Tag Archives: westchester new york tree care

5 Beautiful Trees to Plant This Spring

Spring 2016 may come to Westchester County early this year! Have you started to think about which trees you would like to plant? Check out these 5 beautiful trees to plant this spring:

Dogwood Trees

Four seasons series of dogwood tree

Add year-round beauty to your Westchester home with dogwood trees! These understory trees produce red, pink and white blossoms, offer bold red and purple foliage during fall time and grow red berries during the winter.

Norway Spruce

Norway Spruce Tree Care Westchester County

Full and green all year round, the Norway Spruce is a beautiful addition to your Westchester home! You may recognize the Norway Spruce as being your Christmas tree! The Norway Spruce’s dense branching pattern and tolerance of soil variations make it a popular choice.

Blue Spruce Westchester Tree Life

The Blue Spruce is also a beautiful alternative to the Norway Spruce!

English Walnut Tree

English Walnut Tree Westchester Tree Life

Have you considered adding a nut tree to your Westchester property? The English Walnut Tree is a classic selection which, once fully grown, will offer shade and (hopefully) delicious walnuts!

Crabapple Trees

Crabapple Westchester Tree Life

Add a pop of color to your yard with a Crabapple tree (or two, or three)! These trees yield beautiful blossoms come springtime and crabapples during fall and winter. Bright and beautiful, your tree’s crabapples will provide much appreciated sustenance for passing and hungry birds!

Black Locust Trees

Black Locust Westchester Tree Life

Both statuesque and whimsical, Black Locust trees are beautiful and offer golden leaves come fall time! The beautiful compound leaves of a Black Locust tree will be interesting for you and your loved ones to admire.

What kind of trees are you considering planting this year? Let Westchester Tree Life’s plant health care professionals assist you with planting your new tree. We can assist in choosing the best place for you to plant your tree, assist you in testing the soil and more!

To contact Westchester Tree Life, fill out our FREE online consultation form.

Why Hire an Arborist?

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Why hire an arborist? Westchester County, New York’s tree care professionals at Westchester Tree Life are professionally trained to properly care for your trees. Our team of arborists are properly trained to safely remove trees, provide an excellent plant health care plan and more! Have a question about the safety and care about your trees in Westchester, New York? Call Westchester Tree Life today: (914) 238-0069.

Westchester tree photo submitted by Lauren Brois‎

Many people take the trees on their property for granted. You may not really think about your trees on a day to day basis, or really pay much attention to them from one season to the next. While you probably enjoy their shade in the summer or the privacy your evergreens provide, having your trees cared for or inspected by an arborist may not be at the top of your list of priorities.

Like most other aspects of home ownership, trees really benefit from a proactive approach. Caring for trees properly helps avoid catastrophe down the road. An arborist can advise you of trees that are in danger from rot, pests, or disease before these problems result in major damage. That beautiful tree next to the driveway will certainly get your attention if it falls on your car during a storm or drops a large limb across the power lines. An arborist will assess the health and stability of your trees and provide you with options for keeping your trees in good shape so they are less likely to succumb to violent weather or simply give way under their own weight and the effects of disease or invading insects.

Westchester tree photo submitted by Justin Cole Frawley‎

In addition to checking the health of your trees, an arborist can safely and expertly prune your trees. Pruning helps contain the growth of trees, keeping them looking their best while ridding the tree of weak or dead branches. Large trees can be risky to prune without the proper equipment or experience. Rather than put yourself and your property at risk by taking on this kind of task yourself, trust the job to a certified, reputable arborist.

An arborist can also be an invaluable asset in planning your landscaping. For the general homeowner, knowing which species of tree to plant and where to plan them can be a daunting task. If your goal is to cut your heating or cooling costs, to have flowering trees throughout the season, to maintain privacy, or to enjoy fall colors, an arborist will be able to look at your property and help you choose the best trees to suit your needs. In addition, an arborist will oversee the correct planting and placement of trees while also instructing you on their care and maintenance.

Westchester tree photo submitted by Alexander Fink

Sometimes, a tree on your property can interfere with structures or foundations. This is another reason why an arborist is a good resource for planning what and where to plant. If you find yourself with a tree whose roots are damaging your driveway or some other such issue, you may need to have the tree removed. An arborist is ideal to consult for this task! In addition to removing the tree, an arborist can assist you in choosing a more suitable replacement.

The trees on your property do much more than simply look pretty. They provide shade and privacy for you and shelter for local wildlife. Trees increase your property value and make your yard a more welcoming place to spend time. Protecting and caring for the trees in your yard prevents larger, more expensive problems down the road and helps to maintain the value of your property.

Submit your favorite Westchester tree photo to us here.

Trees and Your Health

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New York’s tree care professionals, Westchester Tree Life believe in maintaining tree health, but did you know that trees also affect your health? The International Society of Arboriculture has provided evidence from global research supporting the fact that forests and green spaces have a positive effect on people’s health! Here are three ways trees and your health correlate:

Trees Benefit Your Environmental Health:

Trees remove carbon dioxide and pollutants from the environment. A study from the USDA shows that 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants from the environment annually!

Trees Benefit Your Emotional Health:

The next time you are searching for a new neighborhood, consider one with lots of trees and vegetation! The United Kingdom’s conducted a national study which proved people exposed to the greenest environments have lowest levels of health inequality related to income deprivation. The bottom line? Lush deciduous areas of plant life and trees positively affect moods!

Trees Benefit Your Community’s Health:

Trees do a great job of keeping our community cool during the summertime. Westchester Tree Life knows that New England heatwaves are uncomfortable; planting trees will provide shade and cut cooling costs. A worldwide review of scientific literature showed that an urban park was an average 094 degrees Celsius cooler in the day than the surrounding metropolitan area, making warm days more tolerable.

Preventing Ticks with Tick Sprays

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The single most effective way to reduce blacklegged (deer) ticks in your yard is by insecticide applications that are applied mainly to the yard perimeter, shady perennial beds or along trails and paths in woods.

– TickEncounter.org

Tick Lifecycle Chart via EMedicineHealth.com

Westchester Tree Life wants to ensure that you safely enjoy the outdoors this summer! Prevent tick-borne disease and tick bites this summer with the help of tick sprays from Westchester Tree Life’s certified professionals!

Protect Your Family from Ticks

Image via TickEncounter.org

Protect your family from ticks this summer with a perimeter spray treatment. When applied to the perimeter of your yard and areas where friends and family frequent, tick sprays are effective in decreasing the odds of tick-bites and tick-borne illness.

Tick Sprays Are Environmentally-Friendly

The chemicals which are used in our tick control sprays are low in concentration, and do not leach through soil, making them environmentally-safe. The main chemicals in tick spray treaments are Bifenthrin and Permenthrin; these chemicals are broken down by the soil’s micro-organisms resting within the top 4 centimeters of the soil’s surface.

Tick Zones

Image via OurHomeintheWoods.com

Knowing your property’s tick-zones is the first step in taking action. Deer ticks are usually found near ornamental gardens, shady areas and at the border of wooded areas. Properly maintaining your yard by raking leaves, trimming unruly shrubs and properly pruning low branches decreases the places where ticks like to hide. Westchester Tree Life’s professional arborists can assist you in keeping your yard safe and well-maintained, decreasing the risk of tick encounters.

Tip: Do you have a property bordered by a heavily-wooded area? Bring awareness to this area where ticks linger, by creating a border of wood chips, stone or other landscaping material. If you have children, this is a great way to serve as a reminder of tick-safe and tick-danger zones!

Reclaimed Wood DIY Projects

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These reclaimed wood DIY projects are a great way to preserve a tree that meant a lot to you, reduce waste, and re-purpose old wood into a new, useful item! Westchester Tree Life believes in always making environmentally-conscious decisions, especially when they directly involve wood! Here are our favorite reclaimed wood diy projects:

Reclaimed Interior Design

1. DIY Reclaimed Wood Headboard

We love the idea of assembling pieces of wood into a beautiful new headboard! This is a great way to give your bedroom an environmentally-friendly makeover without breaking the bank!

2. New Shelves

Make your life a little more organized by repurposing that old wood into new shelves! Not only does this project give your closet a new life, it makes storage simple!

3. Rustic Kitchen Lighting

Do you have wood from your old home that you want to work into your new interior design? Recycle your wood into a rustic light fixture ideal for your cozy New England kitchen!

4. Towel Rack

We love the idea of taking wood from an old palette and reworking it to create a towel rack! This design is much easier than it looks to create; for a finished look, be sure to stain all of the pieces!

Repurposed Garden & Outdoor Design

1. Garden Walkway

Repurposed wood gives a garden a personal touch. Whether your wood is recycled from a favorite old tree that you had to have removed, or a wood pallet, this project is easy!

2. Patio Swing

Give your patio a fun swing crafted from recycled wood!

3. Firewood Storage

Prep your firewood for next winter with a firewood storage container! This great DIY project will keep all of your firewood stacked and neat.

Check out more great DIY projects using reclaimed wood on our Pinterest board here.

Horticultural Oils

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Horticultural oils can help in the protection of your plants, shrubs and trees! It’s that time of year again to begin mapping out your seasonal plant health care plan, and Westchester Tree Life is here to help! Our certified arborists are here to assist you in maintaining the health and beauty of your plants, trees and shrubs! Horticultural oil applications are a very necessary procedure that should be on your spring to-do list!

Prunicola Scale

This photo shows Prunicola Scale, a very hard to control scale insect that damages and can even kill cherry trees and other ornamental trees, and horticultural oils are very helpful in controlling this pest.

Early season oil sprays help maintain your tree’s health!

Note the white substance on the trunk of this tree is the scale; these are the males. The females are much harder to detect because they are dark in color and blend into the background color of the bark. Early in spring, the males are hardly present, so great care must be taken by the arborist to monitor and treat for this insect. Controlling this harmful insect and preventing damage is possible through horticultural oil application.

Spider Mites

Many different trees and shrubs can be attacked by mites. Mites are very, very small; you need a powerful hand lens or small microscope to see them.

Close up of a mite through a microscope

The Spruce Spider Mite can attack Arborvitae, Norway spruce, Alberta Spruce and many other hosts. There are also many different types of mites which occupy many other host plants.
The following is damage on Norway spruce from Spruce spider mite:

Hemlock Adelgid

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Is another insect that can be controlled with horticultural oils.
The following are pictures of hemlock branches infested with Adelgid:

Scale Insects

Scale insects are another group of insects often targeted with horticultural sprays. Holly trees are susceptible to the damage of scale insects. The black residue shown is called sooty mold, and is caused by mold colonizing on the honey dew which is a byproduct from the scale. The scale insect’s excrement is almost pure sugar, which is the ideal breeding ground for mold to colonize.

The following photo gives a closer look at scale insects (the white shapes are the scale). These white insects are usually resting on the underside of the leaves.

Prepare your landscape for a healthy season, with a horticultural oil application! To schedule an appointment with a professionally certified arborist, call Westchester Tree Life at (914) 238-0069!

5 Facts About the Emerald Ash Borer

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The Emerald Ash Borer, commonly referred to as the EAB beetle is a bright metallic green beetle which is 10-13 millimeters. The EAB beetle has caused millions of ash trees in North America to die, since it’s accidental introduction from Asia. Here are five facts to help you understand this pest and the economic destruction it has caused.

Damage to an Ash tree from the EAB beetle.

1. With the help of dendrochronological reconstruction (a method of scientific dating based on the analysis of tree rings), scientists have traced EAB destruction back to the early 1990’s in Michigan.

2. An EAB beetle’s lifespan ranges from 1-2 years in North America.

3. The EAB beetle kills ash trees by destroying the water and nutrient conducting tissues under the tree’s bark. A tree will die within two years of signs of the EAB beetle.

4. The Emerald Ash Borer is spread through the moving of firewood from it’s initial location. We also know that the EAB beetle can fly a half of a mile from the tree where they have emerged. For more information on moving firewood, click here .

A closer look at a female EAB beetle!

5. The Emerald Ash Borer is now recognized as the most harmful pest in North America. Having caused the destruction of over a million ash trees, this beetle has been recognized as a serious problem which can cost billions of dollars to fix.