots. And, remember – don’t pile the mulch up against the tree trunk. Mulch volcanoes trap moisture between the bark and the mulch, providing a good breeding ground for microbes. It also helps camouflage small mammals that may want to dine on the bark.
Organic mulch does double duty. Besides protecting your roots in the cold weather, wood chips and other organic mulches will decompose and return nutrients to the soil. Decorative mulches like stone won’t do that. It doesn’t decompose. Besides, stone mulch is cold to the touch, so it won’t moderate the soil temperature as effectively as wood.
If you don’t care for shoveling, hauling and spreading mulch, we have landscape professionals who would be happy to do these jobs for you before winter settles in.
It’s almost time for many residents and visitors to the Finger Lakes region to take their annual “Leaf Peeping” treks to the beautifully hued hills that rise from the lakes. Soon these hills will be ablaze with yellows, reds and oranges. Have you ever wondered why this phenomenon occurs and what determines which trees’ leaves will turn what color? Well, read on and I’ll explain it.
Nature equipped most broadleaf trees and shrubs with a defense mechanism to protect them from breaking under the added weight of snow falling and ice forming on the surface of their many leaves. These plants, called “deciduous” plants, lose their leaves and go dormant every fall. As a result, the surface available to snow and ice is reduced substantially. In the process of defoliating, the leaves undergo chemical transformations before falling to the ground.
As temperatures begin to cool and daylight hours get shorter, these conditions are nature’s signals to prepare for winter. First the plants go on a binge, producing food through photosynthesis to be stored in the roots to sustain the plant through the winter. When this is finished, the green chlorophyll drains from the leaves, revealing their true color – yellow.
Some leaves remain yellow while others turn orange or red. These colors are displayed when other chemicals are present. The presence of carotenoids gives leaves their yellow or orange color but aren’t seen during the growing season because of the chlorophyll. Carotenoids, which give carrots their orange color, are present to some extent in all leaves. The more carotenoid, the more intense the color.
Red leaves indicate the presence of anthocyanins, which are produced only in autumn. According to the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), these complex, water soluble compounds in leaf cells react with excess, stored plant sugars and exposure to sunlight, creating vivid pink, red and purple leaves. A mixture of red anthocyanin pigment and yellow carotene often results in the bright orange color seen in some leaves. The photo provides an excellent example of brilliant orange color. It’s near the entrance to the Seneca Waterways Council Boy Scouts of America’s J. Warren Cutler Scout Reservation in the Bristol Hills near Naples.
Colors most affected by weather are the red tones created by anthocyanin. On warm sunny days, lots of sugar is produced in the leaves. Trees exposed to brighter sunlight generate the reaction between the anthocyanin and the excess sugar, creating the bright red hue. Cooler temperatures cause the veins in the leaves to gradually close, preventing the sugars from moving out, which preserves the red tones. Thus, a succession of warm sunny days and cool crisp nights can paint the most spectacular display of color.
As the trees’ show of color comes to an end, the buds for next year’s leaves, growing at the base of this year’s leaves, force the colorful leaves to disconnect and fall to the ground before the curtain of winter descends.
Yes, it’s only September and too early to think about winter. But the reality is that winter isn’t that far off and some of the winterizing tasks for your lawn need to be done at least a month before the first frost.
Your lawn may need more than just lowering your mower. It could need aerating, fertilizing and overseeding. Start with aerifying, which removes plugs of sod from the lawn. The purpose is to let compacted soil expand and fill the areas created by removing the plugs. The expanded soil then has more area, known as pores, for the water and air grass roots need to be healthy.
Aerifying machines can be rented from tool rental stores if you feel really ambitious. My prediction is that, if you do it once, you’ll leave it to our lawn care professionals the next time. So, save yourself the not-so-pleasant experience and let us do it. When you compare our cost with what you pay to rent the machine and transport it back and forth from the rental store, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
When aerifying, the plugs of sod are left on the top of the ground to decompose and return nutrients to the soil. But this usually doesn’t provide the full amount of nutrients the soil needs to support a lawn. Consequently, your lawn will need a fall fertilization. Wait until the aerification process is completed so that there will be more pore space for the fertilizer.
Lawns whose turf is thin or suffered damage during the dry summer should be overseeded. Otherwise, you’re opening the door for weeds to take over. Weeds are stronger plants than grass, so their seeds germinate anywhere the grass is thin or dead.
After you’ve aerified and fertilized and given the fertilizer sufficient time to sink into the soil, rake the area to be overseeded. You’ll probably be surprised at the amount of thatch and grass clippings you’ll rake up. If you have a compost pile, that would be a good place to put the organic debris that you rake up. It should be noted that thatch is dead grass plants that accumulate in the turf, not grass clipping, as many believe.
The next step is to spread the grass seed at the rate indicated on the package label. The seed can be spread by hand when overseeding small areas. However, a wheeled spreader is better for large areas or entire lawns. After you’ve spread the seed, lightly rake the area to be sure the seeds are in contact with the soil. That’s the only way they’ll germinate. Finally, water well to maximize the seed/soil contact. This should be completed a month to six weeks before the date of the typical first frost.
If you want a lush lawn without the work involved, our lawn care professionals can do the complete overseeding as well as the aerifying. Then all you’ll have to do is wait for spring to enjoy your renewed lawn.
Maybe Labor Day marked the unofficial beginning of the fall season, but nobody told weeds that. These strong, adventitious plants seize upon the shoulder season to thrive and make sure they’ve provided ample opportunity for the next generation to do the same.
As adventitious plants, weeds make sure they fill up any bare spot in your lawn or planting beds. If you fell behind in your weeding during the spring and summer season, weeds may already have a foothold. This makes your job tougher in the fall. Besides having to rid your landscape of these unwanted plants, you also must rid your yard of the seeds they’ve dropped in preparation for winter.
You may want to sit back and assume that the winter will kill the weeds, no matter how strong they look. You’d be right. Before succumbing to winter’s blasts, though, those strong weeds dropped strong seeds that’ll lie dormant in the soil until next spring. Then they’ll pop up early in spring when other plants are still enjoying their winter dormancy. They’ll be able to flower and get established without competition from other plants.
These ideal conditions will allow the weeds to grow strong before the good plants wake up. Some even flower early and drop their seeds before anything else. As a result, strong, hardy weeds produce several generations a year. A weed may just be a plant growing where it wasn’t planted but where they grow seems to be to their liking because the do tend to thrive.
The best way I’ve found to fight weeds is to use everything in your arsenal. Start by spot treating the weeds with a broadleaf weed killer with both pre-emergent and post-emergent compounds. The post-emergent will kill the weeds that you see while the pre-emergent will prevent the seeds they’ve dropped from germinating.
The method I just described isn’t a one-and-done. You’ll have to keep after it. Weeds are persistent. If you want to take some aggression out, you might consider applying a pre-emergent to prevent seeds from germinating and pulling the weeds by hand.
The herbicide you select should be labeled for broadleaf weeds. A non-selective herbicide will kill all plants. Your lawn should be safe if you apply a broadleaf weed killer, but you will have to be extra careful applying it to weeds in a planting bed. The material can’t tell the difference between a weed and a desirable plant.
If you would like to leave the whole process to the pros, our lawn care professionals would be happy to make the application for you. Weed control is part of our lawn care programs but we can also provide a la carte service.
The coming of fall doesn’t signal a change in deck height for your mower. Not yet anyway. There’s still plenty of mowing left until your lawn goes dormant.
Hopefully, you’ve been mowing with the deck height at three to four inches all summer. If so, keep it at that height until the last mowing. If you’ve been mowing any lower, raise the deck up until your last mowing. For the last mowing, lower the deck to two inches.
Mowing high encourages stronger, thicker grass. Higher grass is healthier, and the longer blades of grass are able to make more food through photosynthesis. More food in the roots results in stronger roots, and thicker roots discourage weeds. Another advantage to mowing high is that you may be able mow less often. It’s like your hair; people with long hair can go longer between cuts than those with short hair. Grass blades and hair follicles grow at different rates, and the longer ones are more noticeable when the rest is short.
Long grass holds more moisture, creating an ideal environment for the fungal diseases that lawns are susceptible to in our area. That’s the reason for the last mowing being short. To know when to lower the mower, watch the weather forecasts. When the first hard frost is predicted, that’s the time to lower the mower. The mowing after the frost is the time to mow short. If that frost doesn’t drive the grass into dormancy, keep mowing low until the grass goes dormant.
Save some time and energy by combining two tasks into one – mowing and leaf mulching. Unless you have mountains of leaves on the grass surface, you can use the mulching feature on the mower to chop leaves up finely and let them fall on to the lawn. There, they’ll decompose over the winter and fertilize the lawn. If more leaves fall, there’s no reason why you can’t run the mulching mower over the lawn again, unless it has been unusually rainy, in which case you’ll have to rake or blow.
Whatever you do, though, don’t let the leaves stay on the lawn. Like long grass, leaves will retain the water from melting snow and provide the perfect climate for fungal diseases to infect your valuable lawn.,
A little preventive maintenance in the fall can go a long way toward assuring a lush, green lawn in the spring.
If the annuals in your flower beds and containers are looking rather tired, you have a decision to make. Do you replace them with more summer annuals or change them out for fall annuals? I think hesitation at fall annuals right now is the false notion that chrysanthemums, or mums, are the only choice. The truth is that there’s a great selection of annuals that bloom in the fall.
Some flowers that may have been providing color all season will continue blooming well into fall. These include violas like pansies and violets. Snap dragons and marigolds will also bloom well into the fall, as will petunias. If you didn’t have any of these in your landscape, check with your garden center. It’s not too late to plant them and enjoy their fall flowers.
If you did enjoy these flowers all spring and summer, you may have to refresh or replace them now, especially if they didn’t get enough water or do enough deadheading during the summer. Next spring, add these to your list of annuals, keep them happy and they’ll continue to keep you happy in the fall.
If you started the season with crocuses, you may want to end the season with the plant we call fall crocus. This bulb isn’t a rebloom of the spring crocus. It just looks like it. Actually, the spring crocus is a member of the same family as the iris while the fall crocus is a member of the lily family. Another common name for the fall crocus is meadow saffron but don’t get excited about the saffron name. In fact, you won’t want to confuse it with the very expensive spice. The meadow saffron, or fall crocus, is actually poisonous. The fall crocus photo was taken in October at Chanticleer, a public garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Asters also are fall bloomers. In fact, they’re the most common companion to mums. That’s because they both have similar growing requirements and blooming schedules. The list of fall blooming plants also includes Black Eyed Susans, Autumn sedum, Cranesbill (hardy) geraniums, sweet alyssum and heuchera, which is also called coral bells. Daylilies can also bloom into the fall, as can sunflowers. Bleeding hearts, another early spring bloomer, also adds another dimension to your fall plant palette.
Mums are beautiful flowers for fall but they’re overused, resulting in a monoculture in many landscapes. Monoculture (limiting your plantings to one species) is never a good idea. It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket. You drop it and they all break. That’s why it’s better to diversify your plant palette for any season.
Fall Is For Planting has been a nursery industry slogan for decades, and it’s based on sound horticultural science. It’s all about giving plants a head start on getting established in their new home. For you, it means less maintenance work than planting in the spring requires.
Granted, fall doesn’t officially start until later in September, but Labor Day is its unofficial beginning. The beginnIng of September is also when the weather starts becoming more autumn-like. Nighttime temperatures moderate while daytime temperatures stay warm. Cool nights and warm days help plants get used to cold temperatures gradually. When winter arrives, they’ll be established and ready for dormancy.
The nursery industry recommends planting most deciduous trees and shrubs in fall. Deciduous plants are those that lose their leaves in winter. Fall is also the best time to plant or split herbaceous perennials. And spring flowering bulbs like daffodils and tulips need to be planted this fall if you want them to bloom next spring.
In spring, trees and shrubs planted in the fall will break dormancy and begin growing several weeks before spring planting can get underway. Because of their earlier start, last fall’s plants require less care during the summer than spring plants. That means less watering and, possibly, less fertilizing, saving you both time and money.
Evergreens are a different story. Wait until spring to plant these trees and shrubs. Evergreens retain their leaves or needles and don’t go completely dormant. Thus, the name – evergreen. If planted in fall, they can be subject to unsightly winter burn, unless you apply anti desiccant. Also, wait until spring to plant perennials that flower on new wood like butterfly bush and big leaf hydrangeas. Otherwise, you’ll have to prune the old wood away in the spring to allow new wood, and flowers, to grow.
Contrary to the belief of some cynics, Fall is for Planting isn’t just a way for garden centers to get rid of their leftover nursery stock. Most buy fresh stock for the fall. If plants look like they are leftovers, don’t buy them. If they look fresh, go ahead. Nurseries aren’t going to invest in stock that they’ll have to overwinter.
Homeowners who want to enjoy the results of fall planted trees and shrubs without the work, turn the whole job over to our landscape professionals. Then they can be sure they have winter hardy plants and that the right plants are planted in the right places. Then all you have to do is sit back and enjoy their new plants this fall, next spring and for years to come.
As summer begins to evolve into fall, it leaves behind a voracious creature with an insatiable appetite for grass roots. I’m referring to lawn grubs.
Grubs are the larvae of Japanese beetles and European chafer beetles. Many of you have already been introduced to the parents of the grubs that will be feasting on your lawn this fall. They’re last year’s grubs in their adult stage – the big brown beetles that have been flying around. They make a nuisance of themselves by flying into the glass of your windows. Because they started this aggravating ritual a couple months ago, both species of beetles are commonly called June bugs.
Aside from their unpredictable flight patterns, June bugs are harmless to humans. Their navigation instinct may have been short circuited by their mating instinct. Once successful, the females lay their eggs in turf. When the eggs hatch, the small grubs burrow down into the sod and begin feasting on the grass roots.
As the weather gets colder, the well-fed grubs burrow further down in the ground where they overwinter. When the ground warms up in the spring, they’ll come back up and continue feasting until it’s time to pupate and morph into adult June bugs.
Don’t be lulled into complacency because you didn’t experience June bugs smacking into your windows. They aren’t restricted to laying eggs in any one spot. You may still have their progeny in your lawn. There’s an easy DIY check to see if you have grubs. Cut a one foot by one foot square of sod from several areas of your lawn. Fold back the sod. Look for any white, crescent-shaped creatures like in the photo. Check both the bottom of the section of sod and the hole from which you took it. If there are six or fewer grubs per test area, treatment is optional. There are too few to do any damage. Seven or more call for control measures.
Grubs have been destroying area lawns for decades so there are several effective grub control products available at garden and home centers, including one that’s manufactured locally. The products are granular and spread with the same spreader that you use for fertilizer.
The product label may say that it can be applied in spring or fall but a fall application is more effective. The grubs will have just hatched so they’ll be small and weak. By next spring, they’ll be well fed, strong and several times bigger than they are now. As a result, you may have to make more than one application in spring but only one in fall.
Another reason for a fall application is that the fully grown grubs will damage your lawn. You’ll see brown spots where they’ve eaten the roots. In the fall, the young grubs are eating less, causing less surface damage.
Lawns on our lawn care program receive grub control in the fall if they need it. We can also apply grub control for those not on our program if you don’t want to bother checking for grubs and applying control yourselves.
Can you believe this is nearly the middle of summer? That means that all the spring landscape work’s done and it’s too early to begin fall work. Does that mean you’re getting bored just sitting on the deck or patio enjoying the results of your labor? Here are some maintenance tasks you can still do now to spruce up your yard before the dog day of summer that roll around in August.
• Change out faded annuals. Annuals are only temporary plants. They grow, they go to seed and then they die. Thus, the name – annuals. If weather conditions in your area have caused your annuals to begin fading already, now would be a good time to replace them. It’s too early for fall plants like mums so more spring/summer flowers would be appropriate.
• Continue to deadhead. Deadheading is the practice of removing spent flowers before they can go to seed. This encourages the plants to direct their energy to another flush of flowers rather than dropping seeds. Hopefully, you have been deadheading since you first planted your annuals. Continue this practice on all that are still flowering, and you may not have to change out the plants until closer to fall. Then you can save at least one changeout this year. Deadheading is also known as pinching. Although some people insist on pinching the stem just below the flower, it’s often easier to use scissors or pruners.
• Fluff mulch and replace if necessary. A good, organic mulch like ground wood chips can moderate the soil temperature when the heat gets oppressive. (It also holds heat in the soil when the air gets cold.) Mulch also holds water, either from rain or irrigation, and releases it into the soil over time, which is better for the plants than to deluge them with water, as in an intense rain shower, only to have a substantial amount run off before the soil can absorb it. Over time, mulch gets matted down, decomposes and sinks into the soil. This is good because it’s returning organic matter to the soil. In summer, two or three inches of mulch is sufficient. If you appear to have that depth of mulch but it’s matted down, fluff it up with an iron rake so there are plenty of air pockets. For beds with less than two inches, add the necessary much. Raking it out should fluff it sufficiently.
• Be ready to water. If meteorologists are calling for a dry August, be sure your irrigation system is ready. Drip irrigation is more effective than sprinkling. Less water evaporates before reaching the soil. Drip irrigation for most consists of soaker hoses, those porous black hoses made from recycled tires. Be sure your soaker hoses are positioned correctly and working properly before they’re needed.
With these tasks finished, you can truly relax, confident that your landscape is ready to take on whatever summer dishes out. As for you, you shouldn’t feel guilty about staying in the air conditioning on really oppressive days.
Summer’s not even over and I’m already writing about spring blooming bulbs like crocuses, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths. Soon you’ll be seeing garden centers advertising bulbs. That’s because these bulbs have to be planted this fall in order to have blooms next spring.
Bulbs are among the very first plants to bloom as spring approaches. I think you’ll agree that they’re a welcome sight after a long, harsh winter. If you really enjoy this annual flourish of color, start thinking of where you’d like your bulb garden to be. Do you want all one color? Or a mix of colors? Do you want big splashes of color? Or a random array of color like a kaleidoscope? It’s a good idea to measure the space in which you plan to plant your bulb garden and then plot it out on paper.
Bulbs should be spaced two to three inches apart for a big splash of color. Planting them four to five inches will give your bulb garden a looser look. These numbers will help you calculate how many bulbs you’ll need for the space you’ve allocated.
Garden centers sell bulbs in bulk and pre-packaged. Package labels should contain the number of bulbs, color(s) and planting instructions. Those sold in bulk are usually in bulk containers with a tag on the container indicating the color. Be wary, though, of other customers handling the bulk bulbs and inadvertently returning them to the wrong tray. There should be no doubt about the colors in sealed packages.
When you get the bulbs home, keep them in a cool, dry place until you’re ready to plant them. There’s no hurry; they can be planted anytime before the ground freezes. Depending on how many bulbs you’re planting, you can either dig a row and plant them as you would vegetables in a garden, or you can plant them individually. Either way, the holes should be twice as deep as the length of the bulb. For instance, bulbs two inches long should be planted four inches deep.
If you’re planting in rows, dig the row to the proper depth. Stretch out a string with knots tied at the planting intervals, or use another measuring device to assure proper spacing. Place bulbs root end (the flat, hairy end) down in the row at the proper intervals. Be sure the pointed end is facing up and push the bulb into the loose soil at the bottom of the hole to keep it from tipping when you backfill. Backfill the row before digging the next row. When finished, give the whole planting bed a good watering.
To plant individual bulbs, use your measuring device to determine the spacing. Lay the bulbs on the ground next to where you’re going to plant them. Using either a trowel or a bulb planter, dig a hole to the proper depth, place the bulb in root end down and backfill. If you’re using a trowel, you just have to plunge it into the soil and pull it toward you, place the bulb in the hole, remove the trowel and smooth out the soil. Water the whole bed when you finish.
You don’t need to fertilize when you plant bulbs. They have plenty of food stored in the bulbs. However, they’d probably appreciate it if you spread some fertilizer around the bed in subsequent autumns.
I recommend that you take photos of your bulb gardens when they bloom each spring. As time goes on, bulbs can fail to bloom for various reasons. The photos can help you pinpoint where you have to replace bulbs in the fall.
Summer’s not even over and I’m offering you advice for saving money next spring. It’s really quite simple. Just take cuttings from this year’s annuals and propagate them yourself. It’s really easy to do, and you might find that you’ve begun a most enjoyable gardening hobby.
Begin by deadheading your annuals. That’s the practice of removing spent flowers before they can go to seed. Keep the leaves and stem intact. Obtain a supply of small pots (4” max.) and a container of rooting hormone. It’s a powder that helps the stems sprout roots. You can find it at any garden center.
Cut three-to-four inch sections of green stem from the plants you’re planning to propagate. Dip the bottom end of each stem into the rooting hormone, the same way many people dip scallions in salt before eating them. If you don’t want to use rooting hormone, or don’t have any, go directly to the next step. Your plants should still develop roots but it may take a bit longer.
Place each cutting, root end down, in one your pots filled with potting mix. Don’t use soil because it’s too dense and heavy. Soilless potting mix is made up of lightweight, water retaining materials like peat, Perlite and vermiculite.
From now until next spring, your plants should live in shaded spots indoors. They like to be kept moist but not soaked, so don’t overwater. Soon little leaves should begin to appear, and you may even have a flush of winter flowers.
Depending on the flower(s) you choose for this experiment, and the size of your pots, you may have to transplant them partway through the winter. Larger plants may outgrow small pots rather quickly. Warning: Newly propagated plants may need more care than your other houseplants.
In spring, when the last frost threat has passed, your propagated plants should be ready to live outside. To prepare them for their new lives, move them outside onto the deck or patio and let them get used to their new environment. This is called “hardening off.” If a late frost is predicted during this time, take the plants indoors at night.
After your new plants have hardened off sufficiently, transplant them in the ground, in decorative containers, raised beds or elevated beds – anywhere you’d plant the annuals you buy at a garden center. You’ll be using the same process at home as commercial growers use in their greenhouses.
When friends and neighbors find out that you propagated your annuals rather than buying them, they’ll be envious and you can beam with pride over this accomplishment. And, you can use the money you saved to buy more plants. Maybe you’ll save enough to buy a tree or shrub.
Going to see parks and other public and private gardens is one of the best ways to get ideas for improvements to your own landscape. It’s also a way to have fun during these hot summer weekends when there’s not much to do in your own landscape. Here in the Rochester area there are plenty of opportunities.
Highland Park is open year-round, not just during the annual Lilac Festival. Now, after the festival you can take in the scenery of this Frederick Law Olmstead designed park without the crowds that visit the park during the festival. If you want to see more of Olmstead’s work, visit Genesee Valley, Seneca and Maplewood Parks, too. Olmstead referred to these magnificent local gems as the Emerald Necklace.
If you want a break from looking at all the labeled plants, you can visit the Lambert Conservatory at Highland Park and the zoo at Seneca Park. The conservatory has a variety of year-round displays of plants from other climate zones, including a desert and a tropical plant display.
You can visit formal gardens at the George Eastman Museum on East Avenue in Rochester or Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion in nearby Canandaigua. The latter was the summer home of Frederick Ferris and Mary Clark Thompson. Besides the beautiful, formal gardens, the restored mansion is an excellent example of opulence in the gilded age.
If smaller gardens are more your style, you might shuffle off to Buffalo the weekend of July 30 and 31 for Garden Walk Buffalo. Owners of more than 400 urban gardens open their beautiful backyards to the public. These gardens can offer you great ideas for your own landscape, especially if yours is small. The owners have done creative, amazing things with their limited space. Best of all, this self-guided tour is free. To find out where to pick up a map for Garden Walk Buffalo, visit gardensbuffaloniagara.com.
If your interest is trees, one of the newest public gardens is Draves Arboretum in Darien Center. It was established by my friend and fellow arborist Tom Draves, and has many unusual specimens, including one named for Tom. Draves Arboretum, which hosts individuals and garden clubs, as well as weddings, parties and colleges, is open by appointment only. For individual tours, the arboretum asks for at least a day’s notice before you plan to visit. You can phone them at 585.547.3341 or email dravesarboretum@rochester.rr.com.
Our area is a horticultural and landscape design wonderland. You can get plenty of ideas that you can adapt to your own property without spending a lot of money simply by day tripping.
Trees form the skeleton of any landscape. Their size and stature are what define your landscape. When designing a landscape, the trees are selected and put in place first. The selection and placement of the other plants are governed by the mature size, aesthetics and placement of these trees. As a result, the loss of a tree, especially a large shade tree, would create an obvious void in your landscape.
The loss of a large shade tree would affect more than visual balance and composition of your landscape. It could lead to the decline and eventual loss of other plants that depend on the tree(s) to create an environment in which they can thrive. If understory or nearby plants prefer shade to full sun, removal of the tree that’s been providing the shade that they need completely changes their environment, and not for the better.
Trees also contribute to the value of your property, increasing as they grow. One way to protect this valuable investment and the integrity of your landscape is to have your trees inspected at least once a year by a professional arborist. An arborist knows what signs point to problems and the action to take to make necessary repairs.
A tree inspection is like a physical for people. Our arborist will check the trunk for cracks and signs of decay, including conks or mushroom, which are the fruiting bodies of the fungi that cause decay. The presence of certain insects, birds and even small mammals indicate that they’ve found a home in the hollow of decaying trees. Our arborists also have instruments that help determine if there’s rot inside the trunk. From the inspection results, the arborists can determine if the tree can be saved or whether it’s hazardous and should be taken down.
Trees that are leaning indicate root rot and those that are healthy only on one side indicate the presence of girdling root. We have a tool that uses air to gently remove the soil around the roots so we can examine them close up. Removing a girdling root is a relatively easy procedure for a professional arborist. We can also easily determine whether the rotted roots can safely be removed without compromising the tree’s stability. The soil can then be replaced after the inspection is finished.
The arborists will also be on the alert for dead, dying, broken, crossing or rubbing branches, which they can remove. They will pay special attention to branches hanging over your house or close to electric wires. These should be pruned to provide clearance. Don’t try this yourself, though! Leave pruning to the professionals. They have the knowledge, training and specialized equipment to do the job safely, and we have arborists with the special training necessary to work near energized wires.
A landscape without trees has no real structure and no height. Even with the most beautiful, colorful flowers, treeless landscapes can be rather bland. Trees are large, complex, living organisms that need regular attention, beginning with an inspection by our professional arborists.
Not all plant deaths are caused by insect or diseases. Many are caused by humans and the environment. These causes are called abiotic and those attributed to insects and diseases are called biotic.
While biotic plant damage is often obvious, diagnosing abiotic damage is usually more difficult. Some common contributors include…
• Planting too deep. Trees and shrubs are often subjected to deep planting. The hole should be no deeper than the root collar (The point at which the trunk/stem joins the root). It’s better if the root collar is above rather than below grade. Planting too deep makes it difficult for water and air to penetrate down to the feeder roots.
• Planting in too small a hole. While the planting hole should be only as deep as the rootball, it should be two or three times bigger in diameter. Spread the roots out and make sure none are crossing each other before backfilling.
• Girdling roots. When one root crosses another, it chokes the root it’s crossing, causing that side of the tree to die back. If there are crossing roots all around a plant, they can kill the whole plant. Crossing, or girdling, roots are most common in plants that come from the nursery in pots. So be sure to spread out the roots and cut the offending root on either side of the root it’s crossing.
• Mulch volcanoes. Piling mulch up against a tree trunk can cause stress, and even death, to a tree. Mulch volcanoes can trap moisture between the mulch and the trunk. Trees don’t like this, and if there’s even the tiniest crack in the bark, that moisture can carry life threatening rot fungi into the tree. Also, rodents like field mice hide in the mulch while they chew on the bark, eventually girdling the trunk.
• Planting the wrong plant in the wrong place. Some plants like full sun while others prefer shade. Some like lots of water while others hate “wet feet.” Some will only flourish in acid soil while others will do just fine in our basic soil. You don’t have to be a plant expert to determine which plants go where. Just read the nursery tags or ask one of the horticulturists at your garden centers.
• Disturbing the roots. Raising or lowering the grade around the root zone of a tree will put it in imminent danger. Try to avoid this practice but if it’s unavoidable, plan to build a retaining wall if the grade must be lowered or a tree well if the grade needs to be raised. Avoid cutting the roots. If you must excavate near tree roots, hire an arborist with an air gun. It’s friendlier than a shovel or backhoe.
• Soil compaction. I’ve seen people park vehicles under shade trees to keep them cool in the summer. This added weight compacts the soil and deprives the roots of water and oxygen.
Often one or more of the abiotic conditions cited above stresses a plant and the decline makes it a good target for insects or disease organisms. When the plant dies, the owner blames it on the biotic cause rather than the abiotic problems that made the plant so attractive to pests or pathogens.
Our Plant Health Care (PHC) professionals can diagnose abiotic as well as biotic causes of plant decline. The prognosis will probably be more positive if you have your plants inspected as soon as you notice signs of stress, rather than taking a wait and see attitude. Left to the plants natural defenses, it’ll get worse before it gets better.
Beautiful, large trees are often what attracts potential buyers to home sites. Years after the construction’s finished, though, these owners may begin noticing that the trees around which they built their home are declining and dying. That’s when they call me, a Board Certified Master Arborist (BCMA).
The time for that call was when they were first considering that site. Tree protection should’ve begun long before the first shovel of dirt was turned. Trees may be the largest living organisms on earth but they’re still sensitive to environmental changes, especially the upheaval and trauma that construction can cause.
Like all aspects of a construction project, tree preservation should begin with a plan. That plan should address all risks the tree(s) can be subjected to on the construction site and steps to prevent damage. Your consulting arborist is the most qualified person to write that plan. Then it should be presented to the owner, architect, building contractor and landscape contractor for review. If any of them can’t work within the plan, even after negotiating any tweaks or modifications that can be made without endangering the trees, my best advice is to search for replacements who can work within the plan.
The first step in implementing the plan should for the owner, arborist and architect to walk the property. At this time, select the trees that you prefer be saved and those you’d like saved if possible. The arborist should then inspect these trees to be sure they’re sound and healthy. If any on the “must save” list aren’t safe to keep, they should slated for removal.
The architect should then sketch the house’s footprint on the plot plan and the arborist check it to be sure that the home’s orientation won’t cause changes, such as adversely changing the light or wind pattern. This could result in the wrong tree in the wrong place, and a stressed tree can become the target for insect and diseases. It will then be a liability rather than an asset. This problem may be eliminated by just changing the house’s orientation slightly.
Before the first builders enter the property, an area around the base of the tree should be fenced off with bright colored material. The critical root zone (CRZ) for the fencing is one foot out from the trunk for every inch of trunk diameter. Penalties for contractors and others who violate this area with people, building materials or vehicles should be written into the contract.
Heavy weights in the CRZ compacts the soil, reducing the amount of water and air that can reach the roots. Stacking building materials and parking vehicles in the CRZ can also break branches and damage bark. The resulting tree health problems may not become apparent for several years.
Changing the grade near the trees even a few inches can disrupt their life functions. If there’s no choice but to change the grade, it’ll be necessary to build a retaining wall if you’re lowering the grade and a tree well where the fence is if you’re raising the grade. One more precaution: Don’t let the contractors running your utility lines to the house trench inside the fence. They’ll sever roots. Insist that they drill. That’ll move the roots out of the way, rather than sever them.
Trees may be the largest organisms on earth, but they don’t fare very well when the status quo is disturbed. You paid a premium for the lot because of these trees that were there long before you, and retaining a qualified arborist for your team and following the advice presented here will help to assure that those trees will be healthy and magnificent long after you’re gone.
This is the time of year when it’s best to prune your evergreen trees and shrubs. I’m not suggesting that you must prune them just because it’s June/July. Prune them only if they need it. As with any pruning, evergreen pruning, whether needled conifers or broadleaf plants, should be undertaken for a specific purpose. That may be to shape or thin the plant, to remove broken branches, to reduce its size or raise its crown by removing the lower limbs.
This timeframe is when the new growth is finishing its maturation process. New growth is the lighter green foliage at the ends of the branches. That new growth is also softer to the touch and the new wood has yet to harden. Soon, the new growth will darken and be indistinguishable from previous years’ growth. The buds for next year’s new growth will begin forming in late summer or early fall so it’s best to do any pruning before those buds appear.
Shaping taxus (yew) borders or foundation plantings is probably an annual ritual. If you’re just removing the new growth, don’t wait until the it matures. It’s much easier to prune when the new growth has finished growing but before it matures (turns color). The soft wood cuts easily and cleanly, and the color differentiation is a good guide for shaping. Don’t prune too early, though, or the new growth will grow right back, and you’ll have to repeat the job.
Broadleaf evergreens like rhododendrons and boxwoods should also be pruned now. They, too, put on new growth in early spring and are ready for pruning right now. Pruning broadleaf evergreens should follow the same procedures as pruning deciduous shrubs. Prune only at a fork. In the case of tight plants like boxwood, cuts can be made just above a leaf’s attachment to the branch. Cuts on looser plants like rhododendrons should be made at a branch fork or at the base of the offending branch. If you can see a branch collar, leave it rather than cutting flush to the stem or bigger branch. Don’t leave stubs.
Shrubs look better when they have a natural shape, rather than the tight geometrical shapes that result from shearing. Also, shearing may leave ragged cuts because branches may be too big around for hedge shears to make a clean cut. Save your shearing for such broadleaf evergreens as boxwoods. Boxwood branches are smaller so hedge shears will leave cleaner cuts.
Please wear eye protection, no matter what size evergreen you’re pruning. If you’re pruning overhead, wear a hard hat. And, if you are using power tools, wear ear protection, too.
Notice that I’ve only advised pruning evergreen shrubs. Pruning a large pine, spruce or other conifer tree can be dangerous in several ways. You’ll, most likely, need to leave the ground to reach the upper branches. The tight, springy branching adds to the difficulty of working in and around these trees. The needles are sharp, especially if they fall on you, or whip around and hit you. And each cut lets more messy sap ooze out and get all over you. That’s why the pruning of conifers is best left to our professional arborists who have the knowledge, experience and specialized equipment to do the job safely and efficiently.
Our arborists don’t just lend their expertise to pruning trees. They’d be happy to prune your shrubs as well, so all you have to do is enjoy your nicely manicured landscape.
