"Fall Clean-Up: What to Do When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall "

Monster Tree Services was featured on HGTV Gardens. The article offers suggestions for easy and efficient leaf clean-up. It also discusses multiple ways to recycle leaves. Begin the article below or read full piece here.

"Fall Clean-Up: What to Do When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall "

By: Jeff Stafford

You know autumn is here when the evenings grow cooler and the leaves began to change from green to a dazzling array of colors. Then they begin to fall. That's when you reach for the rake. But there are other alternatives if you don't relish that task. Consider these other options instead along with some suggestions on ways to recycle leaves from ISA certified arborist Max Burton of Monster Tree Service.

LEAF REMOVAL TIPS

Mow Them

Use a lawn mower with a bag attachment to handle leaf debris on your yard. Disposal becomes a simple matter once the ground-up leaves are collected in the bag.

Vacuum Them

With a leaf vacuum, you can suck up all of the fallen leaves, twigs, acorns, pine cones and other debris into a bag and then grind them up for mulch or compost.

Read full article here. 

Preparing Trees for the Cold Months

Our own Tim A was featured on KUTV. Find out what you need to do now to in order get you trees ready for the harsh winter season, along with efficient and easy fall cleanup tips, and money saving advice! Watch segment here.

Prepping the Garden for Fall

With Fall approaching, sooner than we'd like it, we thought it would be a great time to look at some tips to prepare your garden for the fall months. We found this fantastic article on www.thriftyfun.com titled, "Prepping the Garden for Fall". The article provides numerous tips for prepping your garden throughout the months of fall. Click here to read the article or begin below.

"Prepping the Garden for Fall"
By Ellen Brown

As summer turns to autumn, it's time to take stock of this year's growing season and start shifting our focus to prepping the garden for fall. here is a to-do list of seasonal chores for the lawn and garden:

Keep Up With Watering

As temperatures begin to cool and grass growth starts to slow, it's easy to back off on watering the garden. Sending your plants, trees and shrubs into the winter season thoroughly hydrated, however, helps to protect them over winter and will give them a good start to next year's growing season.

Clean Up & Compost

Compost fallen leaves and remove and compost annuals that have gone past season. Wait a few weeks to cut back perennials. Dried stalks give gardens visual interest and seeds may provide foot for migrating birds. Remove dead foliage and leaf litter now to eliminate potential winter hiding spots for hibernating insects. Make sure to throw diseased plants in the trash, not the compost pile.

Aerate the Lawn

Plentiful rains make early fall a great time to aerate the lawn and over-seed any problem sports discovered during the summer. In the fall, grass plants focus their energy into root growth. If necessary, apply a slow release fertilizer now to increase the likelihood that nutrients will be used for root growth. Good strong roots are the best way to stimulate and support vigorous leaf growth in the spring.

Click here to read the entire article.

When Autumn Leaves Fall

When autumn leaves fall
By: Katia Hetter

(CNN) -- A new crispness in the air. The red, orange and yellow of the leaves changing colors. The crunch of the first few leaves on the ground.

On that inevitable march toward winter, there are still a few weeks for the casual and determined leaf peeper alike to enjoy the leaves changing color before they fall.

Never mind that it happens every year. "It's because it's fleeting is why it's new every year," says Mel Allen, editor of Yankee Magazine. In each of his 33 years at the magazine leaf peeping has been a fall cover story.

First day of autumn: Share your photos with iReport

"It's fall and the leaves are becoming beautiful; apple orchards; and the hawks are flying overhead. It's a sensual experience," he says.

"If you were to talk to someone in New Orleans who had had 33 Mardi Gras, they'd still be excited about it," says Allen. "This is our party."

Different shades of red, orange and yellow

While evergreen trees such as pines and spruces have foliage that has evolved to survive extreme temperature changes, deciduous (broad-leaved) trees have evolved to drop their leaves and go dormant for the winter, says Ed Sharron, a science communication specialist with the National Park Service's Northeast Temperate Network in Vermont.

"It's such stark contrast," says Sharron, who's based at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont. "There are different shades of green, of course, when you start to get that variation of oranges and reds and purples and greens all together. It's pretty spectacular."

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