Tree Pruning in Marong, From the Woodheap Back to the Tree

Start at the end of the job. On a Marong lifestyle block that usually means a heap of fresh chip beside the shed and a row of red gum rounds along the fence. The chip came out of a couple of shelter gums thinned so the wind goes through them instead of into them, and it will go onto the garden beds where the heavy clay bakes hard by January. The rounds came from deadwood pulled out of an old river red gum near the dam, and by June they will be split and burning in the wood heater. That is what tree pruning in Marong looks like when TB'S Trees does it: the tree is better for it, and nothing that comes off is wasted.

What the woodheap and the mulch pile are worth

A lot of people around Marong heat with wood, and a mature red gum or grey box can give up a surprising amount of dead timber without losing anything it needs. Red gum deadwood is dense and already seasoned on the tree, so it burns well the same winter. We cut it into stove lengths on site and stack it wherever you point; if you would rather it went away, it goes into our own firewood supply.

The chip is just as useful. Marong's soils on the plains side of Bendigo are heavier and crust more readily than the gravel closer to town, and a hand's depth of fresh chip around garden beds and young trees keeps moisture in and the summer heat off the roots. On a two-hectare block the chip from one pruning day covers the house garden and a stretch of driveway edge. On a 650 square metre lot in Discover Marong or Marong Run it is more than the garden needs, so most of it goes away with us.

The pruning work behind it

Deadwooding red gums and box trees

The most common pruning job we do around Marong is deadwooding. River red gums along Bullock Creek and the drainage lines, and grey box and yellow gum on the rises, all carry dead limbs as a normal part of ageing, and those limbs come down in still weather as often as in wind. We climb the tree, remove dead wood over houses, sheds, driveways, stock yards and anywhere people gather, and leave the living crown alone. A dead limb in the back paddock that threatens nothing is often left as habitat.

Crown thinning on shelter gums

Sugar gums, spotted gums and lemon-scented gums planted for shelter on hobby farms grow dense, and a dense crown on an open block catches the westerly like a sail. Thinning removes a portion of the inner and crossing branches so the wind passes through, without changing the height or outline of the tree. Done to AS 4373 it means selective cuts, not stripping the interior bare, which causes the very sunburn and regrowth it is meant to avoid.

Formative pruning in the new estates

The new streets in Marong are full of young trees: the council's street plantings and the ornamental pears, crepe myrtles and small gums people put in their own front yards. Formative pruning in the first few years, taking out competing leaders and low or badly angled branches while the cuts are small, decides whether that tree is a tidy shade tree in fifteen years or a problem for the tree lopping in Marong page. It is a short visit and by far the cheapest pruning a tree will ever have.

Powerline clearance

Many rural properties around Marong are fed by a single-wire line off the road, and the township streets have overhead mains. Work close to live conductors is restricted to crews with the right authorisation and clearances, and some trees are the network's responsibility. We tell you which is which, prune what we are permitted to with the clearances kept, and point you to the distributor for the rest.

Old fruit trees and farmhouse gardens

Marong was cereal and vineyard country long before it was an estate, and plenty of the older farmhouses still have apricots, plums, figs and the odd mulberry that have not been touched in years. Winter restoration pruning over two or three seasons brings them back into bearing without shocking them, and we do it while the crew is there for the gums.

Marong conditions that change how we prune

Timing is driven by species and the plains climate. Gums are best pruned outside the hottest weeks, when a crown opened up in a heatwave can scorch on the exposed bark, and outside the wettest part of winter when the ground will not carry the truck. Deciduous fruit trees and ornamentals are pruned dormant, June into August. Fire matters too: Marong is on the grassland side of the district, and owners in the outer rural living areas want dead material out of trees near the house before the fire danger period, not after it.

Then there are the overlays. As the township grows under the Greater Bendigo structure plan, more land around Marong carries planning controls, and native trees on larger lots or along the creek can sit under vegetation protection or environmental significance overlays. Pruning to the standard is generally allowed where removal is not, but some overlays limit how much can be taken off, so we look it up for your address before we quote. If a tree is beyond pruning, the Marong tree removal page explains the next step, and the stump grinding in Marong page covers what is left. The full method and standards for the wider region are on the main tree pruning service page; everything else we do in the township is on the Marong suburb page. We prune to the same standard for neighbours in Maiden Gully, throughout Bendigo and out at Kangaroo Flat.

Tree pruning questions from Marong