Lincolnshire Homeowners Lawn Care Tips

August 17, 2018 by Joseph Skibbie

Your lawn is central to true curb appeal. A properly maintained lawn helps you feel good about your home—and can also boost its value, practically overnight. This is true whether you’ve just moved into a new home, are preparing to put yours on the market this fall, or simply are hoping to give the old homestead a facelift.

But where to start? July and August are hot, and by this point in the season, the lawn might be looking like it’s seen better days. What’s the priority, and what should you do for late summer and early fall lawn care?

Lincolnshire-Homeowner-Lawn-Care-Tips — Keeping your lawn in good shape makes a great first impression for potential buyers.

Mow—but not too short

Remember Goldilocks and the three bears? Goldilocks didn’t like her porridge too hot or too cold—but just right. The same is true for your lawn. A healthy, thick lawn is a thriving lawn with no space for the weeds to take off. To cultivate a healthy, lush lawn, don’t cut your grass too short when you mow. If you do, the grass blades can’t shelter the roots from the sun, and the grass can go into shock. Weeds start to take over. Aim to keep your mower blade 2 ½ inches from the roots, and never cut more than 1/3 of the grass blade. And, be sure that you’re always mowing with very sharp mower blades. Dull blades tear rather than cut the grass blades. (Pro tip: you’ll see white tips if your blades are torn rather than cut.)

Water—but not too much or too often

Water and sun drive the plant growth cycle. Grass that is overwatered gets overly dependent on receiving water from a hose or sprinkler system. It doesn’t develop a deep and healthy root system, which can protect it in times of heat or drought. Resist the temptation to overwater your lawn, and accept that at this time in the year, everyone’s grass is looking a little brown. When cared for properly, yours will be lush in the right part of the season.

Fertilize properly, whatever you choose

The proper time to apply fertilizer is early in the season when your lawn is growing rapidly. If your lawn needs a quick pick-me-up even at this point in the season, you can consider the application of an organic fertilizer, which is fast-acting and produces noticeable results. A longer-lasting option is organic garden manure. Less costly, organic garden manure can be far more labor-intensive to apply, and you’ll have to apply more per square foot than you would with fertilizer. However, organic garden manure does last considerably longer in the soil—and it’s better for the health of the soil (and your grass).

Be patient and vigilant with weeds

If you’re moving into a new home, and your lawn needs some TLC because it’s choked with weeds, your most important tool is your patience. Start by weeding, even if doing so requires you to break up the job into small chunks. Follow the advice above for fertilizing, proper mowing, and optimal watering. It may take more than a season or two, but eventually you’ll have the lawn of your dreams—and the lawn that is the envy of every other resident on your block.

It’s true that we specialize in tree care. Our philosophy, though, is that trees are only one part of your property’s ecosystem. Trees thrive best in a healthy, disease-free lawn. It’s all connected: when your lawn isn’t overly dependent on watering, it helps hold moisture in your soil, which also benefits your trees.

Advanced Tree Care combines top-notch equipment, cutting-edge technology, and well-trained staff to provide emergency tree removal and tree maintenance services. With a presence in nine counties and two states, we work daily to provide unparalleled customer service, safety, and efficiency—as well as the expertise to beautify your landscaping and community. Advanced Tree Care isn’t just our name—it’s also our purpose!

Tree Pruning Improves Curb Appeal

July 15, 2018 by Joseph Skibbie

Make a Good First Impression

Tree Pruning Improves Curb Appeal — Keeping your trees well maintained enhances the curb appeal of your home so you make a good first impression

Whether you are selling your home, renovating it, or simply looking to make a good first impression, your landscaping is key to your curb appeal. Landscaping is one of the first things potential buyers or visitors notice about your home. A home with a lush lawn, carefully chosen flowers and shrubs, and beautiful trees reflects a level of care and attention.

Your trees are a major part of your landscape—in a typical home, up to 15% of the landscape. As its largest flora, trees are often a focal point. Haven’t you ever remarked on a friend’s majestic oak, or slowed to admire a redbud or magnolia in bloom as you drive by? Ensure you provide proper care and maintenance for the trees on your property to boost your curb appeal.

If you’re selling your home this summer, you’ll want to show potential buyers your property is loved. Consider engaging a professional service led by a certified arborist—like Advanced Tree Care—to help you care for your trees.

Examine your trees

Check trees for hazardous limbs before you put your house on the market. Dead or dying limbs or weak branches can pose serious injury to both people and property, such as cars parked on the street.

Remove dead trees and branches

Dead branches—especially those too close to the house, garage, patio, or driveway—should be removed. Any weak or dead branches that overhang the sidewalk should also be considered for removal. If a tree on your property has died, it’s important that you remove it with the help of a professional tree service.

Clean up debris

Cleaning up fallen branches improves your property’s appearance, so plan to comb your yard before you put your home on the market and after each storm. You might also consider hiring a tree service to remove dead stumps on your property.

Prune trees and shrubs

Ornamental trees and young trees may need pruning to present a pleasing shape to visitors. Consult with us to see how we canensure your property looks its best.

Even if you’re not considering selling your home, improving its curb appeal can make you—and your family—feel better about your home. Have you ever dressed up your dining room with a vase of fresh flowers? Repainted a room for a fresh look? Caring for your property can help you elevate your outside as much as your inside.

And, if you’ve just purchased a new home, and you’re looking to instantly improve its curb appeal, engaging a tree care service may provide just what you’re looking for.

Summer Tree Pruning Chicago

July 1, 2018 by Joseph Skibbie

Decrease Summer Watering Stress with Tree Pruning

Summer is a wonderful season, especially here in Chicago. It’s our reward after months and months of winter. But the heat of high summer can be extreme. As temps soar, you can head for the air-conditioned house—but your trees can’t. They have to endure what Mother Nature has in store for them. As a homeowner, though, you can offset some of summer’s stress on your trees with pruning and maintenance.

Summer Watering Stressors

When temperatures rise—and they often top 90 in July and August—shade, ornamental, and fruit trees all suffer. The increase in heat prompts the plant to divert resources to its leaves. Why? You can slather on the sunscreen, but a tree can’t. Moving resources to its leaves is one way to reduce or prevent scorching.

Trees are also particularly sensitive to the water table in the ground. If we go through a period with little or no rain, the water table changes. As a result, soil moisture decreases. Put simply, your trees are thirsty, and there is less water for them to access to drink.

In addition, other plants around your trees are competing for resources in the summer. Spring and summer are intense periods of growth and reproduction for plants. All that flowering and fruit-bearing and growing puts a lot of demand on plants’ resources. The grass, shrubs, flowers, ornamental grasses, berry bushes, and vegetables in a yard are all competing for water. If water becomes scarce, trees—as well as other plants—will be stressed.

Finally, summer—as you know well—is construction season in our area. If you’re undertaking a home improvement project on your property, you could be introducing stress to your trees’ root systems. Damage to the extensive root systems from digging and construction could compromise your trees’ ability to reach essential moisture.

Summer Pruning and Care to Reduce Stress

arborist_tree_pruning — The summer can be very harsh on your trees, but with a professional pruning and maintenance, you can keep them healthy all year round.

So what can you do to offset these stressors? First—and most importantly—you should hire a professional tree service led by a certified arborist, such as Advanced Tree Care. Summer is not a normal season for tree pruning, so it’s important that you entrust this work to an expert.

Summer pruning can help protect your trees from stress by ensuring that all of the tree’s resources go into healthy, undamaged limbs. An experienced tree service will be able to ensure your trees are properly cared for all year long. When you hire Advanced Tree Care, our staff will:

Examine your trees for signs of stress as well as broken, dead, or otherwise damaged limbs
Carefully prune any trees requiring it during the summer season, giving them what they need to thrive as well as potentially protecting them from storm damage
Prune or shape trees that may be encroaching upon each other’s space
Recommend an optimal watering schedule to keep your trees healthy
Recommend further maintenance or treatment for pests to promote health

Avoiding Tree-mergencies

June 15, 2018 by Joseph Skibbie

Five Times Tree Trimming Will Avoid a Tree Emergency

As homeowners, we become attached to our trees. They beautify our yards, add shade, and provide homes for birds and other wildlife. For all these reasons, it is important to invest in preventive maintenance to keep your trees healthy—and for avoiding tree-mergencies.

Waiting too long to schedule tree trimming and other preventive care for your trees can cost you the tree. It can also prove costly to your property—and dangerous for your family as well as passersby if large limbs or the whole tree come down.

What are some common scenarios where regular tree trimming can help head off a more serious problem?

#1: Weak limbs

avoiding tree-mergencies — There are many reasons why proper and timely tree trimming can protect your trees and your property.

As trees mature and grow, their branches sometimes form narrow, v-shaped crotches that can be structurally insecure. These are the places most likely to sustain damage in high winds or storms, summer or winter. Regular tree trimming will help identify and address these areas.

#2: Overgrowth or overcrowding

Like humans, trees need space to thrive. Sometimes trees begin to encroach on other trees space as they grow. When this happens, tree trimming to shape the trees and prune particular branches can help control growth. In other scenarios, one or more trees may need to be removed for the greater good.

#3: Disease

Trees are susceptible to illness, just like people. Sometimes a particular disease is confined to a particular area on a tree, and tree trimming can remove the damaged portion while ultimately saving the tree. Only a certified arborist will be able to tell you definitively what is affecting your tree and how the situation should be addressed.

#4: Falling branches threatening property

Tree limbs can damage your home, car, garage, patio, and other parts of your property. Regular tree trimming, though, gives us a chance to inspect branches for weakness.

#5: Danger to your family

We can’t control the weather, which can be severe any time of year—and can damage trees. High winds, summer storms, and winter snows regularly bring down branches or entire trees. Regular tree trimming, however, can identify potential weak branches before the next storm, reducing the risk of a tree being downed and injuring you, a family member, or pet. Occasionally we’ll even recommend cabling or bracing branches that overhang sidewalks, driveways, walkways, or other areas where people and pets regularly walk.

Once you’re ready to hire a service for regular tree trimming, what should you look for in a company? We like to keep things simple for you with a brief but important checklist. You’ll want to hire a service:

With a certified arborist and a professional staff
That is licensed, bonded, and insured to perform the work safely
That serves your area
With a quick response time
That has earned positive reviews
That demonstrates excellent customer service and responsiveness

Storm Season Tree Trimming Tips

June 7, 2018 by Joseph Skibbie

Seasonal Tree Trimming Tips for Storm Season

With the beginning of summer in Chicago comes thunderstorm season. Rising temperatures and humidity spawn powerful storms that can sweep into our area—sometimes suddenly—and cause damage to your trees. As the season gets underway, follow our storm season tree trimming tips to protect your trees, as well as yourself and your home.

Prune tree limbs

storm season tree trimming tips — Being prepared for storm season will keep your trees, you and your home safe, as well as save you a lot of time and hassle later on.

Overgrown or weak limbs are the most susceptible to summer storm damage. They’re also the greatest risk to your property—your home, car, or patio, for instance—as well as passersby. You should locate and remove weak-jointed branches to protect your tree, your property, and your family.

While winter is the ideal time to prune trees, it’s not the only time pruning can be done. Engage a professional tree care service, like Advanced Tree Care, to inspect and prune the trees on your property. We’ll examine each of them for weak, narrow-angled, v-shaped branch crotches, as these are most prone to breakage during a summer storm. We can also cable or brace branches that overhang your house, sidewalk, or driveway to offer added protection.

Mulch regularly

Proper mulching helps your trees retain moisture during the warm summer months, which can help keep them healthy and thriving. Optimal moisture can prevent trees from having to divert too many resources to their leaves, which can put limbs at risk.

Inspect for damage

After summer storms roll through, be vigilant about inspecting your trees for damage. If you notice broken or damaged limbs, call your tree service right away. Broken limbs disrupt a tree’s critical circulatory function. Prompt attention by professionals can prevent further damage to your tree.

Call a professional

If a tree or tree limb is downed by a storm, don’t be a hero. Limbs and fallen trees pose serious hazards to you and your property. They could be concealing a downed live electrical wire, or they could be unsteady—or even both. Resist the temptation to perform DIY heroics and instead call in a professional tree service with 24/7 emergency service. Because tree work can be complex, mistakes can be costly—so be sure you’ve entrusted the work to a service led by a certified arborist.

While you’re waiting for the professionals to arrive onsite, keep children and pets away from the downed limbs or damaged tree.