Tree service in Schertz, Texas

What I see in Schertz yards

Suburban lots, mostly younger trees, mostly live oak and cedar elm planted with the subdivisions. Young-tree structural pruning is the work that matters at this age and almost nobody does it.

The trees I get called about in Schertz

Younger suburban trees, mostly live oak and cedar elm planted with the subdivisions, out toward Randolph. At this age the tree's permanent structure is still being decided, which is exactly when pruning has the most leverage and almost nobody does it. Mostly young live oak and cedar elm planted with the subdivisions, which puts this town in the window where structural pruning still works. The other thing I see is included bark — two stems of near-equal size meeting at a tight angle with bark trapped in the union. That's the fork that splits in a storm, and on a young tree it's a two-minute fix. Schertz sits across the Guadalupe, Comal and Bexar county lines, which makes it the other town where the first question is administrative rather than horticultural. The ground is blackland running down to the Cibolo Creek bottom, and Cibolo is where the good trees are: big pecans and cedar elms on deeper alluvial soil, with the same end-weight failure pattern that pecans have everywhere. Away from the creek it's subdivision planting on clay, and the recurring problem there is trees set too deep at planting, so the root flare is buried and the trunk sits wet against soil for years before anything shows above ground.

How to tell these species apart, and what goes wrong with each one.

The ground underneath: Blackland Prairie

Deep black clay that swells when it's wet and shrinks hard when it's dry. Post oak, blackjack oak, cedar elm, American and winged elm, sugarberry, green ash and honey mesquite. That soil movement is constantly shearing fine roots, and it's behind more mystery decline than any disease.

Permits in Schertz

I haven't read Schertz's ordinance closely enough to summarize it here, and I'm not going to guess at a rule that could cost you a mitigation bill. Call the city's planning or development services department and ask two questions: what trunk diameter triggers a permit, and is there a protected species list.

I have verified the rules for Austin, Kyle, Buda and Dripping Springs — those are written up here, along with how to measure your trunk properly, which every one of these ordinances depends on.

Working on a Schertz property

Straightforward suburban lots, easy access, cheap to work. Forty-eight minutes, so it's batched work rather than a same-day call. Forty-eight minutes, the far southern edge of my radius, out where Guadalupe, Comal and Bexar counties meet. Suburban lots with easy access. Worth batching with Cibolo or Marion work the same day. Suburban streets with good access on most of it, and it's the far south end of my range at around an hour, so it works best batched with other work down that way.

Questions I get from Schertz

Getting me out to Schertz

Schertz is about a 48-minute run for me. At that distance it works best batched with other work out that way, so give me a little notice if it isn’t urgent. Call or text me a photo with something in frame for scale and I can usually give you a number without driving out. Estimates are free either way.

One rule that applies everywhere, including here: don't prune oaks between February 1 and June 30. Here's why.