When we are asked to prune a tree back to previous reduction points its always as much about what you leave as what you take away. By leaving the shorter growth we can shape the tree and allow it to put energy into established shoots rather than producing multiple shoots which will overpopulate the crown.The sycamore here was pruned to retain a shapely crown with lots of young shoots available to absorb the spring growth.

The Ulmus family of Elms are starting to produce their delicate seeds and the pigeons here in Brighton love them. I watched one feeding on the seeds yesterday and noticed how each beak full displaced a similar amount of seeds that floated down from the tree on their journey to maybe becoming trees.

Got sent a photo this morning of a lovely Foxglove tree coming into flower

The small leaved Lime tree or as Americans refer to it theLinden tree. We’ll be pruning a lime today, one of my favorite trees, red buds and shoots against a squirrel grey bark smooth and rough. They respond very well to pruning but are often topped as our one today has been and so loose the graceful ascending branch structure. Gonna be a crisp day up there this morning.

There’s a lot going on with trees, when we do pre-work survey one of our considerations is not the tree but what’s beneath it. Yesterday we looked at a large sycamore that was leaning over a work yard which when cleared would make it easier to drop branches straight to the ground, then we noticed the telephone cable. In this case half the work will have to be carefully lowered on ropes to avoid the cable. Always make sure your arborist has assessed the fragile objects beneath your trees especially fences,sheds and telephone cables

We made some compost bins on Monday for clients with a large communal garden. Using found pallets and some scrap wood , we made 3 compost bins to be used in rotation and the residents are excited to get composting.Reusing and recycling its what we used to do and now more than ever what we need to be doing.

Looks to me like the Ash are breaking their buds before the Oaks, we’re in for a soak.

We pruned a large apple tree recently that seemed to be half dead. The client got us to assess its condition and advise. Its amazing how resilient trees can be and this apple although holding a lot of deadwood was still producing a lot of buds . We suggested pruning the tree and seeing how it progressed this season , as long as the structure is safe we;’ll keep an eye on it and hopefully see it produce flowers and fruit for many more years.

Sycamores- Often called the ‘weed’ of trees and an expendable nuisance. Sycamores are successful self seeders with their familiar ‘wingnut’ flying seed dispersal and ability to pop up in borders and lawns in abundance. Not strictly a native although probably naturalized here more than 1500 years ago the sycamore is with us to stay.

Maintenance!!- To keep our team running requires time spent maintaining and servicing equipment. The chipper here is undergoing some major repairs after years of trouble free working, so new blades, drive belts and bearings later and its back up to scratch turning branches into wood chip for mulch.