Trees may not seem to require as much care as the plants in your garden, but they do require a little TLC to ensure they remain healthy. These basic guidelines will help you get started.
October 9, 2015
Trees may not seem to require as much care as the plants in your garden, but they do require a little TLC to ensure they remain healthy. These basic guidelines will help you get started.
Mulching holds in moisture, inhibits weeds, and encourages organisms that aerate and enrich the soil. It also protects against overheating in summer and freezing and thawing in winter. As time passes, it will also provide a little nourishment.
Feeding is generally not needed for trees in their formative years. Later, small leaves or reduced growth may indicate a lack of nourishment
Make nutrients available to the tiny feeder roots by boring several holes in the soil around the perimetre of the root area (roughly the same spread as the branches) and filling them with fertilizer.
Use an organic fertilizer that provides its nutrients gradually over a period of a year or more.Trees planted in a lawn area may never need special fertilizing — the fertilizer applied to the lawn will supply all the nutrients the trees need as well. If the tree is planted beside a paved area, such as a driveway, you will need to concentrate the fertilizer (compost or a balanced organic fertilizer) on the side of the tree where you have access to the roots.
Established trees seldom need watering except in times of extreme drought. The foliage of young trees, however, may wilt; and evergreens, particularly conifers, may turn brown and scorched looking within a few weeks after planting. This condition may be caused by a lack of water or by drying winds.
To be sure young trees receive enough water, use a rain gauge.
Good tree pruning principles call for the removal of all dead or straggly shoots.
Two types of shoots may develop on trees:
Follow these basic steps to ensure your trees stay healthy.
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