Sycamore - who has one?

I wouldn’t call it a total nightmare, but it definitely is a tree that comes with some work. A mature sycamore can drop a surprising amount of leaves, bark and seed, and if there are other sycamores nearby you’ll probably be pulling up seedlings from time to time.

That said, there’s something to be said for a 50ft tree over a lawn. The shade, wildlife value and sheer presence can outweigh the cleanup for many people. If the lawn is easy to rake or mow, the leaf drop may not be as bad as you’re imagining.

The biggest question for me would be whether you actually like the tree. If you do, I’d live with it for a season before making any drastic decisions. You may find the maintenance is perfectly manageable-or decide after one autumn that you’ve had enough!

I don’t have one, however there are many in surrounding gardens and the woods behind my garden. The tidy up in Autumn is hard work. The seedlings in the Spring are even harder work to pull out. Rant over!

cut mine 3 years ago too many roots

Lilyflower, thank you for your comment. The sycamore, in a private garden that has piqued my concern is covered by a TPO (as are all other trees outwith the garden but within that mapped area), so no right to lop overhanging branches without gaining permission and using a professional tree surgeon. Dark Soot disease is also a concern as removal of diseased trees would be extremely expensive.

Thanks again for responding everyone.

We have two in next doors garden. It's a rented out property. No one bothers with the garden. One huge tree hangs over our garden. The mess is awful especially as we live on the coast & get a lot of wind. I am continually clearing up.
It's the bain of my life.

Sycamores are self seeders and the helicopter seeds land everywhere. I found one growing in a plant pot the other day. It was about six inches hidden in the other plant leaves. It was removed very quickly.

I think when people find them growing randomly in their gardens or on there lawns they don't always know what they are and leave them. They should be removed early when they are much easier to deal with.

We are talking about something very, very different regarding the sycamore gap tree.

We amicably agreed with our nice neighbour that we were very easy with her gardener lopping anything of our encroaching Mulberry which intruded into her garden. It is her right to do so and we thought it very polite of her to even mention it.

Anyone who doesn’t like the overhang from a neighbour’s tree can cut it down.

We have a self seeded Sycamore sixty feet from our back door and nearer our neighbours’ gardens than ours. We love it but they can lop the overhang if they so wish. In the recent rain drought the shade created by mature trees has saved the grass they shade from burning to a crisp like the fully exposed lawn.

However, the loss of the beloved Elms, the devastation of Ash dieback, the diseased Horse Chestnuts and now, the advance of the Oak Processionary Moth, puts the destruction of large and beautiful trees into context. Our trees are our glory and are generally revered. Look at the national outcry after the ‘Sycamore Gap’ debacle. And the scandal of Sheffield Council felling hundreds of mature urban trees causing mass protests. TPO’s also tell us that people care enough about their rural and urban landscapes to want to preserve the natural landmarks that distinguish the street scene.

When you look at a picture of urban deprivation one of the first things to be noticed is the lack of trees,

Yes, it is a bother to be sweeping up seeds and leaves but in the grand scheme of things there are worse hardships.

We have a very large sycamore in a corner of our garden. The main problem is the number of seedlings we have to uproot every year when they take root. And if you miss any they are harder and harder to pull out of the ground the next, and the next year. Nevertheless I like the tree, I think its pretty old and wouldnt consider getting rid of it.

Just prompted me to look up our beech trees, over the years my neighbour has always been out staring over the fence when we trim any low branches or our other neighbour has the tree surgeon to shape them; she's always said there's a TPO on them & she should report us.
....actually they're not on the list.

Not good for horses I understand?

There is a huge one on council land two houses down. My neighbours and I spend hours during seed season picking them out of our gardens. We throw them back on the council land. Inevitably we miss some and have to pull out seedlings. Amazing how long the roots are and how quickly they grow.

I was very sad when those idiots cut down the sycamore Gap tree, but I certainly wouldn’t want one in my garden. Our friends had one just outside their boundary where they park their cars and it was an absolute nightmare. Luckily it got some sort of disease and the council cut it down. They were delighted.

We had a lovely sycamore on our front drive but the neighbour’s insurer requested that we remove it. I do miss it but it was always se;f seeding on the front law.

Sycamores are weeds. However, I'm glad of the stand of huge sycamores which shield the view of a 3-storey car park which the borough council chose to put up opposite our house. I put up with sticky emissions and the seedlings and pretend the car park isn't there.

We had a five year battle to get rid of a beech belonging to the church next door. It was causing subsidence to our house but one of the issues was that it had a TPO. Even now several years later we’re still finding beech saplings growing in our borders.

I feel your pain, my garden is barely 7 metres from the back door to the back fence and there is a Field Maple in my neighbours garden which was a permanent battle against shade so nothing grew in my garden and the seeds which grow everywhere. When my new neighbours move in they made a concerted effort to cut it to a more manageable level, around 3 metres, yet within the space of this year it has branches growing more than 10 ft. They are both disabled so I don't want to harass them, but I can't manage the debris from the tree.

Yes, the Romans introduced them, they are not a native species.

We had one in a natural hedge at the back of the garden but had it cut to hedge height, so it does need topping every year. It didn't have a TPO but our neighbour has one which does.
Our ash tree also had to be chopped because it got ash dieback.

Trees are wonderful in the right place.,

Thanks again everyone - my fears confirmed.

As we get older, it’s maybe a good idea to think about moving house if surrounded by too many trees, lovely to look at but constantly having to sweep up leaves, pollen and twigs makes life too difficult?

MayBee70

Oreo

A wonderful English Oak could have been planted to replace it.

Too slow growing. Did someone mention on here that Sycamores were introduced by the Romans to provide fast growing wood?

It shouldn’t matter that it’s slow growing.

None in my garden. The woodland just behind my fence with loads of sycamore makes up for that. Yes, yoh will be constantly clearing leaves and seeds. Just about equal to the pine needles from all the conifers and leaves from the birch trees. There are a few oaks but I forgive them for the mess they create as relatively few of them and quite rare. The woodland looks lovely, provides great habitat for the birds, squirrels, rabbits and deer but come autumn drives me mad constantly trying to clear up the leaves etc.

Oreo

A wonderful English Oak could have been planted to replace it.

Too slow growing. Did someone mention on here that Sycamores were introduced by the Romans to provide fast growing wood?

A wonderful English Oak could have been planted to replace it.

No they didn’t know what they were doing because they were over sentimental fools.

Oreo

I could never understand all the weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth about the Sycamore Gap tree tbh.

I could understand that particular tree because it was so iconic. What I couldn’t understand was people planting seedlings from it all over the place! Just kept thinking ‘ do you know what you’re doing’…