Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Our neighbour have this massive Sycamore in their garden, plus another smaller one in the next house down. It's getting pretty massive and blocks a lot of light to the surrounding gardens. The neighbours are elderly and have been living in the house (renting) for 30 years. I thought I would get a quote/plan and then approach their landlord and other neighbours after that.

I have just had a tree surgeon out to advise/quote. He said it looks like it has been pollarded about 30+ years ago and then not touched. He said he could reduce it by 40% for about £1k or pollard it for about £2k. He recommends pollarding it.

What experience/advice does the hive mind have? I like the tree, I would just ideally have more natural light and have it a bit more under control. Ideally we won't have to spend lots every few years keeping it in check as well.

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@edmundro probably well placed to advise.

We got a Power Shed
Mostly because the name is rad.

That's a power shed in the above pic. Very happy with it so far.

I know I have a different outlook to many on here in terms of making rather than buying - but timber costs what timber costs. A shed company has to buy the wood too. Just build your own shed surely? For a significantly lower cost you will end up with a significantly better building.

I don't think it's outlooks, it's more likely the free time.

It took me forever* to put the footings in for my kids Wendy House. The only reason I've been able to do it is because I'm now fortunate enough to have 2 free days a week when I can do these things. Once those became available it took me a day and a half.

Carving out the time to build a shed from scratch would mean after a long stressful week of work my OH would then have to spend the weekends doing all the childcare.

*edit ~7 months

A very condescending outlook there.

Building a shed from scratch, to the standard and looks of one you buy from any of the many companies out there, takes a lot of time. Time which, to a lot of people, is more valuable being spent elsewhere. Not everyone has the tools to make building a shed easy/quick/attractive.

A shed company has to buy the wood too. Just build your own shed surely? For a significantly lower cost you will end up with a significantly better building.

Not true. Shed companies will have access to trade accounts, with a much stronger buying power than a consumer. Consumers will be paying for the waste too. Unless you spend even more time at the planning stage to get your cut list totally perfect. Even the work bench I just bought. Simple thing made from 2x4's. I priced it up to build myself, but the chap on Etsy was selling it mostly constructed for 70% of the material costs I was able to calculate.

For my shed, it would have taken weeks to plan given that would need to be done around full time work and childcare. Then there's the actual construction, likely that would be months as I'd only have half days here and there on the odd weekends when we're not doing something else.

Instead, I got a fully constructed, good looking shed, erected in half a day, with no disruption to me whatsoever. The price of which was far less than the value of the days I would have spent trying to DIY. Plus, any fuck ups in construction are covered by the warranty. You can guarantee that there would be fuck ups at my own expense going the DIY route.

If someone wants to do it for themselves because they want the experience of the project, awesome, I fully support that. But it absolutely will not be significantly cheaper and/or better than buying.

half days here and there

This is such a monumental hurdle.

If a job can be broken down into infinite 1hr peices (including setup and cleanup), then it's all good. Over a long enough period I can do it. The problem is 80% of my aspirational TDL are jobs that need a solid clear day to achieve anything.

I'd add that I am often (and very depressingly) forced to compromise on the quality of my DIY work because something kicks off or I just need to get it wrapped up to a good a safe enough standard.

I was always under the impression pollarding is best done annually. So initial cost + yearly maintenance, maybe worth asking what that would be per annum. The canopy looks huge, bet everyone in the road is permanently pulling out saplings.

Ah sorry, really didn’t mean to sound condescending.

I get that not everyone has the skills and time.

Building a wooden structure is so satisfying though, and really so simple to do. Also on the time front it is a really good activity with kids (if large enough) and partner - they get ownership in the building. Think Amish barn raising.

But I do get ‘write a cheque’ building. Just not my groove.

I paid the shed people £150 to erect it too.
Watched my neighbour and his son spend all day putting his up and it looks shit with wonky felt on the roof.

Took the guys maybe an hour and a half to do it all, money well spent.

I've got 2 big sycamores, we get them done every few years. Weather has to be right to get seedlingageddon as the seeds need to be kept moist to germinate, thankfully been too dry this year. Last year was mad, I was pulling over 50 a day.

The problem is 80% of my aspirational TDL are jobs that need a solid clear day to achieve anything.

Tell me about it.

3 years and counting...

established trees do grown back quite quickly.

as others have said, pollarding is best done every one or two years as this reduces the shock to the tree, but many species will tolerate being pruned hard less frequently, and sycamore is one of these.

rough guide, if you were to prune it and leave it, 40% reduction will probably take 4 to 5 years to get back to about where it is now, pollarding maybe 8 to 10 years.

btw looks like there are two trees there, in different gardens, which have grown up to form one canopy?

Edit - just noted that you have said it's two trees in the OP.

Don't know how I missed this.
A search for 'arsenate' brings up a couple of my replies.
This one was about the need to avoid burning 'old fence/shed timber'.

That really needs pollarding this Autumn to reduce the potential for damage should the whole tree, or a branch come off in the next set of Winter storms.

It will then need some attention, maybe every 5/6/7 years,
based upon a couple of Sycamores I have worked on in West London,
depending upon how much growth is put on each year.

If the pollarding point is not too high, you could even do the follow up work yourself,
but, on a shorter rotation, to allow the use of hand tools.
(A Silky-type saw is preferable to a bow saw).

I'm delighted to find that despite my garden being less "wildlife friendly" (i.e. overgrown) than it was, it still appears to be hedgehog friendly. Third one of the year spotted tonight.

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Right don't hate me, but I'm putting down a SMALL bit of evilfakegrass.
Doing it myself as on a budget and I'm struggling with the base prep.
Can anyone like @ColinTheBald @RagnarHairybreeks give some advice?
I've got some MOT and Sharp Sand I've still got to put down.
The wife would like it level with the top of the wonky inherited paving but that would make it too high up on the fence side. Guess I could slope it down slightly towards the fence?
The alternative is putting it under the lip of the paving.
Also how do I deal with the edge by the fence? It isn't totally straight either.
Got some long wood strips (shown) I could fix onto stakes and fix the evilfakegrass onto that?
And in between the edge and the fence put some more MOT down there to prevent rot?

(There is plenty of real grass, plants and flowers in the rest of the garden)

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My heart agrees, would love to do some framing etc but my head is against it due to moving into the property only last week and having a DIY Todo list which keeps me awake at night haha.

Looks great, and delivers to my area!

Sorry to be an arse, but that would be such an easy strip to put down topsoil and grass seed. You’d have a lovely bit of lawn by the end of the summer with no micro plastics entering the environment.

I regret that I have no experience to pass on over laying AstroTurf. The only thing that I do know is that you will need a very impermeable layer beneath it over the soil otherwise you will be weeding your fake grass in no time at all which would be comedic.
Your wood strip would definitely need treating otherwise will rot in no time. The gap between strip and fence will also make a perfect trap for weed seeds and let them grow nice and strong before growing up against the fence so that you get to strim the margins of your plastic grass too - or pour poison down the edge (which will leach into next door).

Crikey, I’m pissing on your parade. Really sorry, not the intention.

Actually I agree, but my wife doesn't, and she wants to be able to use that section of garden year round.
I've lost this battle but not the war - yet :-)

Aha. That explains a lot!

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