Arbor1st is a family owned & run tree care business
- Arboriculture is the care of trees, shrubs & woody plants.
- Arborist comes from the Latin “arbor” meaning “tree” & is meant broadly as a cultivator / carer of trees
- 1st means wherever we possibly can we will put the health of the tree 1st, because no trees is not a sustainable option
Trees are an asset when they are in the right place & we need to co-exist amongst them, so our goal is to do the best by our client and the tree wherever practicable.
We are passionate about trees & their care, which is why we specialise in tree pruning, planting & development, we also do tree removals when necessary, whether straight felling or rigging to protect nearby assets.
We can source trees and plant them correctly, so they will be set up for the best chance of success.
In addition to the above we do wood chipping/mulch production, stump grinding, log splitting & firewood processing & sales.
Our senior Arborist Trevor Gardiner has lived in Te Kauwhata for over 20 years & is a qualified arborist (Diploma in Arboriculture), with 40 years industry experience, working with trees in the UK, Austria & NZ. He is also an industry trainer with Thoughtplanters Ltd & a Bonsai artist.
Our assistant arborist Pranee is working towards her NZ Certificate in Horticulture (Arboriculture) & has a passion for plants including growing her own herbs & ingredients.
We provide no obligation free quotes for clients within a 30km and we will give you the best advice possible on your trees and the best options for them & you. If you are further away than that we may charge a fee to cover our costs of time & travel but discount that off your works if we are successful.
Treatment of trees
Pruning is our speciality whether your trees are 150 foot monsters or young saplings which is the best time to set the structure of a tree.
What is appropriate tree pruning?
- Canopy cleaning – after years of growth, weather & activity of animals, humans etc trees can become overgrown & messy. A canopy clean out is a good option as all deadwood is removed, damaged or hanging branches removed, water shoots (epicormic growth removed) allowing more light into the canopy of the tree & leaving the tree just looking healthier and more pleasing as a decorative asset
- Formative pruning – best done when a tree is young, this treatment removes competing trunks, which can often lead to future safety issues caused by multi stemmed trees. Also removal of crossing branches and upright shoots can set a tree up with a good framework for the future.
- Canopy lifting is simply removal or reduction of lower branches to achieve a clearance from targets such as driveways, houses, sheds, people etc. Done correctly it can provide multiple uses but done incorrectly can lead to a maintenance nightmare
- Canopy thinning is the balanced removal of between 10-25% of the branches within the canopy of a tree to allow more filtered light through the tree and allow more air into the trees crown for health of the tree
- Canopy reduction frowned on for a while but now rightly back in play as a good maintenance treatment for large trees, it involves pruning back to growth points on branches to reduce the overall height and/or width of a trees canopy. This may be done because the tree is too close to a dwelling or a road & reduces weight of large branches
- Canopy restoration is generally pruning of older or previously topped trees with the aim of re-gaining a healthy balanced tree canopy
What is poor tree pruning?
- Topping trees is not good for the health of trees (or your bank balance) & usually leaves trees looking hacked & unsightly. It generally causes a maintenance nightmare too (if the tree lives), as there is always aggressive re-growth because the trees hormone balance is completely abused & the tree panics & send out multiple fast growing poorly attached shoots. Topping is also not recognised as best practice by the Arboriculture industry world-wide. The only exception is hedge trimming.
Arbor1st 