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Help! Oak hedge or not...?

EjcollardEjcollard Posts: 1
in Problem solving
i wonder if anyone can advise me.... I have a self-seeded oak sapling by the fence in my front garden, about 6ft high. I didn’t realise it was even there until I cut back an overgrown bush next to it. It’s a little too close to the house for me to let it grow into a large tree, but the thought of just cutting it down makes me sad! (Pathetic I know, but I have a thing about trees..). So the question is: can I keep pruning it to keep it smallish, or turn it into an oak hedge or something, or should I try to move it? I don’t know if the roots from an oak which is kept small (if this is even poss!) will still be the large, dangerous to house walls, sort of roots.... any advice gratefully received! Thank you!

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    The general rule is that tree roots reach out to just beyond their canopy so, since it's too late to bonsai it, you could try keeping it trimmed to hedge height as part of a hedge and it'll be safe for your house.  There must be thousands like that in the countryside and hedgerows. 

    However, keeping it as a single, pollarded or stooled tree or pruned to a short column is not something that would look good on an English oak in IMHO.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Trouble is it won't stop at 6ft and if you even take your eye off the ball for a minute, it will romp away and get out of hand. Then it might be a subsequent owner who has the problem. A better suggestion might be to try and dig it up and donate it to a tree charity - there are lots of tree planting initiatives around the country at the moment. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    It won't get tall if you  make it part of a mixed native hedge, the hedge trimmer would make sure of that. It wouldn't look great as a pollarded specimen but fine as part of a hedge, cut it back to below the desired hedge height and it will branch out. 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154
    I have two 200' long mixed hedges bordering part of my garden ; oaks are a major part of them .
    Keeping them to around 7' high and 5' across , they pose no problems and I believe play an important role in the relatively balanced ecosystem of my garden .
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