Denny's Soapbox

“Fall is for planting” is not just a catchy fall nursery idea. While it’s true that the vast majority of us do our planting of trees and shrubs in the spring, we all should give more thought to doing these installations in the fall. Let me explain why.

When trees and shrubs are installed in the spring, these plants basically sit there as far as new root development goes until fall. Mother Nature has one rule that can not be broken; no plant will start to really grow on top until that plant’s roots grow in the soil. Fall is the season when all plants, newly installed or well established, put on new roots as plants prepare for winter. The food stored from the growing season growth has nowhere else to spend it’s energy other than new root development and it really pays off.

Planting in the fall gives you a one season jump versus those same plants that are installed in the spring. Spring plantings also have to be baby-sat to keep them growing through their first summer. Fall plantings don’t need the same care. The biggest bonus to fall planting is price. Nursery and garden stores realize there’s no such thing as “Fall Fever” like “Spring Fever” to inspire you to plant. You’ll find plant prices very favorable to get you off the couch as you watch football and off to the nursery to improve your landscape. For all reasons, fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs. It’s the time of year that nature plants its own seeds and you should follow its example.

New Plantings Benefit us All

The media is full of pros and cons concerning global warming and climate changes. I’m not going to enter that ring of discussion but I would like to explain the largest benefit we all gain from having living plants. Plants play the most important part in the cycle of nature. Without plants, there could be no life on earth. The oxygen we breathe in comes from plants. After this oxygen goes through our respiratory system it is converted into carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) which we exhale. Living plants then absorb that along with other carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere and convert it back into oxygen.

Environmentalists should be encouraging all of us to plant more green to help eliminate the CO2. Plants of all kinds absorb and convert to clean oxygen.

Another benefit to having living plants is they trap unwanted dirt particles in our air like a furnace filter. The dirt adheres to the foliage until a rain washes it to the ground. If you add the cooling effect from our shade trees, you can really see the many benefits of planting more green in your landscape.