When Bob Ross painted, you didn’t hear him spend much time talking about “happy little lawns.” So, it’s funny that we tend to focus more on grass than trees when discussing landscape maintenance!

Of course, it’s not entirely without reason. Though we love our trees, they just don’t require the same amount of care as our lawns. But that’s not to see they don’t need any.

Tree trimming and pruning are vital to your trees’ health, the landscape’s beauty, and even the safety of your home and family. And with all the tree variety in Florida, you can imagine there are many to caretake! Mulhern will tell you how it all comes together.

What Do Trees Need?

Hearty and robust though they are, trees are living things that need our help to thrive, especially in modern yards. Trees have evolved to the environment of a forest, but at a minimum, at home, they need trimming, pruning, fertilization, and checkup to maintain their health.

Checkups can catch tree diseases early so you can treat them. The other tasks are part of yearly maintenance.

Tree Trimming

Tree trimming is a little bit like a haircut. When trimming trees, we cut the ends off their outermost branches.

Bonsai artists have made an art of tree trimming and molding trees into shapes or letting their trunks get thick while their branches stay small. Most rimming is less extreme, simply helping trees keep their shape.

Benefits of Trimming

Though we compared it to a haircut, tree trimming’s benefits go beyond the aesthetic. Trimming trees can indeed help them stay beautiful, but there’s some substance to trimming as well.

Trimming also helps to keep your trees healthy. Removing the outermost ends allows the tree to preserve energy for its trunk and roots to grow stronger.

Tree Pruning

To the average person, tree pruning and tree pruning are interchangeable. But in reality, they have slightly different meanings, and each serves its own purpose.

While trimming and pruning involve cutting tree branches, trimming is more of a surface trim (again, like a haircut). In contrast, pruning involves removing specific branches and parts of branches with intent.

We prune trees by looking for branches (or parts of limbs) that we need to remove. The most common reason to prune a tree limb is for health reasons. So, landscapers should prune dead branches as well as unhealthy ones.

Benefits of Pruning

Like trimming, pruning has multiple benefits. Again, there’s aesthetic value to removing the dead or unhealthy parts of trees. Healthy, thriving trees look better.

But the main benefit of pruning is tree health. Pruning prevents the spread of disease from a sick part of the tree to the rest healthy areas or other trees. Pruning also does the same work of trimming in sending energy back to the vital parts of the tree so it doesn’t waste it on the areas that won’t survive.

Property Damage

In colder climates, landscapers must prune before the winter so that snow and ice don’t break off weaker tree branches. We don’t need to worry about ice and snow here in Florida, but we have some severe storms.

Sometimes, removing certain branches (or whole trees) is best if they endanger your home or property. For example, a fallen tree can cause a lot of property damage, and heavy branches can do the same.

Trimming and Pruning Safety

Trimming and pruning are not for amateurs. Unfortunately, a lot can go wrong when trimming or pruning a tree.

First of all, because of their height, trees often are close to utility lines. Where there’s power, there’s a risk of shock or electrocution. In addition, high trees add the potential hazard of falling from them!

Tree trimming isn’t always predictable. If you’re not used to it, your cut could cause property damage or hurt someone below.

Finally, you should also consider the safety of the tree. When trimming, it’s easy to cut the wrong amount. Unfortunately, too much trimming can kill your tree, while too little can harm its health.

Pruning is even easier to get wrong when you don’t know what to look for.

Let Mulhern Care for Your Trees!

At Mulhern, we know how important your trees are to you. They’re not just pretty. They hold tire swings, birdhouses, and memories.

We will bring our expertise and experience and take care of your trees and other landscaping as if they were our own.