How To Protect A Tree From A String Trimmer

tree trunk weed wacker

String trimmers can be detrimental to trees, especially when extra precautions aren’t taken to protect them. Fortunately, you can avoid chipping away at your tree’s bark by implementing a few additional steps into your lawn care routine.

Can You Hurt A Tree With A Weed Eater?

The short answer is yes, you absolutely can. Whether you’re trimming the grass around the tree or removing the weeds around its stump, the plastic strings on your wacker will eventually start to dig into it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a best gas weed eater pick or not – string trimmer string can kill trees.

Later in the article, we will discuss the preventive steps you can take to avoid this. But first, we must understand why this can be harmful to your trees.

Too Much Damage Will Lead To a Dead Tree

Did you know trees can get diseases too? Like humans, trees can get several diseases through open wounds, specifically ones caused by weed whackers. The continual occurrence of plastic strings beating on the surface of a tree takes its toll as it eats away at even the toughest of barks.

It’s important to note that you won’t always be able to visually see the damage on the trees and might overlook underlying issues until it’s too late.

To be more specific on how this happens, we need to review the basic anatomy of a tree.

tree bark

Beneath the Bark Is The Life Of A Tree

Underneath its thick bark, a tree has an intricate circulatory system that connects everything from its leaves to its roots. Once the bark is removed, this system becomes exposed, making the tree susceptible to diseases that can potentially kill it.

Think of it as a bacterial infection: when a person gets a cut, it exposes the bad stuff to their immune system, and they run the risk of getting sick. Well, it’s the same thing for trees. 

Some examples of tree diseases are fungal wood decay, cankers, and oak wilt.

How To Prevent Damaging A Tree With A String Trimmer

Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your trees from string trimmers. Here are just a few:

Mulch

An effective and decorative way to protect your tree’s delicate wood is to surround it with a mound of mulch. Not only does this prevent weeds from sprouting up, but it also provides a safe radius around the tree from your weed wacker.

We love mulch because it is typically cheap and comes in many different varieties, making it a versatile asset in keeping your trees safe and making your lawn beautiful. It’s also easy to make yourself if you have extra wood chips/leaves.

Caution: when using this method of protecting your tree, make sure you do it properly, as incorrectly mulching your tree can be equally detrimental as a string trimmer. Click here for a simple guide on mulching.

protect your tree with a thick plastic sleeve
Plastic sleeve for tree protection

Thick Plastic Sleeves or Tubes

Another good way to save your tree’s health is to use a protective girdling to block incoming strikes from a weed wacker. These plastic sleeves or tubes conveniently wrap around the tree base and provide cushioning on a 360-degree axis.

These guards are especially effective for thin, young trees as they will help defend their stumps and give them time to mature. It also helps shield trees from lawnmowers bumping into them, which can be just as harmful to trees as string trimmers. 

Just be sure to regularly adjust these sleeves and not make them too tight, as they can suffocate the tree and cause irregular growths.

Use Weed And Grass Killer/Chemicals

You don’t have to surround your trees in mulch to prevent the growth of grass and weeds: you can use herbicides as an alternative to this. Using herbicides is relatively inexpensive, convenient, and effective.

The only issue is that they can also be harmful to the trees.

Constant exposure to chemicals can inhibit the growth of trees and be a detriment to their inner systems. These weed/grass killers sink into the ground and get into their roots, leading to significant damage over time.

The best way to use this method is to use those chemicals in moderation. Don’t drown the surrounding area in herbicides and only use them on mature trees. It’s a suitable way to polish the base of large trees that provide lots of shade, as grass and weeds won’t grow as much here in the first place.

Try using herbicides with glyphosate, which are generally safe for mature trees.

Be Careful When Trimming

Perhaps the easiest and most obvious solution is to simply be careful when trimming.

This solution is indeed the most blatant, crystal clear method of protecting your tree from your trimmer and mower, but it’s also vastly overlooked. Most people don’t really think about avoiding the thick bark on the trees in their garden, which can be most problematic over time.

It pays to be mindful, but this solution isn’t for everyone either. Trees can grow in an awkward manner that is inconvenient for lawn care and makes cutting the grass and weeds around them a hassle. Sometimes the previously mentioned solutions work far better than simply being careful.

To find the best solution for you, simply take a survey on the layout of your lawn and then decide on a course of action that best fits your habits and needs. 

In Conclusion

Weed whackers can be extremely dangerous in regards to your trees, and you should always be mindful when cutting around them. Of course, you won’t always have to worry about this because sometimes it’s better to simply protect them with plastic sleeves or mulch, and other times it’s best to just use a little bit of weed killer.

All in all, hopefully, this article clears up any concerns about trimming around your trees and gives you the incentive to take precautions to save them. You should be well on your way to knowing how to protect a tree from a weed eater.

Any other questions or concerns? Leave a comment down below.

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