The stem or trunk of a tree has three parts: bark, wood and pith. The pith is central part and around it is wood. Between wood and bark is cambium, a thin layer that produces new wood and bark. When cambium ring is severed, as by a wire cable, tree is killed, and since cambium protects against insects and disease, anything driven into it can wound tree severely.

Outside of man himself, trees have countless enemies.

There are 200,000 known kinds of insects that attack trees, in addition to diseases such as blight, rust and rot, storms and droughts. Luckily, birds help to keep caterpillars, borers, beetles and other insects in check.

So, this year our turf has to “weather weather” and I’ll spend my winter wondering if it will maintain energy to raise it’s blades to sun after it pokes through that wet mess of leaves. However, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be staring at brown patches until summer due to my abandoned fall lawn care plan.

Good thing it’s a new year! I resolve to implement my fall lawn care plan next fall.

1.Cut my lawn one last time when I notice it’s stopped growing. 2.Top-dress my grass with a thin layer of compost, not to keep it warm (I’m not that silly!), but to add one last batch of nutrients to soil! 3.Spade compost into bare spots and reseed them to give them a head start on spring growth. 4.Rake autumn leaves to maximize my grass’s chance at getting its share of warm spring rains and sunshine.

Hans is the owner and one of the editors of Lawn Mower Guide a Collection of Articles about Lawn Mowers and Lawn Care