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Start with a Walk-Round Inspection

Before you reach for the tools, take a slow lap of your plot with a notebook. Spring is the easiest time of year to spot problems, because the tree tells you itself: buds that fail to break, patches of bark that look sunken, or a crown that leafs up more thinly on one side. Look closely at the base of the trunk and the soil around it, as this is where trouble often announces itself first.

Check for the aftermath of winter gales. Torn limbs, split forks and hanging branches should be dealt with promptly, before the sap rises and the tree invests energy in shoots that will have to come off anyway. Anything larger than your forearm, particularly if it is overhanging a path or building, is best left to a qualified arboriculturist with the right climbing and rigging kit. On smaller trees you can safely tidy a clean tear back to a branch collar with a sharp pruning saw.

• Look for dead, diseased, crossing or rubbing branches
• Check ties and stakes on young trees — they should be snug but never strangling
• Note down areas of dieback, oozing sap or unusual leaf colour for later reference
• Clear any strimmer damage at the base; mower and nylon-cutter wounds are a common cause of long-term decline

Mulch While the Soil Is Still Moist

If there is one job that pays back more than any other in spring, it is mulching. A generous layer of well-rotted organic matter — garden compost, leafmould, spent mushroom compost or manure that has aged for at least a year — suppresses weeds, conserves moisture and slowly feeds the soil life beneath.

Aim for a layer of about 5–7cm (2–3in), spread over the root zone at least as wide as the canopy, and further for established trees. The crucial detail is the gap: keep mulch clear of the trunk by a good 10cm so that bark stays dry and aired. Piling it up against the stem, sometimes called a mulch volcano, is one of the most common and most damaging mistakes in British gardens.

In a woodland setting, you can simply let fallen leaves lie where they land and top up around newly planted whips with leafmould. Do this in mid-spring, while the ground is still damp from winter rain, and the mulch will lock that moisture in for the drier months ahead.

Prune with Care — Spring Is Not for Everything

Spring pruning suits many trees, but timings vary by species and getting them wrong invites disease. As a general rule, remove dead, damaged and diseased wood at any time, plus any suckers rising from the rootstock and any water shoots sprouting straight up from the trunk.

For stone fruits such as plum, cherry, damson and peach, hold off until June or July. Pruning them in spring leaves open wounds that are vulnerable to silver leaf and bacterial canker, both of which are far more active in cool, wet weather. Birches, walnuts and most maples bleed heavily if cut in spring, so save them for late summer or autumn if you can.

Where you do prune, make clean cuts just outside the branch collar — the slight swelling where the branch meets the trunk — and never leave a stub. Do not paint wounds with sealant; modern practice is to let the tree seal itself.

Water and Feed Newly Planted Trees

A tree planted last autumn or winter is still finding its feet. Its roots have not yet spread into the surrounding soil, so it depends on you through its first three growing seasons. In dry spells, give it a thorough soak of roughly 20–30 litres once a week rather than a light daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and encourages shallow rooting.

Feed sparingly. A balanced general-purpose fertiliser scattered over the root zone in early spring is plenty for young trees; overfeeding established ones encourages soft, sappy growth that aphids adore and wind snaps. If growth is strong and the leaves are a good colour, leave well alone.

Keep an Eye Out for Pests and Disease

Spring is the season for monitoring, not panic spraying. Most aphid populations collapse on their own once ladybirds, hoverflies and blue tits get to work, so tolerate a little damage and let the predators arrive.

• Aphids and caterpillars — check new shoots and unfurling leaves weekly; squash small colonies by hand or blast them with water
• Horse chestnut leaf miner — brown blotches on leaves from midsummer onwards; raking and binning fallen leaves reduces next year's generation
• Oak processionary moth — white silken webbing on oak trunks and branches in late spring; do not touch the nests or caterpillars, and report sightings
• Ash dieback — diamond-shaped lesions on bark and crown dieback; note affected trees and seek advice before felling
• Honey fungus — white fungal sheets under bark and black bootlace strands in the soil; a sign of stressed or dying roots

Clean secateurs and saws between trees, especially when working around known problems, and dispose of infected prunings rather than adding them to the compost heap.

Woodland Gardening: Tending the Wider Ground

If you manage a few trees or a genuine copse, spring is the moment to think about the ground beneath them. Thin out overcrowded saplings so the strongest stems have room, and clear bramble and ivy from young trunks where it is smothering growth. Leave deadwood and log piles in quiet corners — they are habitat for beetles, fungi and overwintering invertebrates, and they cost you nothing.

Underplanting is the reward for all this work. Native wood anemone, bluebell, wild garlic and primrose will naturalise happily in dappled shade, as will hellebores and ferns in heavier soil. Plant them in spring while the soil is workable, water them through their first summer, and within a few seasons you will have the layered, self-sustaining woodland garden these trees deserve.