While spring and summer are traditionally the busiest time of year for landscaping and tree care companies, most continue to operate all year long. In particular, many HOAs contract with landscape contractors to spend a good portion of their winter hours pruning healthy trees and removing dead ones around their properties.
Here are a few of the reasons why winter is an ideal time for pruning and removing trees.
It is easier to evaluate the base tree structure – Without all those leaves getting in the way, your tree care professional can more easily understand the structure of your tree and where it needs to be pruned. It is also easier to spot signs of disease and physical damage that may need to be removed from your HOA’s landscape.
It looks better in the spring – Trees are simply better looking when their foliage is full. A freshly pruned one is inherently less attractive than a non-pruned one. So, why not leave the pruning to the time of year when the tree is already at its least attractive?
It gets a longer period to rejuvenate – By pruning in the winter months, your the trees in your HOA will get the benefit of having all of the spring and the summer to recover from what is a somewhat damaging experience. If done at other times of the year, you will unnecessarily cut short this time of healing.
It eliminates the spread of disease – During the winter months, the fungi, bacteria, insects and other parasites are either dead or dormant due to the cold. Pruning in the dead of winter means that you will not be spreading diseases like oak wilt, fire blight, well as the notorious Dutch elm disease.
It produces less stress on the trees – Winter pruning does not encourage new growth as doing it in the spring and summer does. Plus, the tree can completely focus its recuperative efforts on “wound” closure – thus minimizing the intrusions of any pests – rather than splitting these efforts on new buds and other growth activities.
It is more cost-effective – Landscape tree specialists are less in demand than at other times of the year and their seasonal prices reflect this. In addition, they are able to more easily deal with a cold-hardened landscape that will more easily – and with less damage – handle heavy-duty tree removal equipment – also reducing the time, effort, and cost of the entire project.
For more information on tree removal and tree pruning in the winter months for your HOA property, please contact us today! We can answer all of your tree pruning and removal questions and assess your property for a quote. Winter pruning leads to a beautiful spring, and now is the time to take care of those unsightly dead branches and unhealthy trees for good.