Dean O

some one oonce told me that ss a rule of thumb - from 5 quotes if you get four or five your too cheep, if you get 2 or less your too expensive.

thank you very much guys - one to add to the memory banks, Ive never come across it before.

Hi guys, at the risk of being embarassed... any ideas on an i.d? got me a little confused.... thought the way the petioles branched fron the stem was a little bit walnut, maybe at a push ash like. (red ash?) dont think theres enough leaflets for an ailanthus/ tree of heaven. could it be box elder (too many leaflets? - i know theres some variation in morphology) sorry no overall tree pics as took a snippet away with me to identify (forgot my camera, again) but twas aprox 18 ft tall straggly gnarly growth habbit fissured bark. it didnt have this nuch leaf curl before it sat in a hot cab before getting home:blushing: told the client i wasnt sure what it was - he thought it may begin with B or was it G.

have heard that stihl are about to launch a range of battery operated saws aimed at the profesionals. I'm a little sceptical at their performance to battery life potential

they can indeed regen from a stump - though not always a safe bet. probably frost damage but there is a bacterial disease effecting cordyline not sure if its prevelant in the uk tho

Hama - the most efficient way to deal with it - especially near water courses is just to pull it from the ground and leave it in heaps before it seeds - very shallow roots makes this dead easy. Have a balsam pulling party. needs doing year on year because all of the dormant seeds that wll be present. but will slowly make a dent.

did you find that using the dual system made the dismantle quicker than using a single line lowering system?

hi western. give me a call 07533418103

i think the answer to your question is.....What are the clients concerns - ie why have you been asked to take a look at it? what do you need to do to get the balance right - leave alone, reduce, repolard or remove? if its a family favourite why are you being asked to look at it or is it a case of "we love the trees... but....."? the presence of saprophytes isnt a particular worry but unsound unions at previous heading cuts may be due to location.

IMO Probably around 20k. doesnt sound a lot - but more than a similar role in retail (ok - not quite got the dirty and dangerous factor) but thats also assuming that you are the foreman and responsible for onsite duty nothing else

my fir Id isnt great - but.... when i zoom into the pic it looks like a few of the needles have notched tips with a silver blue sheen - if this is right then i'd go for abies alba - silver fir if the sheen is a trick of the light then how about caucasian fir - abies nordmanniana someone please feel free to shoot me down.

£45 per hour? if its stacked badly etc it takes longer but this is obviously accounted for by giving an hourly rate.

thanks guys - managed to speak to the TO today and thank god he understands my plight. got a meeting next week. the option i was given by planning of plotting every individual cherry laure (no matter how small hence my mm diameter question) and then highlighting those to be removed from the plot had me banging my head against a wall. we do a lot for the council particularly the biodiversity unit so i know that they will know what i'm getting at with this plan - but obviously i dont want to rub anyone up the wrong way - i just need to work out a way of ticking all the boxes. i gues what planning control is looking for is a way of quantifying what we want to do there. i shouldnt of had the assumption that everyone along the line would have an understanding of why we want to do what we want to do. what really struck me about the site was firstly the number of gorgeous mature healthy trees but also that here were no sapplings. a shame to see so little regen.

just to draw further on hama's point of reduction to aleviate windsail effect - a thin could indeed make wind an increased probleb by increasing lever arm effect on limbs where a "lazy thin" has been carried out - by this i meen removing laterals on a branch but leaving weight on the tips. however i do generally find myself trying to steer clients away from reductions - particularly on certain species. this is generally because i feel that their version of a reduction and mine often differ and they may not view my reduction as as good value for money as a good topping - despite how much i try to sell the arb reduction technique.

yes planning control - not a clue about trees. i think he saw removal of a species as being a decline in biodiversity(ie number of species) therefor bad.... very simplistic way of looking at it i know. would a tpo of this sort (where specific species are listed) have a min diameter for relevance - ie 70 mm? as this guy is offering to do his bit at his own cost to increase the value of this little patch i dont see why they arent biting his arm off.

sorry if this post should be in the forestry/ woodland management section. i'm looking at a very small patch of wood for a client. it has a tpo covering the "woodland" listed among the protected species list are the obvious species found in this wood - ie oak beech syc, birch with holly understory. but also cherry laurel. Ive always been under the impresion that cherry laurel was wasnt the best thing to have in a woodland environment for various reasons - and in this patch it is doing what it does best and is dominating the understory and preventing regeneration. not a sapling to be seen. ive put in an application to remove the laurel (theres also conifer and rhodi being removed but these aren't protected) had a meeting on site by one of the planning guys who says it will not go through as he cannot see any reason to remove it as removing it will decrease the woodlands amenity value (woodland with no right of way through it in a private gated "garden"). so in your guys views what would be the arguments for retaining or removing this species from the woodland.

Had a customer locally who would call me up for little pruning jobs as and when she needed - the sort of little jobs that took longer to put the kit on/ off the van than to actually do. so i'd charge her a tenner here a fiver there. my thinking was that i'd get a call for the larger potential jobs she had on her plot when she was ready to carry them out... then one hectic over stretched day i had a call from her and was too busy to answer - so phoned her when i got back home that evening - the response was oh sorry dear when you didnt answer your phone i called someone else and they came straight round an did the job there and then. havent heard from her again. two lessons i learnt - answer the phone! and secondly dont assume customer loyalty because you think youve done them a favour by being nice.

Still waiting for them to get back to me!! Ah well at least it sounds like it will all go smoothly when its finnally sorted - thanks Al

:thumbup:yeah thanks justme hadn't been thinking of that - had just been worrying about the negatives - has put my mind at ease a little bit. do you guys carry round a calculator to quotes.

Thanks Skyhuck, will google it and do a bit of reading up... hi Mark - thats the line we take at the mo - and it does work for us - even though 90% of the time i am up against the same "loppy chop" and our day rate is more expensive - but now we're more expensive - plus VAT on top. I know its comercial suicide to drop my day rate but if it that or don't have any work.......

Hi guys the time has come for me to register for VAT does anyone have any opinions on how becoming vat registered has effected their business - I'm a little worried that i'm going to lose a lot of private/domestic clients any help or advice recieved with many thanks:thumbup:

would be a bit worried about burning the grass off TBH

:biggrin:yeah gowers lovely. the beacons too - though can be a bit grim in the winter. used to travel back and forth visiting the missus for a while - in the old landy sitting at 55 ish. I dont know how i stuck it now when ever i go to visit the folks, seems soooo far away.

got clay soil in the garden - mixed in lime when digging the veg patch - along with rotted down chiken poo. worked wonders I think the process is called floculation - the clay particle bind together in clumps oppening air spaces and allowing drainage- but i dont think that it would be as effective on an area where its spread above ground without the soil being turned/ churned as farmers do when the lime then plow the field. might be worth a go tho. if this is the approach could you lightly spread sand over the grass to help drainage too??

thanks for the reply logbaron. every year theres some sort of problem. for a helpdesk they are pretty good to talk to. thinking of handing it over to the accountant to do next year. where about in staffs are you based. Im from hednesford (nr rugely) originally.