Backyard Wisdom - November, 2020
by: Gilbert A Smith, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist

I didn't rake any leaves in my landscape this fall. I never rake leaves. That’s not because I have someone else do it, nor is it because I’m lazy, (though that point can be debated). It’s because leaf raking is a waste of my time and a waste of the fuel that powers our back yard ecosystem.

Mother Nature’s Moment - November 2020
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

This time of year the question of “How can we tell what is alive or dead?” is a frequent one. It is so second nature to us that we often forget to explain to you how we tell if a branch is alive or dead in the middle of the “dormant” season. Let’s start by talking about what we mean when we say: “dormant season”. In the ‘olden days’, our understanding of what deciduous trees were doing in the winter was intuitive but inaccurate. Trees that lose their leaves in the autumn, do slow down their processes in order to survive the long journey around the sun. However, to say that trees go dormant during the winter is a bit misleading.

Mother Nature’s Moment - November 2019
by: Lesley Bruce Smith, ISA Certified Arborist

The vast majority of our tree friends in the northern hemisphere do a great job of preparing for their winter journey. They don’t leave home, so their journey through time demands careful preparation for the freezing cold and weighty snows they will encounter during the winter. This year, those freezing temperatures arrived faster than normal. However, the native Illinois trees, early snows or not, go through the same cell hardening as during a balmy autumn. Thanks to a plant pigment called phytochrome, the cells that need to “harden” take their cues from the always faithful shortening of days, not our uncertain temperatures.