A living fence serves numerous purposes and brings value to various types of property. These fences come in a variety depending on your needs. Decrease snow or use it for privacy.  Below is vital information for anyone considering a living fence.

Determine the Type of Tree for Your Living Fence 

Evergreens are excellent for reducing snow, decreasing noise, and screening every day of the year. 

Deciduous trees provide a vast assortment of landscaping components such as autumn colors or spring flowers. Though, these trees don't offer a year-round screen. 

Decide the Height 

Determine how tall you want your living fence. Have someone stand where you are thinking about putting the hedge. This technique will allow you to see exactly how high you should have your screen.

Evergreen Tall Tree Hedges

American Arborvitae is a well-liked hedge that grows up to 60' tall. Green Giant Arborvitae is a quick-growing, famous hedge that grows up to 60' tall.

Evergreen Shrub Hedges

Emeralds grow somewhere between 10' to 15' but pruned shorter if necessary.

Nigras grow between 20' to 30' and takes trimming well, so cut it shorter if desired. 

Deciduous Shrubs

The Rose of Sharon is a good-flowing hedge, perfect for a living fence. North Privet is a swift-growing shrub that is right for numerous yards.

Decide the Width 

After deciding what your main reason for planting shrubs and how high you want your fence, the next step is to choose how much room you have available. If you have a considerable amount of space open, you might think about building two or three rows. If the area is limited, you might consider just one row of shrubs.

One tip: plant trees and shrubs close together in a row. This way, the shrubs won't expand as wide as if they were a single type in a landscape. 

A living fence is an appealing aesthetic way to create a boundary for your property. These fence types are environmentally friendly and are a haven for butterflies, songbirds, or other fauna types.

If you need help deciding what shrub or hedge type is best for your living fence, ask Morrisville Tree Guys.

 

Trees are amazing. They deliver numerous advantages for your landscape, including privacy and shade. However, there are instances in which trees might be a pain to manage, especially when their growth intrudes on other areas of your property. As a gardener, you should know how to kill tree roots. This article talks about problems tree roots cause and suggestions on remedies.

How to Kill Tree Roots: Common Issues with Roots

There are numerous issues tree roots create. Tree roots sprout into drains and pipes, forming hazardous leaks and breakage. 

You'll end up with pricey repairs and stinky messes that can devastate your outdoor space. Branches can pass your property lines, into power lines and your neighbor's landscape. 

Many homeowners decide to resolve this issue just by getting rid of the whole tree. Once tree removal service is complete, though, the problems don't go away for good. Way down below, tree roots still develop and can sprout up anywhere throughout your landscape. 

Stump Grinding

Grinding down your tree stump is the quickest way to remove the stump and kill the roots. A stump grinder is a mighty tool that eliminates tree stumps with a cutting disc that cuts away the wood.

This technique is usually thorough enough to halt more growth under the surface, thus averting future tree root issues.

Herbicides

Glyphosate is a well-known herbicide used to kill trees. To use herbicide on a tree stump, drill some holes around the rim of the stump. Apply the herbicide with a little paintbrush. The tree roots will die and eliminate the stump in the process. 

If you don't want to use a herbicide, an effective alternative is using vinegar. The most significant disadvantage with vinegar is that it will take numerous applications to kill the tree roots.

 

Stump Salting

Epsom salt works as a weed killer by soaking up water that would typically be used by the roots. Salting roots and plants make a drought-like condition that robs the root system of adequate water. 

Even though this is a very efficient way to kill off a troublesome tree stump and its roots, remember that its effects can damage nearby vegetation too. Make sure to aim at the tree stump explicitly, avoiding any spills onto the nearby grass.

Call Morrisville Tree Guys for more suggestions on ways to kill tree roots.

A part of the beech family, oak trees are deciduous trees famous for their usually commanding sizes. While some oak tree bark might split at the bottom of the trunk as part of the tree's exfoliation method, peeling bark is probably the result of a pest infestation or disease.

Reason for Peeling Oak Tree Bark: Flux

Slime flux, also called bacterial wetwood, is a disease that produces dark, typically nasty-smelling sap to seep from holes or cracks in the bark. The wet bark might be loose and easy to pull away from the tree. Eliminating the bark will display heartwood that is dark brown. 

Tree experts suggest drilling a hole a few inches long into diseased areas and putting in a copper tube to let fluids drain out. The tube must go out marginally from the tree so that liquid doesn't go back down onto the infested part. Inspect the tube frequently for blockages.

If there is healthy bark beneath the peeling layers, your tree is in good shape. However, if you see these signs below, your tree requires some assistance: 

 

Canker 

Canker is a fungal disease that is aggravated by environmental stresses like root injury and drought. The infection makes bark slough off the limbs and trunk, displaying brownish fungal spores that ultimately become black and silver. Crown dieback is typically an early sign of the sickness. You can 't contain the disease once it goes to the trunk based on studies by tree professionals. Infested trees must be cut down and burned. 

Borers

The oak borer is an insect that makes harmful larvae that consume woody tissue, making oak bark break and drip with sap. Peel back deteriorated bark might show dense colonies of dust, sap, worms, and excrement. 

Holes in the bark, where the adult insects come in and go out, are situated on the lower part of the trunk. The holes could also be on big limbs. 

Studies about effective oak borer control are still going strong. In places where the insect is common, gardeners might want to plant species that are hardly targeted, like the Engelmann oak.

Contact Morrisville Tree Guys if you discover bark peeling from your tree's trunk.

Chainsaws are tremendously helpful when it comes to cutting down trees. There are routine procedures to be followed while performing tree felling service. Felling a tree is a dangerous work affair, and folks can quickly get hurt. As a homeowner with a landscape, you need to know the standard operating procedures of falling down a tree. You need to make sure you and your loved ones are safe, as well as your property. 

This guide is all-inclusive about some of the things you shouldn't do while felling trees. Chopping down trees does not have to be such an overwhelming project. It should not be scary, either.

What Never to Do When Cutting Down Trees

Never attempt to cut a tree without first inspecting the area around the tree. You must know where the tree will fall. It would be best to have a whole picture of how the complete process will be before you begin cutting. Also, you must have an escape route on all parts of the tree. You should know precisely how to react when the tree begins falling.

Never use a chainsaw if you do not have the right protective gear. The protective equipment is your primary layer of defense against anything that may occur. Therefore, you need to be sure everything is in place before you turn on the chainsaw equipment.

Never force the tree to fall. Also, some folks tie ropes to the tree to pull it down, which is a mistake. Cut the tree until it drops on its own. Once you begin slashing, everyone must be a safe distance away. 

Never try to make the tree fall in a specific direction, even if it is not the way you expected it to fall. When the tree is falling, allow it to drop in the direction it is going. It is hazardous to attempt to alter its course either by pushing or pulling.

Never stand and wait for a tree to fall, even if it is dropping in the other direction. The bottom of the tree has a habit of kicking back once it is detached. You can get severely hurt. 

 

Call us at Morrisville Tree Guys when you need a tree cut down. Our tree felling service is quite affordable.

 

Homeowners often wonder if it's okay to put mulch around trees. Placing mulch around trees could be useful though there are some guidelines to remember when using garden mulch.

Mulch Around Trees is Okay: Mulch Volcanoes are Not

"Mulch Volcano" is an offensive nickname that depicts the overuse of mulch around a tree. You have most likely seen them on people's landscapes. Wrong as they are, mulch volcanoes are quite common. 

In such a display, the mulch could be a couple of inches higher at the perimeter and around five inches tall near the trunk. You may also see a mulch volcano coming out of the grass in the center of a lawn.

The Issues with Mulch Volcanoes

There are several problems created thanks to mulch volcanoes: 

Benefits of Mulch Around Tree

For the area closely surrounding the trunk, apply a thin layer of mulch so that it just tops the soil. This process will stop the usual issues common with over mulching.

Mulching trees decreases weed growth, eliminating a fight for water. Additionally, a lot of the water that would vaporize by the sun may penetrate down through layers of mulch and into the soil surrounding the tree roots. Mulching trees also aids in keeping tree roots colder in hot weather. Mulch stops soil erosion in some instances, like when on a hillside.

Mulch Types for Trees

You could mulch around trees with bark mulch, wood chips, or shredded leaves. There shouldn't be any issues with using wood-chip mulch as long as you age it first. If you decide to use leaf mulch, be sure it's shredded leaves. Shredded leaves break down more rapidly than whole leaves, releasing nutrients more swiftly.

For more information and suggestions on putting mulch around trees, ask Morrisville Tree Guys.

The new tree you planted is depending on you for nutrients, adequate water, and sunlight. Your tree needs some trimming to retain its shape. You should also know how to stake a tree just in case you need to do it. Read on to learn a few staking tree techniques. 

How to Stake a Tree: Staking New Trees

While it appears that young trees necessitate additional support, most trees don't require staking. Staking a tree that doesn't need it could make the tree have a weak tree base and grow fewer roots. Stake a tree only for protection or more support. 

Even when staking is valuable to a newly planted tree, it remains so for just a short time.

Morrisville Tree Service how to stake a tree

Staking a New Tree

If you correctly planted a healthy tree with an excellent root system and durable trunk, odds are you don't have to stake it. You don't need to stake trees that have limbs growing low to the ground, including conifers and evergreens.

Staking a tree that doesn't need it could do more damage than good. The movement of the trunk aids in strengthening it. 

Time to Stake

You should stake:

Staking a Tree for Support

Put your hand on the trunk and notice where it needs steadying. This spot should be the height of your stakes.

Sit the two stakes facing each other and around one inch away from the trunk. Use the third stake only if necessary.

With a soft cloth, attach the stakes. Let the tree have enough slack so that it sways naturally. Be sure not to use wire or rope, If you have questions or need assistance staking your tree, contact Morrisville Tree Guys.