YORKTON - Gardeners, you’re invited to the next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society on Wednesday, May 21 at 7:00 PM at the Yorkton Public Library.
Everyone is welcome! Our guest speaker at the meeting will be talking about “Air Plants and Succulents”. You might be thinking, air plants, what are they? Come to the meeting and find out more!
There is so much yard and garden work at this time of year! Maybe some of your work may involve changing larger landscape fixtures, like trees. There might be pruning, trimming, perhaps even cutting a tree down. I know many of us feel a certain degree of sadness cutting a tree down: years of growth is gone, just like that. But sometimes the tree must go for various reasons: it might be diseased, it might be dangerously close to a dwelling, either ours or a neighbor’s, or perhaps it has just outgrown its space.
Consider all possibilities before removing a tree for good. But if it comes to that, use the knowledge gained from the experience to help you in further plantings. The biggest lesson is to choose a tree with a mature size that will fit into your yard.
Luckily, there are many, many trees and shrubs that will fit almost any space. Just do your homework before planting, and you and the tree will have a happy life together.
I was reading about cutting spruce trees; not cutting them down but cutting the lower branches. There many be an occasion to do so, such as if the branches are blocking vision as you back out of your driveway, or if they are overhanging a walkway, or if they are diseased. But otherwise, please, please don’t do it. It destroys the beautiful shape of the tree.
A close and serious look at your tree or trees may tell you that serious work needs to be done. If there is one tree and you are considering cutting the lower limbs, it is clear that the tree has gotten too big for the space and it has finally reached the time when it needs important attention.
Cutting lower branches affects the tree in various ways. In nature’s wondrous ways, everything is for a reason. Lower branches support the branches above, so cutting the lower limbs might mean that in time the higher branches droop.
If you are cutting lower branches thinking you will do other planting under the spruce, save yourself the time and effort, because very few plants will limp along under a spruce. There is not enough light or moisture to support them.
And if your yard has a line or collection of spruce trees, and you have to keep lopping off lower branches to make them fit, then it is time to assess. Perhaps every second or third tree should be removed to make proper space. It’s a vicious circle: cutting a branch leads to cutting another to give it some balance and proportion, and then another…and before you know it the tree is disfigured and misshapen and will be that way for the rest of its life. It is also a glaring reminder that too many trees were crammed in too small a space.
So our lesson learned is that if we must cut a tree down, make a careful choice with the tree to replace it. And with spruce, get expert advice on how to best handle a problematic tree. But please don’t start sawing off branches randomly, because your poor tree with never look the same again, and will lose the beauty that nature intended it to have. Thank you to YTW for their fine work. Visit the Hort Society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a great week!
