A sad day!

Palustris · November 2023

Climate change and last year's extreme drought did this Monkey Puzzle no favours, so sadly it had to be removed. Also it was too close to both our house and to our neighbours. It put a premium on both our insurance policies.

https://imgur.com/a/xZi9VAA

Fairygirl · November 2023

That's a great pity @Palustris. I know lots of people don't like them, but I certainly do.
A new planting opportunity for you I guess, but a shame it had to go.
We have lots of them around here. One of the advantages of having enough moisture for them, is that you rarely see them in any distress. They don't cast lots of shade either, so it's easier for underplanting, unlike the millions of conifers which are a common feature of gardens up here.
I don't know if people have problems with insurance, because many of them are within ten to fifteen feet of properties. There's one or two I often admire when I'm out for a walk. One had beautiful icicles on it last winter.

Lizzie27 · November 2023

Such a shame @Palustris, but better safe than sorry.

My brother had one of those in his garden in Wales. He was once offered £100 for it, tempting at the time but they liked it too much to part with it.

Obelixx · November 2023

Magnificient trees but not suitable for average gardens I fear.

They seem to have done a very neat job for you and now you'll have space and light for something with a bit more varied seasonal interest.

Palustris · November 2023

Not easy to see, but one side of the tree was completely brown so very one sided. Male tree so it produced masses of very sticky yellow pollen which gave me very painful eye problems and made sitting out in the garden more like sitting in Smog (if you are old enough to remember that!).

Liriodendron · November 2023

Monkey puzzle trees tend to be sold as 2-3ft babies in garden centres, and are then planted much too close to the house... not that yours was, @Palustris, but they are definitely forest trees. When my job was to make informative bed cards for the plants sold in the garden centre in which I worked, I did try to point that out, and included the mature height as well as the height after 10 years, on the card. This wasn't always popular with my employers, but I argued that since we sold many trees and shrubs much more appropriate for a suburban garden, customers were more likely to end up happy if we didn't give them false information.

Definitely a planting opportunity there, @Palustris.

Palustris · November 2023

A 55 year old, 60 feet tall spiny leafed tree, about 5 metres from the house is not ideal.

We were looking at a house a few weeks back where they had planted one just a few feet outside their front door. It was already beginning to impinge on their access.

Rubytoo · December 2023

A cracker. Sad such a lovely big specimen tree had to be taken down. But understandable. @Palustris.
Total admiration of the chaps who did the work! Monkeys are incredibly spikey and hurt like heck if they get you.

I meant to post the other week when you first did.
We used to have one. I am kind of glad it passed away before it got to any size.
It was a beginners mistake.
I accidentally posted here on some one elses post (a1154) and had to delete my response to them.
Sorry.

Palustris · December 2023

Now managed to remove all the thick roots from round the stump (with a great deal of difficulty. The soil is clay and full of stones ranging in size from gravel to head sized lumps. They do not do the chain saw blade any good. The stump itself is a good metre and a half across. We are going to try nibbling bits off it until it is below soil level. If that does not work then bite the bullet and pay for someone to grind it out.

Made a heck of a difference to the amount of sunlight which gets into our Living room and that has also made the room warmer.

Rubytoo · December 2023

Well done getting the roots out. I know it is hard graft.

As you would be paying for a stump grinding and not a stump removal it may be cheaper?
Less work for them as you have already got the roots?
So you would be asking for a grinding of the stump with easy access.
Although it does sound pretty big!

Sorry if you already know this, or looked into the costs.

Older stumps that are dry are easier to drive wedges in and gradually split with the big roots gone.
But newer wet wood especially if it is dense, not so.

We have had half dozen old conifers removed and could not have the stumps ground because of access. I wish we had been able to.

My better half has bought a largish wood Auger to experiment with to see what we can do.

I don't know if something like that might help you break it up or "nibble".
A relatively inexpensive thing to try perhaps.
Good Luck with it all anyway.

Palustris · December 2023

Had a try at nibbling round the edges. My amateur chain saw would not touch the trunk even though it went through the roots with little bother. The tree surgeon has quoted £200 to grind down the stump and access, though tricky, is possible. Problem is that he has to hire the grinder and unless he can find two other stumps to work on, on the same day, it makes it more expensive. I am going to try drilling into the stump and using steel wedges to see if I can split it. Probably best to wait until the trunk has hardened though. I am getting too old for this!

Could always just make a feature of it!

A sad day!

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