If you’ve got trees in your garden chances are you’re pretty proud of them as they add to both the aesthetic and natural qualities of the environment. Frequent use of a lawn mower or strimmer can prove to be damaging to the health of trees, so it’s important to take all necessary precautions to ensure this damage is kept to an absolute minimum.
Our top suggestions for keeping your trees protected:
- To ensure that you don’t need to take the mower too close to the tree, cut the grass closest to it by hand before you mow nearby. Do this by using a shovel to scrape at the grass, away from the tree.
- Lay mulch around the base of the tree to protect any exposed tree roots from becoming struck by the mower blade
- Water the area around the base of the tree thoroughly. This keeps the roots hydrated giving them the best chance of staying healthy in the event of any accidental damage
- Repair any damage to the tree by removing damaged bark with a pair of pruning shears. To avoid cross contaminating the exposed area of the tree trunk with any traces of fungus or bacteria, first clean the shears with a mild bleach solution, typically one part bleach to four parts water. If there are larger sections of bark that are still firmly attached to the tree, tack them in place with tacks or panel pins to give protect the exposed trunk underneath, and to give the bark the best chance of survival.
- If you still don’t trust that you won’t continue to cause damage having taken these precautions, then a tree guard can be used, though of course it won’t look great. For best results pick one that will allow the tree to continue expanding outwards as it grows, and that is sufficiently tall enough to protect against the full wrath of your lawn mower
- If your garden lends itself to a redesign you might be able to think of a way of removing turf from around the tree altogether, either just in a small circle around the tree, or a much larger area that can then become a flower bed
