What is Tree Girdling?

Trees are precious assets to your landscape, and if you are lucky enough to have healthy, beautiful trees on your property, you’ll want to take care to protect them as best you can.  If you use a string trimmer such as the DR Trimmer Mower to trim around your property, you may have noticed that it is easy to damage your trees when trying to trim weeds and grass near their trunks.  Have no fear!  DR has a solution.

Your tree consists of five different layers of material that make up the trunk and branches.  On the very outside, there’s the outer bark (A), which protects the tree from damage.  Just under that is the inner bark (B), or phloem, which passes nutrients throughout the tree.  Next is a thin layer of cells called the cambium cell layer (C) which is responsible for the tree’s growth.  Inside that layer is a layer of sapwood (D), which is a pipeline for water to move throughout the tree.  And at the very core is heartwood (E), the supporting structure of the tree.  Though dead, heartwood will not decay if the outer layers remain intact.

When a tree is hit with a string trimmer’s string (or any other damaging force, for that matter) there is a risk of breaking through the outer bark and hurting the inner bark.  When the inner bark is damaged, there is a risk of the tree not getting the nutrients it needs to survive.  It is almost certain that the tree will die if the inner bark is damaged in a ring all the way around the trunk.  On smaller trees, there is also the possibility that a trimmer will damage all the layers of the trunk all the way into the heartwood.  When this happens, the heartwood is left exposed to the elements and could begin to decay, causing the whole tree to eventually die.

What to do?!

It’s a good thing DR has come up with a way to protect your trees while getting rid of those nasty weeds and tall grasses that grow up around their trunks.  The TrimSafe Guard is a simple attachment for your DR Trimmer Mower that keeps the cutting cord a full 1″ away from trees, plants, and other obstacles.  You simply attach it to your machine and then let the metal bar ride around your tree trunks as you trim.  Weeds still get the necessary trimming, but your tree sustains only a light bump from the TrimSafe Guard’s bar.  Available by itself or as part of an Accessories Value Package!