Spring Tree Care Checklist: Essential and Easy-to-Follow Steps

Spring arrives fast in North Texas. The moment the temperatures rise, your lovely greenery begins to wake from its deep sleep. And guess what? That early burst of sap, buds, and root activity is the best window to set them up for a thriving year.

So, Weatherford residents, it’s time to get your hands dirty and spend a weekend doing spring tree care. But instead of long-winded lists and complex steps, the checklist below offers expert advice, tried-and-true tips, and easy-to-follow steps to ensure vibrant canopies before our first triple-digit forecast rolls in.

1. Spring Clean Your Greenery

Among the tree maintenance tasks, the most important is cleaning. Winter storms in our area are known for dropping branches, seed pods, and twigs around trunks. Start by removing all debris from beneath the drip line. A clean surface allows air to circulate, discourages fungal spores, and makes it easier to spot the first shoots of pesky weeds.

While you’re raking, inspect the limbs for breakage or lingering ice damage (the broken wood attracts insects just like moths to a flame). Bag everything carefully and dispose of it as soon as possible to prevent pests from hitching a ride back into the yard.

2. Start Tree Pruning Early

The dormant season is the best time to prune and trim your greenery. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot perform a little structural pruning during spring. Late winter through early spring is ideal for targeting dead, diseased, or rubbing branches that invite canker infections.

In Fort Worth, oaks must be pruned between July 1 and January 31 to avoid oak wilt transmission, but species such as crabapple, magnolia, and flowering cherry welcome careful shaping right now. Use the right equipment and sterilize it between cuts to prevent the spread of disease (or, even better, hire our tree trimming team for the job).

Remember: Never remove more than 25% of a tree’s canopy in one season (and in spring, never more than 15%), or it may struggle to replenish food reserves during our long, hot summer.

3. Check for Pests and Disease

Trees and shrubs aren’t the only ones waking up during the growing season. Pests and diseases also roll out of bed to raid your yard. In North Texas, spring ushers in an army of sap-suckers: aphids, scale insects, webworms, and the terrible emerald ash borer.

Inspect trunks for D-shaped exit holes (a tell-tale sign of emerald ash borer), sticky “honeydew” residue on leaves, or black sooty mold. Spotting these issues early allows you to treat them with eco-friendly solutions rather than requiring emergency tree services. Unsure about other signs? Check out our guide to the 10 red flags of tree disease you shouldn’t ignore.

4. Remove All Weeds

Weeds steal moisture and nutrients just as buds push hard growth, so evict them before they take root. While tiresome, nothing beats hand-pulling broadleaf invaders (think henbit, chickweed, and dandelion) after a light rain loosens the soil.

For deeper tap roots, slide a narrow trowel alongside the stem to lift the entire crown. Also, skip string trimmers around trunks, as the nicks in the bark can girdle young shade trees.

5. Water Trees Properly

Spring rainfall is notoriously erratic. In fact, Fort Worth can see two inches one week and zero the next. You cannot trust that it will be enough to keep your landscape dewy. This is especially true if you’re planning to plant trees or own drought-stressed species, which need about 10 gallons per inch of trunk diameter each week during active growth.

To minimize hassle and keep your spring tree maintenance on track, use a slow-release method: set a garden hose on a pencil-thin trickle for 20–30 minutes at several points under the canopy. If your yard boasts established greenery, you can provide a deep soak every three weeks if no rain falls. And opt for early morning irrigation to reduce evaporation compared with evening watering.

6. Add a New Mulch Ring

You don’t need to invest in fancy, complicated tree fertilization. A fresh 2–3-inch layer of organic mulch gives your trees all the nutrients they need and more. Shredded hardwood, wood chips, pine needles, and composted leaf mold are the best options available.

Once you have the mulch of your preference, spread it in a donut shape that extends to the drip line, keeping it 3 inches away from the trunk to prevent rot (read the step-by-step in detail in our mulching guide). Replenish each spring; old mulch compacted by winter rains can become hydrophobic, shedding water rather than absorbing it.

Spring Tree Care Tips from Our Specialists

Spring is busy, and you have the right to enjoy it without a pile of tasks weighing on your mind. Save this timeline with tips from our certified arborists to make tree care in spring easier for you:

1. Late February through March: Clean debris, prune non-oak species, and apply dormant oil.
2. April: Inspect for pests, fertilize young trees, and deep-water before the first 80°F streak.
3. May: Top up mulch, check irrigation emitters, and schedule an arborist inspection to assess storm readiness before summer’s high-wind cells roll across Lake Weatherford.

Consistent attention now means zero appointments for tree removal services when afternoon thunderstorms start in June.