NyxTaryn

Thank you!

Thanks, that's very useful! Happy for people to PM me if they want to quote - I'm based near Denbigh in North Wales if anyone's local to there. We've also got a massive ash tree with dieback that needs to come down.

That's great to know, thank you!

Awesome, thank you! That'll help offset some of the cost of the tree work then 😂

Really? I might be misremembering why or got my wires crossed, but I thought you weren't supposed to burn conifer wood inside. If you can, that's great, because we've got plenty of it to go around...

Don't worry, whatever we decide the wood won't get wasted! Our wood store is filling up with ash from some diseased trees we had to cut down earlier in the year, but I'm sure we can find space for this too. We'll probably use it outside though, don't want the resin coating the inside of the chimney.

Good to know!

Thank you, I'll look into that. We do get a lot of rain here though, so that might not work too well. And yes, you may be right about looking at replacements making the decision easier. I think if it were just me I would be inclined to remove it after seeing everyone's comments and my own research, but I'm not sure if my partner will feel the same. We'll see.

Yeah, we also have some conifer hedges (not our choice, we only moved in 6 months ago). They're some sort of cypress, but not sure which kind) and I definitely wouldn't have chosen those for that reason, they're such a pain to keep a manageable size without making them look awful. We also removed a much smaller conifer at the front of the property because the previous owners killed all the green bits on one side trying to burn out a wasp nest 🤦 Yeah the tree surgeons around here (I'm in Wales) have definitely been busy after the storm. There are so many downed trees blocking the roads and things near us, let alone how many there must be in gardens. Are sikta's quite shallow rooted? We have a few of those too I believe, though not near the house.

Ah, that makes sense. I guess if they're very tall then there's a higher chance of them pulling out of the ground like that too. Thanks for the advice!

Oof, those are brutal, I'm sorry. Jealous you have so many trees though! I wonder why they're so prone to snapping like that. Good to know (well not good, but useful) that they tend to keep snapping once they start. Do you have any recommendations for similar trees that are less prone to these issues?

Thanks - yeah that makes sense. And yeah, I totally agree, when they're left to do what they naturally do (i.e. grow really tall and broad and take up space), they're very impressive, but when they're planted in the wrong place or as a hedge, they can just be frustrating and ugly. I'm not used to coniferous tree pruning/care to be honest (hence the questions about reducing the height lol) - I'm used to being able to carefully shorten things without it messing up the entire tree 😂 Anyway, thanks for the advice - we'll have a think and decide what to do.

I quite like it personally - I know lots of people hate them (and I'd probably have chosen something else if I was planting the garden myself), but it was the tallest, most impressive tree in our garden (and my partner's favourite for that reason), hence the desire to keep it if we could.

Fair enough lol.

Is there any way to reduce the height without fully taking the top off it and making it angry 😂? Which trees would you say are most reliable/easy to maintain? We have plenty of space for trees here, so we're not too worried if they get tall, so long as we're careful with how they're planted.