Basic mistakes
It happens all the time: I show up to help on a strata site and the first tree I see across the street is “beavered”. The bark is missing at almost three hundred and sixty degrees. So I shake my head and wonder how I can educate more landscapers with my online course.
Most landscapers are trained how to operate mowers and line edgers properly and safely but the training stops there. Nobody tells them they don’t-that’s right!-have the right of way. Slashing tree bark can’t happen because the tree is way more valuable than a bit of shaggy lawn.
Solution first
Someone on my YouTube channel commented how my short videos only mention the problem so, if you’re too busy to read the whole blog, I will give you the solution first.
You can protect the tree from lawncare machine damage by creating a well-defined tree well and by installing a plastic guard. And you can also educate your workers which is exactly what this blog and my online course are attempting to do. It’s not ok to slash tree bark. Here’s why.
Problems
When you slash away tree bark you disrupt the water and nutrient transport which happens in tissues under the bark. The damage stresses the tree; and repeated damage can kill it. I’ve seen it and it’s not pretty.
The bark is there for a reason just like your own skin. So leave it alone.
Now, if you’re a professional landscaper or homeowner, you can practice what I teach here; and you can take my online course to learn about all of the top lawn care mistakes. And trust me, those mistakes repeat every season.
If you’re a landscape manager like me or a company owner, definitely keep hammering this point: lawn care workers don’t have a right of way around trees. Never hit and damage bark tissues, even if it means leaving the tree base shaggy. I’ve seen it on my visit to a public park in Waterloo, Ontario last year. The bases were shaggy and nobody died; I prefer that to slashed up bark and stressed or dying trees.
