How To Prevent Winter Damage To Your Trees And Shrubs

Winter is fast approaching and you have to make sure your plants are ready.That includes your trees and shrubs. With winter comes excessive cold, damaging winds, and drier conditions. Here are some ways to prevent winter damage to your trees and shrubs.

Prepare Your Plants for Cold

Give your trees and shrubs the best care possible by carefully preparing them for winter. Make sure to cease fertilization of your plants several weeks before the first frost. This helps signal that winter is coming so your plants can start preparing themselves. Discontinue pruning halfway through summer as this keeps new growth from beginning that would be too fragile for winter. Make sure to start watering your plants intensively in fall which ensures that the roots have plenty of water storage.

Prepare the Ground and Base

The ground and base around your trees and shrubs needs to be properly prepared in order to prevent winter damage.

• Sunscald: This causes cracking of the bark around more vulnerable plants. The best guard against this is to paint a protective white solution around the base of the plant or to wrap a layer of tree wrap around the tree or shrubbery base.
• Animal Damage: Rodents and animals such as rabbits love to chew on wood. Younger plants are more vulnerable and you will want to wrap those with some type of protective layer such as wire. Damage from deer can be quite extensive. However, there are ways you can repel deer. You can spray the plants themselves with the repellent or hang rags off the plant sprayed with the repellent.
• Root Damage: If the ground is not insulated properly, then your trees and shrubs will experience damage to their roots. To help protect the roots of your plants, place a coating of mulch to help insulate the ground around them.

Destruction From Snow and Ice

Snow can actually act like insulation just like mulch, but heavy snows on your trees and shrubbery can cause damage. If it looks like the branches are sagging under heavy snow then carefully brush the snow off. Don't do this with ice as it will probably cause more destruction. To help strengthen small trees, you can bind the branches together similar to the way Christmas trees are transported.

Winter can sometimes wreak havoc on your beloved plants. If you put in a little bit of time and effort you can prevent winter damage and maintain healthy trees and shrubs to enjoy for years to come. For more information, talk to a professional like L and M Tree Service.