Tag Archive for: yard care

Timing is Everything: When To Plant a New Tree

If you’re hoping to add new trees to your property, there are many considerations to keep in mind. 

You’ve likely started thinking about what type of tree to select and where it should be planted on your property. But did you know you should also be thoughtful about WHEN you plant your new tree?

Our experts dive into this important topic below.

When Should I Plant a New Tree?

  • WHEN YOU’RE IN A DORMANT SEASON. The dormant season is the best time to plant a new tree. This means either during the spring before blossoms begin to bloom or the fall right after leaves have dropped.
  • WHEN THERE IS CLEAR WEATHER. Keep an eye on the weather in the days and weeks leading up to planting your new tree. Heavy rains on a freshly planted tree can make it harder for the roots to establish. Aim for a day and week where there is not much rain in the forecast.
  • WHEN THE WEATHER IS MILD. You should also keep temperature in mind! If it’s at or near freezing, it will not only be difficult to dig, but you also run the risk of the tree being damaged when exposed to the extreme cold. The same is true with blistering hot summer days in which the soil can dry out too quickly for the tree to take water. 

Have any questions about when to plant a new tree? Feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448.

What To Do if Your Tree is Dying

If you have trees in your yard, chances are you love them for their beauty, the shade they produce, and the value they add to your home. The last thing you want is to see one of them start to wilt and die! 

Our experts explain what to do if your tree is dying or if you sense your tree is unwell. 

First Things First: Identify if Your Tree Is Dying 

Spotting a dying tree can be trickier than you think! Here are some tell-tale signs that a tree is dying:

  • There’s a long crack on the trunk. 
  • The tree appears to be extremely dry and the branches crack easily under pressure. 
  • The tree isn’t standing upright. 
  • Little or no leaves grow on the branches. 
  • Fungi and mushrooms have made a home on the tree. 

Figure Out What’s Killing Your Tree

This step might require outside help, as it can often be difficult to determine for yourself what’s harming your tree. The potential culprits include pests, diseases, and weather damage. If you need assistance in monitoring the health of your trees, our experts would love to help! Reach out to us to schedule an appointment today with one of our Certified Arborists and ask about our Plant Health Care Program to learn more. 

Try Out Different Tree Saving Methods 

If you know your tree is dying and it’s not because of the major health issues mentioned above, try some of these tactics to bring life back into your tree. 

Water More or Less 

Issues with watering are hands-down one of the biggest reasons trees meet an untimely end. The key to doing it right is to find the middle ground between not watering too much or too little. You want to stick to somewhere between one minute to two minutes of watering per day and stop before water puddles on the ground. You also want to ensure you have proper drainage around your tree, so your soil doesn’t retain too much water. 

Boost with Fertilizers

Sometimes all your tree needs to bring it back to life is a boost with fertilizer. Grab a trusted brand and then use it on your tree following the instructions on the packaging. You might see a difference in just a few weeks! 

Mulch Can Help! 

Mulch is a fantastic tool for trees, as it can provide extra nutrients. Again, the trick is to use the perfect amount for your tree, not too much and not too little. You want to ensure that you dig close enough to your roots to allow the mulch to touch them, but you don’t want to bury the roots so much that they can’t breathe. Usually, somewhere around 1.5 inches of mulch works perfectly. 

Pruning Can Give Your Tree a Second Chance at Life

We talk about pruning in most of our tree-of-the-month infographics, and for a very important reason! Pruning a dying tree has the potential to bring it back to life. 

How does it work? If the trunk is still alive, you can cut off any dead branches or areas you notice have died. Doing so will prevent the dead cells from spreading anywhere else on the tree. 

Have any questions about tree care? Feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448.

How to Plan for Fall and Winter Tree Care

We’ve made it through another hot summer season in the south! But the cold weather is coming quickly, which means it’s time for a different plant care plan. While watering over dried soil was the main focus throughout summer, now it’s time to get ready to protect your soil and roots from damaging cold temperatures. 

As chilly air rolls in, here are the steps we recommend all tree owners take for how to plan for fall and winter tree care. 

Prune Dead and Broken Limbs 

It’s always a good idea at the start of any new season to do a lap around your yard and find any broken or dead tree limbs. That way, you can prevent them from falling and potentially damaging your house or property. It’s even easier to identify potential danger during the winter months when leaves have fallen off your trees. 

Fertilize

During the cold seasons, roots will be quietly growing underground. When you fertilize before the soil freezes, you’re helping to maintain the nutrients in your yard, as well as giving your roots an extra boost of nutrients which will carry them into the spring. 

Protect Your Roots 

Adding new mulch, pine straw, or even a protective wrap over the top of your tree’s roots protects them from damaging winter weather. These things also help to keep moisture locked in your tree roots if you live in a dryer climate. 

Have further questions before the cold temperatures set in? Our experts are here to assist anyone in the Atlanta area with prepping their yard and for how to plan for fall and winter tree care! Feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448.

Summer Storms Got Ya Down? We’ve Storm Cleanup Services

When people think of summer, they usually think of sunshine and time spent by the pool. However, summertime is also the season for thunderstorms, especially if you live in the south where in a matter of minutes storm clouds can take over. Sometimes, this means a nice, gentle afternoon shower to cool things off. Other times, it’s a fierce storm that does a lot of damage, particularly to your trees.

That’s where our experts are proud to step in. After a particularly bad storm, our company will step in and clean up any leftover debris from a nasty thunderstorm or, even worse, tornado or hurricane. But what exactly does that mean? We’re explaining our storm cleanup services below and how we can clean up any messes that mother nature might produce on your property.

How Premier Tree Cleans Up Storms

When violent storms or tornadoes rip through your property, we show up ready to work. Our services cover a large variety of cleaning options. Whether you have a tree that’s fallen over and needs to be removed, or you just have a large amount of branches and leaves strewn about, we do it all. Our expert team will arrive and pick up all debris for you, without you having to get your hands dirty.

Especially when it comes to removing uprooted trees, you need someone you can trust to ensure the process doesn’t do any further damage to your property. We treat your property like it was our own and we’ll leave nothing behind, including no signs of a storm. You also can rest easy knowing that our prices will not increase when a storm catosphere arises.

In short, when your property is at its worst, we are at our best. Have further questions about our storm cleanup services? Feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448.

What is Stump Grinding and Why You Might Need It

Trees fall. It happens all the time. Whether it’s an accident caused by a bad storm or an intentional choice made to upgrade the aesthetics of your yard. Either way, you’re usually left with a stump that needs to be addressed.

That’s where stump grinding comes in! This tool makes it easy to remove unwanted and unpleasant stumps from your yard, so you can reclaim that space for other plants or landscaping plans.

The experts at Premier Tree Solutions are explaining what stump grinding is and why you might need to use it below! 

What is Stump Grinding? 

A stump grinder tool, also called a stump cutter, is a self-propelled machine used to remove tree stumps. To do so, it has a rotating, high-speed cutting disk that chops away at the wood. The carbide teeth on the blade cuts the wood into small chips. 

The machines come in a variety of sizes, from as big as a lawn mower or as large as a truck, to cover all your stump removal needs. 

When Would You Need to Use Stump Grinding? 

If a tree has recently fallen or if you’ve cut a tree from its roots, then you’ve got an unwanted stump on your hands. As soon as the rest of the tree is removed, the stump will begin an extremely slow decaying process. It could be years before the stump will easily break apart to be removed. 

While you may be tempted to let nature do the hard work, leaving a stump to rot has many downsides. The biggest of those being:

  • The rotting wood can often attract many pests, including carpenter ants and termites. If the stump is close to your house, those bugs could end up transferring to your house and damaging it. 
  • Unless you like the look of rotting wood, stumps standing out in the middle of your yard aren’t appealing. If you have services like HOA, they might also require you to remove the stump. Or you risk a fine. 
  • Planning to plant a new tree near the stump? The roots of this tree will have a harder time spreading out if the stump is blocking them, stunting the growth of your new plant. 

How Premier Tree Solutions Can Help

Have a stump ruining your yard? Our experts are here to help! We’re proud to offer to the Atlanta area stump grinding and removal services. If you’re interested in utilizing our expertise, feel free to reach out to us by clicking here or by giving us a call at 404-252-6448. 

Make Up Your Mind! What Changing Weather Can Do To Your Trees

Fluctuating weather is a common occurrence in Georgia. One day it might feel like spring is right on the horizon, other days a chilly freeze comes back making you snuggle up on the couch. You might even notice how some trees start to blossom too early, say around February, when the warm weather comes out to tease them and their biological systems. But, when frost comes back to bite, what will happen to those gorgeous trees with flowers ready to bloom?

The experts at Premier Tree Solutions are taking a look at how changing weather can do to your trees. 

When Are Sudden Weather Changes Most Common?

Before we dive into the effects changing temperatures can have on our trees, let’s first take a look at when these weather patterns are most common. The answer to that is winter. So on top of having to worry about strong winds and bitter temperatures, you also have to worry about when spring comes in a bit too early, only to leave just as quickly as it comes. 

In fact, most often than not, the biggest threat of danger to our trees is the fluctuating weather. When the temperature drops suddenly, trees and plants can really suffer since they won’t have the proper time to prepare for cold weather. The amount of stress this piles onto our trees causes some damage, which we’re about to discuss now. 

What Changing Weather Can Do to Your Trees

Distorting Leaves 

If leaves have already begun to appear thanks to false warmer weather, they may end up being distorted by the time all of the cold temperatures finally leave. The frost causes the new leaves to burn, have holes, and look smaller or with less concrete shapes than they might usually have. 

The good news is that most of the time trees will grow out of the distortion and normal looking leaves will appear again with time. 

Frost Cracks

Most commonly found in the sides of trees that face the sun and therefore face the biggest jumps in temperature, these are long cracks in the trunks that appear thanks to changing temperatures. Why does this happen? When the weather suddenly drops, it causes the outer layer of the trunk to contract quicker than the layers deeper in the tree do. That’s why a crack may appear. 

Sunscald 

Similar to what was described above, sunscald is where bark is exposed to intense sun during changing temperatures reddens, toughens, and then eventually cracks. Most commonly this happens to trees that have little foliage to protect their trunk from strong sun, such as when trees blossom too early and then those flowers die due to a sudden drop in cold weather. 

Winterburn 

Most commonly seen on evergreens, winterburn looks like scorched and brown leaf tips. When these trees are exposed to warm sun and dropped temperatures in the night, their leaves dry out. This happens more frequently when the water in their roots aren’t able to reach the leaves, such as if they freeze over due to the fluctuating temperatures. 

Have any more questions about how changing weather can affect your trees? Premier Tree Solutions has been providing quality, professional tree services to the metro Atlanta and surrounding areas for more than ten years. Click here to contact us or give us a call at 404-252-6448. 

Tree-T Yourself: How to Take Care of Your Yard This Spring

Spring is in the air down in Georgia! The birds are chirping, the sun is shining when the rain isn’t pouring, and everywhere you look green is sprouting up. It’s the absolute perfect time to get outside and take care of your yard and all its plants’ inhabitants.

Not sure where to start? We’re covering how to take care of your yard this spring and how Premier Tree Solutions can help.

How to Get Your Yard Ready for Spring

Know you need to do some sprucing of your yard this spring season? Here are the steps you should take.

Just as a reminder, if you are overwhelmed with any steps of this process, know that Premier Tree Solutions is here to help. Whether you need assistance with picking the right plants for your property or help removing dead trees from your yard, the metro-Atlanta experts in yard care will be there for you every step of the spring journey.

It’s the Perfect Time to Spruce Up Your Yard

Getting ready to put your house on the market? Or feeling inspired and want to do a total overhaul of the yard you have right now? The spring season is the perfect time to do it! Not only is this the time of year when plants, grass, and trees grow the fastest, it’s also the time when all of these things are on sale in your local stores.

Plant New Vegetation

That’s why spring is the absolute perfect time to get new plants. Not only will you have a ton of variety to pick from in your local store, but they will be healthier, happier, and ready to grow and flourish where you plan to put them.

Get Ready for Lots of Growth

As we mentioned above, spring is the time for new growth. But especially after winter storms, snow and pouring rain from the change in weather, your plants and trees will be exploding come warmer temperatures. It will look gorgeous, but it will also probably mean you need to be prepared for pruning and trimming more than usual.

Take Away What Was Lost During Winter

Did some trees or plants not make it during the cold season? Then it’s time to take care of those. Whether you need to pull out weeds, unroot rotting plants, or throw away potted flowers, don’t hesitate. Letting dead things sit on your property invites bacteria and pests in.

Give Some Extra Love to What Survived During Winter

In the same vein of thought, don’t forget to help boost what managed to survive over the winter. That means:

Premier Tree Solutions has been providing quality, professional tree services to the metro Atlanta and surrounding areas for more than ten years. If you need any help with any of your spring tree services needs, including pruning or removal of trees, click here to contact us or give us a call at 404-252-6448.

Stop Tree-son on Your Yard: Why Your Vegetation Needs to Be Cleared

If you look aside your window and see that your land has been over green with green as far as the eye can see, you might be thinking about signing yourself up for some land clearing soon. Whether it’s ivy, overgrown shrubs, or just Mother Nature taking back over the land, sometimes you need a helping hand to clear out that vegetation.

That’s where Premier Tree steps in! Aside from just appearance’s sake, there are several beneficial reasons you need to get to shaping and cutting. We’re discussing reasons why your vegetation needs to be cleared and how Premier Tree Solutions can help below!

Time to Do Some Land Clearing? Why Your Vegetation Needs to be Cleared

  • Improves your land’s appearance. Of course, one of the biggest benefits of land clearing is making your property look nicer. This is especially true if you are hoping to sell your house anytime soon. Not many people like the look of overgrown plants, trash, and dying vegetation.
  • Stops the spread of disease. If you have land covered in overgrown vegetation, then you also have disease and vermin running wild. If you think about all the cover and nutrients that wild plant life offers for things like rats, mice, or other pests, then it makes sense that they would thrive on your property. However, rotting trees and vegetation is where bacteria and disease grow fast. If you have plenty of those on your land, then you’re inviting others, or yourself, to get sick.
  • Makes your home safer. Imagine trying to walk through a yard that is overgrown. There are all kinds of tripping hazards, like roots poking out of the ground or rotting tree stumps waiting for you to step on them and twist your ankle. Having that much-overgrown vegetation also increases your risk of fire. Though you can control how often you walk through it, you can’t control curious individuals who might wander their way onto your land and hurt themselves. Keep yourself and others safe.
  • Gives you land that is usable. Want to grow some gorgeous flowers? What about some trees that can help make you some profit? You can’t do that if your land is overgrown with vegetation that will rob much-needed water, sunlight, and soil nutrients from your plants.
  • Promotes healthier soil. Having large amounts of vegetation on your property you can’t control lessens the health of your soil. Clearing anything you don’t want prevents your soil from eroding and also keeps it healthy and jam-packed with nutrients for your wanted plants.

It might be overwhelming to look at your overgrown land and know that you need to start clearing it. That’s where the experts at Premier Tree Solutions can step in.

Premier Tree Solutions has been providing quality, professional tree services to the metro Atlanta and surrounding areas for more than ten years. If you need any help with any of your tree services needs, including removing overgrown vegetation from your property, click here to contact us or give us a call at 404-252-6448.