Fall is a crucial season for your landscape. It's the time to prepare your plants for winter so that they can come back in the spring stronger and better than before. Trees need fall care in order for them to live as long as possible while maintaining healthy growth patterns.

Here's a simple fall tree care checklist to help you know what you can do to keep your trees healthy this winter. 

1. Keep watering.

When the heat of summer months fades into the chilly autumn days, many people stop watering their trees, thinking that trees don't need water when temperatures drop. However, it's important to realize that dry conditions persist even when the sun is not as intense. If you are not having rain, your trees still need water.

Without good hydration during the winter, your tree's roots can start to die in places, causing the tree to spend more time in the spring dedicated to regrowth and repair, instead of dedicated to expansion and new growth. Over the years, a well-watered tree will look much nicer, fuller, and larger than a tree that was not well hydrated during the cooler months of the year. 

2. Cover the bark.

Deer and rabbits like to snack on tender tree bark. Older trees can often develop a hard exterior, but most saplings, even hardwood saplings, have a much more tender formation of outer layers. One of these outer layers contains the xylem and phloem that moves nutrients and water up and down the tree as needed. When chunks of bark go missing because of animals, the pathway is halted, and sometimes entire sections of roots or branches may die as a result. If the bark disappears all the way around, the tree cannot be saved. 

Another good reason to cover the bark is to protect the tree from getting damaged due to intense sun exposure. The sun can warm the bark of tree to above freezing during the day, but then temperatures drop at night. Over time, this freezing/thawing pattern causes the cells in tree bark to burst from strain, and the bark can split, fall off, or die. The tree is then exposed to insects and diseases. Plastic covers can prevent this temperature change damage from being as severe, if it will happen at all. 

3. Prune. 

Autumn is a good time for pruning, but pruning a tree is not as simple as it appears. To save your tree from bad trimming, hire a professional. Contact companies like Hudson & Sons Tree Service.

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