Summer Days that Lead to Fall

Can you believe that it is August already? Wow, the summer is just flying along. It has been a beautiful season though. We have been busy trimming trees, administering ash injections, installing a few lights in people’s yards and much, much more. Oh, plus enjoying the sunshine when we can too!

Before you know it though, September will be here and with it the beginning of Autumn. Crops will be coming in from the fields and the trees will be starting to lose their leaves (if they haven’t already!). After a pretty dry summer, I imagine they will be glad to have the down-time of winter. Now don’t you forget to keep watering those trees of yours right now either. The weather continues to be plenty hot and the trees still need our help when Mother Nature is fickle with her watering schedule. Soon enough though, you can start thinking about other tree maintenance duties, like the last pruning of the season, wrapping tender trees and bushes in burlap to protect them from winter blasts, raking the falling leaves, and aerating your lawn, as well as underneath any trees that did not get tended to in the spring.

Just so you know, aeration is key to tree health too. Aeration prevents the soil underneath your tree from getting overly compacted from things like foot traffic, repeated use of the lawn mower around it, as well as any other heavy activities. Your trees can’t get the much needed moisture and nutrients that they need if the dirt is too tightly packed around it. Tree roots need to breath as well, which they can’t do in compacted soil. Add it to the list, if you don’t have it on there already!

Don’t forget to dig up your summer bulbs and plant some more spring ones while you are at it. After the sometimes excruciating heat of the summer, it can be refreshing to be out and about in the cooler weather that the fall affords. We certainly don’t go through near as many stinky, sweaty shirts either. I know our loving customers appreciate that!

And while you are out there puttering about in your yard, why not think about saving some of those leaves instead of putting them all out to the curb. London has a great yard waste collection program, but those leaves represent compost for your own gardens in the spring! Save yourself a trip to the big box stores and put that beautiful blanket of colourful leaves into your own composter. If you don’t have one, there is still plenty of time to buy or build one yet this summer. It will save you on buying all those paper bags, plus the hassle of dragging them to the curb (not to mention the question of whether they will last until yard collection arrives!). Just a thought, as that is but another boon that trees offer us freely.

Oh, and one other thing. It is 141 days till Christmas. Just in case you were wondering. Have you got your lights untangled yet?

Published by
August 5, 2011 9:01 am