(and yes, I realize this title has a double meaning :-0)
Garden Maintenance for breakage of branches due to wind
We were caught by surprise this autumn with gusty winds that blew down branches and even whole trees. It was a reminder to clean out the gutters, check the roof and put in all the stuff that could blow away.
In the garden its also a good idea to give your trees a critical eye and see if there are any heavy branches that have elongated over the growing season and now have too much weight out at the ends. Every year pick all the fruit on fruit trees when ripe. This will help with disease resistance and messy clean-up of fallen fruit. I also look at the density of evergreens in the garden, that could get heavy with rain water and then blow over. These trees and shrubs should be thinned to allow the wind to blow through and balanced so the branches don’t crack. For large trees I call in my arborist buddy- Dan Hoskins and the shrubs and small trees I work on myself over the fall months- he would do them if I asked him! If you use a gardener ask them to thin rather than shear the shrubs and small trees so that they are more open and allow the air to move through. This is probably easier said than done but its worth a try.
Nobody wants to see this happen (photo below) and actually its not very common for trees to fall, with the exception of extreme conditions. I mention this because a lot of people have expressed a concern to me that a tree may fall on their home or car. Best way to avoid this is good tree and garden maintenance. The tree in the photo developed a very shallow root system making it top heavy. This could have been avoided by deep watering the tree as it grew encouraging the roots to grow down rather than just out along the surface to capture the lawn watering or sprinkler irrigation.
Garden Arches with vines on can be at risk also from strong winds. Our heavy ‘Mermaid’ Rose really catches the wind and tries to blow over every year. I think I am on my 3rd arch for that one. Vines need to thinned and cut back to the arch every year anyway so before the winter is a good time to start this.
Its starting to be cool enough now to start the winter pruning for the perennials (that are not blooming), shrubs and vines. For Deciduous Trees wait until they lose their leaves. I note this because it is helpful to do the pruning over a long period to be able to fit the trimmings in those green waste bins and for starting compost if you have the space. I get fairly sore and crotchety these days so breaking up the garden work into shorter periods is easier on my body too. Tree roses and top heavy shrubs and small trees should have heavy tree stakes. Usually two stakes are good but some plants need three.
As part of your tree and shrub pruning it can be helpful to thin out the number of branches opening up spaces for the wind to move through the trees and large shrubs rather than blowing top heavy canopy. Obviously, sheared trees and large shrubs that are in the shape of big lollipops are prone to being very top heavy and falling over in strong winds. This type of pruning is very hard on the trees which will produce an excessive amount of suckers and in some cases extra roots to feed those suckers. It takes years to retrain a tree to a natural shape after it has been sheered so reconsider before getting out the sheering tool or having the gardener do this.
