Improper pruning kills greenery more often than pests do, so you wouldn’t want your renters to do it themselves. For strong, healthy greenery and a strong, healthy investment in Spokane Valley real estate, it’s crucial to know the proper pruning techniques. Find a good landscape company that has this skill and can handle this vital aspect of maintenance for you. You would greatly benefit from their service.
What is pruning and why is it important?
Pruning simply means trimming back overgrowth that can damage a plant or weaken its structure. Cutting away the dead or diseased limbs will lengthen the life of the plant and help prevent infestations of pests on your property. Both will maintain your property value, if not add to it. Pruning also has other benefits. It removes any overhanging branches from the sidewalk or driveway and prevents them from growing too much that it makes its way to your Spokane Valley rental property’s roof or windows, or surrounding power lines.
If you aren’t proactive about pruning, dead limbs can simply crack off on their own. This may fall on someone’s vehicle and cause property damage, or worse, fall on someone and injure them. Bushes and trees that are allowed to grow and aren’t properly pruned can lead to all sorts of problems– from minor inconveniences like cuts from thorns to major hazards such as obstructing views of traffic. Additionally, in many areas, you are legally required to maintain the landscape in such a way as to not create a nuisance, block line of vision, or to encroach on property lines or air space.
To avoid lawsuits, perform regular trimming of trees and shrubberies every spring. Making cuts in cold weather can damage the plant. You can train a plant’s branches simply by making slightly angular cuts that will shape its growth in the most attractive or functional direction. Cut above growth buds to preserve flowers.
Why should the resident avoid pruning?
You can give the duty of mowing and water to the tenants. However, the tree trimming and general pruning itself should be handled by professionals. There is just too much risk; you have the liability involved with ladders and the possibility of landscape damage and tenant injury. Make sure to communicate this in the lease so the tenant won’t topple off a ladder or mishandle power tools while attempting to fulfill a vague “landscaping” clause. If you omit this in the lease, the potential lawsuits will far outweigh an annual vendor fee.
Another consideration you need to make is that not every tenant may have a natural green thumb. Their likely ability to weaken, warp, or kill greenery that earlier counted towards your property value can wreak havoc on your curb appeal and be an even more expensive mistake if you have to replant each item.
Should you outsource pruning?
The most important part of having a rental property is all about protecting your investment, which involves conducting regular maintenance, inside and out. For safety and insurance reasons, and to make certain that a job is done flawlessly, the appropriate thing to do is to hand over the landscaping maintenance to professionals. If a tree branch is under 10 cm thick, perhaps you’ll be able to take it on yourself. If it is of considerable size, make a call to a skilled maintenance crew for a rapid, dependable way to the most gorgeous after-effect.
Real Property Management Spokane County has a network of licensed, insured maintenance staff to perform regular, proactive pruning for your single-family residence in Spokane Valley. We can also supervise the entire leasing process, seeing to it that any and all landscaping responsibilities are correctly enumerated for and conveyed to your tenants. Contact us or call 509-462-1042 for more information today.
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