Question
My Mother lives in a area where there are a lot of leaves that fall in the autumn.  The Blue Spruce looks very unsitely in the Winter.  Our solution is to trim it about 3 feet up and to throughly clean out the base of the tree.  Then we plan to fertilize it with special fertilizer posts designed just for conifers.  Are we doing the right thing?  Also can you suggest anything else?

Answer
Yes the lower limbs can be pruned off. Cut the limbs to about 1/8 of an inch from the trunk. The branch has what is called a branch collar-- a slight swelling right at the trunk. The wound will heal faster if this collar is left and the branch is not cut flush with the trunk. I would wait until early fall to prune the limbs that way the tree will not be producing as much sap flow at that time of the year and we will get less bleeding from the wound. Do not put wound dressing on the cuts this will slow down the healing. Due to the shade it more than likely will be bare under the tree and grasses may not grow in the shade.

I do not recommend fertilizer sticks--they seem to concentrate the fertilizer in spots and can burn the roots.  In the spring I would fertilize the trees with 10-10-10 fertilizer at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter--scattering the fertilizer around the tree and watering in good. Fertilize just before a rain storm and the watering is not needed.