Trees in my garden

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 supersteve 15 Sep 2019

In the corner of my garden I have a row of trees (10m long) which were last pollarded about 3 years ago. As I am currently without work I started the process of pollarding them again myself to the height they were done before (about 8m). The thinking is that doing it now will be easier than next year when the branches have grown for another year. Plus if I am working I won't have the time to do it myself and would have to pay someone for the fun of tree climbing with a saw! I will also have a lot less leaves to rake up in a couple of months....

Anyway, whilst quietly chopping away, the neighbour told me to stop chopping as she likes the tree and the shade. This was a fair request but I pointed out they were my trees and they needed doing. After a brief argument from the tree my wife went round and smoothed things over and I stopped chopping. 

Question is, do I do the neighbourly thing and not pollard at this time, or just ignore her and do what I want with the trees in my garden?  I am aware some branches also overhang the wall between us which she is happy with but I am not. 

Keen for any advice. In the meantime I will chop something else up. 

In reply to supersteve:

Would it be possible to Pollard 1/3 of the trees each year, keeping them restricted in size but leaving her always with some shade?

OP supersteve 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Ron Rees Davies:

The trees are about 30ft high so I want to lop off the top 5ft. They will still be 25ft high. 

baron 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

Is your neighbour going to pay for someone to cut your trees next year when you are too busy?

Because that won’t be cheap.

I’m guessing she won’t so get pollarding

 Pefa 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

Why don't you let them grow then you may build a big home for wee and big birds and squirrels and even help make the air cleaner? 

3
 Tom Valentine 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

It's an unusual variation of the trees/light/neighbour dispute. Perhaps if your wife explains to her that the trees will grow back it won't sound as patronising.

OP supersteve 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Tom Valentine:

From my limited pollarding experience I believe the trees will grow back bigger and bushier after I trim them. 

 wintertree 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

Your neighbour is being unreasonable.  Giving in to unreasonable only encourages it.  

Clearly outline how this is periodic maintenance, that it’s been done before and that the trees will grow back.  Explain that the alternative to pollarding is removal as you can’t allow the trees to grow to the point they become too large to safely maintain and they become a risk (if applicable; perhaps wind felling or subsidence), and that now is the appropriate time of year to do the work - birds have finished nesting and the trees have time to heal before significant frosts set in.

Have the wife on standby when you do this...

One point - you’re not in a conservation area are you?  If you are, down tools, google “Section 211 notice” and do nothing to annoy the neighbour until you can sort out your precarious legal position...

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 Tom Valentine 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

I thought that was contrary to the whole point of pollarding. Maybe i've misunderstood the word.

 Duncan Bourne 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Steve is right drastic pruning of most deciduous trees will produce a spurt of growth generally resulting in a far bushier tree with thinner branches, unless the extra stems are thinned out. It is a standard way of keeping a tree to a managable height in area where that is useful. However I have to say that Autumn is not an ideal time as fungus can take hold. Best time is late winter or early spring. You don't say what the trees are? Unless I missed that higher up.

 Timmd 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Does doing it in winter or spring time mean the colder weather kills off the fungus generally?

Post edited at 19:04
Lusk 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

> ... she likes the tree and the shade.

If I was you, I'd cut that them back on an upward y=x^2 slope towards her side.
That way, she keeps her shade and you keep your privacy, with the added bonus it might look quite good!?
 

 Duncan Bourne 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Timmd:

More it stops it taking hold in the first place. Autumn is the time when most fungi are active (think of all those forest mushrooms) by late winter they tend to be dormant. The only species to watch out for if pollarding in spring is Acer which puts out a lot of sap in spring and can bleed out through cuts.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=156

 Tom Valentine 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Is pollarding an interchangeable word for pruning?

OP supersteve 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

Need to look up what type they are. Need to also mention I live in France where 90% of trees are pollarded. It's a national sport. It's also why the wife has to get involved as she is French and my French is limited to ordering at a cafe or asking directions. 

 MG 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Pollard - coming from the poll meaning "head", like poll for voting - is cutting the branches from the top of a tree repeatedly.  After a few cycles you end up with a large trunk and a bushy top, which can be desirable.  Coppicing is cutting from near the base repeatedly.

OP supersteve 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

They are alders 

 Stichtplate 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

That makes complete sense. Before I'd always trimmed the trees late autumn, once the leaves had dropped. I'll heed your advice in future. Thanks for the tip.

OP supersteve 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Stichtplate:

Think I will also leave mine till the leaves have dropped and shade / bushyness is no longer a talking point. Then chop like mad. When she is out.... 

 Dax H 15 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

They are your trees. She could always plant her own and wait for them to grow. 

I had a similar argument with an old neighbour about a hedge. In fairness I neglected our side for a few years and it ended up taking up about 3 foot of our garden, being as it was a tiny terraced house 3 foot was a lot of space. Apparently it was his hedge but when I looked at it properly it was fully on my land and over the years he had trimmed his side further and further back until his side was bang on the property line. I took the hedge down and put a fence up. Didn't go down very well but a hedge on my land is my hedge. 

 Timmd 15 Sep 2019
In reply to Dax H:

Eco-vandal. 

Post edited at 21:22
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 felt 16 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

You should let her know that given alder's habit of growing straight and thin, a spot of judicious pollarding might increase the depth of her shade in the medium term.

 Duncan Bourne 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Tom Valentine:

No pollarding is reducing a tree to essentially a raised stump. Coppicing is the samething but at ground level. Pruning is the removal of selected branches while leaving (hopefully) the overall shape intact. With pruning you are essentially removing dead, diseased and crossing branches and opening up the internal structure of the canopy to allow light in

 Duncan Bourne 16 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

Alders are pollardable

 Duncan Bourne 16 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

Yeah the French are hot on pollarding. I am surprised your neighbour complained.

It used to be quite popular in the UK esspecially along river banks. Pollarding was done in the past to a) get loads of small to medium sticks for fencing, basket weaving etc. b) fodder for animals c) mark boundaries d) reduce overstory.

Traditionally pollarding took place when the branches were no more than ten or twenty years old in the first instance and annually or every few years thereafter.

In the past it was done in the summer to provide feed for animals but now (in order to save distrubing nesting birds) it is done in the winter.

It is worth noting that if your trees have been pollarded in the past then it is worth keeping them pollarded as the new grow is inherantly unstable due to its growth form (weakness at the join of the main trunk).

 Duncan Bourne 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Dax H:

Hedges and the trimming of used to be the bane of my life. One side wanted it hacked down the otherside wanted it left to run wild.

Due to cutbacks it became increasingly impossible to maintain all the hedge in the area as they stood so one winter I went round and reduced all of them down to a level I could maintain without using a platform. There were howls of protest at the time but next years work was a lot easier

OP supersteve 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

I did the willow in our garden which had not been done for many years - cut everything off it leaving a bare trunk and main branches. 12 months later and it looks amazing - the neighbour the other side is very pleased. The thing with the alders is that they were. Annoyingly, when I was washing up this morning, the sun was coming through the window into my eyes from the bits I had already chopped, so if anyone should complain....LOL

 DancingOnRock 16 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

She was probably panicking. 

As long as you explain that you’re only taking a few feet off and they’ll start to grow back next year surely she’ll understand. 

 felt 16 Sep 2019
In reply to supersteve:

I can see her POV. Pollarding can be brutal, turning a bucolic sylvan prospect into something that looks like Nam after the Hueys have paid a call. I'm always reminded of some of Dr. Seuss's bizarre drawings when I go down a street of recently pollarded planes in London. It's hard to imagine that in the briefest of times it will all return to normal.

 Toerag 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

> Yeah the French are hot on pollarding. I am surprised your neighbour complained.

> It used to be quite popular in the UK esspecially along river banks. Pollarding was done in the past to a) get loads of small to medium sticks for fencing, basket weaving etc. b) fodder for animals c) mark boundaries d) reduce overstory.

I'd read that pollarding was essentially coppicing, but done at height to stop deer from eating the new shoots. It's obviously done for decorative reasons these days, every French high street seems to be pollarded horse chestnuts.

 felt 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Toerag:

> I'd read that pollarding was essentially coppicing, but done at height to stop deer from eating the new shoots.

Any browsing animal. It's a lot harder work than coppicing.

 DancingOnRock 16 Sep 2019
In reply to Toerag:

A lot of it is safety. At least in the Uk. 

Trees dropping branches onto pedestrians and moving vehicles can cause problems. 


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