Mother
Nature did some heavy pruning here in the Ozarks last week with the ice storm, and left a huge
mess. In all fairness, she will eventually clean up after herself, but most of her
human children don’t have the patience to wait while she takes her own slow time
about it. Some residents began the cleanup immediately, but we didn’t have any
inclination to get out there in all that ice, and besides I hate the cold. It
freezes my toes and fingers, and makes my joints ache. We were lucky this time,
no big limbs or trees fell on the house, power lines or cars that needed
immediate removal, though I know many people were not as fortunate.
It seemed
better for us to wait until the ice was gone, when we could tell what was actually
damaged. Trees that were bent over double and appeared to be done for popped
right back up once the weight of the ice was off. We spent one afternoon picking
up fallen branches and litter so we could walk in the area safely to see what
had to be done. Chaos is a designated National Wildlife Federation habitat
garden, and we keep a brush pile at the end of the woods as shelter for small
wild critters so we have a convenient repository for storm debris.
Nandinas
down, but fully recovered.
Cypress x Nanjing Beauty, heart-stoppingly bent double but standing straight now.
A couple of trees have to come out; an old
Washington hawthorn cracked at the base and toppled, and a young wild redbud
fell over in the woods. The hawthorn had fire blight every year, so it won’t be
much of a loss. The redbud won’t be missed either as its location was too shady
for it to bloom well. A Japanese maple might replace it.
Hawthorn has to go!
Where branches
broke off the trees, the stubs should be pruned back to the branch collars at
the trunks to keep out rot and disease and enable them to heal over, at least
as many as we can reach. A big lilac trunk
that broke will have to be removed at the base as it would likely die back
anyway. “Widow makers”, as large, broken. hanging branches caught high in trees
are called, have to be removed; it is dangerous to work or walk under
them. Where they are too high for us to
reach, we will hire a professional tree service to do it.
Much of the
work can be done easily with pruning saws, loppers and a chainsaw. Jim’s
experience as a nurseryman and landscaper gives him the know-how to do it
though he isn’t eager to tackle the high stuff anymore.
But before
you dash out to your nearest Husqvarna dealer and slap down your credit card to
buy a chainsaw, safety first! Never let amateur enthusiasm rush you into taking
a chance with something that could hurt you; if you don’t know how to handle it,
hire someone with experience instead. If you must tackle the job yourself, don’t
even think about going out there without gloves, safety glasses and a hard hat.
Make sure the assistant that is hauling off branches is watching what you are
doing and you also know where they are so they don’t get in the way of any
random branch-tossing; or there may be bad words spoken and angry stomping off causing
you to have to finish the job on your own. Keep your kids safely away while you
are working on big stuff. They can be pressed into slave labor later to pick up
small branches and twigs, or if they revolt, be paid for it.
Valuable
post-storm clean-up information can be found on the University of Missouri
Extension website: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/g6867.
While we are
at it, the rest of the plants that were left for “winter interest” might as
well be cut back as the ice laid most of them flat anyway. I’ll bundle Echinacea
stems and others that still have full seed heads and hang them on the fence for
the birds to finish cleaning out. Ornamental grasses can be cut back to about
10 inches tall, and perennials to about 6 inches, leaving just enough to hold
the fallen leaves that mulch them through the winter.
When the
cleanup is all done, I can sit back and dream over the garden catalogs that
have started coming in the mail, at least until Mother Nature has another snit
that has to be tidied up. But Mom, no more ice storms this winter, please!
- Francis King
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