Ideally, winter is a beautiful season, with magic, soft snowfall, and fun to be had in the great outdoors. However, every now and then, a heavy winter can just come in and ruin all the hard work and money you’ve invested in your beautiful lawn and landscape. That’s where our professional lawn care Nashville services come in. We can help you minimize and perhaps altogether dodge the damages caused by cold winter winds, perilous ice storms, and heavy snowfall to your lawn and landscape. We know that trees and shrubs are particularly sensitive to these dangers, so we’ll do everything in our power to help. Here are some perils against which our teams will make sure your lawn and landscape are as protected as possible.
Frost and freezing
The heavy ice and snowstorms that sometimes occur in winter can cause your trees and shrubs to lose their dead twigs and branches. Not only does this affect the way they look, but it can also represent a danger to your family and pets.
Worse, still, than freezing temperatures in winter, are alternating ones. The aim of our lawn care Nashville efforts is to help your trees and shrubs cope with sudden warm-ups cropping up right after a freezing spell. The bark on the trunks of trees and shrubs can split open, especially later on during the winter, or even early in spring. Your landscape is actually all the more sensitive in spring, as the weather has already warmed up enough for them to start producing new leaves and buds. After a few weeks of warmer weather, a sudden heavy frost or unforeseeable freeze will instantly kill off all the fresh leaves and tender new buds.
Frost heave
As temperatures warm up in spring, only to freeze back down again, the root systems of your plants can see a lot of damage and suffering. That’s because the thawing will cause the soil to ‘relax’ around their roots, only for the frost to constrict them again. The plants are thus effectively ‘heaved’ by the frost in early spring, which can cause damage to the roots and trunks. Particularly sensitive plants can be left exposed to the weather fluctuations following frost heave, which can eventually kill them altogether.
Leaf scorch or winter burn
Leaf scorch, also referred to as winter burn, can be caused both by winter desiccation, an effect of the cold and dry winter winds, as well as by substances used for de-icing. Winter desiccation means that your plants are literally dried out by the harsh winds, which ‘scorch’ their leaves and cause injuries from winter burn. Evergreens with broad leaves are the most sensitive type of plants to such damage. Meanwhile, municipal trucks that spray de-icing salts and other substances on the public roads can inadvertently also spray your plants. Plants cannot thrive covered in a layer of salt, as this will scorch off their leaves, kill their buds, and burn out their branches.
Leaf blight and root damage
In winter, when freezing temperatures cause the water to turn to ice, some trees and plants will attempt to find alternative means for obtaining water to nourish themselves with. As such, they will consume the water in their leaves, in order to feed the rest of the plants. However, if the plants’ root systems aren’t strong or healthy enough to replace that water, the leaves in question will develop leaf blight. In turn, the roots, too, can become damaged in the process, as the plant struggles to find enough water to feed the whole plant. Frozen soil, dry, cold winds, and other weather conditions specific to winter can cause a lack of sufficient water for your plants. The effect is that the root system doesn’t develop as healthily as it should, doesn’t grow deep enough into the ground, and cannot provide the minimum of water the plant needs in order to survive.
Sunscald
It might sound odd that trees can be scalded by the sun in winter time – however, in the summer they usually have a full crown of leaves to protect them. Meanwhile, in winter, their barren branches will leave them directly exposed to sunlight, especially if they’re facing the southern or southwestern side of your property. A full day in winter sunlight will trick the tree into ‘believing’ spring has arrived and starting to prepare for it. As temperatures drop below freezing point at night, however, the bark gets sunscald, i.e. burned by the freezing cold.
Pests
Our lawn care Nashville efforts also target rodents, such as rabbits and meadow voles, which often turn to local lawns for nourishment and shelter in winter. Unfortunately, these animals can come to cause a lot of damage to your trees and shrubs, by feeding off the bark on their trunks, or by digging into the soil to eat roots and crowns. The snow provides them with the cover they need, especially when enough of it has fallen and set above ground.
Proudly providing lawn care to Nashville since 2003.