Maintaining Wild Tip
by Besa Schweitzer, chapter member
Limbs damaged by ice or snow should be pruned off promptly to prevent bark from tearing.
Cut off the broken branch just outside of the branch collar.
The branch collar is a thicker ring of bark that belongs to the trunk and encircles the base of the branch.
When a branch falls off naturally it separates from the trunk at the branch collar so that the tree trunk can properly heal from the wound.
To reduce injury, allow ice to melt naturally from plants. Attempting to remove ice may damage plants further.
https://moreleaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/pruning-guidelines.pdf
About our new Maintaining Wild series:
To help you keep up with your native garden care in 2026 we’re posting a maintenance tip each week on our website and on Facebook. These tips will include native garden specific tasks as well as some basic gardening advice.
A new tip will appear weekly on Facebook, on Friday at 1 pm.
To join the discussion, comment on our Facebook page.
Stay tuned for a new garden maintenance tip each week to help get you out into the garden and make 2026 a year for Maintaining Wild. Let’s have a discussion and share our knowledge!
View all tips on a single page: https://stlwildones.org/maintaining-wild-tips/
