The weather last weekend was perfect for a walk in the woods. While we don’t enjoy the same dramatic effects of the changing seasons as the citizens of Virginia counties farther to the west, autumnal changes to trees are significant, especially as nighttime temperatures grow cooler.

I was fortunate to spend Saturday morning with the current Extension Master Gardener training classes from Gloucester, York-Poquoson, Hampton, and Newport News, their instructors, and fellow Tree Stewards from all four Master Gardener units. The purpose of our walk in the woods was to teach the students about proper pruning techniques. Yes, I know that fall is not the time to prune most trees, but the pruning experience has to occur within the class schedule.

Most of the trees we observed at Charles Brown Park in Lackey still wore their green leaves, a little tattered, but still hanging onto the branches. After our first frost in a few weeks, more leaves will drop until the branches are bare and the ...