Indianapolis, Indiana, in the fall is often the best time of the year to be outdoors — being right in between the scorching summers and snowy winters. It’s the perfect time to get out in the yard and do some yard work or to hire a local tree and lawn service to do it for you!
Best time for tree trimming
Thankfully, the fall or winter is also the best time of year to trim unhealthy or dead limbs from the yard.
The main reason that trimming a tree in the cooler months is better than the spring or summer is that the tree will not be its “growth season.” At those times, there is already a lot of energy being spent by the tree on extending limbs and roots, blossoming flowers or fruits, and creating colorful leaves. Healing open wounds will be done more slowly and less efficiently with all this other work going on.
Another issue is that most of the diseases that a tree is vulnerable to are much more active during the warmer months. Think of the tree’s outer layers as its armor, or maybe a tougher version of a person’s skin. Leaving the tree with an open wound at this time of year exposes it to a high risk of being infected.
If you are trimming the tree to keep it healthy, doing it in the summer could be counter-productive!
Good reasons to trim a tree
The health of a tree is a very legitimate reason to remove limbs from a tree of course. Dead limbs can take valuable energy and resources from a tree, allowing whatever issue killed the limb to spread. The dead limb also weighs down other limbs, maybe weakening and cracking otherwise healthy parts of the tree.
It can be good to prune areas of the tree that have become too thick as well. The top, or “crown,” of the tree should not be allowed to get too thick because this can reduce air flow. It will also make the tree top heavy, so if a bad storm comes through, it will be more in danger of falling.
Another reason to trim a tree is to prevent issues from developing, like if a limb is beginning to extend near a power line or over a structure. Overtime it will become more difficult to remove the limb and it could later fall and damage property or cause injury.
Fall is also a good time to remove entire trees
It’s a sad day when you realize a favorite tree in your yard needs to come down, but that is part of the life cycle. It is better to have this taken care of immediately though, even if leaves a sudden hole in your heart and your yard. A tree that is at risk of falling is a danger to people and property and isn’t worth waffling over. Trees with significant disease also need to be removed quickly so they do not infect the other trees nearby.
Removing a tree entirely isn’t as reliant on season, because you don’t have to consider the risk of the tree contracting a disease or being unable to quickly heal, but a tree without flowers, fruits, or leaves will be lighter and easier to manage.
Anthony’s Tree Removal can help!
A lot of this work is not only very specialized, but can also be dangerous. To do it well, you do need some knowledge of getting up and down from trees safely, which involves harnesses and proper equipment and strategy. You also want to make sure you are only trimming limbs that need to be removed. Over-trimming can be as damaging to a tree’s health as not trimming at all.
If you’re in Bloomington, Indianapolis or anywhere in South or Central Indiana, and want some expert help this fall on trimming or removing trees on your property, give Anthony’s a call at (317) 500-1905. We were voted Herald Times Reader’s Choice “Best Landscaping Company in Bloomington” for 2019, so you can be sure a few of your neighbors are satisfied customers already.
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