Whether you’ve just purchased your property or have goals of reinvigorating your yard, it may be time to take out trees that don’t suit your landscaping. Over time, older trees can become brittle or put your property at risk. Damaged trees can become a haven for destructive insects, fungi and bacteria, or pests such as mice, rats, and raccoons.

Freshen Your Landscape

Even if a tree is not damaged, it simply may not suit your landscaping goals. If you’re interested in planting apple trees, you’re going to need plenty of sun and space for them to grow. Too many tall trees on your property can make it impossible for fruiting trees to thrive.

You may also want to put in a vegetable garden or add flowering shrubs that produce fruit in the fall. All of these plans can be altered by one tree that either produces too much shade or buries your new shrubs in falling leaves and dropped branches. Removing a problematic tree may be necessary to put your new landscaping plans to work.

Protect Your Outbuildings and Home

Older trees can also drop sizable branches, especially in the high heat of summer. If you’ve got a garden shed, garage, or storage shed on your property that’s at risk from a leaning or brittle tree, taking it out can protect your investment.

Getting an arborist out to take a detailed look at your older trees is a wise choice. You may want to remove trees slowly. One older tree that has been dropping branches may be made healthier with a careful pruning. Until a professional studies your trees, you can’t be sure.

Remove Hazardous or Diseased Trees

You may have older, established shade trees on your property that are quite vigorous. However, older trees can appear fairly healthy on the outside but be struggling to thrive. Getting them checked by an arborist can help you plan ahead for a replacement in the near future.

Once a tree starts to fail, it can go quickly. It’s time to remove any older tree that is:

• Losing branches
• Losing bark
• Leaning
• Leafing out on just a few branches

As an older tree dies, the tissue in the branches and the trunk grows vulnerable to nesting or burrowing insects, which further weaken the tree. If you’ve got a tree that is actively dying, it should be the first one on your list to be removed.

The professionals at Woodland Tree Service can help you select which trees for removal to brighten or repurpose areas of your Plymouth, MN property.