[This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated and revised.]
Most of us think spring or summer when it comes to pruning and yard clean up. But winter can be a great time to keep up on your yard work and maintenance.
After winterizing your home, you should know that mid-to-late winter is often a great time for pruning in many regions of the U.S. In fact, for non-Spring blooming plants, the dead of winter is one of the safest times to prune while the plants are dormant.
Pruning during this dormant season benefits many trees and shrubs. It provides them with extra root and energy reserves to support new growth on the remaining branches.
Pruning is important for most all plants, but especially flowering and fruit-bearing plants. Well-pruned plants will produce more flowers or fruit, and careful winter pruning also helps trees and shrubs ward off pests and diseases, so they will require less care in the spring and summer.
Worried about cutting your plants? No need as the pruning wounds are only exposed for a limited amount of time before the growing cycle begins. Dormant-season, or winter, pruning is easier, too, since the branches can be seen more clearly. In winter, the leaves are long gone and most woody plants are dormant.
However, pruning also produces piles of yard waste and debris that will need to be removed before the heavy rains or snow comes, as well.
If your piles of yard waste and organic debris could easily fit in one or two recycling bins, then your removal task has been greatly simplified. While it might take two or possibly three trips with your municipal waste management company to haul it all away in your bins, its certainly doable.
On the other hand, why send off all that valuable organic waste material to a landfill or to some other processing facility when you could make good use of it yourself?
We're talking about composting.
There are plenty of resources available on how to start composting, but here is a quick guide adopted from information provided by the website EarthEasy.com:
Gardener Beware: Pruning in Winter Requires Care
Although pruning is, in fact, a great idea for most of your plants, you must still follow some guidelines to ensure that you don't inadvertently damage your plants. According to Almanac.com some tips for winter pruning include:
Can you really kill your beautiful plants? While it is really quite difficult to "kill" or seriously destroy a plant when pruning, you do need to be careful and deliberate with your approach.
Another online publication, Gardensalive.com , has these tips to offer:
"Garden cleanup? If it’s a herbaceous perennial (a plant that dies back to the ground every winter only to re merge in Spring) that doesn’t have big seed pods (like peonies, for instance), go ahead and clean up the dead stuff on top of the soil; these plants are long done collecting solar energy for the season. Wait to apply an inch or two of mulch until AFTER the ground freezes hard for the season. (You’re prevent winter heaving, not keeping the plant warm.) If your ground doesn’t freeze, you don’t have to mulch."
Here is a helpful graphic that illustrates proper late winter pruning techniques:
Proper winter pruning does not have to be difficult nor particularly nerve-wracking, even for the novice gardener or landscaper. As one article pointed out when it comes to winter pruning of trees and shrubs,
"The late dormant season is best for most pruning. Pruning in late winter, just before spring growth starts, leaves fresh wounds exposed for only a short length of time before new growth begins the wound sealing process. Another advantage of dormant pruning is that it's easier to make pruning decisions without leaves obscuring plant branch structure. Pruning at the proper time can avoid certain disease and physiological problems."
So what plants can you safely prune in the dormant, winter season? Turns out the list is quite extensive! Here is a partial list of some of the most common, or popular, yard plants - shrubs and trees - that can be pruned in winter.
Shrubs
Trees
Pallensmith.com suggests that certain plants not be cut back in winter.
This is their list of plants that are better off pruned in late spring or summer.
One of the by-products of all this pruning, sprucing up and thinning out, is yard debris. It doesn't take much to have a collection of "green" trash that is too much for your residential-sized green recycling can or for your backyard composting bin.
So, the challenge then becomes, "What do you do with all the branches, vines, leaves, stumps, and piles of yard waste?"
Yard waste can come in many forms.
At Junk King, we understand that for many, yard debris removal can often be a year-round requirement.
Junk King provides an efficient, safe and eco-friendly yard waste removal service so you don’t need to worry about the pick up or disposal of your yard debris. Our experienced debris removal team will break down and haul off any types of yard waste you have. Unlike the backseat of your car, our junk removal trucks are made to handle those dirty yard debris items.
Our professional and insured yard waste removal team will show up at your home on time, as promised, and we'll call 15 to 30 minutes before we arrive. Once there, we’ll also give you a free estimate based on how much room your yard waste, debris, and other junk takes up in our truck.
You simply point and we'll haul your debris into our junk removal trucks, with no hidden fees.
You make an appointment by booking online above or by calling 1.888.888.JUNK (5865).