Caring for Your Trees Over the Winter

Autumn is when trees really shine, bursting out in magnificent colors. In fact, the season’s other name—fall—is for the glorious dropping of these beautiful leaves.

Did you know, though, that when fall is over, and trees become dormant over the winter, they still require your care? Protecting your trees and ensuring their continued health requires essential winter tree care.

Here’s a few simple rules of thumb to guide your winter tree care this season:

Water until the ground freezes

Just because the warmest days of the year are behind us doesn’t mean you shouldn’t water your trees any longer. Fall can, in fact, be a dry season some years. Water your trees throughout the fall and early winter until the ground fully freezes. In our area, this can be as late as the end of December.

Newly planted or young trees that still have a small root mass especially need continued watering. And, when it comes to watering, go for low and slow so that you deliver the water directly down to the tree’s root zone. How often and how long you should water depends on tree species, soil type, and our weather conditions. You can check the soil and your tree’s foliage to determine if your tree is over- or under-watered, or you can consult one of our experts.

Protect roots with mulch application

Before the heavy snows and ice arrive, mulch around each tree with wood chips, bark, or other organic material. You should apply two to four inches of mulch spread over the top of the entire root zone. The mulch will insulate against temperature extremes while also nourishing the soil and preserving moisture levels. Be sure to keep the mulch layer at least three inches away from the base of the tree trunk to allow the tree to properly breathe.

Remove stakes or ties

While stakes or ties can provide some stability for newly established trees, these items should be removed before winter. Trees will establish more quickly and develop stronger trunk and root tissue without these aids.

Prune branches

Winter can be an optimal time for pruning because trees are dormant. In fact, pruning can help reduce the chance that a winter snowstorm or ice storm will damage your tree. Be sure to engage a professional tree service to prune your trees, so that the tree is properly cared for. Pruning cuts should be left uncovered, and proper pruning cuts should be made just outside the branch collar.

Advanced Tree Care combines top-notch equipment, cutting-edge technology, and well-trained staff to provide emergency tree removal and tree maintenance services. With a presence in nine counties and two states, we work daily to provide unparalleled customer service, safety, and efficiency—as well as the expertise to beautify your landscaping and community. Advanced Tree Care isn’t just our name—it’s also our purpose!

Being a tree owner may be a bigger responsibility that some people realize. If you are a homeowner who would like to see your trees be their best, year after year, there is a good deal of maintenance required. Tree growth, plumage, and fruit production all depend on the wellness of the tree.

Think of your own health. Some people only go to the doctor when something is wrong. Sometimes, the doctor can fix you, but if you have waited too long to check out a problem, there may be more permanent damage. As such, health advocates usually recommend people get annual check-ups so the doctor can catch any problems before they become too serious.

Trees, as living things, are the same. They can also get sick or diseased if not properly maintained. Also, much like people, trees need special care in the winter, when the cold weather makes it easier to get sick. If you are a property owner with trees on your land, you should be aware of the care needed to keep your trees at their best.

What to Do To Care For Your Trees This Winter

1. Tree Pruning

Why is pruning necessary? Consider trees that are never pruned. Their branches are often unruly. While you may think that gives them a certain charm, there is danger to consider. Limbs that get too long become hazards, whipping in harsh winter winds into whatever might stand in their way. Once snow and ice begin to fall, the danger becomes even more intense, as these now heavy limbs can break and fall, landing on whatever is in their way.

2. Protecting Trees

Young or newly planted trees need special help to survive their first winter in a new home. Pruning is not the first line of action for these trees. Instead, consider insulating these saplings by wrapping them or applying a windbreak. Roots are especially vulnerable, and a layer of wood chips or mulch will help to protect them. This layer of mulch will also help to guard against frost heaving, expansion and contraction of the soil which can expose young roots to the harsh winter elements.

3. Feeding Your Trees

Are you feeding your trees? Have you ever even thought about it? If you have trees that have been growing throughout its season, usually spring and summer, producing fruit or foliage, and staying green, then you most likely have a healthy tree that needs to have continued sustenance through the winter. Look for an appropriate fertilizer or ask for recommendations from your local nursery. In addition, trees need water even during the winter. Before the cold sets in, make sure to give your trees a good watering (if nature has not already done that for you). Then, consider applying fertilizer and a layer of mulch to insulate the roots.

4. Cleaning Your Trees

Because winter often leads to snow, and trees are often near roads, trees often get a part of the treatment given to the roads before and after a snowstorm. If that treatment includes salt or other harsh chemicals, it could splatter onto the trunks of nearby trees either when applied or when plowed with the snow. These chemicals can do damage to the bark of a tree, eating away at its natural protective coating. Keep your roadside trees safe and healthy by cleaning off anything that gets thrown on them by passing plow trucks after a winter storm. If you prefer to get ahead of the game, wrap the trunks nearest the road with burlap to protect the trees ahead of the storm.

5. Tree Bracing

It might be common to remember to brace young trees with stakes and rope while they are growing, but the truth is that saplings are not the only ones who need training or bracing. As trees grow, their branches (and sometimes even the trunks) may start going in a direction you hadn’t planned. If this happens to go over your property line or over a sidewalk in the way of pedestrians, you may need to consider getting cables to retrain, or hold back the intrusive parts of the tree. This can be done with strong string tied to the trunk of the tree.

6. Tree Servicing

Think of your annual tree service the same way you would your annual doctor visit. Sure, you might be okay to skip a year if you are feeling healthy, but you might not catch something that might be going on underneath the surface. Likewise, your trees have no way of telling you when they are suffering from an invisible disease. Getting an appointment with a certified arborist will help to make sure your trees will be their best through the winter.

When to Service Your Trees?

The timing for your winter preparation can be extended through several months. Some steps can be done earlier, while some steps require more precise timing.

Initial inspection of your landscape can take place in the autumn months. Once leaves begin falling, it becomes easier to see any damage that has already inflicted the base of deciduous trees. This is a good time to contact a certified arborist and get further recommendations.

Pruning your trees depends mostly on the type of tree you have. Here’s a brief guide:

1. Flowering trees – Late summer/early fall, as they begin to produce.
2. Fruit trees – Late winter/early spring, during hibernation.
3. Shrubs – Late winter/early spring, during hibernation.

While the immediate protection of your roadside tree trunks will take place throughout the winter, most of your winter preparation will take place by the end of autumn/beginning of winter.

Why You Want to Service Your Trees

Keeping your trees safe and healthy is more than just an aesthetic whim. While you certainly want to keep your yard beautiful for your own viewing pleasure, taking care of your trees goes deeper than that.

1. Bugs

Dead wood, such as you would find in trees that have not had proper care, can invite any number of unwelcome insects. Winter is often the time that creatures such as the very destructive pine beetle will lay its eggs, ready in the spring with an army to assault all living trees in the area – the healthy along with the sick. Caring for your trees before the attack can save all the trees in the area from destruction.

2. Protection

A primary reason many homeowners choose to plant trees around their property is to provide it with protection from other elements such as the heat of the summer through the shade of the tall, leafy variety, or from wind and rain. Trees can act as a barrier to keep damage of such a sort from a person’s home. However, damaged or unhealthy trees pose a risk if they are not sturdy enough to stand through the elements themselves.

3. Animal Homes

True nature enthusiasts will embrace the opportunity to give a home to birds and other woodland creatures during the winter. Healthy trees will provide both food and shelter for birds, squirrels, and other creatures. Get to know your trees, and you can provide yourself and your family with unpredictable entertainment through the doldrums of winter.

Caring for your trees does involve extra care and attention. However, the reward of a beautiful, healthy homestead is most certainly worth the trouble. Winter can be brutal to any living thing residing outdoors, so be sure to do what you can to care for your greenery. More help is available for you at Advanced Tree Care.

Nighttime Commercial Tree Trimming

Daytime hours are prime time for many communities’ central business districts. While vehicle, pedestrian, and commuter traffic can peak during the morning and evening rush hours, a downtown area can be busy all day long.

Because of all this activity, downtown tree trimming operations can be disruptive to residents and businesses. Plus, our trucks can take up prime parking spaces or block off road access. When our workers are up in the trees, a wide area must be cordoned off for their safety, as well as for the safety of drivers and pedestrians. Many area downtowns have a large number of trees, so trimming can take days.

Recently, the Village of Highland Park hired us to conduct tree trimming in its central business district. For the first time ever, though, we conducted all trimming at night. This schedule shift allowed us to care for all area trees while minimizing disruption to everyone requiring access to downtown Highland Park—workers, commuters, shoppers, and more.

This area is busy for a reason. In addition to being home to a vibrant shopping district, Highland Park also counts four Metra stations within its municipal borders—as well as two additional stations in nearby Highwood. Those stations, along with easy access to I-94, mean that the village is home for a large number of commuters. The nearby library and schools create traffic, too.

By conducting our trimming overnight, our workers were able to create safety areas that didn’t also create bottlenecks—and frustration among residents.

Regular tree trimming is essential to keep trees healthy and protect them from storm and seasonal damage. It also creates attractively shaped trees. While some species of trees should only be pruned during dormancy in late fall and winter, many trees can be pruned at any time year-round. With its relatively balmy weather, summer and fall can be excellent times for nighttime tree trimming.

As tree care professionals, we serve both residential and commercial property owners with tree trimming, tree removal, stump removal, tree identification and inventory, advanced thermal tree imaging, land clearing and restoration, and maintenance programs. We are the exclusive contracted tree service provider for ten cities, multiple park districts, and other government agencies, managing over 60 square miles of urban landscape trees and shrubs in 13 counties in Illinois and Wisconsin.

If you’re interested in discussing how nighttime tree trimming can work for your municipality or corporate campus, reach out to us. We’d be happy to create a schedule that works for your community.

Advanced Tree Care combines top-notch equipment, cutting-edge technology, and well-trained staff to provide emergency tree removal and tree maintenance services. With a presence in nine counties and two states, we work daily to provide unparalleled customer service, safety, and efficiency—as well as the expertise to beautify your landscaping and community. Advanced Tree Care isn’t just our name—it’s also our purpose!

Two Types of Advanced Tree Care in Lincolnshire

Just like humans, trees require comprehensive care because they’re complex beings. Because of this, we look at trees through two lenses when it comes to providing services for our customers. Doing so lets us truly cement our reputation as Advanced Tree Care.

Physical Health

When we talk about a tree’s physical health, we’re really talking about how everything about the tree is working well together. When physically healthy, a tree should have an overall healthy appearance from roots to canopy. Its leaves should be thick and green (except, of course, in fall, or if the tree is a variety that has a non-green leaf). Those leaves shouldn’t display bumpy scales, powdery substances, or any other signs of widespread infestation or damage. Unless it’s late in the fall, its leaves should not be showing signs of stress, discoloration, or dieback.

The tree’s canopy should be thriving. While some trees will have dead branches, a physically healthy tree will have no more than 17% dead branches compared with its entirety. The branches and limbs should be free of any disturbances, insect holes, bleeding, peeling bark, mushrooms, or other problems.

The trunk should also be similarly healthy—no loose or deteriorating bark, obvious insect holes, or other signs of stress or decline. At the base of the tree, the root flares should be free of any soils, mulches, and debris. Root flares, especially of mature trees, should be pronounced—meaning you’re able to see them and they crest over the top of the soil.

These details are all the things our experienced staff and certified arborists consult when assessing the physical health of any tree we care for.

Structural Health

A tree’s structural health has to do with the strength and soundness of its overall structure. In a structurally healthy tree, the limbs and branches are free of inclusions, bifurcations, embeds, rubbing, and competing limbs. Though these are terms specific to tree care, the concept is simpler than the words suggest: if your tree’s branches look complete, distinct from another, and are growing healthy and separately, your tree is likely to be structurally healthy. If its branches don’t fit this description, it may be time to consult a certified arborist.

The tree’s limbs and trunk should also have good taper—meaning the limb and each branch start wider and gradually thin out. Branch distribution should be relatively even around the trunk and throughout the canopy, and the tree should be free of bark disturbances.

An array of factors can affect a tree’s structural health: age, infestation, disease, weather, and accidents all factor in. So do particularly hot summers and particularly cold and icy winters.

Now that you know the difference between physical health and structural health when it comes to trees, we hope you’ll be looking at the trees in your yard with new eyes. And if you notice anything that raises an alarm, be sure to call on a certified arborist to assess the health of your tree.

Advanced Tree Care combines top-notch equipment, cutting-edge technology, and well-trained staff to provide emergency tree removal and tree maintenance services. With a presence in nine counties and two states, we work daily to provide unparalleled customer service, safety, and efficiency—as well as the expertise to beautify your landscaping and community. Advanced Tree Care isn’t just our name—it’s also our purpose!

When Do I Need a Professional to Handle My Tree Care?

Trees make up about 15% of your overall yard landscape. While 15% doesn’t seem like a lot on the surface, think about how important your trees are. They provide shade, they provide visual variety, and they’re a long-lived member of your ecosystem.

Trees can also be costly to replace or remove. Caring for them properly is not only the right thing to do for the environment, it’s the right thing to do to protect your investment. Any signs of stress, deterioration, or disease should be a clear indication that a tree health diagnosis—provided by an ISA Certified Arborist—is in your best interest.

Reasons to Consult a Professional on Tree Care

As a homeowner, when do you know you need to consult a professional? The following list of conditions or symptoms is a goodplace to start, although it’s not an exhaustive list. You should consult a certified arborist if you notice any of the following:

• Thin, dwarfed, or damaged leaves

  

• Leaf colors other than dark green (except for certain trees—such as Japanese or Norway maples—or during early spring and fall, of course)
• Leaves that are slow to bud in spring
• Leaves that drop early, before true fall has begun
• Dieback at the tips of your trees
• Dead or dying limbs
• Dead or dying leaves
• Bumpy scales or powdery substances on the bark, root flares, branches, or leaves
• Loose, deteriorating, or heavily flaking bark
• Growths such as mushrooms on the trunk, limbs, roots, or beneath your tree
• Insect holes and/or bleeding on the tree’s trunk or branches
• External damage from an impact to the tree—from a car collision or an accident with a winter snowplow (sometimes common along parkways)
• Weather damage, from intense summer storms, ice storms, heavy winter snowfall, or ice
• Damage from drought or spells of intense hot weather

If you’re noticing any of these signs, calling in a certified arborist can help you address a situation before it worsens. There are certainly conditions under which a tree cannot be saved, but there are plenty where an early intervention can save a beloved tree. Just imagine your yard without that grand oak in the corner or the beautiful maple shading your front porch. When in doubt, call us to come on out.

Advanced Tree Care combines top-notch equipment, cutting-edge technology, and well-trained staff to provide emergency tree removal and tree maintenance services. With a presence in nine counties and two states, we work daily to provide unparalleled customer service, safety, and efficiency—as well as the expertise to beautify your landscaping and community. Advanced Tree Care isn’t just our name—it’s also our purpose!