Keeping Your Trees Healthy
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Keeping Your Trees Healthy

When I first bought a new house, I realized that the front trees were a little overgrown. I was worried about a branch breaking in the wind and smashing into a window or the roof, and so I decided to invest in professional tree service. When the arborist came, he had more concerns than just a few overgrown branches. Apparently, a few of my trees had also developed serious pest infestations, and I was worried about what it might mean for their health. He carefully trimmed each tree to ward off disease, and within a few weeks, they were looking a lot better. This blog explains how a professional tree trimmer could help you, so that you aren't left with dying trees.

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Keeping Your Trees Healthy

There's No Water Left: Keeping Your Tree Healthy In A Drought

Joshua Mercier

California's severe drought has put growing vegetation in severe danger; if you are living in an area suffering from similar conditions, your yard's trees could suffer the same fate. Thankfully, you can save your trees by following these simple guidelines.

Start by Mulching

Mulch is composed of decomposing organic materials that you can spread around the base of your trees. It is often made out of items as diverse as bark, wood chips, straw, and pine needles. The benefits of mulch include:

  • Eliminating soil erosion
  • Trapping vital soil nutrients near tree roots
  • Controlling the insects and pests that try to feed on root water
  • Holding the water in the soil around the tree

Spreading a healthy amount of mulch requires understanding the area you want to cover. This requires a little math: multiply the length and the width of the area by 1 1/2 inches (the best depth for mulch) to find the cubic feet of mulch necessary to cover the area. Divide that by 27 to find the cubic yards you need to buy.

Reuse All Your Water

When your water usage is severely limited by a drought, it is a good idea to collect as much of it as you can and purify it. In that way, you can use it for other purposes, including watering your trees. You should plug up your bathtub when taking a shower and gather the water up in a bucket. Similarly, you should take the soapy water from when you wash your hands or do the dishes and gather it up in a large, sealed tank.

Purify that water by boiling or using water purification tablets, filters, or distillers. Now spread this recycled water around the base of your trees to keep the soil damp and their roots healthy. Water at least once a day to keep the soil from becoming brown and dry.

Aerate Properly

Aerating your lawn near your trees helps oxygen flow to their roots and promotes better water spread. You should also be aerating during a drought, but only if your lawn has been regularly watered and maintained. If your lawn is brown and dusty, aeration won't help much, as the plugs will be hard to remove. Once you have aerated near your tree, water the area you've aerated: this will heal the aeration holes more quickly and give your tree a much needed boost of water.

Remove Weeds

Weeds have evolved to efficiently drain as much water as possible from the soil, and they like to take root near large, water-hungry trees. Find these roots near your tree and pull them out, making sure to dig out the root whenever possible. Now, you can spread some more mulch where the weeds used to be or add anti-weed treatments to decrease the chance of a resurgence.

Following these guidelines can help keep your trees healthy during the toughest droughts. However, if your trees aren't reacting to these treatment methods, call a tree service specialist, like MML Tree Service, for more information on keeping your trees alive during a drought.  


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