Chopped down a tree today

[JonF]

I had a silver birch in my garden, was there when I bought the house thirteen yeas ago. Was planted too close to both the boundary fence and a rather nice acer. It was far taller than the house, and the trunk measured 36cm across. So, this afternoon, in a brief respite in the stormy weather, I chopped it down. Needed to go, it was just in the wrong place.

Makes a MASSIVE difference to how much sky I can see from my patio. Every astronomer should own a chainsaw.

(Actually, that last bit was just a joke. Do not, and I mean it, prat about with a chainsaw unless you know what you're doing).

[tbird]

I was pleased to get a leylandii down at the bottom of the garden and now it's keeping us nice and warm

[johninderby]

There was a fast growing tree about 25 to 30 feet high in the corner of a neighbours garden that was blocking my view to the southeast. Gale force winds the other week snapped it off a few feet above the ground depositing most of it in another neighbours garden. Fortunately no other damage done except to one of the neighbours fence panels.

As the old saying goes "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good".

John

[JonF]

Are you sure you didn't give it a helping hand......?

[Tim]

I would dearly love to get at the Lleylandii at the back of my garden that belongs to the neighbour with my chainsaw Going to have to find another way to deal with it I think.......

Especially when I have been cutting a whole copse of them out, some 40ft tall, as part of a copse clearing we are doing at work, makes it very tempting to take the saws home for a little pruning.......

[Nexus 6]

have recently removed a conifer hedge, 15ft high by 3 deep and 30 ft long.

I was sad to have to remove it as it was a great habitat for wildlife and brilliant windbreak but it was dying and looked in bad condition. On the positive side I did gain a bit more sky on my Eastern horizon.

[Charon]

I would dearly love to get at the Lleylandii at the back of my garden that belongs to the neighbour with my chainsaw Going to have to find another way to deal with it I think.......

Especially when I have been cutting a whole copse of them out, some 40ft tall, as part of a copse clearing we are doing at work, makes it very tempting to take the saws home for a little pruning.......

I believe a copper nail may 'help' your cause Tim.

[earth titan]

I've got 2 half trees (previous house owner butchered them) that need to come out. Sadly none restrict my viewing but they will find their way to the open fire

[Tim]

I believe a copper nail may 'help' your cause Tim.

Funny you should say that......it'd be terrible if I tripped while holding a bunch of them and some found their way into the trunk....

The devil is that we have at work (Garden centre/nursery) access to the most potent weedkillers known to man, long since banned by the EU etc. I think he might notice if the tree died overnight though

[Nexus 6]

while we're on the topic of removing tress, anyone care to advise the best method to remove stumps ? I intend to remove 12 of them in the weeks ahead, weather permitting, I was considering a good stump killer unless anyone has any other tips?

[Grunthos]

anyone care to advise the best method to remove stumps ?

Don't mess around.

Unless you've got one yourself get a man in with a machine.

[Nexus 6]

Don't mess around.

Unless you've got one yourself get a man in with a machine.

no way to get in my back garden with anything bigger than a wheelbarrow.

I will have to take care of them, not something that will be to much trouble to be honest, just wanted to ask if anyone had a secret method to remove them.

Thanks anyway

[Andy McK]

Copper nails in wood in an open fire must look enchanting ??

[Hypernova]

It's very satisfying cutting down tree isn't it? There is a fairly large fir tree/bush that sits next to one of our sheds close the centre of the garden, a strange place to plant one but it wasn't my choice. Anyway I lopped most of the top off of it, looks damn ugly now but hopefully it'll bush out over the top and make it look neater in time, more importantly it is has cleared the view a bit to my east which should low-down viewing easier once the shed itself is taken down later this month

[earth titan]

Can I just ask everyone to exercise a little caution when lopping trees down, even when they are on their own property.

Just make sure there isn't a tree preservation order on them, these are not always obvious, and failure to check could end you up with a £20k fine.

Some in my garden are covered, due to their age, which I was unaware of until one of my neighbours cut one down. Ouch...!!!

[Tim]

while we're on the topic of removing tress, anyone care to advise the best method to remove stumps ? I intend to remove 12 of them in the weeks ahead, weather permitting, I was considering a good stump killer unless anyone has any other tips?

There is a mobile stump grinding franchise you can call on. The grinder is quite narrow and will go through most gates.

You can buy stump killer herbicide, but it is mostly just concentrate glyphosate (roundup et al), the good stuff has gone. These do nothing to rot the stump away though, so to avoid future problems with decaying wood in the ground, a stump grinder will sort it out. Lethal bit of kit though, I use all sorts of heavy duty machinery, but I dont fancy one of them!!

[earth titan]

Killing the stump is simple. A good herbicide will do it.

If you want to get rid of the stumps however, a stump grinder is the best way. These are lethal though and are only really to be used by people who are familiar with them.

I run a safety consultancy and have a client who has a team of guys who use stump grinders all day long. Even they admit these are the most dangerous thing they operate and they climb trees with chainsaws..........

[Starlight 1]

I love my chainsaw not only to cut tree up in the garden and leave then about 10 ft tall and do a nice chainsaw carving on them .

[nitram100]

Funnily enough the tree at my back garden is the only thing blocking out 4 street lights, sucks in the winter when it has no leaves though

[JonF]

Good advice about tree preservation orders. Particularly common on large oaks. You can get them lifted if you can prove the tree is dangerous.

I actually like trees in my garden, but this one had been planted in the wrong place, so it had to go. At least with it being deciduous I could see there wasn't any birdlife in it.

[paul schofield]

Got a horse chestnut at the bottom of my garden, takes out the whole western sky for me. It is 15 years old and hopefully it wont reach 16. Its about 40 feet high and the same wide, did not want to cut it down but needs must.

[jamespels]

while we're on the topic of removing tress, anyone care to advise the best method to remove stumps ? I intend to remove 12 of them in the weeks ahead, weather permitting, I was considering a good stump killer unless anyone has any other tips?

How big are these stumps? It's hard work but a sharp axe and a spade worked for me when I had to take out four stumps when I was moving our shed. These were between 3" and 5" - I dug around the stump between the roots, then used the axe to chop the roots - took about half a day to get the four out so it would be a a full weekend at least of graft for you. As long as the trees were properly killed first there should be no danger of the roots shooting anew. Gotta say - after a stressful period of work, hacking at tree stumps with a ruddy great axe was very therapeutic.

HTH (but it probably won't!),

J.

[todd8137]

I would dearly love to get at the Lleylandii at the back of my garden that belongs to the neighbour with my chainsaw Going to have to find another way to deal with it I think.......

Especially when I have been cutting a whole copse of them out, some 40ft tall, as part of a copse clearing we are doing at work, makes it very tempting to take the saws home for a little pruning.......

trees absolutely hate have in hole`s drilled in them, especially if its near the base,if the tree was to be drilled with a 10mm drill bit,about 4/5 times near the base and a least drilled in to a depth of 4 inches the tree would soon die

cordless power drills are a god send

[JonF]

trees absolutely hate have in hole`s drilled in them, especially if its near the base,if the tree was to be drilled with a 10mm drill bit,about 4/5 times near the base and a least drilled in to a depth of 4 inches the tree would soon die

cordless power drills are a god send

And if a little diesel should somehow find its way into one of the holes, the process will be accelerated.......

[johninderby]

You could always get a new pet. :D

John