Tag Archive for: winter

The Winter Solstice

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Yule. Midwinter. The longest night of the year. These are all names for the winter solstice, an event that is almost upon us, falling on Monday, December 21st​. It occurs when the Earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun, resulting in the darkest day of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the official start of winter and a time when the Earth rests while waiting for the sun to return and lengthen our days. Cultures throughout the ages– dating all the way back to ancient Egypt and First Nations Peoples–celebrated the Winter Solstice. Even modern Americans have their own unique ways of celebrating this holiday! The celebrations from these cultures around the world may look different, but have more in common then you would think. Most of these civilizations spent time during Midwinter reflecting on nature and family. They celebrated with fire, a symbol for the sun chasing away the darkness, exchanged nature based gifts, and participated in activities like storytelling, singing or dancing. These are all wonderful ways to reflect and say goodbye to the past year, moving forward into the burgeoning light of the New Year with good health, renewed hope and nurtured spirits. 

Some Nature based activities to celebrate the winter solstice: 

  • Make an evergreen wreath. This can be as simple as tying evergreen boughs together in a circle to hang in a window or on your front door. 
  • Make a pine cone bird feeder. Gather up pine cones and tie a string to the top. Spread peanut butter on the cone. Roll the cone through a bowl of bird seed. Hang outside for the birds to enjoy. 
  • Light a fire in your fire pit or light a candle and take turns telling stories 
  • Bake a Yule Log: Either the Traditional French or a Gluten Free Option
  • Set up a meditation space 

Regardless of how you celebrate, we hope you have a wonderful Winter.

Wrap Your Tree For Winter Protection

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Tree Wrapping and Understanding Winter Tree Damage

 

When a tree is young, it’s outer layers are composed of thin, active tissue.  Until the bark matures and the tissue becomes rigid, you must wrap your tree for protection.  During the winter, the intensity of the sun at our elevation can lead to unseasonably warm weather. This can damage the vascular system of your tree thus, limiting its ability to transport water and other essential elements.  

There are two ways the winter weather can affect your tree. First, frost cracks happen when extreme temperature fluctuations stimulate the sap flow to become active in the trunk and freezing temperatures at night freeze the water in the sap. This causes the cell walls of the vascular system to explode. The wrap will better regulate the surface temperature of the trunk. The second way is sunscald. Sunscald takes place at the base of the tree closest to the ground.  That is why wrapping from the first branch all the way to the ground is key.  When snow is on the ground around the tree, sunlight reflects off of its white surface thus speeding the rate at which the tissue de-acclimates to freezing conditions. This subsequent freezing kills the active cells.  

Trees will usually be able to seal off the dead tissue before bacteria or fungus can invade the open wound but it is something to be cognizant of heading into the growing season.  If your trunk sustains any damage, don’t cover it up with anything.  Keep it dry as best you can. If there is any lawn irrigation hitting the trunk consistently it fosters the perfect environment for bacteria and fungus to take hold.  

A rule of thumb in the trade is to wrap your tree from Thanksgiving until Easter.  But in Colorado there are instances of extreme temperature swings before and after those holidays; my advice is to pay attention to the forecast.  This year, it froze right on Easter so we would have waited until the third week of April to remove the wrap.  In October if you see a low below 20 degrees, wrap it up!

 

 

TREE WRAP RAP

Yo. Wrap your tree

Don’t be a dummy

Frost cracks 

Will cost you mad stacks

And the scald of the sun

Ain’t no fun

For your tree

You See

Cause we livin’ at elevation

Where the sun’s bakin’

So, don’t be a bum

Wrap that cambium