It may seem a little early at this time to be thinking of planting for this year especially after most of the Midwest being hit by a major snow storm, but this is the best time to start thinking about taking care of plants that may have been damaged by the ravages of winter. Now is a good time to take care of those weak or broken branches on your trees before they break and do damage to your house or your car or even hit someone. Also it’s a good idea to clean any salt or ice melt that may have been used to clean your sidewalks or driveways or the road in front of your house. These chemicals if left on the ground could injure or even kill your plants, even your trees. Now I am sure we are all familiar with what these chemicals can do to your lawn, but have you ever thought of what it could do to your larger plants as well? A couple of years ago I seen a large Sugar Maple that developed leaf scorch partly due to ice melt from the road that had seeped into the ground and found its way into the trees root system. While leaf scorch is not deadly it is still rather unsightly. Leaf scorch causes brown and yellow spots on the under side of the leaves on a Maple tree and it is caused by stress on the plant. That stress may be created by any number of things such as not enough water, salt or ice melt left on the ground around the tree, or even an excessive amount of fertilizer or weed killer. If you have Arborvitae this is also the time to think about checking the ropes or burlap bags that you covered them with and make sure they are still secure, if not the weight of the snow in between the branches could break them down and destroy your nice looking bush. Next time you go outside remember to look and see what you may need fix around your house. Don’t let these things go on for too long or you’ll regret it. No one wants to have a yard that looks bad, yours doesn’t have too.