Plants, trees and shrubs may be looking a little overgrown or unkept and you may be wondering if it is time to start trimming them. Pruning can be done anytime of the year with proper precautions, but there are recommendations to keep plants healthy and protect them from disease.
Since the heat of summer has some protective qualities, there are things we can do now that will prepare your garden for the grown of the second spring of autumn.
Here are the pruning tasks you can begin in August.
Trees
While we always recommend deep trimming work be completed in late autumn and winter when everything is dormant, we are past the season when we have to worry about oak wilt. From now until February, red oaks and live oaks can be pruned, as long as all cuts are painted to seal. All other tree varieties can be trimmed without this sealing process.
This is also a good time to tackle light trimming like the branches that hang too low touching house or vehicles.
Water sprouts or suckers, the small that growths that appear on trunks and at the base of roots can also be pruned now. These growths pull energy from the main tree and change its look and pattern of growth.
Flowers and perennials
The heat has taken its toll on flowers and perennials. Pruning now encourages growth and new blooms as we enter autumn.
Here is what to prune:
- Dead head flowers
- Lightly prune roses and perennials
- Trim plants like coneflowers to the stalk
Shrubs
Light trimming of shrubs now can redirect their growth when spring-like temperatures return. Continue to ensure that shrubs are not touching exterior walls where snakes and scorpions like to hang out.
