Winter Is A Great Time For Plant Care
Posted on: 23 January 2015
The winter is not typically the time when homeowners focus a lot on their yards, but it should be. When trees lose their leaves and you don't have to worry about mowing the lawn as much, it's a perfect time to perform some essential clean up duties on your shrubs and plants. Here's more information:
It's easier to see what you're doing.
Pruning bushes and trees can be a bit cumbersome if you have to fight with leaves and pick your way through new shoots, so the winter is a great time for pruning many types of vegetation. A lot of shrubs and trees go dormant in the winter, and if you prune in late winter (about 4 to 6 weeks before the spring thaw hits), you'll be able to get them ready for some vibrant growth in the spring. Fruit trees, roses, and summer flowering trees like Smoke Trees and Crape Myrtles are all types of plants that benefit from late winter pruning.
Sharp tools can keep your plants healthy.
Use sharp tools to make sure you get clean cuts which won't damage your plants. Sawing away with dull tools can remove too much excess material and leave a wound that's difficult to heal. If you end up damaging the wood around your cut, the plant is more prone to fungal infections and insect infestation, as those organisms are always on the look out for vulnerable entry points to a food source.
Hedge shears are ideal for cutting stems less than the size of a pencil and pruners are good for slightly bigger stems. To keep these tools sharp, wash them in warm soapy water and use steel wool to scrub off any rust. Then use a diamond hand file to sharpen the blades, remembering to use smooth strokes that move away from your body.
Know when to call in a professional.
Loppers and saws are better for bigger branches, but a novice homeowner should be cautious about cutting off anything too big or awkwardly positioned. These branches can fall in unpredictable ways which may cause you to move suddenly or fall while holding a sharp tool.
For any branch that's too high to reach or is too large for you to get through on your own, it's best to call in a professional. Expert tree trimmers will have the right equipment to safely work up high in trees, and an added benefit is that they'll often haul away your tree trimming for you. For anyone in the city or suburbs, this saves them from the large chore of figuring out what to do with a huge pile of branches.
Once your trees and shrubs are pruned with the right tools, they'll look great and will be ready for renewed growth in the spring.
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