Beer Good

I have a silver birch tree in my garden, it's about 20 feet high, about 8 inch diameter at the base. It drops all its seeds (dunno if that's what they are, little brown things, get bl**dy everywhere) in my next-door neighbour's Carp pool. They have asked me if I will cut it down, and offered to pay for a replacement tree.

I am reluctant to just chop it down, and if it were possible, there is a good site for it on the opposite side of my garden.

Any surgeons out there? If I cut through the roots about 3 feet in every direction and replanted it, would it survive? What sort of structural support would be needed afterwards and for how long?

I suspect this is another of my dumb questions which I know the answer to, but I like the tree almost as much as my neighbours!

Cheers
Steve

Brendan Hughes

You might find it easier and cheaper to cut it down and buy another (smaller) and plant that in the right place.

8in is a fair diameter for a birch, I don't think they go much beyond 12in before rotting. And you'd need quite some strength / machinery to lift it, especially with a rootball!

Imagine doing all that, and it dies, either immediately afterwards as you didn't do it right, or 5-10 years later as it approached the end of its life. Bummer...

camk

A tree of that size will be extremely difficult to successfully transplant. I think any tree surgeon will say its not possible. It also brings structural risk in that the root base will be nowhere near as stable after any move. I would not contemplate it in a tree of that maturity.

ProperCharlie

AS above - just hack it down and plant another one. If you try and transpalnt it it will be a great deal of hassle and the tree will almost certainly die in any case. You should be able to get a decent standard birch from your local nursery for about £20. within a couple of years this will have grown to a reasonable size. Hint when you plant the new tree: double dig the hole before you put the tree in. this means digging a good sized hole down to 1 spade depth, then digging down another spade depth. mix the soil with plenty of good compost before you put the tree in. water well until the end of october (or when ever the leaves start falling off).

hth.

David Lock

Especially if your neighbour has offered to pay for another tree

Get down to a good garden centre and look at trees before all the leaves go. We put in a willow some months back and it's really growing well. I happen to like twisted willows but each to his own. DL

Beer Good

Thanks guys.

Where's me saw?

David Lock

Make sure it doesn't land in neighbours' pond

Scumbag

Or deposit your cat in his garden !!

Beer Good

If I could engineer it to land all the neighbours' cats it might be worth the bother! While they were squatting on my lawn 'in flagrante decrapto'..................................