Trees can add a spectacular scenery to your home. But they need to be taken care of. No one likes the sight of yellowish, unkempt hedges or trees. They simply make the yard an eyesore. If you've got trees in your yard, then you need to learn how to properly tend to them. Some mistakes are going to cost you the beauty of your home, so be informed. Here are some common mistakes homeowners make.

Tree lopping at the wrong time.

Pruning or tree lopping needs to be done in the late winter. This is the time that the plants are very inactive and haven't yet produced any buds. You don't want your plant to spend all that energy producing buds and then lopping them off. That will only take your hedge longer to fill out.

For flowering shrubs, the best time to prune them would be when the blooms turn brown. That gives the plants enough time to set their buds and prepare for the next bloom. Besides, you wouldn't have wasted their energy cutting off their young buds.

Not shaping the trees and hedges.

In most cases, the top side of the trees and hedges grows faster than the bottom. That's because this is the area receiving the most sunlight. The result would be a V shape that covers the lower areas from receiving the little sunlight they were getting.

You want the opposite of that. When pruning, start with the lower layers and gradually move higher, always ensuring that the bottom is wider than the top.

Overdoing the mulch.

Mulching is particularly helpful to the younger trees, and it protects them from losing water too fast. If the mulch at your tree trunk piles up in a cone shape, then you should know that you've overdone it. Adding too much mulch may cause the tree trunk to rot and be infected.

Remember, don't just get your mulch from any tree service. Go for reputable sources because some mulch piles may contain diseased plants. You could also use your own lawn clippings and branches to create your mulch.

Adding too much fertilizer.

Over fertilizing a tree can actually poison its roots. A tree grown in fertile soils receiving enough sunlight doesn't need any more fertilizer. You can detect signs of overdoing the fertilizers if the foliage is tiny or yellow, and there are salts on the soil surface. Before you fertilize the tree, ensure that you've tested the soil for the minerals absent. 

Share