Rock Tree Services

Removing a tree stump can be a tricky task if you don’t have the right tools and equipment. Once a tree has been cut down, a stump grinder is used to grind the remaining part of the tree in to smaller pieces.

Once the stump is just a few inches above the ground, it is covered in dirt and dust, which overtime allows it to decay along with the roots around it.

Our tree surgeons are trained using specialist equipment, ensuring the best possible job and result.

It’s easy to confuse shrub and hedge trimming with pruning, but they are in fact very different concepts, each with different results.

Whereas trimming is often used to create shape, tree pruning is used to sustain plant health and is often carried out in order to encourage new shoots and foliage.

Pruning also allows you to control the growth of your plant, especially if it’s a plant that likes to take over. By removing some older branches, a specific size can be maintained for the space allotted for the plant/tree.

Trimming doesn’t only maintain a pleasing aesthetic but has a range of other benefits, such as promoting the health of your plant.

Whilst some may believe avoiding trimming will help to keep it’s length, regular trimming can actually help to stimulate new growth, providing additional strong and healthy shoots with added density, which creates a ‘full effect’.
Creating Privacy

Hedge trimming is therefore especially important if you’re trying to achieve privacy in a short space of time. If this is your aim, the Leylandii plant, which is a type of conifer, is one of the fastest growing hedges in the UK, which makes it a popular choice for creating a secluded, private area. Whilst laurels grow at a slower rate, they are still an extremely popular choice, due to them growing outwards as well as up, which creates a dense and ‘bushy’ look.

hedge trimming, tree pruning, laurel hedging,
Minimising Nature Disruption

Leaving hedges to grow without regular trimming not only creates a messy look but also impacts the natural environment when you do choose to control it. The longer and more out of control your bushes get, the higher the chance that a range of animals will have chosen to call it home, meaning there’s a chance you will disturb new habitats when you do come to trim your hedges back.

We specialise in a number of crown work tree services, such as crown lifting, crown thinning and crown reduction, with each serving a different purpose and result.
Crown Lifting

Crown lifting involves removing the lowest level of branches. It is an effective method if you’re wanting to create more light in a particular space.
Crown Thinning

Crown thinning involves removing some of the smaller branches, usually at the outer crown, in order to create an even density of foliage around an evenly spaced branch structure. Crown thinning won’t alter the overall size or shape of the tree.

Common reasons for crown thinning are to allow more light to pass through the tree, reduce wind resistance or reduce weight.
Crown Reduction

This involves reducing the height and/or the spread of the crown (the foliage bearing parts) of a tree. Crown reduction may be used to reduce the weight on individual branches or the whole tree, make the tree more suited to its immediate environment or to reduce the effects of shading and light loss, etc.

Pollarding is a type of pruning which is often used to restrict the natural height or growth of a plant, tree or shrub.

It works by removing tree stems or minor branches in order to encourage secondary branches to grow.

Once minor branches have been removed, the tree is left to regrow, however will require regular maintenance to keep its shape through tree pruning.

Rock Tree Surgeons are specialists when it comes to Tree Preservation Orders, so if you have a tree that you want to ensure remains standing contact us and we will do all the necessary paper work.

Under the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 we will submit an application, which when passed makes it an offence to “cut down, top, lop, uproot, wilfully damage or wilfully destroy a tree without the planning authority’s permission.”

TPOs don’t apply to shrubs or bushes but can be placed on any tree, even if it’s in someone else’s garden. There aren’t any specific requirements in place for submitting TPOs but they are most often put in place to give protection to trees that provide amenity value to the public or have a significant impact on the environment.

healthy trees
Checking trees for TPOs

In addition to submitting Tree Preservation Orders (sometimes referred to as Tree Protection Orders) we are experts at spotting when a TPO is in place, and if we’re not 100% sure we will check it against the register. This means that are customers can rest assured in the knowledge that no repercussions will ever come about as a result of felling a tree.