Where there are trees, there is life. Be it woodlands, forests, farmland, or the trees and shrubs in your backyard. Lush and green landscapes bring life to properties. But, they also bring various responsibilities to the property owners. Even basic shrub care can be very difficult for someone who doesn’t know their way around the landscape.
The recent spring heat waves across the country indicate that we’re in for several hot and dry months this year. That’s why knowing how to care for trees and shrubs is more important than ever for property owners. If you have plants in your backyard, here are 5 essential tree and shrub care tips.
1. Water Management
The scorching heat that's been affecting several parts of the world will continue to bother us. In the dry and hot summer and autumn months, homeowners will have to take extra steps to protect their landscapes. The most important “tool” for tackling these conditions is proper water management.
Strategic water management is key to keeping your landscapes lush and green throughout the dry spells they’ll experience in summer. A basic principle of tree care is adopting good watering practices. The earlier you adopt them, (e.g., during the growing season) the better. Professional providers of tree and shrub care services teach their clients strategic watering practices.
By doing so, they set their clients’ landscapes up for success. Strategic watering is essentially the processing of growing the plants in a way that they naturally conserve water. That’s the most valuable natural resource your trees and shrubs will need when they experience record-high temperatures. Here are some strategic water management tactics you can employ;
· Early Watering: Most dedicated lawn owners will already know this basic shrub care trick. Watering your shrubs early in the morning is a great practice because the water’s evaporation potential is very low. In the mornings, the water that you give your trees and plants actually goes to their roots. They don’t evaporate back into the atmosphere. Your plants will use up the majority of the water during the early daytime hours. Early saturation of the root zone will keep your plants healthy. On hotter days, protect trees and shrubs by giving them more water than usual early in the morning.
· Select Durable Plant Species: Tree and shrub care becomes easier when your plants are naturally very durable. For instance, trees and shrubs that are naturally adapted to hot and dry conditions fare much better in tough conditions. Look for plants that are native to your locality. These plant species are usually well-suited to the weather patterns your property experiences every year. For lawn grass, tree, and shrub treatment experts recommend drought-tolerant turfgrass. This type of grass doesn’t require much watering and they improve the aesthetic quality of lawns.
· Composting: Composting is key to maintaining tree health in tough conditions. It’s the process of improving your soil’s water-retaining capacity by adding different types of organic matter. Adding compost to your landscape soil will help it retain more water. As the “rootzones” of your landscape receive more water, your landscape’s overall soil fertility will increase significantly. Professional providers of tree and shrub care services do offer composting services. If your plants need additional supplies of moisture, get professional composting experts involved.
Experts of tree and shrub care services always ask their clients to water their trees and shrubs “deeply.” By that, they mean putting the plants through soaking sessions every few days. Make sure enough water moves into the soil and deep down into the plant's root zones.
2. Regular Check-Ups
Trees and shrubs may look great for years. But, within three or four days they may collapse completely. Of course, the trees and shrubs don’t die only because of the three/four days. They die probably because they were harboring some issues or illnesses that the owners didn’t address on time.
If you don’t prune a tree for a few weeks, it may pick up many maladaptive growth patterns. Let those growth patterns go unchecked and that tree will also collapse “suddenly” one day. That’s why savvy property owners always pay for tree and shrub care services.
These services are worth the payments because professional arborists perform regular check-ups of all trees and shrubs on the property. Timely attention to symptoms of diseases, maladaptive growths, etc., ensures that the plants don’t succumb to diseases. Timely and regular tree and shrub care can increase the lifespan of any plant.
3. Soil Testing
This step is of special importance to flower lovers. Soil testing is an essential part of shrub care. It informs property owners about the acidic/alkaline content of their soil. For instance, if you want to keep your lilac shrubs healthy, your soil must have a pH value between 6.5-7.
Anything lower means that the soil around your lilac shrubs is too alkaline. Don’t worry, you can always add fertilizers (e.g. organic fertilizer like lime) to make your soil more alkaline. Professional providers of tree and shrub care services also perform soil testing.
They do it to determine what fertilizers they should add to their clients’ soil. They select fertilizers based on the acidic and nutrient content of the soil. Then, they select fertilizers that contain the correct nutrients for optimizing the trees and shrubs’ health.
4. Pruning
To not prune a tree is to ruin the tree. Of course, wild trees grow freely without pruning. But, millions of dead and damaged branches fall from these trees every year. You don’t want dead and damaged branches falling unexpectedly in various regions of your property.
So, if you don’t know how to prune a tree, seek professional help. Providers of tree and shrub care services remove all deadwood that holds your trees back. They improve the structure of the trees by making strategic cuts in specific parts of the trees.
5. Pest Control
Lastly, and most importantly, make pest control your tree and shrub care a priority. Investigate your trees and shrubs for pest infestation risks every day. Spray insecticides on at-risk plants. Cut down any plants or tree parts that are damaged by insects. If your landscape needs extra care this summer, contact Emerald Tree and Shrub Care company now. Every year, these experienced providers of tree and shrub care services help thousands of homeowners take care of their landscapes. Partner up with us now!
