Tree Service Companies: Why Working with Local Professionals Is Best

Company removing a tree on a golf course.

Many factors come into play when comparing tree service companies. A quick online search will show you countless options of all sizes. You might be tempted to hire a national brand for its sheer size and name recognition, but bigger isn’t necessarily better. In fact, the smaller companies nearby can often offer better services, lower prices, and more personalized care. Here we’ll explore why working with a local tree service is best for your property, budget, and peace of mind.

What Do Tree Companies Do?

Before you even run a search for “tree trimming service near me,” it helps to know what you’re getting into and whether such a company can provide the services you need. Tree services tackle many aspects of tree care, and some may offer additional landscaping services to boot. For the most part, a tree service company will provide the following services:

  1. Tree Trimming

Trimming is the process of pruning, removing dead or damaged branches, and shaping the plant. This service can be done on any tree species and is usually to maintain the tree or improve its overall appearance.

  1. Tree Removal

Tree service companies are also involved with removing dead trees either due to natural causes or because they pose a threat to your people or property.

  1. Fire Hazard Mitigation

When fires erupt, tree service companies become handy in removing branches too close to a building. In most cases of fire, there is a significant chance that the building will be damaged because of debris or fallen branches.

  1. Landscaping

Landscaping is an umbrella term for processes that improve the health and appearance of green spaces, including mowing, edging, planting new trees and ornamental plants, fertilizing and testing soil, raising tree canopies, and so on. A local tree service will best advise its clients on the plants that will work best for them and their property.

  1. Stump Removal/Grinding

This is the process of removing stumps either manually or with the use of machines. A lingering stump can become a tripping hazard and attract pests and fungi.

  1. Crane Services

Crane services involve the moving of heavy loads with the help of cranes. This service is mainly used for large trees or if you have several trees that need to be removed.

  1. Storm Debris Removal and Repair

Severe storms can incur serious damage to landscapes and properties. Necessary repairs may include removing storm-damaged tree branches and limbs or cleaning up storm debris.

  1. Cabling and Bolting

A tree service provider might also improve a tree’s structural integrity by redistributing its weight and helping it stand more upright via cables and bolts.

Benefits of Working with Local Tree Professionals

Now that you have a sense of what tree services do, here’s why it’s best to keep it local.

Close Knowledge of the Locale

When a tree service operates in your region, they inherently understand the local weather patterns, ecosystem, and other nuances. If you’re in a region that experiences strong winds, tree services will know how much protection to offer them. Other climate concerns like drought, hurricanes, extreme heat or cold, etc. all factor into how to best care for local landscapes and trees.

Local Connection and Support

When hiring a local tree cutting service, it’s best to go with one that’s already involved in your community. Working with these close-to-home businesses boosts the local economy while beautifying the neighborhood. Plus, people you already trust are bound to recommend the best local trees services in your area – word of mouth is a powerful endorsement and benefits both the customer and the tree company.

Effective Communication

Anyone you hire, whether a babysitter or a tree trimming service, must maintain strong communication throughout. Otherwise, you can quickly become kept in the dark regarding problems, price changes, timelines, and more. Getting a hold of large, national tree service brands can be a nightmare of red tape and telephone tag. Compare this headache with the simplicity of a local phone call with the smaller tree service down the road. Simply put, a local tree service is more likely to get back to you and keep you in the loop than some giant corporation.

Quick Assessment of Damage

Effective communication also helps in the efficient evaluation of the damage. Local providers can get to the site quickly and let you know what needs to be done without delay. A quick assessment helps you decide how much the project will cost and who to choose for your tree services.

Trust and Reputation

If a company is trusted in your neighborhood, it’s worth seeking them out. Once again: word of mouth is powerful. There’s more at stake for a local tree company than a larger competitor. After all, the local provider must face its community every single day – if it loses favor with the community, it might go out of business. By sticking with a local business with a solid reputation, you can rest assured they earned that reputation and intend to keep earning it.

Fair Pricing

Though the biggest companies can sometimes undercut the local competition because they can, smaller businesses tend to offer competitive pricing to stay afloat. The average cost of living varies from region to region, so hiring a local tree service will help keep these costs in line. Plus, local tree services have less overhead to worry about than their larger competitors – some of these savings get passed down to you, the customer.

Trust The Parke Company for Nashville, TN Tree Services

For residents residing in Nashville, TN, and Middle TN, The Parke Company is the best local tree service to work with. We offer a wide range of tree services, including tree trimming, removal, cabling, municipal services, and stump removal, along with irrigation, landscape maintenance, and more. Call us today at 615-350-6033 to learn more about our offerings. We’ll be happy to provide you with a free consultation and estimate to help you decide whether our services are right for your landscaping needs.

The Premier Landscaping Services Perfect for Fall

Colored leaves on the ground in the fall.

Fall is a fantastic time for family gatherings, community activities, and festive decorations. But as the days grow shorter and the leaves start to fall from their trees, every property owner knows that it’s also time to prepare their outdoor spaces for winter. The Parke Company serving Nashville and Middle Tennessee is here to help you beat the cold weather season and make your outdoor spaces look beautiful for years to come with our full service landscaping services.

How the Transition to Autumn Affects Landscaping Services and Needs

As autumn takes over, yards and gardens begin to wither away – this transition often yields gorgeous colors along the way. During this season, there are a few ideal landscaping services to seek for your yards and gardens. The first service is to trim branches that may have grown into a fence or a power line. There are a few ways to handle this situation: plant new trees and shrubs, remove trees and shrubs that are no longer useful for your yard, and reshape them by trimming them up. Debris removal is another ideal service for fall, as the season’s winds, rains, and falling leaves produce plenty of detritus.

This time of year is also prime for lawn fertilization. This important task protects the health of your lawn even when it’s lying dormant during winter. Proper fertilization will, in fact, shorten this dormant period and help your lawn spring back to life after winter’s end. Meanwhile, continue mowing your lawn until the grass completely stops growing. Grinding up fallen leaves along the way will allow your lawn to breathe as the season progresses. The Parke Company can also provide lawn aeration services this time of year, test your soil, and more.

Preparing Your Green Spaces for Winter

Taking care of your lawn during autumn helps you prepare it for winter. Even in an area that enjoys milder winters like Nashville, TN, cold conditions, snow, and other wintry factors can do serious damage to your green spaces if they’re not well-protected. Investing in the services outlined above and removing any dead or dying plants will help keep your landscapes healthy and beautiful throughout the winter season.

Beyond these acts, however, you must also consider the state of your irrigation system. You won’t be needing your sprinklers during winter, so it’s important to shut down these systems prior to the first frost. Keeping your irrigation system active during winter can freeze and clog valves, permanently damaging these components. By the time spring rolls back around, you may be faced with major irrigation repairs. The Parke Company offers full irrigation winterization and restart services so you can bring your lawn back to life as soon as the weather allows.

Why Hire Professionals From The Parke Company

At The Parke Company, all of our full service landscaping offerings are performed by certified, qualified, and experienced employees to ensure top-notch services. We provide various landscape service options to our residential and commercial customers, including pre-construction consultation, landscape design, landscape installation, maintenance, irrigation shutdowns and restarts, planting, mowing, trimming, and more.

When you call The Parke Company to schedule a consultation with our team, we will help you decide which premier landscaping services best suit your property for the season. Call us today at 615-350-6033 to schedule your autumn or winter landscape maintenance session. We’ll be happy to provide you with a free consultation and estimate to help you decide whether our services are right for your landscaping needs.

Why Hiring a Tree Removal Service with a Certified Arborist is the Best Option

Company removing a tree.

Trees are terrific, but they can also terrorize your property. Whether from old age, a lack of maintenance, or natural phenomena, trees can shed hazardous debris onto your landscape and structures, if not collapse entirely. If your home or business is at risk of this tree-related destruction, it’s best to have the tree(s) in question removed. However, tree removal is a delicate process, and even a small error can result in major safety concerns and costly damage. Fortunately, there are third-party organizations dedicated to teaching and certifying tree removal professionals to ensure the best outcomes – chief among them is the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), which oversees a Certified Arborist® program for companies with at least three years of full-time experience in arboriculture (e.g., tree care companies, nurseries, landscaping companies, and more).

The Parke Company proudly brandishes its ISA Arborist Certification, giving our clients peace of mind. Here’s why hiring a tree removal service with ISA Arborist Certification is always the way to go for your home or business.

Why You Should Hire a Tree Removal Service With ISA Arborist Certification

Certified Arborists Know the Ins and Outs of Trees

Receiving ISA Arborist Certification requires comprehensive knowledge and skills related to tree care. According to the ISA’s Certified Arborist® Application Guide, “When you become an ISA Certified Arborist®, you are recognized by your peers and the public as a tree care professional who has attained a generally accepted level of knowledge in areas such as tree biology, diagnosis, maintenance practices, safety, and other subject and practice areas within the tree care profession as identified through periodic job task analyses.” Put simply, when hiring a certified arborist to take care of your trees, you’ll already know that the provider is bringing detailed knowledge and experience to the table – not just in one category, but in 10 areas of knowledge laid out by the certification’s written exam:

  • Soil Management
  • Identification and Selection
  • Installation and Establishment
  • Safe Work Practices
  • Tree Biology
  • Pruning
  • Diagnosis and Treatment
  • Urban Forestry
  • Tree Protection
  • Tree Risk Management

The benefits of tree removal services featuring this level of knowledge cannot be overstated. After all, tree removal is only one of many services that will keep your landscape healthy and your property safe from harm.

Ensure Safety at Your Property

As mentioned above, safe work practices constitute a significant portion of ISA Arborist Certification. The first objective outlined in the guide is to “advance the knowledge and application of safe work practices in all arboricultural operations.” To achieve and maintain certification, applicants must stay up to date on the most current ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Z133 Standard – Safety Requirements for Arboricultural Operations. These standards deal with the proper use of relevant tools and equipment, avoidance of electrical hazards, safe climbing methods, general procedures, and more. ISA Certified Arborists also keep customers and their properties safe by keeping trees healthy and sturdy. While any tree removal service should adhere to these safety guidelines, you can rest assured that Certified Arborists are constantly primed to manage risk and maximize safety before, during, and after the job.

Adherence to High Ethical Standards

When hiring any kind of service, you only want to deal with companies you can trust. No matter the industry or specialty, unethical business practices are all too common, resulting in unfair pricing, shoddy outcomes, inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, and so on. And it’s not always easy to determine whether or not a company is trustworthy until after you’ve hired them. As such, it helps to rely on an objective party like the ISA’s Credentialing Council to determine a contractor’s integrity beforehand.

According to the ISA Certified Arborist® Application Guide, “The ISA Certified Arborist® credential is subject to ongoing requirements, such as participation in continuing education activities and abiding by the ISA Certified Arborist® Code of Ethics.” This ethical code details and dictates all aspects of a tree removal company’s professional behavior, including how well they comply with laws, regulations and standards, how truthfully they represent information to customers, municipalities, and certification agencies, how to avoid conflicts of interest, and much more.

The entire ISA Code of Ethics can be read here.

Finding Certified Tree Removal Near Me

If before you were wondering, “Why do we need an arborist with ISA Arborist Certification,” by now the answer should be clear: Hiring a tree removal service with Certified Arborist credentials takes the guesswork out of finding a knowledgeable, experienced, safety-oriented, ethical tree service provider. If you’re looking for such a tree service in the Nashville, TN or Middle TN areas, look no further than the certified specialists at The Parke Company.

Call us today at 615-350-6033 or contact us online!

Why Now Is the Best Time to Hire Irrigation Repair Services

Man repairing an irrigation system.

The cooler air in the mornings and at night serves as a reminder that fall is on its way, even in a warmer area like Nashville, TN. And as summer comes to a close, you might put lawn care on the back burner. Even a busted irrigation system might not seem like a pressing matter for a while, but waiting until spring to fix or install your watering system can be a costly and frustrating endeavor. Here are some reasons early autumn is actually the best time to hire irrigation repair services for your home or business.

Why Early Autumn is the Best Time to Hire Irrigation Repair Services

Soil Conditions Are Right for the Job

Irrigation installation and repairs are best done when the soil is relatively soft, somewhat moist, and neither too cool nor too hot. This goldilocks zone can be hard to come by, however. During the summer, soil temperatures are often in the upper 80s (Fahrenheit) and dry to boot. By September, these temperatures begin to drop until they’re in the 50s by November, and the soil softens significantly. Irrigation services can work more efficiently and do less damage to your lawn by tackling installations and repairs during this period, making fall the optimal time for them.

Steer Clear of Surge Pricing

Though autumn offers ideal conditions for irrigation repairs, most people are focused on lawn irrigation during the spring and summer. And when demand for irrigation services increases, so does the cost of these services. Put simply, attempting to tackle irrigation repair in the spring or summer is often much more expensive than waiting until fall when demand has died down. Likewise, it’s much easier to find a reliable repair company and schedule their services on short notice when their calendars aren’t so tightly wound. So, if you want to hire the best irrigation repair professionals at the best price, it’s wise to make this investment during the fall.

Lawn Aesthetics Won’t Matter as Much

People pay the most attention to their landscapes during the spring and summer. This is when it’s possible to achieve lush green lawns and take advantage of all the seasonal flowers in bloom. While you don’t want your lawn to look dishevelled outside of these seasons, fall debris and cooler temperatures will render even the most well-kempt lawns inert for some time. Knowing this, hiring landscaping services to fix your irrigation system during fall is completely practical. After all, these repairs often involve digging up portions of your lawn – something you won’t want to do during the spring and summer when the goal is to keep up exterior appearances. By tackling this project during the fall, you won’t have to feel so self-conscious about what your lawn looks like, since the landscapes around you will also be dealing with seasonal issues of their own (e.g., dormant grass, fallen leaves, etc.).

One Less Thing to Worry About in the Spring

Spring may be the start of the landscaping season, but you won’t want to battle a broken irrigation system as you prepare to revive your lawn. It’s much better to get your watering solutions in order before winter so you can hit the ground running as soon as spring arrives – this means tackling irrigation repair and installation during the fall. You’ll thank yourself in a matter of months for getting it done at this time rather than waiting.

Lawn Irrigation Services Near Me

There’s still plenty of time in Nashville to address any irrigation concerns you may have, but don’t wait too long. The Parke Company would be happy to be your choice for irrigation installation, repairs, and upgrades this season and beyond. We are passionate about cultivating a beautiful landscape for your home, office, or municipal property. Call us today at 615-350-6033 or contact us online!

Landscaping Design Services: Enhance Your Property Value

Flower and a sprinkler knob.

Home prices are trending upward in Nashville, TN and most other regions in the U.S. That said, if you’re planning on selling your home, you’re not guaranteed to get the price you’re looking for without putting in some effort. Your home must be in pristine condition inside and out to boost your bargaining power. And a potential buyer’s first impression of your home can make all the difference. Indeed, curb appeal is king – and beyond cleaning your home’s exterior and updating its siding, you’ll want to make sure its green spaces are in order. An alluring landscape says a lot about you as a seller and shows off your property in its best possible light. With that in mind, here are some landscaping design services to invest in to increase your real estate asking price.

Landscape Installations

Most homeowners would prefer to install new landscape features that they can enjoy for themselves over the next several years or decades. However, investing in ornamental plantings, specimen trees, new pathways, retaining walls, window boxes, and other installments can give your curb appeal a relatively quick and highly effective boost when it’s time to sell. It’s wise to develop a larger landscape design plan before going forward with a new installation. This way, you won’t wastet time or money on features that don’t improve your property’s appearance. The designs with the broadest appeal are balanced, properly scaled, cohesive, and simple.

Tree Maintenance and Removal

Trees make up a significant portion of virtually any landscape, providing shade, history, and seasonal beauty. Without proper maintenance, however, trees can become liabilities rather than assets. Overgrown trees aren’t just eyesores – they may also threaten your home if they’re stationed too close (especially if they’re older and/or diseased). Cutting down trees is sometimes necessary as a last resort, but it’s better to prevent your trees from becoming serious threats in the first place. This is done via pruning, trimming, crown thinning, deadwood removal, and other maintenance means. In addition to ensuring the long-term health of your trees, taking care of them in these ways also maximizes their appearance to make your entire property more attractive. The same can be said for smaller trees and shrubs. The best landscape designers are equipped to shape your shrubs and trees to perfection while keeping them in good health year-round.

Irrigation Services

Irrigation might not seem too intertwined with landscape design, but consider how quickly grass and ground cover can wither, brown, and perish without a regular supply of water. Lawns of all sizes can be tricky to take care of, especially in a hot, sunny region like Nashville, TN. Landscape experts will implement modern irrigation methods to keep your lawn and gardens hydrated no matter how hot or dry it gets outside. In doing so, you can show off a lush, healthy, vibrant lawn to potential buyers before they even enter your home.

General Landscape Maintenance

Watering is just one of many aspects of proper landscape maintenance. If you want to land the highest bidder for your home, you must also consider bed maintenance, weeding, fertilization, beautification, enhancement, pruning, mulching, and more. Every landscape is unique, which is why your designers must offer a variety of landscaping services and solutions, such as fertilizer/mulch alternatives. Different maintenance and preparation solutions are necessary at different times of the year, too, even in an area like Nashville, TN, where winters are relatively mild. The more equipped your landscape provider is to care for your green spaces throughout the year, the better they’ll be able to optimize its appearance.

Emergency Storm Services

Nashville is no stranger to extreme weather. In the past couple of years alone, this area has had to face devastating tornadoes, floods, and more. A single severe weather event can damage or demolish even the most beautiful and well-kept landscape (not to mention homes and buildings themselves) and therefore diminish your property’s market value. As such, it’s imperative to work with a landscaping company that offers emergency landscaping and repair services. These services include damage assessments, debris clean-up, irrigation system repair, re-installations of softscapes, hardscapes, decor, and more. The sooner you can pick up the pieces after a major storm, the better your odds of landing a solid asking price for your home.

Finding the Right Landscape Designer in Your Area

When selling your home, getting the biggest bang for your buck is only possible with proper landscape design and maintenance. A quick online search for “landscape designers near me” will reveal countless options in Nashville, TN – save yourself some time by sticking with The Parke Company. We provide comprehensive, caring landscaping services, and we are passionate about cultivating a beautiful landscape for your home, office, or municipal property.

Call us today at 615-350-6033 or contact us online!