Large tree

I think I was very lucky to pay £350 for 8 hours work and two men Grannyboots It was such a relief to get it down as it was literally feet from my house and my neighbours boundary and so big they get really bendy and branches get brittle and can come down in wind my tree bloke mushed up all the greenery and chopped the wood into chunks which I then sold on FB I didn’t have the stumped removed but he told me to put salt on it and it would not grow again

Dread to think how much it would cost me to have a whole tree cut down [that's @ three times the height of my house ].

Only yesterday I had a tree surgeon cut down some large branches of an oak tree which have overhung out garden for years. As our house backs onto a local park, we were told we needed permission from the tree surgeon to enter the park. It took three months to get permission. The job cost us £220 for 2 hours work but there were three men involved. We are delighted with the result.

Hope you get permission from the council to chop it down.

Sycamores are weeds!
And eucalyptus are fine in the Australian bush but not suitable for British gardens. Our neighbours had one on the border and it tended to 'rattle' in the slightest breeze.

Incidentally, there are hundreds of different types of eucalyptus.
Another bit of useless information!

Sycamores are the vermin of the tree world! The farmer did take down one of those [again charged me for it!]. It used to shed leaves all over my garden in autumn, exude sticky stuff in summer and caused so much shade everything that did manage to grow grew sideways. And, boy, do they reproduce..those little helicopters get everywhere...

I have a tree on council land which overhangs my garden and indeed my bedroom. It terrifies me in high winds but the council have told me that it was here before me - it wasn't - and sycamores were brought over by the Romans so they now count as native species.

I have got the tallest fir tree you could imagine hanging over my house but, as it's on a farm and in some sort of conservation area no one will take it down. Thankfully, I can't see it when it sways in the wind [but my neighbours can ]. May have another attempt to get it removed, although the multimillionaire farmer will probably say I have to pay for it's removal . Interested to see how you get on, Morgana.

Have phoned council and yes we live in a tree preservation area. Have sent them some pics - needed THREE to show full height of tree! !!

grannyticktock That did cross my mind, but it is in a position where, if it were to fall, the only things it would fall on would be plants in the border that it leans towards, so i think it would be safe enough.

We cut down part of a pear tree a few years ago and got the local wood turners society to come and collect the wood. Not sure if they'd want the eucyptus! Thanks for the advice. Will check with council tomorrow.

Mamacaz, I'd be wary of trying to kill a tree without removing it. If it becomes unstable and falls over, it could do some damage, and any climbers on it might not survive.

I think eucalyptus trees in the UK are becoming a nuisance to the point of being an unwanted "aliens species."

It might depend on variety but they could be too invasive and take over our native trees.

The dangers of introducing non UK native species .
(Like that attractive plant Japanese Knot weed which the Victorians introduced .)

We had one that did the same, it's a lovely tree but gets out of hand. We had it cut down to about a four foot trunk so didn't worry about uprooting it and it sprouted little twigs and leaves and looked quite pretty and I think we rigged up a bird feeder from it

I'm in the same situation as the OP, with a eucalyptus that I really want rid of. It was just a small tree when we moved here 19 years ago - if only I had known then what I know now, and got rid of it!
Several times over the years, DS has climbed it and sawn off all the branches that are thin enough to be sawn by hand, most recently this summer, when he left it without a single leaf. It only took a month for it to start sprouting new foliage. Then there was the problem of getting rid of everything he had removed - I sawed it all up and burnt it in the garden. It took me all day, as I knew I had to keep the fire small if I didnt want to cook all my nearby vegetables!

I've made up my mind that in spring it is going to be killed, and have been researching how best to do it with strong weedkiller/treekiller. If it works, I will be left with a skeleton which will have to stay put for as many years as it takes for it to rot. I think it would look very attractive with a climbing rose or something similar growing up it.

It can be very expensive if the tree is really big and in a difficult position. We had four macrocarpa trees growing in a silly place so close together they looked like one tree. They were huge, growing over the road and the car port. It cost nearly £4,000 to get them removed, and the stumps ground out! It’s somethig best done sooner rather than later. My DM had a eucalyptus growing near the house the roots of which had blocked her drains. It cost £500 to remove as getting the downed tree out was a problem.

If you look on your local district council website you should find a list of approved tree surgeons. They’ll have all the right equipment and dispose of the remains properly and legally. They’re happy to come a quote and advise. And will check that there’s no tree preservation order or conservation order on the tree as any work done on one of these without permission can incur a hefty fine.

I ve looked it up on google and I live in a conservation area that’s why so it may not apply to you Morgana

We had a tree removed from the back garden here just after we bought the bungalow. Far too big for a small garden and it seemed to be constantly swarming with flies. A reputable tree surgeon did it, no mention of permission from the council. Maybe it varies from place to place? A good tree surgeon would advise or a call to the local council clarify. Hope you can get the outcome you want.

Well there was definitely NO preservation order on my big ole eucalyptus which we put in ourselves about twenty five years ago but all the tree surgeons I spoke to about having it down told me not to forget to apply for permission to take it down as all trees being cut down need council permission I don’t know more than that
Perhaps it’s just my council then but it was all official with a proper form to fill in !!

I thought that was only if it had a preservation order BlueBelle You see them do it all the time on TV on programmes like Under the Hammer.

Oh I should have said you have to get permission from the local council to take any tree down I presume that’s national and not just in my area I quoted the safety reason and sent a photo and diagram it took a few weeks to get the permission

Morgana this last year I had my two eucalyptus trees cut down I did love them but athey were dwarfing my three storey house and looking so dangerous in high winds and being close to my house I was worried I was also scared if a branch came down on someone passing
It took two tree surgeons 8 hours to bring them down mainly because they were in a very small space so they had to do it bit by bit using a harness hanging around in hot sun very very high up it cost me £350 but worth every penny as much as I loved them The small pear tree next to them which had tiny hard green pears on has now produced huge really huge pears this year and the rest of the garden is bathed in light, for the first time in 20 years I could sit in the full sun in my garden
Do get a few estimates the first chap I got a qualified well thought of tree surgeon quoted £550 on the day he found it was too difficult up in the harness and gave up I was so disappointed but it turned out best as £200 cheaper with the new chap I got of a local traders site
Hope this helps

Eucalyptus! Get rid of it as soon as possible. They are shallow rooted and tend to blow over in the wind.
I have one in my back garden, they grow ridiculously fast.

We hacked ours right down to about 6ft. It looked a bit sad for a few years then came back with a vengeance. The very cold winter of 2010 killed it in the end.

I can't advise you on the price, but if you contact a reputable tree surgeon he/she should be able to help you. Always go by personal recommendation if you can, there are a lot of cowboys out there! As Auntieflo says, it may be possible to cut it back, but again a tree expert could help you with this. Good luck, and I hope the rest of your garden benefits from your decision!