News And Advice From The Leading Thousand Oaks Tree Trimming Company
With many trees losing their leaves and fall gradually turning into winter, you might think this is the time when your yard’s landscaping is ready for a nice rest. Yes, that’s partly true, but this is also a great time to lay the groundwork for a beautiful spring revival of your entire yard. With that in mind, let’s get to work.
Create A Plan
Now is the time to take a fresh look at what changes your trees and garden might need.
- Create a list of any vegetation you’d like to remove, and of any bushes or trees you’d like to plant in the spring. You might even want to sketch out a rough drawing of your yard to help you visualize things. Consider a diversity of species, which can add structure and drama to your yard’s design.
- Create a maintenance schedule for regular care of your trees, shrubs and flowers. Remember, you’re not only contributing to the beauty of your yard, mature trees reduce your energy bills in both summer and winter.
Inspect Your Yard
Be on the lookout for insects and disease affecting your trees and shrubs. Speaking of the value of your landscaping — yes, attractive landscaping can increase your property value by as much as 10 percent, but the reverse is also true: decaying and unsightly landscaping can detract from its value. What’s more, an unhealthy tree can actually cause personal or property damage.
Prune Your Trees
Late fall and early winter are ideal times to prune dead, diseased and broken branches. With generally less foliage, trees are easier to trim at this time of year. Good pruning will help keep your trees structurally sound and better able to withstand our Santa Ana winds. Unless you’re dealing with a minor bit of pruning, it’s always best to have a trained arborist tackle large pruning jobs — give us a call and we can advise you about which of your trees need pruning.
Use Mulch
A proper layering of mulch helps conserve water, inhibits weed growth and is typically an attractive addition to your yard. Spreading a circle of mulch around trees is also a good way to keep lawn mowers from doing any damage to the roots or bark of a tree. In general, it’s best to use one to three inches of mulch over the drip zone, which is the ground directly beneath the tree’s foliage. Remember to keep a little buffer — a few inches or so — away from the tree trunk so that you don’t encourage any rot. Also, tree roots need to breathe, so don’t go overboard in terms of depth: lay down mulch to a depth of a few inches.
Water When Necessary
Although it’s winter, we can’t exactly count on regular rainfall in Southern California. Keep an eye on the weather and water your trees and shrubs about once a week, unless there’s rain in the forecast. It’s also always good to water early in the morning; that helps to avoid evaporation and mildew. Because tree roots are deep, you need to water trees a few times longer than you would water your lawn, so be sure to water them slowly, and keep watering limited to the drip zone.
Take care of your landscaping through the fall and winter and your yard will be ready to explode with flowers and new growth in the spring!