Barrow Bird

Hi Chris at Eden, many thanks for your prompt and very informative response. Yes, that was my understanding of pollarding, which is why alarm bells were ringing! Thanks for the update on winter season work. That all makes perfect sense. We do our orchard cherries and plums in summer for those very reasons. (We also mostly summer prune our pomes now they're in good shape). I didn't know the same applied to other deciduous trees. Sadly, there's no TPO on the tree, which looks set for a mullering (not to mention an annual maintenance bill) if I can't persuade him to get an arborist's opinion. I'll check out the ISA leaflet. Thanks also for that and have a great day!

I'm an imposter..A qualified gardener, not an arborist... I took on maintenance and development of a pub garden in March this year. The landlord proudly announced yesterday that a beautifully balanced, healthy looking, mature Ash is scheduled for pollarding in mid July... "Because the neighbour doesn't want pigeons pooping on his balcony". He's booked the work in with a local cutting and clearing service, rather than any of the excellent arborists in the area... "Got a good price for taking out the dead tree as well" (A Thuja. Definitely dead). A) Wouldn't late winter/early spring be a better time, especially on such a mature, previously unpollarded tree? B) I know it's an Ash, but won't such a severe July cut seriously jeopardise the tree's health? C) Surely pigeons can still poop from a pollard... Moreover, get a better aim on their target without obstruction?