Moving Into Summer, What Do Trees Need?

Spring landscaping includes more than lawn care and flower bed design. While we love a new design project and lawn maintenance is essential to a beautiful yard, maintaining the plants you already have matters just as much. And though they take up a lot of space, we often forget that trees need care too. Tree care isn’t as regular a task as lawn care, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. One could argue that its infrequency makes the times you do it even more vital. But what do your trees need to stay healthy? Today, Divine will teach you to take care of your El Dorado trees.

Got Trees?

First thing's first. Do you have any trees? Trees add a lot of beauty and interest to your yard, so if you don’t have any, you’re missing out!

Benefits of Trees

A good landscape design includes plants or other elements of multiple heights. Trees are perfect for checking off the tallest boxes. But that’s only one way that trees bring beauty to your yard. Many trees also offer blossoms or fruit and a home for critters. Who doesn’t love to watch the squirrels and birds play in the branches? Trees also give us opportunities for recreation, from climbing or hanging a swing to resting in a hammock. But best of all, they provide oxygen and clean our air.

Tree Installation

You have options if you don’t have any trees on your property. Divine is available to help with new plant installation, including trees. Depending on the timeline of your landscaping project, you may choose a seed, seedling, or more fully grown tree. The different stages of the tree will have different needs. While planting a seed is your easiest option up front, it also has the most opportunity for failure. Planting a fully grown tree will give you instant gratification but requires the expertise of professional landscapers.

Fertilizer

Part of tree care is fertilizing the roots. But, like all plants, your trees can’t move around to collect the necessary nutrients. And since they’re not surrounded by the same plants and animals that would nourish them in a more natural habitat, that can be a problem. Your trees will eventually deplete the nutrients they need from the soil that contains them. So we add fertilizer to keep them healthy and well-fed.

Mulch

It’s not just flowers that need mulch! Trees also benefit from their many advantages. Mulching helps to retain water so that it doesn’t evaporate or flow downhill before your trees’ roots can take it in. They also help your trees to look better by allowing them to stand out and preventing weeds from flourishing at their trunks.

Pruning and Trimming

The most active part of tree care is cutting the branches. There are two ways to cut branches: trimming and pruning. Both are essential to tree health, but each has its focus. Tree trimming improves the health of trees by stimulating growth. But of the two, trimming has a more aesthetic focus. Trimming trees is the process of cutting for shape. That can mean thinning out the branches or crowing (removing lower limbs). It can also resemble a haircut, where you evenly cut everywhere. Pruning typically focuses entirely on tree health. We prune away branches that are dead or unhealthy. Like trimming, tree pruning stimulates growth, but it does it by allowing the tree to focus its energy on the healthier parts. Pruning also prevents the disease from spreading to other parts of the tree or nearby plants of the same or similar species. We also may prune branches that are in danger of falling off on their own. It’s always better to prune branches in a controlled way rather than allowing a storm to knock them out, damaging the tree and possibly your other property.

Tree Removal and Stump Grinding

When all else fails… Professional tree care is your best option for keeping trees healthy and beautiful. But death is a part of life; sometimes we lose our trees. Other times, trees can get in the way of a significant home remodeling project. If you get to a place where you need a tree removed, Divine can also handle that for you. So we do the whole job, including stump removal.

Divine Intervention for All Your Tree Care Needs

As summer approaches your landscape, don’t get so caught up in your flowers and grass that you forget about your trees! Instead, let Divine handle your tree care so you’ll have those trees for years.