Tree trimming and pruning
A good prune is the cheapest work we do and the most skilled. The right cuts, made at the right time of year, keep a tree off your roof, let light back into the yard, and put off the day it has to come down. The wrong cuts do the opposite, permanently.
Three cuts cover most trees
A crown reduction takes height and spread off the whole canopy by cutting each leader back to a live side branch, so the tree ends up smaller but still shaped like itself. It is what you want when a tree has outgrown its spot or leans further over the house each year.
A crown lift removes the lowest limbs to a set height: clear of the roof line, clear of the driveway, clear of head height on the lawn. It is the quickest way to get light and space back without touching the top of the tree.
A dead-wood clear takes out the dead and dying limbs and nothing else. Dead wood is what comes down in an ordinary gust, long before the storm that takes whole trees, so this is the prune that pays for itself first. If we find more dead wood than a healthy tree should carry, we tell you why, and what that means for the tree, before you spend anything more. Some of what we are asked to prune turns out to be a removal conversation, and some of what we are asked to remove only needs a reduction.
Why we will not top a tree
Topping means sawing the leaders off flat at a chosen height, and there are still crews around Columbus selling it. It is malpractice, not a style preference. The stubs cannot seal, so rot runs down into the stem. The tree answers by throwing up a mass of fast, weakly attached shoots, so within a few years it is taller than before and far more likely to shed limbs. A topped tree is worth less, costs more to look after, and fails sooner. If the real problem is height over a target, the honest answers are a proper reduction, a cable or brace, or a removal, and we will tell you which one we would pick at our own house.
How a pruning visit runs
- We walk the tree with you first You say what is bothering you: the limb over the bedroom, the moss where the light used to be. We say what the tree can lose without harming it, and agree the cuts before anyone leaves the ground.
- Climber or bucket, depending on the tree A climber works on rope through the canopy; the bucket lift reaches over from the driveway or the lawn. Either way, boots and boom stay off your beds.
- Every cut back to a collar or a live branch Cuts land just outside the branch collar, where the tree can seal, never flush to the stem and never at an arbitrary height mid-limb.
- Nothing over a quarter of the live crown Take more in one year and the tree responds with the same weak regrowth topping causes. If a tree needs more than that, it needs it over two seasons.
- Brush chipped, lawn raked, light back in The cuttings go through the chipper the same day. You keep the chips for the beds if you want them, or we haul them.
Pruning jobs, not haircuts
What people ask about pruning
How often should a mature tree be pruned?
Every three to five years for most established trees, more often for fast growers near a structure. If a tree has never been touched, the first visit does the heavy thinking and the later ones are maintenance.
How much can you take off in one go?
Up to about a quarter of the live crown in a year. Beyond that a tree panics and pushes out the same weak, fast regrowth that topping causes. When someone promises to take half a tree off in an afternoon and leave it healthy, one of those two promises is false.
Can you cut back my neighbor’s tree where it hangs over my yard?
In Ohio you are generally entitled to trim growth back to the boundary line, at your own cost, as long as the cutting does not kill the tree. We would still knock on the neighbor’s door before we start. Most of these jobs go easier when both sides have met the crew.
Will pruning stop the tree dropping leaves and seeds?
No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. A live crown makes leaves; that is the deal with owning a tree. What pruning does stop is dead limbs on the lawn, rubbing branches opening wounds, and the canopy pressing on the roof.
Is winter really a good time, or just cheaper for you?
Genuinely good. The structure is visible, the cuts seal as spring growth starts, oak wilt is off the table, and hard ground protects the lawn. The quieter diary is your advantage too: you get the window you actually want.
What does a trim cost?
It depends on the size of the tree and what we can reach from the ground, which is why we look first and quote in writing. For a sense of how tree work is priced around here, see what tree removal costs in Reynoldsburg; pruning runs well under a removal on the same tree.
Other things we do
Where we work
Get the cuts agreed before anyone climbs
Pick a window that suits you. We walk the tree with you, say what it can lose and when, and put the price in writing before a saw starts.