Hello,
I'm looking for some general advice. I live in a flat with a very large shared city garden in Scotland. Amongst other (smaller) mature trees including rowans and willows, we have a large sycamore which has become the object of some attention recently. It's hard to get a great pic, but this is it standing tall amongst the other trees (please note a couple of smaller trees in pots are now being removed). Some neighbours would like it removed to allow more light to their flats, others would like to keep the tree. It is 18-20m tall, its crown has been lifted and it doesn't have the fullest canopy as it has been trimmed and reduced some years ago, but it does still give a lovely leafy aspect to the garden. A few suggestions have been made about what to do with it - including:
a 25% trim to allow more light
removing the tree completely
bringing it down to a 12-foot 'stump', using eco-plugs to prevent further growth.
My questions are:
I understand sycamores can live a long time, but should we expect it to continue at the same rate of growth indefinitely? Will its roots continue to expand and disturb the paving of the garden (which we have recently started to replace)? or will its growth (above and below) slow down at some point, as it is a mature tree?
some of us do not want any glyphosate-containing herbicides used in the garden - is there any other way to retain the 'stump' - perhaps allowing a pollarded-style growth - without using eco plugs or herbicide that would give us fewer issues in terms of root disturbance etc? or might we just as well keep it tall and maintain regularly?
if we take the whole tree out, are we likely to see any settling etc of the paving as a result of the end of the tree's draw on the ground water?
Thank you to anyone who has the patience to read this and reply! We have an arborist who is ready to do work, but we are just trying to work out all the implications of whatever action we take.