Preparing Trees for Autumn Storms

Why Autumn Gales Catch Our Trees Out

By the time the first proper gale arrives in October, most of our trees are carrying a surprising amount of sail. Leaves are still on the canopy, summer growth is soft and sappy, and the ground beneath is often sodden after weeks of rain. Wet soil holds roots far less firmly than dry, and a tree that shrugged off a February storm can come down in an autumn one for that reason alone.

The good news is that most of the preparation can be done in a couple of afternoons, with a pruning saw, a pair of loppers, some good ties and a bit of patience. The aim isn't to fight the wind — it's to remove the weak points before the wind finds them.

Start With a Careful Walk-Round

Go out on a still day and look up. Walk the whole boundary of your plot, then stand back and view each tree from a distance as well as from underneath. You're looking for anything that has changed since spring.

• Dead wood: bare, grey, barkless branches, often with peeling or flaking bark at the base.
• Cracks and splits: longitudinal fissures in the trunk, or a fork that has visibly opened up.
• Fungal brackets: shelves of bracket fungus on the trunk or at the base usually mean decay inside.
• Rubbing branches: two limbs crossing and wearing a wound open between them.
• Heave: soil lifting or cracking in a ring around the base, or a trunk that rocks when you push it gently.

Anything that involves climbing, chainsaws, or a tree within falling distance of a road, footpath, shed or power line is a job for a qualified tree surgeon. Be honest about that — it's cheaper than a new greenhouse.

Removing Dead, Dying and Damaged Wood

Dead branches are the single most common source of storm damage, because they snap rather than bend. Take them out first, before you touch anything living.

For anything small enough to hold in one hand, cut back to the branch collar — the slight swelling where the branch meets the trunk — without cutting into the collar itself. Don't leave a stub; the tree can't seal over it. For heavier limbs, use the three-cut method: an undercut about 30cm out from the trunk, a top cut a little further along to bring the limb down, then a final clean cut back at the collar. That stops the weight of the falling limb tearing a strip of bark off the trunk.

Skip the wound paint. Modern advice is to leave cuts bare; painting traps moisture and slows the tree's own sealing process.

Reducing End Weight on Exposed Trees

If a tree stands on a windy corner, at the top of a slope, or on its own with no shelter, the priority is reducing the leverage the wind has on it. Long, whippy limbs act like sails on a mast, and the further out the weight sits, the more force is transmitted to the trunk and roots.

Work to a simple rule: never remove more than about a quarter of the live canopy in one season. Take out the longest, heaviest limbs back to a strong side branch, thinning the crown evenly rather than stripping one side. Aim for a shape that looks roughly the same as it did before you started, just a little smaller and more open.

• Don't lion-tail. Stripping all the inner growth and leaving a tuft at the end concentrates weight where it does most harm and encourages weak regrowth.
• Don't top. Cutting everything back to the same height produces a dense brush of weakly attached shoots — worse in a gale than what you removed.
• Thin rather than shorten where you can. Removing a few crowded branches lets wind pass through the crown instead of pushing against it.

Conifers, birches and willows are best left to a professional; they don't regrow well from old wood and a bad cut can leave a permanent scar.

Staking Young Trees Properly

A newly planted tree with a small rootball is a sail on a loose post. Stake it, but stake it loosely — the trunk needs to move a little to build the strength that will hold it up in twenty years' time.

Use two stakes, one either side of the rootball and outside it, driven in about 60cm deep. Attach a flexible tie at roughly a third of the tree's height, or just below the lowest branch, with a spacer so the trunk doesn't rub the stake. Check ties every few months: they should be snug but loose enough to slide a finger behind. Remove the stakes and ties after two or three years, once the roots have anchored.

If a tree is already rocking, firm it back in, water it well and mulch around the base — but keep mulch clear of the trunk itself.

Hedges, Pots and the Last-Minute List

A tall, loose hedge catches wind the way a fence does, and wind-rock opens gaps at the base. Trim formal hedges in late summer so the cut surfaces harden before winter, and never cut conifer hedges back into old, bare wood — they rarely regenerate. Leave any serious hedge cutting until after the nesting season.

Trees in pots are the easiest casualties of all. Move them against a wall, group them together, or lay them on their side if a severe gale is forecast. Finally, walk the garden before the weather turns:

• Clear leaves and debris from drains and gullies.
• Secure or store trampolines, bins, parasols and empty pots.
• Check tree ties, rose arches and climbing frames.
• Water young trees deeply if the autumn has been dry — damp soil grips roots better than dust.

An hour now, on a mild afternoon, saves an awful lot of tidying up later.