Tree advice, please

[Stravaig]

When we left our house about four years ago to go overseas again, we had a big-big horeseradish tree. Ok, not a horseradish, I was kidding. A conker tree. And each autumn it makes a carpet about two foot deep of conkers.

Now we've come back the bloomin' thing is huge and completely dominating the garden. I think we need a tree surgeon but don't know anything about hiring one or saying what has to be done. I'd be grateful for any advice, please. I hope to get this done before sweeping up conkers becomes a full time job.

Thank you.

[peter]

Horse Chestnut trees are brittle, the wood snaps easily and they can grow to a prodigious size.
However as with any tree, if tree surgeons do a cut-back they are opening up routes for infection and rot, mostly by fungi.
That causes longer term damage, the short term is that many trees respond to being cut by throwing out multiple replacement shoots.
So a cut bough might be a witches besom a year or two later, with rot developing into the cut surface.
The successful bits of the besom grow vigorously and can end up bigger and heavier than the original bough.

Me I'd leave it or totally remove it, planting a more house compatible i.e. smaller and more decorative species.

[Stravaig]

Thanks, Peter. Kind of you to help me. Gosh, I never imagined the problem would be so bad. Although before we we bought the house nearly ten years ago I did wonder if the tree might cause problems in the future.

If I could wave a magic wand I would indeed remove that tree. It's a darned nuisance for us and for our neighbours on both sides. I just can't imagine how to get shot of it. We're in a terraced house with no side or rear access. I don't know how we could get that giant in the back door and out the front. And it would take considerable effort to chop it up. Mind you with the horrendous price rises of fuel it could keep someone's home fires burning all winter.

I'd like to be shot of the darned thing. I don't really think it's liveable with any more. We can barely see our garden and it is also dominating the neighbours' gardens on both sides. Plus there's the conker nuisance every autumn.

Could it maybe be cut down without having to remove the roots? You know, just leave a stump as a picnic table...? Probably grasping at straws here.

[oldherbaceous]

You are better getting rid of it completely, Stravaig….the wrong tree, in he wrong place can be very expensive, as it can cause problems to other peoples houses….branches breaking off, or even worse, the roots causing problems with the house foundations.
Try and find a reliable tree surgeon and ask for some advice…

[Stravaig]

Thanks, OH. Very useful albeit not what I wanted to hear.

One wonders what idiot planted it there in the first place - and why. Now I feel like an idiot for agreeing to buy the place, but the tree wasn't so bad ten years ago.
This is going to cost a bl**dy fortune isn't it? Not to mention the workmen traipsing though the house with their muddy boots. I've kinda lost the will to live. OK, it's not quite that bad but - meh.

[oldherbaceous]

You can leave the stump in, as it can be drilled, the holes filled with weedkiller, then plugged….
What sort of height is the tree, Stravaig?

[Stravaig]

Husband estimates it's at least 50 feet high. It is a BIG tree. But it's not just the height of it, it's like an umbrella cover over our garden and now it's starting to take over the neighbours' gardens on either side too. Husband also says, in case it might be useful, that it's about 60 feet from the back of our house.

We are going to have to bite the bullet. Let this be a warning to people who don't think about what they plant in their gardens.

[Primrose]

I,d bite the bullet and get rid of it. With weather patterns changing and the risk of more gales and heavy winds, the risk of branches coming off and damaging your property and fences or those of neighbiurs, is too high. It will be easier to fell when all the autumn leaves have fallen off and a tree surgeon can better see what they,re doing.

A hint. A neighbiur near us had such a conifer tree a couple of years ago which was so tall and wide that it annoyed several nearby houses, including ours. But he said, having recently bought the house, he simply couldn't afford the cost of having it felled but if it was annoying us all that much, would we make a contribution to the cost? If so. he would be happy to bite the bullet.and have it felled.

Frankly it was worth it to get rid of the wretched thing which was cutting out all our winter sunlight so we all coughed up a contribution.
Get a few quotes then worth checking if your neighbours are sufficiently annoyed by its impact to share the cost,

Having a terraced property with no easy means of disposal will obviously make it a more expensive job. It,s a pity people don't think more carefully and do their research when they plant trees in back gardens. They have a nasty habit of growing too tall too quixkly then people can't afford the cost of having them pruned.

[snooky]

And check with the local Council that it doesn't have a Tree Preservation Order(TPO)on it.If it has then that will restrict you in doing what you want to do and will need permission from the Council to do anything except cut down any dead branches.
The other problem is the local tree-hugging do-gooder who when they get a whiff of you wanting to cut it down might try and petition against it around your area and if it doesn't have a TPO on it will try and have on put on.

[Primrose]

Wise advice from Snooky. Tree felling can cause high emotions. Round here some lovely trees were felled very secretively in two instances we know of in large gardens where the owners had potential additional building ambitions.

It doesn't sound as if this is the case in your garden but be very sure of your neighbours potential reactions first if you're thinking of suggesting a potential contribution.'

[Stravaig]

Blimey, a TPO - I've never even heard of such a thing. The tree is just a nuisance. No one would want it and the neighbours sure as heck don't want to be sweeping up a mountain of conkers every autumn. I'll bet my bottom dollar on that. It did put me off the house before we bought it but (surprise, surprise) we were quite desperate for somewhere to live at the time.

Obviously, I'll have to take advice from a professional, who presumably could also advise about tree protection. Coincidentally we had a free magazine shoved through the letterbox recently. It's good! It tells you about community happenings and local tradespeople advertise in it. That's a good start for getting free quotes from tree surgeons.

But my way of thinking right now is to have the thing chopped down. Leave the stump and drill holes for weedkiller, as suggested by OH. And then get some bod to come and chop up the darned thing. I already have a gas BBQ (at the house) and a charcoal one, which I had in Kyiv. Maybe I should get a wood burning one as well now. Or maybe a brazier fire pit so we can use the patio in winter. Or maybe some people who are in the heat or eat category might like to collect some firewood.

[Stravaig]

PS: It's just occurred to me... is horsechestnut wood OK for cooking, eg on a BBQ, or might it taint/poison the food?

[Primrose]

Just a point about using tree logs for firewood Stravaig. They can't be burned "green", ie freshly chopped. They will need to dry out and be stored for a couple of years beforethey can be burnt so you'll need to have an area in the garden where they can be covered with a waterproof tarpaulin or some similar protection.

If you have parish council with any parks with trees under their management, it's perhaps worth checking if they have a regular tree surgeon. Or use Checkatrade to find somebody as they're probably more reliable and trade certified/compliant .

A neighbour of ours wanted a massive tree reduced in height some years ago and used the cheapest guy he could find. it was terrifying to watch him in operation. He used no protective equipment as he climbed the tree, wore no goggles or hard hat and reached out at terrifying stretches to chop off branches. He'd obviously had no Health & Safety training at all. Branches were left to crash down and smash his neighbour's fence and shed roof and we sat with one hand on our own phone ready to dial 999 for an ambulance. So check that whoever you employ is fully safety compliant.

(The tree surgeon who removed our neighbour's tree where we all contributed to the cost came with a thick rubber "mattress" to spread on the lawn beneath the tree to reduce damage to the lawn as the heavy branches fell down. They also came with a chipping machine which was parked on neighbour's front drive and spent most of the day stripping and chipping down all the fallen branches and twigs so that no debris were left behind. If you have a terraced house without a side alleyway though which big branches can be dragged this may not be an option but a skilled tree surgeon will have encountered this issue before and possibly have other solutions, so check first and ensure any clearance activity is inluded in a written quote.

[Primrose]

Don't know whether horse chestnut wood might have toxins which make it inadvisable for open food cooking. Again a properly qualified tree surgeon should have knowledge of tree toxicity. This sort of knowledge is probably what constitutes the difference between a qualified one and a "cowboy" ! But googling the question might also provide an answer.

[Primrose]

An interesting You Tube video I just found on horse chestnuts (conkers)

https://youtu.be/9bsfj-Hu7uI?si=GU2R_gHxvdD0g1Wa