Trees are vital to a beautifully-crafted garden landscape. They’re responsible for producing oxygen, reducing carbon dioxide in the air, promoting healthy air circulation, and stabilizing soil health in your garden. Also, they provide natural protection against the heat of the sun, where you can enjoy reading your favorite books at peace.
So, take a look at your garden and conduct a quick check-up on your trees. Do they have broken branches and diseased limbs? Do they experience too much growth and are too dense? Do they fail to maintain their good shape?
If you say yes to at least one of these questions, your trees may need a quick trim to restore their natural beauty and create a healthier garden landscape. Follow our tree trimming tips to create a perfect garden.
What is Tree Trimming?
Tree trimming is the process of removing unnecessary parts of the trees, such as branches, flowers, and stems. It’s not done for just style and aesthetics, though. Trimming helps manage the growth and development of trees and woody shrubs, reduces the occurrence of dead stems and branches, and encourages flower blossoms and new foliage.
However, do you know how to trim your trees correctly? If not, don’t worry because this article will guide you through the process with some helpful, quick, and easy tree trimming tips.
5 Easy Tree Trimming Tips to Follow
Tree trimming can be a tedious task, follow the below tree trimming tips to make it easy and efficient:
01. Wear The Right Gear
Tree trimming can be an extremely dangerous process, especially for beginners and when removing branches at a significant height. If that’s the case, you’ll need to head to your nearest arborist shop and purchase a set of climbing gear to keep you safe while working.
Tree climbing gear may include the following:
- Arborist-specific helmet
- Arborist-specific harness, rope, and karabiners
- Boots with toe safety steel
- Cut-resistant leather gloves
- Eye and ear protection
- Cut-resistant and double-layered trousers
When purchasing climbing gear, make sure they’re designed for tree work, meaning they can handle extreme jobs, especially when using chainsaws. All of them should be cut-resistant, particularly on the personal protective equipment (PPE), which includes helmets, trousers, boots, gloves, and vision and hearing protection.
Also, you may consider purchasing spikes or spurs. These boot accessories will help you climb trees effectively and make your stay at the top of the tree comfortable and stable.
02. Use The Right Tools
The next tree trimming tips or tree pruning tips is to get the right tools for cutting branches. When trimming trees, it’s necessary to use high-quality cutting and pruning tools. You want to ensure that your tools are cleaned and sharpened to perfection as much as possible before you start pruning.
Here are the tools you’ll need when trimming trees:
- Chainsaws: This tool is used only for huge branches of trees that can’t be sliced down with basic power tools.
- Pole Saw Attachment: This is an extremely useful tool for tree trimming, perfect for any tree of different sizes. It’s a chainsaw-like attachment that allows you to reach and trim the farthest branches effectively.
- Loppers: These are like giant pliers that can cut down branches of small trees and woody shrubs. Look for those with extendable handles for easier reach.
- Hand Pruners: This is similar to pliers. You can use this to cut down small branches of small trees and woody shrubs.
Once you’re geared up with the right tree work attire and equipped with proper materials, you’re ready for the actual trimming.
03. Know What Should Be Trimmed
In tree trimming, less is more. Meaning to say, don’t be so reckless and aggressive when trimming down your trees. You have to think about what you’re trimming before proceeding. It’s easy to cut down branches, but it’s not that easy to put them back together.
Here are the things you might need to remove from your trees:
- Broken, Dead, Dying, and Diseased Branches: They should be pruned as soon as possible so that the tree won’t be wasting its energy and nutrients on its broken and dead. Also, doing so will prevent the spread of disease from reaching other healthy parts.
- Branches That Grow Inward And Downward Or Cross: The branches that cross and grow inward may damage other branches, causing wounds and infections. On the other hand, branches that grow downward are at risk of getting contaminated, especially when they reach the ground. It is why it’s important to trim them as soon as possible.
- Suckers And Water Sprouts: Suckers drain the energy, water, and nutrients of the trees. Thus, they should be trimmed immediately as close to the source. On the other hand, water sprouts are shoots that grow up to the main branches of the trees. Removing them will encourage better shape development.
- Young And Old Trees: Trimming young trees encourages better tree structure and shape, while trimming old trees paves the way for new and healthy branches to grow.
04. Know When is the Best Time to Trim Trees
You can immediately remove those parts that are dead, dying, broken, and diseased, including those branches that cross and grow inward and downward. However, it’s a different topic when trimming to improve the shape and size of the tree. If that’s the case, you would be wondering when is the best time to trim trees. So, here’s a basic guideline that’ll help you understand when to trim trees for aesthetic purposes correctly:
- Early Spring: In this season, it’s best to trim summer-flowering trees to help them focus on growing newly cut parts. Also, this prevents you from pruning newly-blossomed flowers. Summer-flowering trees include Magnolia, Desert Willow, and Jacaranda.
- Before Spring Growth: This is the best season to trim down fruit-bearing trees to permit light to reach the crown and encourage better fruit production.
- After Spring: Wait for woody shrubs that have grown since last season (old wood) to flower. If you wait long enough, you’ll remove newly-grown branches that may produce flowers for the next season.
05. Follow Basic Trimming Techniques
You may know what to trim and when to trim. However, do you have any idea of how to trim trees properly? If not, here are some basic tree pruning tips and tree trimming techniques for you to understand:
- Locate the branch collar before cutting to ensure proper wound healing to prevent calluses that may result in rotten branches.
- Trim branches at a downward angle to prevent moisture and dirt buildup on the trimmed area, which may cause rotting.
- Never trim branches that grow upward. Otherwise, moisture and dirt will settle on the wound area and cause rotting.
- Don’t trim a branch excessively to prevent calluses from growing near the wound area.
Final Words:
Tree trimming helps your tree grow and develop properly. It encourages better shape and the formation of new branches for a fuller, richer, and more beautiful tree. As a result, your garden will never be as great as ever.
Now that you’ve come to this section, you probably understand the proper way of trimming. Don’t forget to wear essential gear, use the right tools, and trim at the right season. Also, keep in mind the correct trimming techniques to prevent rotting and delayed wound healing. Hope these tree trimming tips or tree pruning tips have helped you to create a stunning garden landscape.
Before you leave, make sure to check out our article:
Lawn Care 101: 7 Tips for Maintaining Trees!
