sycamore trees

moneyistooshorttomention

glasgowdan wrote: »

Why do people spend hours pulling things out by hand when a 15-second spray with systemic biodegradable weed killer does the job?!

Because we're organic gardeners.

It's no big deal - one quick tug, another quick tug, repeat till gone. I've just pulled 2 more out today. "Stitch in time" of keeping a regular eye out for them - now I know they're showing up here. I'd hazard a guesstimate that I've pulled out around 20 in the last week or so - not a lot...

Living_proof

I once had a property which had about six mature sycamores with tree protection order on as part of a larger drift of mixed woodland. It was just a few feet from the house and was an enormous problem, creating deep shade in summer but the foliage was the last to come into leaf and the last to drop, with seedings absolutely everywhere. The tree officer thought they were great but three of them eventually stopped a chain saw blade one sunny day and at least the problem receded away from the house foundations, guttering, paving etc. They are most definitely not a tree for a garden and totally out of scale in just a few years.

robin58

I know how you feel.

I have a sycamore planted outside my house by our local council. I hate the thing. I have to pull seedlings over the spring and early summer.

The only good thing is it gets coppiced back every 3 years . One time when I meet the guys doing it. I jokely asked could they cut it back a tad further, pointing at the trunk 1 foot off the ground. The look on thier faces was priceless.

Perhaps I should do what one if my neighbours did. Being a builder/decorator he used to pour the remnants of his paint pots over the roots of the tree. It died off after a while.

But in the end he did end up with a streetlamp instead so maybe what did was not a plus.

Davesnave

The big sycamores have negligible wildlife value, so any tree officer with
half a brain ought to be open to suggestions for removal and re-planting with something better.

However, it's the cost of removal which would be a problem....and they don't even make decent firewood!

arbrighton

Well there's some hope of getting rid of the even bigger one on the bit of land I'm supposed to sort out buying then, eventually