In Combo of leaves, wet snow, ice is too much for many trees [lohud.com, October 31, 2011], Nina Bassuk describes the late October snowstorm “a recipe for real damage.” She explains: “If the leaf isn’t ready to break off, it acts just like a sail. The rain we’ve had kept the leaves on longer. The weight on the leaves really strains the limbs.”
Better Late Than Never [The Free Press, November 2, 2011] reports on Bill Miller‘s experiments with top-planting tulips — shallow rototilling of a planting area, placing the bulbs on the soil, then covering with mulch.