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A life-threatening job indeed, tree surgery risks the lives of tree surgeons in embarking on pruning or cutting down trees. The tree surgeon covers major responsibilities in removing unwanted trees in your surroundings. In order to carry out the job of a tree surgeon, he or she must possess certain qualifications, education, and certification in the industry. While the undertakings are crucial both for the life of humans and living plants and trees, tree surgeons should have had gained extensive training before they can be sent to the field.

In your community, you will notice that there are some places, such as parks, historical places, government institutions, or universities, and even sidewalks with plants, hedges, and trees well pruned and trimmed. You might wonder how they make their surroundings well kept and free from debris that might endanger passersby.

The people behind the beauty of a well-kept and maintained surroundings are the tree surgeons. Sometimes, they are called arborists.

What do you think these tree experts do and what skills they need in order to complete their job?

They must be:

• Trained in handling power tools.
• Experienced and highly skilled in aerial operations, such as tree climbing
• Physically fit (tree surgeons are out in the open and experience different weather conditions).
• Knowledgeable in conducting inspection and making assessment on trees’ health or if they are endangered or serve as threats to humans.
• Observant of the safety rules in tree felling.
• Skilled in chopping, felling, pruning, maintaining, and even planting trees.

How tree surgeons gain their qualifications in Guildford

Tree surgeons deal with enormously tall trees that require them to climb and cut problematic branches and trunk with efficiency. The mix of skill and knowledge in this kind of job is worth everybody’s praise.

In Guildford and surrounding areas in the UK, tree surgeons must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Further degree in arboriculture is encouraged but not required.

While tree felling involves working with heights and other dangerous undertakings, tree surgeons should follow safety standards to protect themselves from hazards.

What are the works involved?

1. Tree climbing—Climbing gears and chainsaws are tools needed by an arborist to climb a tree. Natural disasters bring trees devastated by storms. Tree surgeons take a major part in cleaning up such a mess.
2. Using climbing spurs—Spurs are dug on tree barks that will serve as a leverage for tree surgeons to climb up the tree, along with using lanyards.
3. Rope throwing bundle—This not a bungee jumper act but a skill needed by an arborist to make sure they are securely fastened to be able to move their body up and down the ground.
4. Pruning—It’s not a botanist’s job but something that has to with pruning, insect control, fertilisation, and maintaining trees’ health.
5. Machine operation—This involves the use of cranes, stump grinder, all kinds of chainsaw, and other heavy equipment in tree felling.

Who we are

Alpine Tree Surgeons in Guildford prefer to be called “surgeons” as it sounds more appealing and easier to understand. Though tree surgeons and arborists can, in fact, be used interchangeably, we chose the lighter side so our customers would better identify us as someone who treats and cure trees in all aspects.

A tree surgeon’s job is physically demanding, and yet, our tradespeople here at Alpine Tree Surgeons enjoy what they do. We take pride in offering our services for commercial, government, or residential settings. Our work is extremely important and helpful for the overall environmental health of our communities. Besides, our tree surgeons are qualified, licensed, and certified in their chosen field.

There are no small or big jobs for Alpine Tree Surgeons. Just give us a call and we’ll deal straight away with your queries.

Hedge trimming or hedge cutting is trimming tall hedges or overgrown shrubs for many purposes. Passersby would only have the impression that hedges are trimmed for landscaping. A beautiful landscape reflects an eco-friendly environment.

However, there’s more to hedge cutting than simply trimming the overgrowth.

The principle in trimming hedges goes primarily with cleaning the place and making it appear pleasant with plants cut and shaped into different forms. Hedge trimming, too, now becomes an art. If you have seen various shapes of plants formed into what the imagination of the trimmers can do, you can only admire how they were able to come up with masterpieces and works of art that simulate sculpture.

Hedges, too, serve as boundaries for homes or sidewalks and yards lined with shrubs and trees. When branches are sticking out, dead leaves fall frequently. Hedge cutting prevents the place from being cluttered with unwanted parts of the plants. A tree standing on a non-strategic spot, and whose branches and fruits are unpleasant seen, can also be included in the trimming job.

Techniques in pruning

Pruning involves cutting overgrown plants by removing first the thickest branch, starting from the base to promote regrowth. For new hedges, they need to be pruned for the first two years after they have been planted. This is called maintenance trimming. It usually conducted at least once in a year or twice for informal hedges. Bur formal hedges need at least three times in a year.

When is the best time to trim?

If you opt for maintenance trimming, the best times of the year should happen in the middle of spring and summer. However, this is not always the case. What’s important is knowing the proper timing of pruning ensures productive, healthy, and attractive plants. Shrubs and trees have their different pruning time, according to plant experts.

Plants covered for trimming are deciduous trees and plants. Deciduous plants are those that shed their leaves every fall. Most of the trees that shed are those with broad, wide, and flat leaves.

Deciduous shrubs, on the other hand, are pruned or trimmed based on their growth habit, season of blooming, or health.

For example, neglected flowering shrubs should be pruned by early spring or late winter to relive the plants. The purpose of rejuvenation is to restore the plant’s health. For healthy and maintained shrubs, they can be pruned after their flowering season, and they only require light pruning. This way, you’re giving ample time for these plants to grow flowers anew intended for the coming season.

Importance of trimming

Trimming shrubs or hedges are not only to improve the home landscape. Admittedly, they serve a valuable part in your garden, offering beautiful and colorful foliage, flowers, or fruits. More than these, shrubs provide a sense of privacy, blocking the unnecessary view of your home or the streets. They also serve to attract wildlife.

Proper and regular pruning keep your shrubs in good shape and health.

Other reasons for hedge trimming is when the plants encounter different problems:

• Nesting of wild birds on your shrubs or trees could damage the plant.
• Overgrown branches on the pavement block pedestrians and walkways.
• Extended branches and thick foliage can entangle with electrical wirings on the street.

Safety trimming methods

When trimming hedges, you need to have shears. Shears are best for small shrubs those below eye level. But for larger shrubs, an electric trimmer or the one run by petrol is better to cut thicker stems. A sharp or well-lubricated shear provides greater efficiency in trimming your plants.

For safety, it is always recommended to wear goggles to keep your eyes from catching shredded plant remnants. Gloves protect your hands against the weight of the shear and from picking loose stems and leaves compared to bare hands.

When using power tools, make sure you are using a ladder or a sturdy platform to reach for the problematic hedge. Using such tools above your shoulder is a little dangerous as you can lose control of the equipment, especially when it is connected to an electrical outlet. Check the cable and see that it does not entangle with anything on the ground or serve as an obstacle.

For a better understanding of overgrown hedges, ask our team of tree surgeons. They have years of experience and training in handling nuisance hedges. Arborists in Alpine Tree Surgeons can help you for hedge and shrub trimming tips and provide you information on step-by-step pruning method.

The job of a tree surgeon is not simple. It is one of the most dangerous jobs in our community. Even though someone knows how to climb even the tallest tree, it is not all there is.

Tree surgeons, or arborists, are faced into life-threatening situations whenever they undertake a tree felling task. It is required. Therefore for those tree surgeons to have the experience, the skills, and the expertise to use high-powered and heavy equipment to carry out their mission. More importantly, the equipment they are going to use should not fail them because if not, tree cutting could only end in a disaster.

The Tools Tree Surgeons Use

No matter how skilled tree surgeons are in climbing up trees, swinging from one tree to another and cutting those huge branches could not be possible if they do not have the knowledge to operate heavy machines and if these machines are not available

What are the tools that make the work of tree surgeons complete, and how do these work?

1. Chainsaw. If you notice on tree and shrub works, chainsaws are the most commonly used tools. A lightweight and compact machine, a chainsaw is run by gasoline. Some models are electrically powered. A chainsaw is composed of a rotating chain with a set of teeth that cuts the barks of trees. It is uncommon for tree surgeons not to carry a chainsaw. Many types of chainsaw are applicable in tree pruning and cutting. For example, one can be able to cut hard to reach tree branches using a hand saw. Or a type of chainsaw, such as the ground saw has a handle situated differently to cut large branches of felled trees.
2. Axe. Compared to a chainsaw, an axe is a tool of the old times. Way before tree surgeons came by, axes were used to cut or chop limbs of trees. They are popularly used for cutting wood from felled trees used for as firewood.
3. Helmet. Hard-hat helmets are required for working tree surgeons. A helmet is a protective gear to keep the head from falling debris from tree felling. Whether a tree worker is up there or working on the ground, he or she needs a helmet for safety.
4. Harness. Not only mountaineers are seen with a harness. A harness is a vital tool while climbing up the trees. With belts, rings, and loops that need to be worn by a tree surgeon, these elements should be durable to stand the weight of the person wearing and that the gears are tight enough to ensure that the job can be safely completed.
5. Boots. Crafted with thick fabric to protect from chainsaw cuts, boots are a necessity when working in the field. The boots should be resistant and waterproof because a tree surgeon will come across using chemicals and gases. Along with the boots, climbing spikes are also required so when an arborist climbs the tree; the spikes will penetrate the trunk, giving more adherence and support.
6. Cranes. Even if you have the complete rigging equipment, but the situation cannot be handled using some techniques, cranes are used to reach parts of the tree that need felling and to direct the path where they should fall. Cranes safely remove trees without damaging your landscape.
7. Ladders. In addition to cranes, ladders are important tools to carry out the works of climbers. It is pure common sense why you need a ladder for tree works.
8. Log loader truck. This type of truck removes massive logs and debris when finishing the job and cleaning up the mess in your property.
9. Stump grinder. A machine with a rotating wheel in front used to shred stump into mulch. Some jobs on tree felling become unfinished when the stump is left out. Although property owners can remove stumps if they have the tool, the removal is faster when done by a skilled arborist, because other stumps have thick roots that run deep in the ground.
10. Communication gadgets. In a crucial job like this, radios for communication is highly essential in order to observe the exact steps in tree felling. They also serve to keep everyone safe while on duty.

Experienced tree surgeons from Alpine Tree Surgeons will keep you safe at all times, including themselves. The company ensures that they have the complete equipment to carry out the most dangerous and cumbersome task in the community. They gained their expertise from this business by serving residential, commercial, and industrial settings for many years.

If you need further information on the equipment we use on tree surgery, fill the form below or contact us and one of our staff will be happy to help.

Tree stumps are an eyesore in your yard or in spots where people flock, stroll, or just pass by often. Looking to get rid of tree stumps in your yard, there are different ways to get it done. Whether you have these stumps ground or removed, they both fall to the same objective–removing the stump. Literally, stump grinding is a much different process in removing a stump, but the latter doesn’t employ grinding but of different methods.

If you own a tree that has to be discarded for good, which method you think is the best?

Stump grinding

Removing a tree stump can be done manually. First, by digging the stump out by hand or burning it if it is permissible in your area. But a simpler and more effective method is to use a power tool, such as the stump grinder, which is a very quick and inexpensive procedure. It typically takes a couple of hours to remove a small tree stump. More time will be needed if you have more stumps to tackle.

When removing the tree stump, trim the stump to the ground using a chain saw. This will help speed up the process, which is especially convenient for a large stump. Also, dig up rocks around the tree stump. Rocks and stones can damage the teeth on the grinder’s cutting wheel.

When you think the stump has totally disintegrated, simply spread the cutwood chips over the hole made by grinding. Repeat the same with mulch, and then add topsoil, and then spread an even layer of grass seed into the soil. Finally, water the area. Monitor and treat the area just as you would treat your lawn.

In stump grinding, a stump cutter is used. It is a powerful tool built with a rotating disc that cuts away the wood. If you want the quicker way of getting away with the stump, power tools should be used instead.

Stump removal

Although stump grinding is the same concept as stump removal, perhaps the use of “removal” in this sense points to a different method of “eradicating” the stump in a more specific way.

After a huge and tall tree has been cut down, tree surgeons still have something left behind the massive workload, that is, the stump. Stump removal is another laborious work but can be done easily by using the right techniques.

Before getting on removing the stump completely and immediately, it is important to assess the stump beforehand, because some stumps take a few days before they are completely wiped out, and some take a few hours only.

Consider that trees have varied roots and branches. The thicker and wider the stump is, and depending on the characteristic of wood of the tree, removing the stump may take a while. Also, the age of the tree is another indicator of how easy or hard to remove the stump. Old stumps are easier to remove.

Methods to remove a stump

By hand

Do you know that you can remove a stump by yourself? Some old stumps are literally small, and it only needs a handful of tools in order to unearth the stump. If the stump is decayed or diseased, it is much easier to haul it up.

1. You will be needing a shovel, ax, digging bar, limbing saw or chainsaw.
2. Use the saw to remove the protruding portion of the stump but don’t cut them as leveled to the ground so you’ll have a remaining stump to use as leverage when you pull it up later.
3. Use the digging bar and shovel to reveal the roots, and then cut the roots around the stump one by one.
4. Push and pull the trunk and see if it is good enough to be removed.
5. When the stump is uprooted, pour topsoil onto the hole and level the ground using the shovel. You can also add grass and water the spot from time to time so no trace of the stump is left.

By burning

If you feel hiring tree experts to remove the stump in your yard is costly, you can use the burning method. Although this is a little risky as it may violate certain rules in your area, try this method with some caution.

1. Using a power drill, make holes on the top of the stump and on the sides, too.
2. Remove the debris from the stump and pour kerosene (or pure vegetable oil if you’re not fond of harmful gases) on the holes.
3. Using a matchstick, light up some dried woody stems (or coal) or anything flammable and insert them in the holes.
4. Keep the fire burning until the stump slowly recedes its size and becomes hollow inside due to charred elements.
5. Let it stay for a few days until the stump is weak and ready to crumble.

If you have several stumps to remove and you need the help of an expert, the men from Alpine Tree Surgeons in Hampshire will handle the heavy job for you. They had acquired the skill and years of experience in handling stumps and trees for the beautification of our environment.

All you need is call us or fill out the form, and all your queries will be given prompt responses.