Calculated treatments for season-long health

Red maple leaves against a blurred background of trees and sunlight.

Our approach to tree and shrub treatment is not just a “shotgun” approach by feeding and/or treating every single planting on your property. That could be wasteful, hazardous, and environmentally irresponsible.

The fact is that most established trees and shrubs don’t require regular feeding unless they’ve been:
- attacked by insects and/or diseases.
- installed in an urban environment where nutrients are not readily available
- installed in the wrong site
- physically damaged, or have otherwise been weakened to the point that a feeding or would be helpful.
Every landscape is different. Not everyone has the same number, and diversity, of plant types. Many plants may never have a disease or insect issue. That being said, there are some common ornamental plantings that are prone to having them. Let us concentrate our efforts on those and we can develop a plan for keeping them healthy, all the while keeping an eye out for other problems. We can also apply preventative treatments for serious invasive pests such as emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, and Asian long-horned beetle.
How It Works
We use Integrated Pest Management principles in our programs. This means that we use many different tools for pest management that may or may not include chemical control. We’ll take the following steps:
1. Site assessment - First, we find out which plantings are of greatest concern. We then evaluate them by visual examination. We can also perform a tissue analysis, as needed, if we suspect any disease or insect pest that may be hard to properly diagnose. We will also take a soil sample to test pH, nutrient availability, and organic matter content. The results of these evaluations will form the basis for any treatment plan. There are fees associated with the soil and tissue sampling based upon the number of samples required.
2. Recommendations - Based on the evaluation/test results, we’ll recommend an action plan for either monitoring your landscape periodically or treating specific problems on a schedule best suited for success. We will list these proposals on our Tree & Shrub Analysis and Service Agreement form.
3. Monitoring/treatment program - Our service schedule will be based upon the best treatment regimen for your landscape. It may be as often as needed for a specific pest or just monitoring the landscape. We may not even end up making any treatment applications if we do not find any pest problems. This will minimize the cost to you and the effect upon the environment.
Our Treatments
If our recommendations include a treatment regimen, we have many tools and products at our disposal.
We can apply treatments both topically, with the traditional spray, and/or systemically, through injection directly into the trunk of larger trees, or by soil injection. We also have a variety of control products available to us. Many of these are natural organic products, with little to no toxicity to pets, pollinators, and humans. For example, horticultural oil, insecticidal soaps, biological controls, and newer generation synthesized products are virtually harmless to humans and pets. These will be our first choice. Broad spectrum chemical controls may be very effective on pests but usually also kill beneficial organisms. They will only be used when we feel that the more environmentally friendly products will not be effective.
Here are the “rules of thumb” for timing of pruning and trimming:
- If you want to drastically reduce the size and shape of any tree or shrub, then the dormant season (late fall/winter) is the time to do it. Bear in mind that any such reduction, of spring-flowering plants, will likely reduce flowering.
- If you just want to maintain the size and form of spring-flowering plants, then summer is the time to trim them. This timing allows new flower buds to form for the next season.
Late season pruning is best for the following plants which are:
- too large for their location (encroaching on your house, walkways, patios)
- misshapen due to damage
- too large for your liking
- in need of clearing beneath them for mowing, etc.
The dormant season is an ideal time to prune many trees and shrubs because:
- Bare trees are easier to prune. It’s easier to see the branches and shape them for better form next season
- There’s no insect or disease activity to endanger fresh pruning cuts.
- Pruning cuts will heal quickly during spring growth.
We can do corrective pruning of your ornamental trees and shrubs during the dormant season (late fall/winter). If you’re just looking to maintain the form, and size, of your spring flowering trees and shrubs, we can trim them in the summer.
Do you have a problem keeping weeds from invading your planting beds? We can provide season-long control of weeds by applying pre-emergent weed controls in the spring and performing maintenance applications throughout the season to keep all of your landscape clean and weed-free.

Here are some common mistakes we see that may lead to problems with pests in your trees and shrubs

This is often the sole cause of serious disease infestation. Foliage is not meant to be wet all of the time. Foliage that gets wet every time we water the lawn will be more susceptible to fungal diseases and, in some cases, to insect infestation. Trees and shrubs, once well established, normally require very little water. When they do, they should be irrigated with a trickle of water at the base so that only the roots are getting watered.
OK, so you just dropped $500 on a nice specimen tree. It comes with a root ball, surrounded by wire mesh. You dig a hole and drop it into the ground. It looks good for the first few years but, in 5 years, you wonder why the tree is struggling. Most likely, the answer is a girdling root. Unfortunately, this situation is not easily remedied and often results in the need to remove the plant. Please be sure that any new planting has the wire mesh or burlap removed and the roots loosened from the root ball. Many times, the roots have been in the ball for quite a while. If they maintain that position, even after the wire mesh is removed, the roots will continue to grow in a circle, right around the tree/shrub, and eventually will strangle the trunk. This being a major root, and mostly underground, removing it is difficult, and it removes a major portion of the root system. Therefore the most economical choice is to remove it. UGH!
Putting a plant in the wrong place. Putting a shade-loving rhododendron out in sunny area will cause it to weaken and will become more susceptible to insects and diseases. Please do a little homework on plantings before you just plop them into the ground.
Planting grass right up to the base. Trees & shrubs and grass don’t naturally go together. Therefore there’s no reason to plant grass under a tree canopy and expect both tree and grass to thrive. It is best to create a mulch bed that extends out to the drip edge of the tree or shrub. That way, there’s no competition for nutrients and water and both tree and lawn will be healthier for it.
Keep the power tools away from the bark! A sure-fire way to kill a young plant is to run that bad boy right around it and cut into the bark. What looks like “just a scratch” to you, can be fatal to your tree or shrub. Just another reason to give plants a good mulch bed and keep the grass away.
About 2" of mulch is all there should be over the soil surface. What we often see is mulch being added either before the old mulch has had a chance to decompose or without removing it. As a result, mulch often “climbs” up the tree or shrub trunk. The trunk is not meant to be subterranean. It needs free flow of air around it to breathe.
That cute little tree and shrub may grow into an overcrowding monster! This is especially true for foundation plantings. Foundation plantings are there to hide the concrete foundation. They’re usually very small when they’re installed but, without regular pruning and maintenance, they can become overgrown. This crowded condition, plus the shelter of the house, can create a perfect environment for insects and diseases, not to mention fierce competition among plants. These plants often become so deformed from growing through, and around, each other that they can’t be saved by severe pruning and must be removed.
Most ornamental plantings have a natural shape that should be maintained throughout their lives. Pruning should be done properly to best maintain that shape and control the size. If you want to make an arborvitae shrub look like Mickey Mouse, then good luck with that. (It’s natural shape is more like Patrick Star…). But seriously, plants that are deformed by pruning are weaker, and more susceptible to problems.
Improper pruning. Making the wrong pruning cuts, at the wrong time of year, and taking off too much live crown can weaken the plant. The pruning cuts can be entry points for both insects and diseases. Also, improper pruning cuts may never properly heal. This will make them look ugly and provide entry points for decay, in addition to insects and diseases.