When the leaves on the trees start to fall, each year you are faced with a tough decision: to bag, or not to bag, that is the question.
Raking and bagging leaves is a tedious landscaping chore. It means spending countless hours outside, hoping and praying a gust of wind doesn’t come along and undo all your hard work. However, despite your disdain for this landscaping have-to, you know that leaving the leaves on the Bucks Countylawn or landscape isn’t an option. Or is it?
Many homeowners believe in the power of mulching. Landscaping experts say it is a common misunderstanding that using a Bucks Countylawn mower to mulch leaves is bad for your turf or landscape. Quite the contrary, actually. But mulching the leaves and cutting them up into teeny tiny little bits, you will create a buffet of nutrients and organic matter on which your landscape can feed and thrive.
In addition to the nutritional benefit and the fact that mulching leaves with a Bucks Countylawn mower requires less time and effort, there is also the environmental benefit. Unless you use the brown leaf bags provided by Lowe’s or The Home Depot, you’re probably filling plastic bags and hoping the garbage men don’t get too nosy when loading your trash into the compactor. These plastic bags will end up in landfills, taking up even more room and putting a material (plastic) into the ground that will never decompose.
So the next time your landscape is covered with leaves, rev up the mower and get those leaves mulched!
Winter pruning allows Bucks County landscaping experts to fully assess the health and structural integrity of the tree without the interference of foliage. It is important to have this process scheduled early in the winter in order to give Bucks County landscaping specialists time to accurately diagnose any problems and devise solutions to keep your Bucks County landscape looking beautiful.
Winter is the ideal time for pruning because the limbs can be fully assessed without the weight of foliage on them. Pruning is generally known to encourage growth, so when it occurs during the growing season, new tissue and bark are constantly being added to the branches. When the foliage is no longer on the tree, proper pruning can take place to establish how much dead or decaying material is on the tree.
Pruning during the growing season is encouraged, but can disrupt the tree’s energy. Landscaping authorities say that since leaves are the primary food source for trees, the pruning that goes on during the summer actually decreases the amount of energy the tree is getting. Obviously the tree is capable of getting through the winter on reserved energy sources, so pruning does not have as much of an impact.
Another reason why winter pruning is ideal and beneficial is because the tree is completely dormant, including disease and insect activity. Pruning sometimes makes trees vulnerable to insect infestations and diseases, especially if the pruning techniques aren’t performed correctly and the tree is wounded. If perchance the tree is wounded during winter pruning, it will be able to seal before or during the early spring before insects and diseases become active once again.
For more information on winter pruning, contact your local Bucks County landscaping company and schedule a consultation!
