Save our trees!  How to look after them

Trees are a living architecture that reach up to the sky and add another dimension to our everyday world. Their leaves’ changing colours, and even blossom and fruit, mark the seasons’ round: their gentle soughing and rustling in a breeze are sweet music, away from the dull, lifeless groan of traffic. But we need to care for them out of their natural environment, as even a park is a man-made artifice.

Young tree care

Trees reach up into the third dimension to soften and blur the harsh lines of our concrete world. They need help in their early years. They need water, they need some freedom from competing grass and weeds in their immediate vicinity, and they need support and staking to keep their root-ball secure in the ground. Judicious pruning may be needed during their formative years to cut out weak or dead branches and to ensure the tree has a good shape. Landscaping does not stop with planting: ongoing maintenance from a tree services specialist will ensure successful establishment of these living frames to the landscape.

Keeping mature trees healthy

Mature trees have to be safe when in proximity to people. Regular professional surveys should be performed to check for disease, weak or dying wood, and general health; but also for aesthetic considerations to keep balance, proportion, and indeed beauty in the overall landscape. Resulting works need to be undertaken by a professional tree services contractor, with safety being the paramount consideration. Tree surgery can be done in different ways:

  • Pruning and pollarding to cut out excess growth and weak or diseased branches.

  • Crown thinning to allow more light through to ground level and let the wind pass through the tree with less resistance.

  • Crown raising involves cutting lower branches to give better sight lines and again more light under the tree.

  • Crown reduction may be used to reduce the load and stress on a big tree, making it safer, and so that it is proportionate to its surrounding landscape.

  • Felling and replacement: when it becomes necessary because of disease, age, or other factors, a mature tree may need felling. But the adage is that for every tree felled, four should be replanted!

  • Section felling involves cutting down a tree in stages where space is restricted.

Keeping care legal!

Trees can be subject to Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs), or they might be in a Conservation Area. There may need to be consideration of biodiversity factors (for instance, roosting places for bats) and biodiversity initiatives by local councils before tree surgery work can be undertaken. These considerations are best addressed as part of the tree services from a professional contractor.

Community care

Trees are a joy and an amenity for everybody. Engage the local community to monitor and help in the care of your trees.