CLIPPER TREE & LANDSCAPE TREE WINTERIZING CHECKLIST
Are you ready for Missouri wintry weather? If you have limbs over hanging your home, sidewalk or driveway you may want to consider having them pruned, removed or have a supplemental support cable installed before the stresses of winter weather causes them to fail. If there are dead, dying, diseased and/or unsafe limbs it may be best to remove them.
Do you usually prep your house for the cold winter months, like tarping your a/c unit, or patio furniture? It seems that most everyone does some sort of preparation for the onset of winter. All homeowners have some form of assets outside of their home that need to be protected from harsh winter weather. Trees and shrubs are also assets to our outdoor living spaces. They are enjoyed while sitting on the patio or grilling out on a nice sunny day. Trees provide shade during those sunny clear days in the summer. Fortunately, the work you must do to ensure your trees and other plants are prepped for winter is far less than dismantling patio furniture or dragging out multiple tarps to cover things.
Plan to prune or remove.
Your trees are in the dormant stage of growth during the winter months, so it is more convenient to have them pruned November through February.
Inspect your trees & shrubs before the snow and ice start to accumulate.
Perform a visual inspection from the ground. Look for cracks, splits and included branches. Do you have limbs that overhang your home or the powerlines to your house? If so, will snow and ice accumulation cause these limbs to sag more, or break?
How does the ground look around the base of the tree? Do you have any visible surface roots, or a slight mound/up- heaving of the ground around the base of the tree that could potentially be evidence of the tree uprooting?
Mulching, watering, and fertilizing.
Do not forget that your trees and shrubs need water, especially in the wintertime. Evergreens need water in the winter, especially new plantings, and broad leaf plants. A good soaking around the root system every 2-3 weeks should be good, especially if we do not get rain or snow. Deciduous plants typically need less water in the winter since they drop their leaves, but if there is no moisture in the ground, your tree could dry and burn up during the warmer days of winter. Applying mulch can reduce water evaporation 30%-40%, and soil erosion up to 90%.
Apply 2”-4” of mulch throughout your landscape beds and tree rings.
Before fertilizing your trees and shrubs, it would be best to know what you are fertilizing and why. How did your trees and shrubs look this past growing season? All plants need nutrients that fertilizers provide but providing more nutrients than what is readily available could be harmful to their health and growing cycle. The best advise we can give is to find an organic, slow release, low salt fertilizer that will replenish the nutrients that were lost in your plants this past year, and that will promote sustained health and improve the plants overall vigor, size and color.
Be prepared prior to damage
Call us today to setup an inspection of your trees and shrubs 314-207-8158. We are offering a 15% discount on all our winter work completed now through February 2022.
Call to schedule your free estimate or submit your request via our Specials
