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Tree Trimming in Orangevale

Orangevale is one of our towns. It's a few miles west of El Dorado Hills. Phone (530) 255-2773 now and we'll book a nearby tree pro who knows the older streets.

Where the oranges grew

The place started as the Orange Vale Colony on the 1844 Rancho San Juan grant, says Wikipedia. Back then it was country, thick with orange groves and a few olive orchards. Chestnut, Orangevale, Main and Walnut avenues still have some of those first olive trees.

Oaks grew thick here too. Wikipedia says you can still spot a few leftovers in Orangevale Park.

So you may have a very old olive or a leftover oak in your yard. These trees have outlived their groves and probably will outlive the fences.

Who lives here

The 2020 census counted 35,569 people in 13,545 households. Wikipedia says 74 percent of homes are owner-occupied, in rolling hills near the foothills' base.

With most homes lived in by their owners, trees often stay put for years. That's good for the trees. It also means you may inherit the last owner's choices. Maybe they topped something or planted too close to the house.

If you have a leftover oak

The Master Gardener oak talk tells you to leave oak trees mostly alone. Don't water them in summer, don't rake all the leaves, and don't pile rocks or cement around the roots. It warns that grass around an oak can cause disease from water hitting the trunk or the shallow roots.

It also says packing the soil from driveways and sidewalks damages roots. Orangevale's older lots have had a lot of building around trees. A pro can check how much root room your oak has left.

See our page on oaks in landscaped yards.

Olive and ornamental trees

We don't have a good UC source on pruning old olives for yard use, so we won't guess. Ask the pro. A tall, overgrown olive can take years to correct, and the pro may say to go slowly.

The arborist brochure's general advice is a solid starting point: a quarter of the crown at most, then stop.

The numbers behind the neighborhood

Orangevale covers 11.6 square miles. The census counted 13,990 housing units, and 96.8 percent were occupied. The median age is 42.5. Nearly a fifth of residents are 65 or older.

A stable, older town has a lot of trees with long histories. It also has owners who can't climb like they used to. If a ladder job scares you, you're allowed to say so. A pro has the gear for it.

Fall and winter are good for walking your yard. Winter leaf-drop shows the structure of leaf-dropping oaks and crape myrtles. UC IPM adds that winter makes evergreen mistletoe clumps stand out against bare branches, and that cutting them out each year beats doing nothing.

Dig out the history

Do you know when your trees were last cut, and by whom? If you have an old receipt, a photo or a note from the last owner, keep it handy. It tells the pro whether a scar is old or new.

No records? That's normal. Just tell us what you remember about the yard.

What it costs

Fixr lists $175 to $750 for most trimming jobs. For oaks it says $175 to $1,500. LawnStarter says $230 to $1,480. They are national guides, not quotes.