Small jobs, spread across the year
Trees change slowly, and slow change is easier to catch with a short look each season than in one long afternoon a year. Shift any task earlier or later to suit the trees in your Montgomery yard, and ask an arborist which ones to put first for them.
What Alabama's Professional Services Law says
Alabama's Professional Services Law (Code of Alabama § 2-28-4), in the form the Department of Agriculture and Industries posts, says that before any person engages in professional work or services as the chapter defines them (which include structural pest control work and tree surgery work), or solicits that work through advertising or in any other manner, the person must apply for and obtain an annual permit from the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. Section 2-28-11 makes doing so without the required permit a misdemeanor.
The department's licenses and the definition of tree surgery
According to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, it issues Horticulture Professional Services Licenses, renewed every year, to businesses that engage in and solicit for landscape design, tree surgery, setting of landscape plants, and ornamental and turf pest control.
Alabama law (Code of Alabama § 2-28-1) defines tree surgery work as receiving fees for tree surgery, including but not limited to cavity filling or repair, bracing, cabling and wound treatment of shrubs and trees, and says it does not include pruning, feeding, budding or grafting.
One question for any company quoting the work
Put this to each company before you sign: "Does any of the work you are quoting count as tree surgery work under Alabama's Professional Services Law, and if so, what is the number of your annual permit from the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries?" Write the answer on that company's estimate.
Winter
- Feel the ties on young trunks. Where bark has begun to swell over a tie, loosen it, and ask whoever planted the tree whether the stake still has a job to do.
- Look for a rival leader. On a young tree, two stems racing upward side by side can be easier to correct while they are thin. Note it for an arborist's visit.
- Find the flare. The trunk should widen as it meets the ground. If it rises straight out of the soil like a post, soil or mulch may be piled against it; ask an arborist how to uncover it.
- Check the ground under each crown for fallen branches, then look up to see where they broke from.
Spring
- Watch leaf-out tree by tree. Make a note of any limb that is still bare once the rest of its crown is green, and take a photo of it.
- Plant for the grown-up size. Choose a planting spot by the tree's crown at maturity rather than its size in the pot, and find out where buried lines run before a shovel goes in.
- Aim sprinklers away from bark. A head that soaks the same trunk every day can be turned; ask an arborist if the bark there already looks damaged.
- Note new shoots sprouting at the base or along the trunk, and ask whether they should come off.
Summer
- Look for one limb out of step. Leaves that wilt, yellow or drop early on a single branch while the rest of the tree looks full are worth a photo and a call.
- Water new plantings as the seller advised, and keep the advice written down so everyone in the house follows the same routine.
- Trim grass by hand near trunks. String trimmers can strip bark in a moment; a wide ring of mulch, held back from the trunk itself, keeps machines at a distance.
- Plan around roots. If a patio, fence, addition or trench is coming, ask the contractor and an arborist before work starts how the ground under the crown will be kept clear of digging, parking and stored materials.
Autumn
- Photograph mushrooms or shelf-like growths that appear on a trunk or near its base, and send the photos to an arborist.
- Clear leaves from beds and young trunks, and compost or bag them as you like.
- Gather estimates for dormant-season work such as structural pruning, removal or cabling, so there is time to compare written scopes.
- Clean the gutters under overhanging limbs, and mark on your plan which trees fill them.
Signs that call for help right away
Some problems should not wait for the next season's list:
- a split opening in the trunk or at a fork;
- a broken limb hanging in the crown above a walk, the drive or the roof;
- a tree that has begun to lean where it once stood straight, or roots torn up by digging nearby;
- any limb lying on or near a wire, which is a call to the electric utility first.
Hiring for each season's work
Alongside the question above, ask each company:
- for proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation for everyone on the lot;
- for a written scope that names each tree, the work on it and the reason for it;
- what happens to wood, chips and any stump, and whether cleanup is in the price;
- who will lead the crew and how to reach that person during the job.
A record that follows the trees
Keep one folder for the trees: a plan of the yard, photos taken from the same spots each season, estimates, invoices and each company's written answers. At the end of every season, carry anything left undone onto the same season's list for next year, and ask an arborist which items can safely wait. The next company to visit will then see what was done to each tree, and when.