Trees can be a beautiful part of your yard. They can add color, shade, and interest to any space. But to have trees means that you have to care for trees. A little care can preserve a tree’s beauty, can keep trees safe for people, and can make trees stronger to withstand the elements. Trees are an investment: some care and trimming every year will pay off with years of beauty. But how do you do it? When do you do it? Doing your own landscape can be hard. This article explores the basics that you need to know to care for your trees.

When is the best time to prune trees? Can I trim in the fall?

The best time to prune non-blooming trees is in late winter when they are fully dormant. An example of a non-blooming tree is an oak tree. Summer blooming trees also should be pruned in late winter as well. You can also trim trees in the fall. Just wait until all the leaves have fallen off the trees before pruning.

Spring blooming trees are best pruned immediately after they bloom in the spring.

How often do I need to trim?

Trimming one time per year should maintain your trees. Sometimes, though, you will need to trim more often. If a storm comes through and breaks some tree limbs, you will need to trim. Or, if you notice that some branches are hanging down too low and are blocking pedestrians walking on the sidewalk or are touching vehicles parked on your street or in the driveway, you will need to trim. If you have branches that hit your house on a windy day, trim theses branches immediately before they cause damage to your house.

When should I trim myself? When should I hire an arborist?

You definitely can do some trimming yourself. If a branch is 2 inches in diameter or smaller, you are OK to trim. If a branch is any bigger, you may want to call an arborist. Larger branches are heavier than smaller branches and require a series of cuts to get them off. Also, many amateurs make the mistake of cutting too close to the trunk while trimming or cutting too far from the trunk. Both cuts can make it harder for your tree to heal from the trimming, and enable bugs and rot to infest your tree through the cut. Trees should be trimmed really close to the trunk of the tree. In the spot where the branch meets the trunk, there is a slight swelling or rise from the trunk called the branch collar. Cut just beyond this swell. You may want to call an arborist if your tree needs trimming up high. It’s just not worth risking a fall off a ladder. It’s also more difficult to get the shape you want when it’s difficult to reach. Talking to a professional tree trimmer would be beneficial.

What should I trim and what should I leave on the tree?

• Trim cluster branches, the small shoots of branches growing out of the trunk. These tiny branches are easy to trim. By trimming most of these little off-shoots and leaving just a few, you will be helping your tree to grow the few branches you leave much stronger and bigger. Having fewer branches is not only aesthetically appealing but helps your tree to grow stronger.
• Trim suckers, the small off-shoots of a tree that sometimes start growing spontaneously near the base of a tree. Not only are these suckers ugly and if left can compromise the natural shape of a tree, but they can also be prone to storm damage.
• Trim tree limbs, close to a bud, not half way in between. You may think this is a small matter but trimming a limb half way from one bud to the next will leave a long piece of branch to wither and die. This doesn’t look good and also leaves a longer portion of the limb more susceptible to insects and disease. Instead trim a limb ¼ of an inch above a bud.

It may be February, but it is still winter here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Every few days, we get another winter storm warning and more inches of snow in our driveways. Many of us are shoveling our driveways often, even a few times a week. We know that snow plows dump a lot of rock salt on our roadways. It appears to work. It seems like a snowplow will go by and minutes later, the latest layer of snow is starting to melt, making it less dangerous to drive around town.

Even though it’s commonly used on Utah roadways, is rock salt bad for our driveways? Is it bad for concrete? Is it bad for asphalt? The answer to all of these questions is yes, yes, yes! Rock salt is bad for our driveways. It is commonly used on roadways because of how cheap it is. And it does melt snow and ice down to 20 degrees F. The problem is that it only melts snow and ice to 20 degrees F.

Most of our driveways are made of concrete which is very porous. Water gets absorbed and trapped inside. It freezes and the water expands, causing pieces of concrete to chip off. Rock salt makes worse the freezing—thawing cycle. Rock salt will melt snow and ice to 20 degrees F. When it gets colder than that, water will refreeze.

Other ice melts are safer for your driveway and more effective melting ice. For example, calcium chloride is less damaging than rock salt because it will melt to -13 degrees F. That’s a 33 degree difference from rock salt. Rock Salt is also bad for our driveways because it is bad for plants. What happens when you put rock salt on your driveway and then it snows? The snow starts to melt as you begin to shovel. Most of us have a pattern to our shoveling. In fact, we have shoveling down to an art form! We pile it in all the same places, usually to the side of our driveway and walkways.

Rock salt is suffocating to plants. A little bit won’t hurt, but as we shovel again and again, the rock salt in our snow will start to build up the more times we pile it on our lawn or our flowerbeds. In the springtime, some homeowners are sad to see dead or almost dead plants, trying to recover from too much rock salt.

If you worry that your plants are getting too much rock salt buildup, try to pile snow in different places each time it snows as much as you can. Then, when spring comes, get your garden hose and thoroughly water questionable areas. Hopefully, you will be able to dilute the impact of the rock salt on your plants.

Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride are both recommended for use on driveways. They aren’t as tough on driveways or plants. Hopefully, we will only have a few more weeks of snow and shoveling and worrying about ice melt will be in our past, at least until the end of the year.