County Durham has a small group of trees that turn up in most gardens. Knowing what you have helps you understand how it will grow, and why it might need work.
Sycamore
The most common garden tree in the county. It grows fast, seeds everywhere, and within 25 years it is too big for most suburban gardens. The problems are usually size (it shades everything, blocks light into the house) and the sheer volume of seedlings. It responds well to crown reduction, and is the tree we most often reduce rather than fell.
Ash
Plenty of older gardens still have ash trees planted decades ago, and they are now the tree most likely to have problems, because of ash dieback. Ash is brittle, drops limbs without warning when diseased, and is the one tree we would always inspect rather than assume is fine. See our ash dieback guide.
Beech
Beech is common in the older, larger gardens and around the villages. It makes a beautiful tree but grows enormous, and it is shallow-rooted, so it can dry out the ground around it and lift paving. Beech near a house usually needs careful crown management rather than removal.
Horse chestnut
The classic park and older-garden tree, usually planted when the house was built. Horse chestnut gets big, and it is prone to bleeding canker and leaf miner, which weaken it over time. Conkers aside, a mature chestnut near a building needs monitoring.
Leylandii and conifers
The most common hedge and screen tree on modern estates. Leylandii grows up to a metre a year and, left alone, becomes a 20m tree. The standard problem is a hedge that has been left to grow for years and now blocks light or overhangs a boundary. We reduce, or remove entirely, more leylandii than any other conifer, and grinding the stump afterwards is usually part of the job.
Silver birch
Popular in smaller gardens because it looks good and grows fast. It is short-lived compared with oak or beech, and the tops die back as it ages. Deadwooding a mature birch is routine maintenance.
Willow
Found along the burns and on damp ground, especially around Brandon and the Browney valley. Willow grows fast, is brittle, and drops branches in wind. It is often best removed from small gardens and replaced with something slower-growing.
Oak
Less common in small gardens because it gets huge, but present in older grounds and along village edges. Oak is long-lived and generally low maintenance, but a mature oak near a house is a tree to have assessed for structural faults rather than ignored.
What needs doing, and when
- Deadwooding once every few years for most mature trees.
- Crown reduction when a tree has outgrown its space or is blocking light, usually every 5-10 years depending on the species.
- Felling when a tree is dead, diseased beyond saving, or simply too big for where it is planted.
We will tell you honestly which category your tree is in. If a tree can be kept with a bit of work, that is usually cheaper than removing it and starting again. Send us the details and we will come and look.