Waiting until the leaves drop in fall is a rule of thumb for pruning shade trees, mainly because you can see bare limbs better, and the job is less “messy” without leaves attached to the cut branches.

For a Yankee in the South, everything about the environment scares you off. Heat. Humidity. Flying termite season (seriously, it’s a thing). But this cold-and-snow-loving Northerner braved the bugs ...