Plan ahead to care for your tree and shrubs with our annual calendar

Like humans, trees and shrubs function by repeating basic life-sustaining patterns over time.  They break bud, flower and leaf out in the spring.  They maximize photosynthesis and grow larger during the summer.  In the fall, their metabolism slows, and the leaves of deciduous plants show red, orange, yellow and brown as green-pigmented chlorophyl breaks down in their leaves.  Trees that maintain their green foliage – the ‘evergreens’- maintain their chlorophyll and continue to photosynthesize through the winter, while deciduous trees shed their leaves and enter dormancy.

At Teacher’s Tree Service, we time our arboriculture services to maximize the health and appearance of your trees and shrubs, given our specific climate in Vermont, the seasonal needs of trees and shrubs, and your property’s growing conditions. Our goal is to work within the 

You can help us get the timing right by contacting us eight to twelve weeks before you would like our crews to do the work.  This lead time allows our Consulting Arborists to evaluate your trees and shrubs and send you a proposal for recommended work.  When you accept the proposal, our operations team schedules your job on our crew calendar, in line with the seasonal requirements of your plants and your availability, if you prefer to be present for our crew’s visit.

Winter (December to February)

• Consultations and general tree health assessments: Winter is a great time to meet with one of our Consulting Arborists to talk about care for your trees and shrubs, make planting plans, and organize plant health care treatments for the next growing season.  Our Consulting Arborists love looking at and talking about trees and shrubs in any weather, and their schedules are often less busy December through March.  It’s also often easier to see and assess the structure and overall health of a plant without its leaves.
• Planning for tree and shrub planting:  In order to ensure that you have the best selection of plants in the spring, please Request Service to discuss your planting project with one of our Consulting Arborists as early in the year as possible.  We place orders with nurseries as early as January to get ideal plant specimens.
• Tree removal:  We remove trees year-round; however, It’s often more cost-effective and less disruptive to our clients and the local ecosystem to remove trees in winter.  We aim to take advantage of frozen ground conditions, when they occur, to minimize the impact of moving tons of wood over fragile soil habitats, ornamental lawns and perennial plantings.
• Tree pruning – safety, structural, deadwood, and views: Winter is an ideal time to prune trees, especially those that drop their leaves in the fall and pass the winter in dormancy.  Pruning during this period reduces stress on trees and minimizes the risk of pest infestations and pathogen infections around pruning wounds.  Our arboriculture crews have the experience, skill and equipment to remove dead branches while leaving the live tree canopy intact.
• Fruit tree pruning: We prune apple and pear trees in late winter/early spring, after the risk of winter injuries has passed and before their buds start to open. The timing helps to minimize general tree stress and limit the potential for pathogen infections.  This results in better flowering in late spring and fruit set over the summer as a result of better air flow and light penetration through their canopies.  We tailor our fruit tree pruning to the tree species, size, condition, landscape setting, and your preferences.  Often, we can rejuvenate older apple trees by gently and gradually pruning over several growing seasons.
• Tree cabling and cable inspections: Our crews install steel and nylon cables to support weakened or poorly formed branches right through the winter.  Cables reinforce a tree’s structural integrity and reduce stress due to snow, ice and foliage loads.

Spring (March to May)

• Tree pruning: Our crew continue to remove dead, diseased, or damaged limbs of shade trees right through the year.  Early spring is a great time to inspect the structure of your shade trees, and to look for breaks or cracks that may have occurred during winter storms.
• Tree removal:  We remove trees year-round, as-needed.  If you have a summer construction or home improvement project that requires tree removals, we encourage you to contact us in early spring to ensure that your job is scheduled to line up with subsequent phases of your project.
• Pruning evergreen hedges:  We shear evergreen hedges, including cedars/ arborvitae, after winter’s coldest temperatures.  Shearing often causes evergreen trees to flush new foliage.  This new greenery needs a couple of months to develop a protective waxy cuticle against frost damage, dehydration and sun scald.  We find that arborvitae and other evergreen species respond best to shearing in early spring and mid-summer.
• Stump grinding: Our stump grinder continues to chew through stumps as long as ground conditions allow.  We need snow-free, unfrozen soil that isn’t too muddy, to make your stumps disappear with hardly a trace.  Sometimes these conditions are hard to come by during the winter; we grind through our list of stumps from winter tree removals when Mud Season gives way to drier ground.
• Pest Management: Early spring, just before your trees and shrubs leaf out, is a great time to check for signs of pests including egg masses and early instars of Magnolia scales, aphids, and mites.  Early spring treatments that target these life stages are often most effective in controlling pests that will develop into well-armored adults later in the growing season.  Similarly, spring is a good time to look for fungal fruiting bodies that can indicate general decay in trees, or are signs of infection including  black rot and fire blight.
• Deep-Root Fertilization: As snow melt percolates into forest soils in the spring, it carries nutrients, and microbes into the root zone of trees.  We can mimic this seasonal pulse with a deep-root fertilizer treatment that will support your trees and shrubs as they grow and defend themselves against abiotic and biotic stresses through the growing season.
• Root pruning, soil decompaction and root collar inspections:  Spring is a great time to investigate and improve the structure of growing tree roots.  In the spring, relatively cool soil temperatures and softer soil texture helps us to minimize stress to trees while we inspect root collars, prune away girdling or malformed roots, and decompact soils.  These early-season treatments frequently result in better tree health in the same growing season and for years to come.
• Invasive shrub control:  Invasive shrubs like buckthorn and honeysuckle usually break bud and leaf out earlier in the spring than our native trees and shrubs.  This makes our invasive shrub control operations highly efficient, as we can quickly scan the understory and identify invasives by their new green foliage while natives are still in dormancy in late April and early May.
• Planting: Spring is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs!  Warming temperatures thaw soils, making water and soluble nutrients available to new plants.  While temperatures are more moderate, and we do often see weekly rainshowers, you should plan to check soil moisture once every three days and water as-needed.  Don’t worry, we can help you prepare to give your new plants the care they need.  In order to ensure that you have the best selection of plants in the spring, please Request Service to discuss your planting project with one of our Consulting Arborists as early in the year as possible.  We place orders with nurseries as early as January to get ideal plant specimens.

Summer (June to August)

• Tree Pruning:  Our crew continue to remove dead, diseased, or damaged limbs of shade trees right through the year.  Summer is a great time to assess the shape and canopy density of most trees.  However, it is also the busiest time of year for our crews, so contact us early to schedule summer tree pruning.
• Tree removal:  We remove trees year-round, as-needed.  Our summer calendar fills quickly, and we are often scheduling out eight weeks or more.  Contact us early about your tree removal project to ensure scheduling that fits your needs.
• Ornamental tree and shrub pruning:  Many flowering trees and shrubs should be pruned soon after they flower in order to conserve their energy stores and avoid the  threat of winter freeze damage to new foliage prompted by pruning.
• Tree Care & Watering: In the hottest months, young or stressed trees and shrubs require monitoring and proper watering.  Be sure to make a plan to provide care for your trees even while you’re on vacation or enjoying summer adventures.  Feel free to reach out to us for recommendations and help.
• Plant Health Care:  We target several common pests and pathogens with preventative treatments through the growing season.  For example, we treat ash trees to protect them against Emerald Ash Borer starting in June after leaf-out and continuing through August.
• Tree Risk Assessment: Assess tree stability during the summer months, especially after heavy storms, to detect possible weak points or limbs that may need to be addressed.

Fall (September to November)

• Planting: Late fall is another optimal time for planting trees, especially  hardwood species. Roots can establish in cool, moist soil before winter sets in.  Trees and shrubs that are dormant through the winter then leaf-out in your landscape, ready to quickly adapt to the local microclimate.
• Pruning: Our crews continue pruning trees and shrubs right through fall foliage season and leaf drop.  We are skilled at differentiating between live and dead branches based on the appearance and texture of bark, twigs and buds.
• Tree Inspections for Winter Readiness: Assess trees for any damage, weak limbs, or dead branches that could pose a risk in winter snow or ice storms.
• Tree Removals:  We remove trees year-round, as-needed.  We can help you prepare your property for winter weather by removing hazardous trees before winter winds, ice and snow return.
• Deep-Root Fertilization: Spring is also a good time to test the soil and add nutrients or amend soil quality where necessary to promote healthy growth.
• Root pruning, soil decompaction and root collar inspections:  With the return of cooler temperatures, we can minimize stress to trees while we inspect root collars, prune away girdling or malformed roots, and decompact soils.  Completing this work in the fall will prepare your trees and shrubs to improve their overall health and performance in the next growing season.
• Invasive shrub control:  Invasive shrubs like buckthorn and honeysuckle usually stay green longer than our native trees and shrubs.  This makes fall invasive shrub control operations highly efficient, as we can quickly scan the understory and identify invasives by their live green foliage.