Tree Maintenance

Are you worried about the heat taking its toll on your trees, lawn, and shrubs? Let us help you take all the necessary steps to ensure a healthy yard.

Before selecting trees, evaluate your landscape and gardens. Do you need shade or privacy? Are you trying to add interest or fill a barren spot? Or do you just have a favorite tree you want included in your landscape?

Then consider the variety of forms available in trees to determine which can best serve your purpose, as well as the vast differences in mature size that is available. A large tree that spreads wide provides a large expanse of shade. A smaller tree that spreads into a “flattened” oval is a wonderful focal point. A row of low growing trees can provide privacy screening or shelter from wind.

The size of the tree you select is one of your most important considerations. Always make sure you give a large tree plenty of room. It is always hard to imagine a young tree growing to 80 feet tall. And don’t forget that large roots, as well as the branches, spread very wide. If your tree reaches 40 feet wide when full grown, plant it more than 20 feet from your home. You will avoid expensive tree trimming to remove high branches interfering with your home, dropping leaves into your gutters, and the large roots will have plenty of room to spread and keep the tree healthy without threatening the foundation of your home.

Pasco can have some pretty high temperatures during the summer. Let Top Tree LLC show you how to keep your trees healthy during the hot summer months.

Are you worried about the heat taking its toll on your trees, lawn, and shrubs? Let us help you take all the necessary steps to ensure a healthy yard.

When extreme heat and or drought sets in, make sure your bushes, ornamental trees, shade trees and evergreens get a deep soaking. Through extended periods of drought, they should be soaked weekly. Large shade trees require a tremendous amount of water to keep a large leaf canopy alive, so they will be drawing every bit of water from the soil in a very large surrounding area. This will very quickly deplete the soil of water normally shared by surrounding plants and turf. To deep soak trees and shrubs, place a hose near the base of the trunk and run at a slow trickle for several hours. A gushing hose will put more water in the soil very quickly, but it will usually run off or spread rather than soak deep to reach where the major tree roots are.

Large evergreens are very susceptible to stress during drought and extreme heat. Although their needles do not require quite as much water as leafy deciduous canopies, they typically have very shallow roots. Since the top few inches of soil will dry out very quickly, most of their roots have no access to water. The evergreen will eventually start dropping needles to survive. Many evergreens will be unable to regenerate needles even after drought recovery and you will be left with some bare limbs that will need to be removed. If the evergreen is young enough you may be able to allow tip growth to “cover” the bare limbs, but a mature evergreen never seems to generate enough new growth to cover the bare limbs. Evergreens can be soaked in a wide surrounding area with a stationary or fixed sprinkler (not oscillating or pulsating) that sends out a small fan or fountain of water. These will soak a wider area than a trickling hose for the shallower evergreen roots. Move the sprinkler around the evergreen to soak the entire root area, allowing it to run up to an hour in each position.

Richland can have some pretty high temperatures during the summer. Let Top Tree LLC show you how to keep your trees healthy during the hot summer months.

Are you worried about the heat taking its toll on your trees, lawn, and shrubs? Let us help you take all the necessary steps to ensure a healthy yard.

Like everything else, a strong and healthy bush or tree will get through extreme heat and drought best. Make sure they have been regularly watered deeply and fertilized in the spring. Mulch should be applied at least three inches thick and extend at least three to five inches beyond the drip line. The mulch should not come in contact with the trunk. Use a coarse mulch that will allow water to pass through easily but shades the soil. Don’t prune just before summer heat sets in as new growth is most susceptible to the effects of drought and heat.

Sun loving shrubs and trees generally establish deep root systems and will get through drought fairly well if they have been receiving enough water. New growth and young leaves will be the first to show signs of stress. Watch for wilting, yellowing, or curling or burning of leaf edges. Evergreen needles may change color or brown at the tips. Young new growth on evergreens may wilt. Unfortunately, by the time symptoms appear on shrubs and trees, the plant is already severely stressed. And sometimes the effect of drought and heat don’t even surface for a year or two.

Sometimes you may find single branches that seem to be completely dead, with every leaf turned brown. Both extreme heat and drought can put enormous stress on plants that make them susceptible to disease and insects. If whatever the problem is seems confined to individual branches, remove those branches entirely. Even if the cause is simply heat stress, this “thinning” of the crown will reduce the need for water, allow more moisture to penetrate the crown to the roots, and balance the crown to the root structure. Thinning the crown of trees every several years and shrubs every few years is good preventive maintenance in protecting the plants from drought and extreme heat.

The Tri-Cities can have some pretty high temperatures during the summer. Let Top Tree LLC show you how to keep your trees healthy during the hot summer months.