Expert Advice

Circling roots wrap around the inside of a container instead of growing outward, making a tree less stable once it goes in the ground. Nurseries and installers work to build better root architecture from the start, and air-pruning pots and containers are a main tool for doing that. Peer-reviewed research backs up their value, and it also shows that mechanical root pruning, shaving the root ball by hand at shift-up, works well alongside air-pruning containers and gives the best results when the two are paired.

After a major storm, the first question is always the same: which trees are safe, which ones can be saved, and which ones need to come down. At A.M. Leonard, we supply the tools professionals use for this work. This guide covers the field assessment sequence arborists use, grounded in university extension research, with the thresholds that drive save-or-remove decision making.

The first pass is a safety scan from a distance, looking for immediate hazards before you approach anything. After that, the close inspection runs ground-up: root zone, trunk, then crown. The base is where real problems hide, and what you find there informs how you read everything above. 

There's a default most irrigation systems settle into: spray heads in the turf zones, spray heads in the beds, everything running on the same timer. That works for turf. In established ornamental beds, it usually means wetting foliage, watering bare soil between plants, and applying water faster than the bed can absorb it.

Drip fixes most of those problems. But drip isn't one answer. The emitter type and spacing depend on the soil you're working with and how the bed is planted. Converting an existing spray zone adds pressure constraints. And how the system gets maintained shapes which configuration holds up past the first season.

The sections below walk through each of those decisions.

Plant type and density is the first input. Widely spaced ornamental shrubs want water delivered at each plant individually. Dense ground cover or annual beds need more uniform distribution across the whole surface.

Soil texture determines how water moves underground from each

Spring is an important time to assess tree health, correct site issues, and set trees up for strong growth through the season. For professional landscapers, routine spring maintenance should focus on protecting the root system, improving soil conditions, monitoring for pests and diseases, and preventing avoidable trunk and root damage.

One of the simplest and most effective spring practices is refreshing mulch around existing trees. Mulch helps regulate soil moisture and temperature, suppresses weeds, reduces competition from turf, and gradually contributes organic matter to the soil.

Before applying new mulch, lightly rake or loosen last year's mulch if it has become compacted or matted. Then apply fresh mulch to maintain a total depth of approximately 2 to 3 inches. The mulch ring should extend as far as practical, with a minimum diameter of about 3 feet for smaller trees. Larger trees benefit from wider mulch rings that extend farther toward the

Reputable sources disagree about whether and when to cut a girdling root on an established tree. Some say cut early, while the root is small. Some say stage the work across multiple seasons. Some say leave it alone, because the cut will do more damage than the root. The right call depends on what's in front of you.

What everyone agrees on: prevention at planting beats every intervention pathway combined. Most stem girdling roots get their start in the nursery container or at the planting hole, and that's where landscape installers and growers have the most leverage. This guide walks through the prevention work first, then the four pathways extension programs and working arborists actually take when the problem turns up later.

Stem girdling roots most often start in the nursery, when a young tree's roots hit the smooth wall of a plastic container and turn to circle the inside of the pot. Once those roots lignify and become woody, the circling pattern is

When a property owner asks you to make their tree shorter, the right answer is almost never to top it. Topping is fast, cheap, and looks decisive in the moment. The biological cost shows up within a season. The structural cost shows up within a decade. The cleanup cost shows up on the next service call.

Crown reduction is the alternative that actually works. This article covers what topping is, why it fails, how crown reduction gets executed with the right cuts and tools, how species respond differently, what to do with trees already topped, and how to walk an owner through the decision.

The bright line between topping and proper pruning is the cut.

A heading cut removes the end of a branch at a point where no lateral is large enough to take over the leader role. The cut sits in the middle of a branch with nothing below it but small twigs or buried buds. Topping is heading cuts repeated across the upper canopy.

A reduction cut removes a branch back

Landscape fabric works. In certain situations. The problem is that it gets installed in situations where it doesn't, and the people making that call often won't know for five or six years.

Here's a breakdown of where fabric delivers on its promise, where it creates more work than it prevents, and what to use instead in planted beds. If you're deciding whether to spec it, install it, or advise someone on it, this should help you make a faster and more defensible call.

Most landscape fabric sold for ornamental use is a lightweight non-woven polypropylene product. It's a different animal from the heavier woven geotextile fabric used in civil and erosion control applications. That distinction matters, because the failure modes below apply specifically to the lighter products being installed in planted beds under mulch.

The pitch is simple: lay it down, cover it with mulch, and spend the next several years not weeding. The pitch holds up for a while.

Most clay drainage fixes fail for one of two reasons: the method didn't match the problem, or nobody diagnosed the problem before picking the method. Sand, gypsum, and even French drains can all fail in clay soil. Not because they're bad ideas in every situation, but because they get applied to problems they can't solve. Before you choose a fix, figure out which of four drainage problems you're actually dealing with.

Clay drainage problems fall into four categories.

Water moves across the soil rather than into it. After rain, you see sheeting on slopes, eroded topsoil at the base, and pooling at low spots. The clay may not be compacted at all. The site may just be graded wrong, or the surface has crusted from repeated wet-dry cycles. Amendment rarely helps here. Grade and diversion do.

Water sits on or near the surface because the soil pore structure has been destroyed. Roots can't penetrate, oxygen levels drop, and the ground

Most operations should be doing both. Till when you're establishing new ground, breaking hardpan, incorporating amendments, or fighting perennial weeds. Reduce or eliminate tillage on established perennial plantings, permanent beds, erosion-prone slopes, and long-season transplanted crops. If you're not sure, strip-till is the safest middle ground. It disturbs only 20 to 30% of the soil surface and gives you the benefits of both approaches.

That's the short answer. Here's how to apply it.

Tillage gets a bad reputation, and some of it is deserved. But there are situations where not tilling costs you more than tilling does.

New field establishment is the clearest case. Converting sod, pasture, or compacted ground to production beds almost always requires initial deep tillage to break up root mats, correct grade, and incorporate amendments. Trying to skip this step usually means fighting drainage and compaction problems for years.

Breaking hardpan is another.