5 Fall Services That Help Protect Your Trees and Property
Regular tree care is vital for safety
Fall brings plenty of changes to your landscape. Leaves drop, greens fade, and changing weather can lead to high winds and the first signs of winter. Now is a good time to take a closer look at one of your property’s most valuable landscape assets: your trees.
Regular tree care is vital not only for appearance, but also for safety. It maintains clearance around buildings and walkways, but it also addresses weak or damaged branches before they become bigger concerns.
From pruning to cleanup, here are five services to consider as the season changes.
1. Prune for Health, Clearance, and Safety
Pruning is about more than shaping your tree.
Regular pruning improves wind resistance and maintains good clearance and sightlines around signage, buildings, roadways, and walkways. It also removes dead, diseased, or weak branches before they can endanger people, property, or the trees themselves. This is especially important in the event of a severe storm.
Always hire an expert. Age, size, species, condition, and location can all influence the best pruning options. In palm-growing regions, for example, over-pruning can compromise tree health because healthy green fronds play an important role in supporting new growth.
2. Take Advantage of Dormant Pruning Opportunities
For many deciduous trees, the dormant season can provide an ideal pruning opportunity. Once leaves have dropped, branching structure becomes easier to see, allowing arborists to identify crossing, damaged, or poorly positioned branches. This helps them make more precise pruning decisions. With extra energy reserves, trees are also able to heal more quickly. An experienced arborist can determine which trees on your property are good candidates for dormant pruning.
3. Keep Fallen Leaves and Debris Under Control
Once leaves drop, what happens next matters.
A heavy layer of whole, matted leaves can interfere with turf health and create unnecessary cleanup issues across the property.
That doesn’t mean every leaf needs to be hauled away. When appropriate, finely shredded leaves can be mulched into turf, where they break down and return organic matter and nutrients to the soil. The University of Minnesota notes that properly mulched leaves can support turf health as they decompose.
The right approach depends on the amount of leaf cover, the condition of the turf, and the needs of the property. Your landscape team can determine where removal makes sense and where mulching can provide added value.
4. Put Tree Health on the Fall Checklist
Pruning addresses branches, but comprehensive tree care looks at the entire tree.
For example, BrightView’s certified arborists can assess conditions that affect tree health. That includes reviewing irrigation, soil compaction, and pest damage. They can then develop recommendations for recovery and ongoing care. A professional assessment can also help identify defects or other conditions that may create risk. The goal is to understand what your trees need now while protecting their long-term health and value.
BrightView offers a wide range of tree care services, including pruning, tree health management, preservation, and Plant Health Care.
5. Prepare Your Trees for High Winds
High winds can turn dead or diseased trees into serious hazards. Weakened branches can break, and overly dense or poorly structured canopies are often vulnerable during severe weather. But trees aren’t the only risks that need attention. Shrubs should also be regularly trimmed to eliminate unhealthy branches that could break off, and struggling plants that high winds could uproot should be removed.
Get Your Property Ready for the Season Ahead
Pruning, dormant pruning, leaf management, tree health care, and high-wind preparation serve different purposes, but they work together to help your landscape enter the next season healthier, safer, and better prepared.
Your BrightView team can evaluate your landscape, identify the areas that need attention, and recommend the services that make the most sense for your goals. We’re experts; not only is BrightView a member of the Tree Care Industry Association, but our certified arborists maintain active memberships in the International Society of Arboriculture. You can be confident we’ll help keep your team and property safe and your landscape strong.
Contact your BrightView team to include tree care and seasonal cleanup in your fall action plan.
