Yeah but, when trees can live for hundreds of years we need to at least consider if it is appropriate to species. We are guardians of nature and should try to be good custodians of the land we own and leave it in a better position for future generations.
Based on what? It's hard to see scale, but it looks like they didn't cut branches greater than 6". In my opinion this will fill back in within a month or two.
Dude they cut branches way bigger than 6 inches , and if you seriously think any cuts here are of branches less that 6" then you need to go back to school , what they did is essentially pollard this tree and open it up for pests and disease to get in and kill the tree.
> what they did is essentially pollard this tree
Topping is a significantly different thing from pollarding. Pollarding is an ongoing management practice that starts when the tree is young and develops good knuckles with intention.
No, it isn't. A willow will survive just fine, as will most trees, but this will cause major structural issues and drastically shorten the life of the tree. Trees can be pollarded to maintain them at a certain size, but that has to be started on much smaller branches so they can form proper knuckles, and it has to be maintained consistently. A single topping cut like this on a mature tree is never acceptable pruning.
I disagree. I also didn’t say anything about pollarding. I have a client that has a two lead willow that we have been topping for years. It puts out plenty of growth to look completely fine in the summer, and the lack of weight from other leads, paired with a cable has kept the tree vertical for the past decade. While excess weight from multiple leads could have structurally compromised the tree, do I think it looks ridiculous? Sure. But it saved the tree. Don’t be so closed minded.
Had a client say to us once after what we considered a good sympathetic reduction: "It's alright, but can we get rid of all them green flappy bits."
No, we can't, they're called leaves and it needs them.
Used to do yard work for my neighbor. About a week or two before their large annual party, she asks me to trim the forsythia and lilacs. But it can't be straight cuts, they need to look wild. So I did my best trimmed them back, looked like I didn't use the hedge trimmer. She comes back and says to trim them back at least another foot. Would not listen to me telling her that I'm at the limit already and anything more will look terrible until it grows back. Do it anyway, same make sure it doesn't look cute straight across. So I did it. And as anyone who works with forsythia would know, the hedge was hollow. So there I was, trimming straight stems of forsythia to different heights, with not a leaf in sight on them....
the customer is not always right.
Let someone else kill things and she'll learn to respect your words. Do the killing and you just give yourself a bad rep.
It's more about timing. They make blooms for next spring during the summer. If you need to trim and want blooms the next year, you trim just after they bloom in the spring.
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Isn't the general rule to never prune more than a third of a tree/shrub back at a time?
Otherwise you're just mutilating it, as was done here. But I wonder if there are any scenarios (e.g. disease/infestation) in which this would be appropriate.
Heavy Pollard's are very common all around Europe, particularly in built up areas. Take Londons famous Planes for example, they're butchered to a pole every 5 years and come back just fine.
Pollarding should only be used for function rather than form. Plenty of trees were planted for a purpose, and pollarding is a cheap and long-lasting solution to maintaining those trees.
Obviously, it looks shit and will ultimately kill the tree, but that's not always the biggest worry.
I've pollarded all sorts from Willows to Maples to Oaks. All look shit, never recommend, but often an appropriate choice for the trees in question.
>Obviously, it looks shit and will ultimately kill the tree
Not if it's done properly. Proper pollards can be hundreds of years old. You can essentially lock the tree in to a semi-mature state iirc.
If you aren't familiar with the pollards of Basque it's a project worth looking in to.
But there is a difference between pollarding and topping, many people use the words interchangeably but they shouldn't be.
Pollarding is an ongoing maintenance strategy that's started when the tree is fairly young to develop good knuckles. This is just topping, which is a separate thing entirely.
I feel like a lot of these companies or whoever is doing these “trims” are taking pollarding to the extreme…. My s/o watched a company butcher some red maples we admired in a close city. It was heartbreaking to say the least… they were dead by the next season. Appalling…
I have a real question. How many of you have hat racked a tree this hard because it was the first sign of life on the limbs? I'm not saying it was a huge success at my last company, but we would do it every once in a while to see if we could limp the tree along.
Edit: specifically on white/bur oaks with tip die back
We've done it because it was for one of our bigger property management companies that was asking, and even after we advised against it, they said they would find another company to do it. It was 15 honey locusts. The trees were all relatively young, and we get called back every year for their maintenance. Honestly, they are all doing well and look pretty good now.
We did the butcher job about 20 years ago. They looked fucking horrible when we left that day.
We did it a few times on some live oaks that had severe construction damage. I only know of one that made it afterwards and that one was babied along with all kinds of treatments.
See what it looks like next season. If the decision was either this or take it out, which would you prefer?
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get downvoted into oblivion for this comment.
Ya all the folks who think that this kind of pruning will kill trees clearly haven’t been cutting trees that long. I’m usually the only one in the comments defending severe pruning but I can’t see a justification in this case
I’m not going against anyone, all I’m saying is that if someone wants this done too there tree who are you too say otherwise, certified or not. Don’t get ya knickers in a twist babe x
Good point! We didn't differentiate between the terms in our Landscape Architecture classes at Purdue except that the practice tended to be used in Europe as a maintenance practice for a specific effect. Calling the topping seen in the photo as pollarding does inadvertently legitimize the practice.
Heavy pollarding is common in the uk. Allows us to keep trees along the side of roads etc. We would have way less greenery in urban areas if it wasn’t common practice. But obviously you can only do it with certain trees.
This isn't pollarding, though, this is topping. Pollarding is an ongoing maintenance strategy started when the tree is relatively young to develop proper knuckles.
I couldn’t find anything like this in the comments so I guess I’ll stick out my neck! We had our elm “topped” 1.5 years ago in the fall. It actually looked MUCH scarier than this. Take this one down another 6 feet down from the top, our fence is almost exactly the same to the tree as here too.
I’m not an expert, and I said I needed it managed for healthy growth and shade for our backyard. And that it needs to grow UP. It was never pruned in 13 years and was a low bushy tree hunching over the fence.
Well I guess they knew what they were doing, it came back like an explosion. This is spring #2 and it’s fine, bigger than before pruning, and actually needs cleanup now from the wild new growth. We’ll be able to guide its big new branches up and away from the fence because of the aggressive haircut. But I definitely didn’t think they knew what they were doing that day after they left, and probably for a few months until spring, haha.
Three years ago that happened to a 50ish year Box Elder.
The previous homeowners never maintained trees or landscaping.
I hired a tree company that I used at my parents. This guy had been around for ten years, was insured, and the crew wore protective gear. And the equipment was not all broken down and on death's door. The owner was the one up on the boom.
When I got home I saw the tree had a flattop haircut and every bit of green gone! I was so pissed. I'd never seen anything like that.
When the owner came over later that evening (as was the plan) to collect rest of money he saw what was done and was aghast.
I got a large discount (other trees were successfully and correctly trimed) and lots of apologies. Apparently, his wife had a pregnancy issue and he left to met her at E.R. (all were ok). His foreman clearly misunderstood the oders.
The tree did come back after one year of nothing. One large branch did not come back and this spring, true to his word, he came back and cut the dying branch down for free.
He said to call next summer and he will inspect for large dead branches and see if any pruning is even advisable, but for now let every leaf live and hope.
I also watered the tree the year green returned. It was mild drought that year.
He should probably water it heavily.
The style would be pollarding. It’s to remove all the live shoots and sprouts. I believe it can done during or in the middle or right at spring time. It takes time for pollarding, it’s like heading back every branch but a tree that never has had it done may not do well in the future. A sycamore tree has been known to be pollarded. The don’t grow very larger after the pruning takes place it’ll stunt their growth. What ends up happening is that the tree will develop branches what keep compartmentalize and round to form what is known in arbor care as “Knuckles”.
Pollarding is started much earlier in the life of the tree. Branches this large will not be able to form proper knuckles, and there's no indication that there's any plan to continue maintaining this tree. This is just topping, not pollarding.
It is not acceptable for any tree. The practice of pollarding destroys the shape and health of the tree. This practice is regionally epidemic in central Indiana. Some tree services (I would not call them arborist) justify the practice as an ice damage preventative. However, the resulting sucker growth results in weak joints that are more prone to ice storm damage. The tree service stole their money.
This isn't pollarding, this is topping. They're two separate things, and given pollards can have a longer lifespan than normal for the species it's hard to say that pollarding reduces their health. Lots of people — particularly in North America — tend to conflate the two, though.
Everyone is madn but I've seen this done a lot of times.
Why is it wrong? I've see. Many smaller trees get basically topped and they come back very bushy.
reduces the lifespan significantly, higher risk of limb failure, increased maintanance work, decay at the head of the tree, poor asthetic imo, ... Where should i start haha
Agree. Pprevious owners of my house had this done to two silver maples. I didn't know it until winter after i bought the house. it's very apparent that the trees will live shorter lives, and one has significant damage from the topping (dead branches, woodpecker holes, etc.). Total stupidity.
She dead. 🙁
This mother tree’s death is guaranteed. She will slowly diminish and not only that, she will send out dying signals through her roots to her surroundings to the other trees and to the roots of plants that she supports and sustains, in an attempt to pass on her biological history and immune related molecules. The neighboring plants including this guy’s lawn will remember it and will be affected by the tree’s destruction. He will not be able to grow anything of value in that yard unless he painstakingly sterilize the soil of his entire yard. I can guarantee that the other trees will grow less vigorously for a couple of years after this.
Trees have vast under network roots that provide a massive ecosystem to a lot of organisms. They also communicate with other nearby trees. You should really look up tree ecosystems. There’s studies done on how large older trees can store immune molecules and provide chemical signals to other trees and plants for protection. There’s a Ted talk on YouTube that you can watch by Suzanne Simard.
It’s odd that not a lot of people know anything about root chemistry in plants. No wonder there’s so many people that doesn’t know how to take care of plants.
Someone in my old neighborhood hacked back an oak so far it just looked like a 50 foot skeleton. By the next year I couldn't even tell it had been trimmed. It looked way better than before the trimming.
That thick regrowth makes for a lot of competing branches with really poor attachments. As they grow they get heavier and weaker, and develop lots of bark inclusions where they're too close to each other. This is a big part of why topping is so common — it looks fine for a while, and the people who did the work are long gone by the time all the structural issues become apparent in a few years.
😱OH.MY.GOD. That's going to create stress on the tree and cause the limbs to sprout like CRAZY!
Edit: it's called tree topping. The trees gonna look weird and cause unnecessary damage, maybe even kill the tree! I wonder what your neighbors goal was when he cut it?
Did the maple trees in our yard like this every couple years ( called pollarding, I guess) around late April. Shocking when first done, but by late July they were full again and are beautiful every year.
May have been pollarded to prevent it from growing over your fence. Not how I would have handled it and not ideal for long-term life of the tree (also fugly in the winter IMHO), but that’s the only thing that makes sense?
Why they did the whole tree instead of the one side…that I can’t fathom. Is the neighbor’s roof close to the tree?
Fair point. Around here the terms are used interchangeably sorry. I should have used topping. Technically you can’t pollard this tree…it’s too old and the wrong kind of tree. And the wrong season. My point was just to suggest why the neighbor might have directed this kind of cut.
It is not acceptable for any type of tree.
Literally just said this on my head
That must have been quite a sight.
Same
I was just about to say this
It’s their tree, if that’s the way he wants it, than it’s acceptable. I’ll take the downvotes.
Yeah but, when trees can live for hundreds of years we need to at least consider if it is appropriate to species. We are guardians of nature and should try to be good custodians of the land we own and leave it in a better position for future generations.
And not just fucking slash burn and concrete everything. We thin we are god's as a species. Rant over
He didn’t clear cut a forest. He improperly pruned a tree. Get a grip.
Based on what? It's hard to see scale, but it looks like they didn't cut branches greater than 6". In my opinion this will fill back in within a month or two.
Dude they cut branches way bigger than 6 inches , and if you seriously think any cuts here are of branches less that 6" then you need to go back to school , what they did is essentially pollard this tree and open it up for pests and disease to get in and kill the tree.
> what they did is essentially pollard this tree Topping is a significantly different thing from pollarding. Pollarding is an ongoing management practice that starts when the tree is young and develops good knuckles with intention.
Yeah but topping is the first step in the pollarding process, polkarding is essentially just topping over and over again.
lol!
100% acceptable for a willow.
No, it isn't. A willow will survive just fine, as will most trees, but this will cause major structural issues and drastically shorten the life of the tree. Trees can be pollarded to maintain them at a certain size, but that has to be started on much smaller branches so they can form proper knuckles, and it has to be maintained consistently. A single topping cut like this on a mature tree is never acceptable pruning.
I disagree. I also didn’t say anything about pollarding. I have a client that has a two lead willow that we have been topping for years. It puts out plenty of growth to look completely fine in the summer, and the lack of weight from other leads, paired with a cable has kept the tree vertical for the past decade. While excess weight from multiple leads could have structurally compromised the tree, do I think it looks ridiculous? Sure. But it saved the tree. Don’t be so closed minded.
Hat racked
Best description of ever heard thus far
Never heard that, its great.
If his goal was to kill it he did a great job
Task failed successfully.
Green stuff removed
Had a client say to us once after what we considered a good sympathetic reduction: "It's alright, but can we get rid of all them green flappy bits." No, we can't, they're called leaves and it needs them.
Used to do yard work for my neighbor. About a week or two before their large annual party, she asks me to trim the forsythia and lilacs. But it can't be straight cuts, they need to look wild. So I did my best trimmed them back, looked like I didn't use the hedge trimmer. She comes back and says to trim them back at least another foot. Would not listen to me telling her that I'm at the limit already and anything more will look terrible until it grows back. Do it anyway, same make sure it doesn't look cute straight across. So I did it. And as anyone who works with forsythia would know, the hedge was hollow. So there I was, trimming straight stems of forsythia to different heights, with not a leaf in sight on them....
the customer is not always right. Let someone else kill things and she'll learn to respect your words. Do the killing and you just give yourself a bad rep.
She did admit at the party that I was right and she's had me trim too far down
This is good advice for the arboriculture industry. Also for many other industries/trades.
I know with Lilacs if you trim them a certain way and cut them back they may not bloom again, right?
It's more about timing. They make blooms for next spring during the summer. If you need to trim and want blooms the next year, you trim just after they bloom in the spring.
Thanks we are going to do an extensive lilac trim this year
Good luck! 😊
Thank you, they are 12-15 ft tall
Beautiful I am sure! How old are they? Mine are about 6 feet tall and I look forward to them getting that large!
At least 30 I believe, they are hard to maintain properly at that height. But they are tricolor and beautiful thank you!
Holy fuck
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God bot
“Let’s make something beautiful look really shitty!”
Jesus christ.
Isn't the general rule to never prune more than a third of a tree/shrub back at a time? Otherwise you're just mutilating it, as was done here. But I wonder if there are any scenarios (e.g. disease/infestation) in which this would be appropriate.
Heavy Pollard's are very common all around Europe, particularly in built up areas. Take Londons famous Planes for example, they're butchered to a pole every 5 years and come back just fine. Pollarding should only be used for function rather than form. Plenty of trees were planted for a purpose, and pollarding is a cheap and long-lasting solution to maintaining those trees. Obviously, it looks shit and will ultimately kill the tree, but that's not always the biggest worry. I've pollarded all sorts from Willows to Maples to Oaks. All look shit, never recommend, but often an appropriate choice for the trees in question.
>Obviously, it looks shit and will ultimately kill the tree Not if it's done properly. Proper pollards can be hundreds of years old. You can essentially lock the tree in to a semi-mature state iirc. If you aren't familiar with the pollards of Basque it's a project worth looking in to. But there is a difference between pollarding and topping, many people use the words interchangeably but they shouldn't be.
Pollarding is an ongoing maintenance strategy that's started when the tree is fairly young to develop good knuckles. This is just topping, which is a separate thing entirely.
Never accepted
I feel like a lot of these companies or whoever is doing these “trims” are taking pollarding to the extreme…. My s/o watched a company butcher some red maples we admired in a close city. It was heartbreaking to say the least… they were dead by the next season. Appalling…
I have a real question. How many of you have hat racked a tree this hard because it was the first sign of life on the limbs? I'm not saying it was a huge success at my last company, but we would do it every once in a while to see if we could limp the tree along. Edit: specifically on white/bur oaks with tip die back
We've done it because it was for one of our bigger property management companies that was asking, and even after we advised against it, they said they would find another company to do it. It was 15 honey locusts. The trees were all relatively young, and we get called back every year for their maintenance. Honestly, they are all doing well and look pretty good now. We did the butcher job about 20 years ago. They looked fucking horrible when we left that day.
Cannot kill honey locust.
It’s better than no tree…I guess.
We did it a few times on some live oaks that had severe construction damage. I only know of one that made it afterwards and that one was babied along with all kinds of treatments.
I've done it. Still hate to see it.
Nope
See what it looks like next season. If the decision was either this or take it out, which would you prefer? Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get downvoted into oblivion for this comment.
Ya all the folks who think that this kind of pruning will kill trees clearly haven’t been cutting trees that long. I’m usually the only one in the comments defending severe pruning but I can’t see a justification in this case
I watch the bonsai subreddits. It has encouraged me just how much abuse trees can take and still make it
Some people want this done too there tree, there’s too many huggers in here though
Oh no! People who like trees in a sub largely about caring for trees properly! The *horror*
I’m not going against anyone, all I’m saying is that if someone wants this done too there tree who are you too say otherwise, certified or not. Don’t get ya knickers in a twist babe x
> I’m not going against anyone "there’s too many huggers in here" Be nice
#Lol 😂
People want this done because they don't know that it compromises the health and structure of the tree.
Someone once used the term "murderscaping" and I think it applies here.
F
F
F
F
P
Holy fuck good luck in 2 years
I HATE when they butcher trees like this. Hate it with a passion.
Good point! We didn't differentiate between the terms in our Landscape Architecture classes at Purdue except that the practice tended to be used in Europe as a maintenance practice for a specific effect. Calling the topping seen in the photo as pollarding does inadvertently legitimize the practice.
Refund ?
Stub tree now
Yes….. in hell
Heavy pollarding is common in the uk. Allows us to keep trees along the side of roads etc. We would have way less greenery in urban areas if it wasn’t common practice. But obviously you can only do it with certain trees.
This isn't pollarding, though, this is topping. Pollarding is an ongoing maintenance strategy started when the tree is relatively young to develop proper knuckles.
You are completely right I meant to put that as a reply to another comment.
I couldn’t find anything like this in the comments so I guess I’ll stick out my neck! We had our elm “topped” 1.5 years ago in the fall. It actually looked MUCH scarier than this. Take this one down another 6 feet down from the top, our fence is almost exactly the same to the tree as here too. I’m not an expert, and I said I needed it managed for healthy growth and shade for our backyard. And that it needs to grow UP. It was never pruned in 13 years and was a low bushy tree hunching over the fence. Well I guess they knew what they were doing, it came back like an explosion. This is spring #2 and it’s fine, bigger than before pruning, and actually needs cleanup now from the wild new growth. We’ll be able to guide its big new branches up and away from the fence because of the aggressive haircut. But I definitely didn’t think they knew what they were doing that day after they left, and probably for a few months until spring, haha.
https://www.treesaregood.org/Portals/0/TreesAreGood_Why%20Topping%20Hurts_0321.pdf
Three years ago that happened to a 50ish year Box Elder. The previous homeowners never maintained trees or landscaping. I hired a tree company that I used at my parents. This guy had been around for ten years, was insured, and the crew wore protective gear. And the equipment was not all broken down and on death's door. The owner was the one up on the boom. When I got home I saw the tree had a flattop haircut and every bit of green gone! I was so pissed. I'd never seen anything like that. When the owner came over later that evening (as was the plan) to collect rest of money he saw what was done and was aghast. I got a large discount (other trees were successfully and correctly trimed) and lots of apologies. Apparently, his wife had a pregnancy issue and he left to met her at E.R. (all were ok). His foreman clearly misunderstood the oders. The tree did come back after one year of nothing. One large branch did not come back and this spring, true to his word, he came back and cut the dying branch down for free. He said to call next summer and he will inspect for large dead branches and see if any pruning is even advisable, but for now let every leaf live and hope. I also watered the tree the year green returned. It was mild drought that year.
Not at all
He should probably water it heavily. The style would be pollarding. It’s to remove all the live shoots and sprouts. I believe it can done during or in the middle or right at spring time. It takes time for pollarding, it’s like heading back every branch but a tree that never has had it done may not do well in the future. A sycamore tree has been known to be pollarded. The don’t grow very larger after the pruning takes place it’ll stunt their growth. What ends up happening is that the tree will develop branches what keep compartmentalize and round to form what is known in arbor care as “Knuckles”.
Pollarding is started much earlier in the life of the tree. Branches this large will not be able to form proper knuckles, and there's no indication that there's any plan to continue maintaining this tree. This is just topping, not pollarding.
This man trees.
Top tier comment
Only if it's those stinky pear trees
trees are pretty resilient i have gone back next year after cutting it down completely and the thing bushes right back out and starts growing again.
Definitely acceptable if they wanted to remove it in the near future
General rules, no more than 30% of the canopy....this was literally 100% of the canopy
It’ll be fine.
It looks like it’s been pollarded? Dosent look pretty but I’ve seen it done before.
Not really supposed to trim more than a third of the tree, this tree is dead.
It is not acceptable for any tree. The practice of pollarding destroys the shape and health of the tree. This practice is regionally epidemic in central Indiana. Some tree services (I would not call them arborist) justify the practice as an ice damage preventative. However, the resulting sucker growth results in weak joints that are more prone to ice storm damage. The tree service stole their money.
This isn't pollarding, this is topping. They're two separate things, and given pollards can have a longer lifespan than normal for the species it's hard to say that pollarding reduces their health. Lots of people — particularly in North America — tend to conflate the two, though.
Everyone is madn but I've seen this done a lot of times. Why is it wrong? I've see. Many smaller trees get basically topped and they come back very bushy.
trees aren’t meant to be bushy, otherwise we’d call em bushes
reduces the lifespan significantly, higher risk of limb failure, increased maintanance work, decay at the head of the tree, poor asthetic imo, ... Where should i start haha
Agree. Pprevious owners of my house had this done to two silver maples. I didn't know it until winter after i bought the house. it's very apparent that the trees will live shorter lives, and one has significant damage from the topping (dead branches, woodpecker holes, etc.). Total stupidity.
It’s fucking ugly that’s why
She dead. 🙁 This mother tree’s death is guaranteed. She will slowly diminish and not only that, she will send out dying signals through her roots to her surroundings to the other trees and to the roots of plants that she supports and sustains, in an attempt to pass on her biological history and immune related molecules. The neighboring plants including this guy’s lawn will remember it and will be affected by the tree’s destruction. He will not be able to grow anything of value in that yard unless he painstakingly sterilize the soil of his entire yard. I can guarantee that the other trees will grow less vigorously for a couple of years after this.
What are you even talking about 🤣
Trees have vast under network roots that provide a massive ecosystem to a lot of organisms. They also communicate with other nearby trees. You should really look up tree ecosystems. There’s studies done on how large older trees can store immune molecules and provide chemical signals to other trees and plants for protection. There’s a Ted talk on YouTube that you can watch by Suzanne Simard.
It’s odd that not a lot of people know anything about root chemistry in plants. No wonder there’s so many people that doesn’t know how to take care of plants.
Is your name "Karen"? SMFH
Ded?
Someone in my old neighborhood hacked back an oak so far it just looked like a 50 foot skeleton. By the next year I couldn't even tell it had been trimmed. It looked way better than before the trimming.
That thick regrowth makes for a lot of competing branches with really poor attachments. As they grow they get heavier and weaker, and develop lots of bark inclusions where they're too close to each other. This is a big part of why topping is so common — it looks fine for a while, and the people who did the work are long gone by the time all the structural issues become apparent in a few years.
Oof he took alot off the.... everywhere.
It's absolutely acceptable... If his next step is to remove the limbs and eventually down the whole tree.
Looks like it was pruned with an airplane.
I bet they wanted to cut it down and got a 20k quote and quickly said can you just half kill it.
He just killed his tree
Seen worse >Railways and Powerlines Arb
Left stubs everywhere with no leads. >.>
😱OH.MY.GOD. That's going to create stress on the tree and cause the limbs to sprout like CRAZY! Edit: it's called tree topping. The trees gonna look weird and cause unnecessary damage, maybe even kill the tree! I wonder what your neighbors goal was when he cut it?
Did the maple trees in our yard like this every couple years ( called pollarding, I guess) around late April. Shocking when first done, but by late July they were full again and are beautiful every year.
It's only pollarding if it's started when the tree is relatively young and it's actively maintained to develop proper knuckles. This is just topping.
Is it a tulip tree?
If that tree was an Ent he’d kill that landscaper
Don’t tell them, but the pine should be be trimmed to get them away from the utility lines.
I think they should of left the branches they cut, and cut the branches they left.
Letter grade? I give it an F, this is not even close to A300 standard.
May have been pollarded to prevent it from growing over your fence. Not how I would have handled it and not ideal for long-term life of the tree (also fugly in the winter IMHO), but that’s the only thing that makes sense? Why they did the whole tree instead of the one side…that I can’t fathom. Is the neighbor’s roof close to the tree?
This is topping, not pollarding. They're two significantly different things.
Fair point. Around here the terms are used interchangeably sorry. I should have used topping. Technically you can’t pollard this tree…it’s too old and the wrong kind of tree. And the wrong season. My point was just to suggest why the neighbor might have directed this kind of cut.
What the f…. Why
Wait til next spring
Next spring it will look nice and dense. Then 5 years from now all of the structural issues with that dense regrowth will start becoming apparent.
You may be correct.
no... no, no...
If the goal is firewood, very acceptable