When summer comes to a close, we look forward to beautiful color-changing leaves, sweater weather, and pumpkin spice. With the changing seasons, homeowners should always plan for fall tree maintenance (and not just raking up your leaves into piles to jump in). To avoid damage to your home or property, monitor and maintain your trees year-round, especially during the cold months.
Recommendations to Grow Healthy and Thriving Trees
Inspect your trees for signs of insect infestation, diseases, or desiccation
Insects like borers can compromise a tree’s health. Diseases can spread throughout a healthy tree, causing it to lose leaves or branches. Evergreens are prone to desiccation, a winter injury, also known as winter burn that occurs with freezing temperatures, limited moisture in the soil, and harsh winds causing trees to lose more water from their foliage than they are taking in at their roots. Young evergreens should be watered in the winter to avoid desiccation. Trees that have become weak or are dying should be removed immediately.
Plant new trees in the fall
If you are looking to add more trees to your property, fall is the best time to get planting. This allows your seedlings to establish roots before the soil freezes and the temperature spikes. The hotter months can often lead to drought so planting in the fall gives young trees time to adjust to changing temperatures. When choosing what to plant, make sure you are selecting trees native to your state so they will thrive.
Prune dead limbs, fertilize, and mulch properly
If a tree is healthy with some dead branches, it is essential to remove them in order to keep the tree from becoming more damaged. This also reduces the chance that a branch could fall on your home. Tree limbs that are oddly shaped or weak should be braced before snow falls. Adding the correct fertilizer will ensure that your trees will continue to get the nutrients they need throughout the winter months. In addition, mulching the bases of your trees ensures that moisture and nutrients remain while weeds don’t overwhelm the soil.
Rake and clean your yard
The beauty of the leaves changing colors quickly turns into a mess. Rain and snow will cause leaves in your yard to become damp and heavy. Mold and insects can take over piles of wet leaves. Removing fallen leaves before bad weather makes the job easier and keeps your trees healthy.
As you prepare for the coming of fall, you can always call the professionals at Hometown Tree Experts, who are here to help you with all of your tree maintenance needs.