Fall cleanup: November is loose- end month

Tree Talk

by Gary Salmon

The only November foliage color is provided by the oaks, beeches, aspens, larches and Norway Maples. Yellow and brown are the colors of November with the oranges and reds gone until next fall. If you plan on planting trees next spring that you have dug up yourself it is always a good idea to root prune the fall before. Pick an isolated tree (fewer roots from competing trees to deal with) less than 1.5-inch caliper and cut with a sharp shovel a circle about 2 feet in diameter, the depth of a shovel blade. That begins to establish a root system for next spring and allows some fine root development within what is left of fall.

To keep the mice, voles, and shrews away from tender tree trunks requires keeping the grass away to prevent winter quarters for them.  If you are really worried you can  wrap the trunk with hardware cloth or a “trunk wrap” that  will biodegrade next spring.

Emerald Ash Borer continues to move ever closer to central Vermont with the latest population discovered in Londonderry this fall. So while the borers are wintering over inside ash sapwood until next May, some of this winter might be spent considering what your town is going to do when EAB arrives.

One can’t truly appreciate the quietness of winter until all the “to do’s” of fall are completed and you and your trees can both go dormant for the season.