Comprehensive Guide to Tree and Shrub Care in Northeast Ohio

You want your Northeast Ohio property to look its best. And well-maintained trees and shrubs are a key part of this visual appeal – whether you have a stately oak as the focal point of your front yard or perfectly manicured boxwood shrubs lining the walkway to your front door.

Why? They boost your curb appeal, increase your home value, create a positive first impression, provide environmental benefits like shade, improve air quality, and boost your spirits 
while elevating your overall landscape aesthetic. 

In Northeast Ohio, you know how much your yard can change with the seasons. From spring’s blooms to the fiery colors of fall, your trees and shrubs are part of what makes your home landscape unique. But without proper care, your largest plants can go from stunning to struggling pretty quickly. Overgrown branches, pest infestations, or even unpredictable weather can take a toll, especially when plants are weak. 

That’s why a little TLC can ensure your greenery stays vibrant and healthy year-round. And not only will your home look amazing, but you’ll also be protecting your landscape investments. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll talk about why tree and shrub care services and plant health care in Northeast Ohio are important to ensure your plants stay in good shape and you continue to reap the rewards of well-maintained trees and shrubs. 

Table of Contents

Common Tree and Shrub Health Issues
Common Pests for Trees and Shrubs
Common Diseases for Trees and Shrubs
Turf Pride's Tree and Shrub Care Services and Their Benefits
Seasonal Tree and Shrub Care Tips for Homeowners
DIY vs. Professional Care: Key Considerations for Homeowners
Cost of Tree and Shrub Care Services
Why Choose Turf Pride for Tree and Shrub Care

Common Tree and Shrub Health Issues

Sure, you understand your lawn needs fertilization. You get that the soil can be depleted of nutrients and that yours may need a boost to ensure your grass can take in oxygen and water, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 

But did you know that tree and shrub care services like fertilization can also help your plants perform their best? It helps give your plants the nutrients your soil might be missing. 

Let’s talk about soil-related plant issues, as well as others that you may encounter in your Northeast Ohio yard.

How Can Soil Compaction Hurt Your Tree and Shrub Health

The soil in a residential neighborhood is nothing like the rich, loamy soil in a forest floor that’s full of organic matter that is continually replenished through the breaking down of fall leaves. 

During the home building process, your soil is manipulated, moved, dug up, and compacted to the point of depleting those key nutrients. And then the weight of rainfall and repeated mowing or foot traffic continues this compaction. 

This compaction happens naturally over time. And it can negatively impact your plants in the following ways: 

• Lack of Absorption: How would you feel if your body couldn’t properly absorb water, nutrients, or even oxygen? You probably wouldn’t feel very healthy, right? Soil that is too dense will create the same problems where water, air, or nutrients can’t reach tree and shrub roots, leading to poor health and appearance.
  
  
• Drainage Issues: Soil compaction can also lead to issues with water drainage. This means you might see puddles of water sitting on top of the soil around your plants instead of soaking to your plant roots. This can cause flooding and erosion, making your trees weak.
  
  
• Poor Aesthetics: Since soil compaction limits nutrient absorption and creates drainage problems, it can also lead to worsened curb appeal. Your trees and shrubs may end up looking pretty bad as a result. For instance, they might look thin, off-color, or lack blooms.  

Physical Damage From Environmental Issues

There are many instances where Northeast Ohio weather conditions can cause issues with your trees and shrubs. But tree and shrub maintenance can make your trees stronger and help you avoid these issues.

Let's look at some of the common conditions that can result from weather conditions.

• Sunscald: The bark of young trees is susceptible to sunscald. In winter, there are sunny days that can dry out and burn bark, causing permanent, visible damage. Water can also freeze under the bark at night and thaw in direct sunlight the next day, splitting the bark. This sunscald can weaken trees and make them more susceptible to pests and diseases. Young trees with thin bark are most susceptible to sunscald, including honey locust, linden, sugar and red maples, and flowering crabapples. Properly placed tree trunk wrap can help prevent sunscald. This also protects against frost cracks, which happen when dark bark heats up in the sun then quickly cools off in the chill of night.
  
  
• Structural Damage from Heavy Snowfall: Snow looks light and fluffy, but its weight adds up. Heavy, wet snow can break the branches of trees and shrubs. Evergreens like junipers and arborvitae are especially at risk, as well as trees with weaker branches like some elms and maples. Protecting shrubs in winter from heavy snow means keeping an eye on accumulation. You want to remove snow gently with a broom, especially after every 2 inches of accumulation. You can also prevent issues by tying the branches of soft shrubs and conifers into a cone shape before it snows. In addition, regular pruning of broken, damaged, or diseased branches can eliminate weak limbs that are more likely to fall. Dormant pruning, which is the practice of trimming trees and shrubs during their dormancy in late fall or winter, can also help experts see these weak branches more clearly and improve the overall tree structure.

• Freezing and Thawing: Winter can be fickle, alternately freezing and thawing, heaving new plants out of the ground and leaving their tender roots exposed. Also, when a sneaky midwinter thaw hits, plants are tricked into waking up. That tender new growth is vulnerable to the next freeze. Mulch is a great way of protecting shrubs in winter, similar to those blankets you use on the couch to keep cozy. Add 2 to 4 inches of bark mulch around the base of your shrubs and trees for a layer of soil insulation.
  
  
• Animal Munching: Hungry mice and rabbits love tender, young tree bark. Protect plants from deer with tree guards. Do deer love browsing on your hedges and shrubs? Wrapping shrubs in winter with burlap will deter munching.
  
  
• Winter Burn: Dry winds and winter sun can dry out conifer needles and broadleaf evergreen foliage. This is called desiccation, and some targeted winter plant care in Ohio can help. Desiccation happens when a plant loses water faster than its roots can replace it. It can happen when the ground is frozen and the plant’s roots are unable to absorb water from the soil or when cold temperatures and high winds dry out foliage. Evergreens are most susceptible to winter burn. If you have evergreens in windy, exposed areas, consider building a windbreak to protect them from drying winter winds. Wrapping shrubs in burlap during winter can keep their needles healthy and help protect them from damage from road salt.
  
  
• Salt and Deicer Damage: Salt and deicer can really do a number on trees and shrubs  near walkways, parking lots and roads. Salt spray can burn plant leaves and foliage, especially evergreens, as well as dry out plant leaves and roots. Plants can also absorb salts, which can build up to toxic levels. Using less damaging products like an ice melt can help near these areas, as well as trying to limit salt application near your trees and shrubs.
  
  
• Mower Damage: Sometimes human error can cause tree damage, too, such as a mower or string trimmer hitting a tree trunk. To fix this damage, carefully clean the wound by removing any loose bark and letting the tree naturally heal. 

Common Pests For Trees and Shrubs

Your trees provide some major benefits to your home landscape. 

But trees, just like other living things, can be susceptible to insect infestations. Keeping your trees healthy ensures they keep delivering benefits and don’t succumb to pest threats.

Let’s look at the most common insects that harm trees in Northeast Ohio home landscapes, so you can better identify their symptoms and protect plants from insects when they are easier to control.

Scale

Scale are sap-sucking insects that you might find on your trees or shrubs. They don’t move much and if you look closely they seem to appear as shell-like bumps rather than creepy-crawly insects. Since they don’t move a lot, they blend into the bark or leaf tissue of your trees, making them hard to spot.  

There are two types of tree scale: soft and armored. Soft scale, such as magnolia scale, are ¼ to ½ long and are round with a waxy covering. These insects absorb quite a bit of sap and then excrete that as a sticky substance called honeydew. Armored scale, such as pine needle scale, on the other hand, are a bit smaller at ⅛ to ¼ inch, and they have a waxy armor over their bodies giving them a harder exterior appearance. 

With soft scale, the honeydew they excrete can be a nuisance. It can drip on patios, parked cars, walkways, and benches, becoming a sticky mess. It also attracts other pests like ants, flies, and wasps. And, any plants it lands on can become unsightly when a fungus called sooty mold feeds on this honeydew and grows, covering your plants in black. 

While armored scale don’t produce honeydew, you might see these other signs and symptoms that both types of scale can cause:

• Branches covered with small bumps that are actually insects
• Yellowing or brownish leaves
• Premature leaf drop
• Twig or branch dieback
• Slower overall growth

Scale can be tough to control, which is why catching the problem early can help optimize the timing of treatment for best management. Dormant oil can be a good treatment for protecting plants from pests like soft and armored scale. Tree care pros will apply this when the nymphs are emerging from their eggs. 

Japanese Beetles

Japanese beetles are an invasive species native to Japan that were first discovered in the U.S. in 1916. Since then, they have spread across much of the country, including Northeast Ohio, where they are a common nuisance for homeowners. 

You can easily recognize these beetles by their metallic green bodies and copper-colored wings, making them a pretty distinctive sight during the summer months. 

Japanese beetles are notorious for their indiscriminate feeding habits, devouring the foliage, flowers, and fruits of many landscape plants. In Northeast Ohio, some of the most commonly targeted plants include roses, ornamental trees such as crabapples and lindens, shrubs like hydrangeas and viburnums, and fruit-bearing trees such as cherry and plum. 

These pests skeletonize leaves by consuming the soft tissue between leaf veins, leaving behind a lacy, skeletonized appearance that detracts from the beauty of affected plants. Additionally, Japanese beetles can significantly reduce fruit yields and stunt the growth of ornamental trees and shrubs if left unchecked. 

While adult Japanese beetles feed on a variety of plants, their larvae, known as white grubs, pose an additional threat to lawns by feeding on grass roots and causing patches of dead or dying grass, yellowing, and wilting in impacted areas.

In Northeast Ohio, adult beetles emerge from the soil in late spring to early summer, typically around mid-June, and remain active for several weeks. During this time, they mate and feed voraciously on foliage, laying eggs in the soil that hatch into white grub larvae. 

These larvae feed on grass roots throughout the summer and fall before overwintering in the soil and pupating the following spring.

To control Japanese beetles, it's essential to monitor your lawn regularly for signs of grub damage to your lawn, especially during the spring and fall when grubs are most active. 

If you suspect a grub infestation, consider conducting a soil inspection or contacting a lawn care professional for assistance in identifying and managing the issue. Early detection and intervention are key to protecting plants from insects like adult Japanese beetles. 

June and July is a great timeframe for early prevention of grubs. This is best done with a preventive treatment to your lawn by a lawn care pro. Turf Pride offers a grub solution that provides season-long control. This means it lasts all through summer and fall. We will also come back and inspect your lawn in the fall to ensure grubs haven’t come back.

Borers

Seeing small holes in your tree? Holes in your tree bark or damage under the bark are usually a sign of some sort of boring insect

Tree borers are chewing insects, usually in larval stages, that chew and feed on the inner bark and/or wood of trees. Most species are the larvae of beetles.

Almost every species of tree may be susceptible to borers. Borers are particularly destructive to newly planted trees and those in poor health because of drought, root injury, weakening from other insects or diseases, physical injury, or other environmental stresses.

Depending on the species, borers girdle your tree’s vascular system and disrupt the normal flow of water and nutrients. They can also weaken the wood to the point where they compromise the structure of the tree. The first signs of a borer attack are often sawdust-like material and/or sap and resin oozing from small holes in tree trunks or branches. 

The best way to manage borers and protect plants from these insects is by keeping the tree healthy in the first place with proper fertilization, mulching, and watering.

Common Diseases For Trees and Shrubs

Trees and shrubs can be susceptible to diseases. 

Whether you recognize your plants aren’t looking well or you’re concerned about their overall health, figuring out what’s wrong can seem like a research project. 

Let’s look at some common plant disease identification tips so you can better recognize if your trees are suffering. 

Root Rot

Root rot in a plant disease that stems from decay. You might not see where the damage originates – in the roots – but you may see yellowing or browning leaves or plants that fail to thrive and wonder what’s going on. 

The common reason this one comes up: improper watering. 

In fact, many people will see dying leaves and assume the plant is underwatered, so they water heavily, making the root rot worse. 

Bacterial Leaf Spot

Seeing red or purple spots on your plant’s leaves? This disease could be bacterial leaf spot. 

Properly watering your plants is important to avoiding this spotty issue. Particularly, it’s crucial to avoid overhead watering; opt for drip irrigation instead. 

This disease can also impact plants that have been planted outside of the proper climate or hardiness zone. 

Powdery Mildew

When powdery mildew strikes, you’ll first see isolated patches of whitish, powdery growth on the surfaces of your plant’s leaves. 

Over time, if the conditions don’t go away, this disease can become more dense and may cover the entire leaf or plant. 

Optimize plant disease identification of powdery mildew by looking in shaded areas when higher amounts of moisture are present. Moderate air temperature and high humidity, particularly in the face of poor air circulation, create favorable conditions.

Properly watering your plants with drip irrigation or irritation targeted at the roots and avoiding overhead irrigation can help you avoid powdery mildew. Early morning watering can help your plant dry out thoroughly in between waterings. 

How to Treat Plant Diseases: Plant Health Care

Opting for plant health care services is a great way to stay ahead of diseases and other potential issues that can negatively impact the future of your trees and shrubs.

Early control or prevention is key to avoiding prolonged damage. Turf Pride’s technicians scout for diseases, as well as the cultural practices that people do not realize can mimic diseases. Some of these issues can include mulching too heavily, string trimmer damage around the base of trees, or improper planting techniques (planting too high or too low). 

A good plant health care service provider should give you feedback with each service visit so you know how your plants are doing and are aware of any potential issues and tree and shrub disease treatments you may need. 

Turf Pride’s Tree and Shrub Care Services and Their Benefits

Plant health care services can give your plants the boost they need to thrive. 

Treating plants gives your trees and shrubs vital nutrients, while also protecting them from insect and disease infestations. This enables your plants to thrive, flowering longer, looking fuller, and growing greener. 

There are 3 key components to the plant health care services Turf Pride offers. 

1. Tree and Shrub Fertilization: In the forest, trees and shrubs naturally get nutrients from the soil. But, in your home landscape, this isn’t the case. That’s where tree and shrub fertilization can help. Plants that receive the nutrients they need to thrive can handle harsh weather conditions and continue to deliver benefits like shade, oxygen, and beauty.
   
   
2. Insect and Disease Control: Your plants can decline pretty quickly when they have an insect or disease infestation. You might see spotty leaves or dead branches. By properly inspecting, diagnosing, and treating these infestations as part of plant health care services, you ensure you catch problems early and get your plants back to good health quickly.
   
   
3. Dormant Oil Treatments: There are a lot of small pests like aphids and scales that can take over your plants in large numbers and cause some nasty symptoms. Dormant oil treatments are natural ways to help your plants repel these pests.
   
   
4. Dormant Pruning: For your deciduous trees that go dormant in winter, dormant pruning is a great way to trim these trees when the plant structure is very visible. The benefits of dormant pruning include improved plant health, reduced risk of pests and disease infections, better growth and shape, less stress, and easier access. The ideal timing for this is late fall through late winter just before spring growth begins. 

What Can Plant Health Care Services Do For You?

Plant health care services like the ones Turf Pride offers can help your trees and shrubs in many ways. 

Not only does treating trees and shrubs improve health and appearance, but they also help you avoid having to replace plants when they become too damaged to revive, saving you money. 

Finding a plant health care specialist can also help you decrease stress and get an expert opinion and solutions right away. 

Additionally, plant health care also helps elevate your curb appeal. In fact, properties with poor landscaping and unhealthy plants can experience a decrease in property value of 30%, says research from Trees.com. And Money.com says improved plant health can help raise your home value by 3.5% to 15%.

Seasonal Tree and Shrub Care Tips for Homeowners

To enjoy the full benefits of trees and shrubs, learn how to care for them throughout the year. 

Follow these best practices during each season to maintain the health and vitality of your trees and shrubs, as well as protect your plants from insects and prevent plant diseases. 

Spring

Initially, your spring tree and shrub care checklist starts with taking a moment to walk through your yard and check your trees as they begin to form buds and leaf out. Look for broken, cracked, or dead branches. Pruning those conserves energy for the healthy branches to continue growing. This also helps prepare your trees for spring storms, ensuring weak branches are gone and helping you prevent plant diseases. 

Next, make sure your trees are healthy by fertilizing them so they can obtain nutrients they can’t get from your home landscape soil. Improving soil health can help address any future problems and help keep your trees resilient to environmental, pest, and disease stressors. 

Remember to refresh your mulch layer if necessary, ensuring it remains at an optimal depth of about 2 to 3 inches.

Summer

Summer brings heat and potentially drought, which can stress trees and shrubs. 

Increase watering frequency during hot, dry periods. Deep watering is more effective than frequent, shallow watering.

Ongoing pest monitoring and control is also important during these warmer months. 

Fall

Fall is a transitional period that prepares your plants for winter.

Use a slow-release fertilizer to help your plants build up the nutrients they’ll need to survive the winter and thrive in spring.

Light pruning can be done in fall, but avoid heavy cutting, which could stimulate new growth that won’t survive the winter.

Water your trees and shrubs well before the first frost to ensure they are well-hydrated going into winter.

Winter

Winter care is about protecting plants from pests and preparing for the upcoming growing season.

Dormant oil treatments are great at this time of year to help fight against pests. It can help reduce pest overwintering. 

While plants need less water in winter, make sure they don’t dry out completely. Water during dry spells, especially before a freeze, to help insulate the roots.

Winter is also a good time for pruning many trees and shrubs, especially young trees, fruit trees, and certain spring-flowering plants. Dormant pruning is ideal this time of year when a tree’s structure is more visible and pests and diseases aren’t present, so the tree can experience less pruning stress and reap the benefits of this winter service. 

DIY vs. Professional Care: Key Considerations for Homeowners

You know you want to keep your trees and shrubs looking healthy, but this certainly doesn’t happen by chance. 

You might think you can just stop at the local home improvement store and purchase some DIY tree and shrub care products – maybe fertilizers and some pest control – and you’ll be good to go. 

Not so fast. You certainly don’t want to see your plants become full of diseases or pests that could have been avoided. You just want to feel certain you’re doing the right thing and making the right choices. 

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of DIY vs. professional tree and shrub care services in Northeast Ohio.

Losing Mature Trees and Shrubs Is Expensive 

When a part of your lawn is damaged, you can reseed and repair it for a lower cost, but when you lose a large tree, replacing it can be pretty expensive. This removal also leaves a big hole in your landscape until you decide what to replace it with, and you likely won’t get the same size of tree for the cost.

This is why one of the key benefits of professional tree and shrub care is that you can prevent a lot of problems that can cause the demise of your plants. It is a protection of your investment in your landscape. 

Replacing Trees and Shrubs Can Be a Hassle

In addition to being quite expensive, replacing mature trees and shrubs can be time-consuming. 

You have to remove the plant, which may need to happen in multiple phases, depending on its size. And then you have to find a replacement. Next, you have to be able to transport the plant home and install it properly. 

Then, you have to care for that new plant through its transition to ensure it grows healthy and fills in your space. 

This makes professional tree and shrub care services worthwhile due to the time and headache it can save you. 

Timely Addressing Problems To Save Trees and Shrubs Can Be Tough

Your trees and shrubs don’t take care of themselves.

Opting for professional plant care in Northeast Ohio can help you spot problems before it’s too late to manage them. 

Obviously, there are times when you notice an issue early enough so that it can be remedied, but it’s often hard to notice an issue until it’s too late. You have to be out there looking at your trees and shrubs fairly regularly. And with your busy life, this can be hard to keep on the to-do list. 

Better Results Come With Proper Care

In addition to protecting tree and shrub health and avoiding decline, you’ll also find that opting for professional tree and shrub care services over DIY services means your plants perform better. 

The result is better growth, longer and bigger blooms, and healthier looking plants. 

Cost of Tree and Shrub Care Services

You're probably wondering how much professional tree and shrub care costs. 

Multiple factors can impact service pricing, including: 

• The type and size of plants on your property. Larger trees, for instance, may require more labor and specialized equipment, resulting in higher costs.
• The severity of pest or disease issues. Major infestations may necessitate more intensive treatments.
• Required treatment methods. Injections or special applications can be more expensive due to equipment and expertise needed.
• Labor costs and equipment needs. The number of employees and types of equipment can impact pricing.
• Level of expertise required. Highly trained arborists may charge more for their experience. 

For a typical, half-acre property in Northeast Ohio that receives plant health care services from Turf Pride with payments split out over the 12 months of the year, prices start at $39 per month. But we provide customers with an exact quote when we assess their properties. Prepayment discounts are also available for those customers who like to pay for the year in full. The program will be customized to address the specific needs of your trees and shrubs, which usually includes 6 visits, free service calls, insect and mite treatments, disease control treatments, spring and fall foliar fertilization, and dormant oil treatments. 

Why Choose Turf Pride for Tree and Shrub Care

Your trees and shrubs are more than just random plants around your home. 

They set the stage for places where you make memories with your family. As you look at the residential landscape oasis you created, you might be wondering how you can take care of these green assets in the best way possible. 

As you contemplate opting for professional tree and shrub care services, we hope you’ll consider Turf Pride in your search. Here’s why we think you’ll like our plant health care services: 

• Experience and training: We employ licensed tree and shrub care professionals. And we believe that when we take care of our team members, they take better care of our customers. Also, several times a year we conduct training on proper application techniques and best practices to ensure tree and shrub issue identification and correct product usage remains at the highest level. This helps keep our quality control high, elevating our customer service. As a result, our technicians – who know your property – stay with us.
  
  
• Customer support: When you’re a smaller company, you’re more nimble and can spend extra time with customers and answer questions so they are more comfortable with the progress their lawn is making. As a small- to medium-sized company, we prefer to keep our business at a size that enables us to maintain more personal customer relationships. That way we know you on a first-name basis, and our service can be more responsive and immediate.
  
  
• Customer service ratings: How customers review a company speaks volumes about their services and customer care. We could not be more proud of our rating on Google and the kind reviews from our customers – we have an average 5-star rating, including 436 customer reviews. 

When you make a smart, well-researched choice, you get to build a long-term relationship with a company that cares about your trees and shrubs as much as you do. And that’s the best way to protect these landscape assets and boost your property value.

Want to improve the health of your trees and shrubs with tree and plant health care services in Northeast Ohio? Turf Pride can help. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we’ll customize a plan that gives you the most attractive property on the block.