Spring is upon us, bringing with it everything that makes it pleasurable –from the smell of the new flowers in bloom, to the warm weather that brings the wildlife out from their winter digs. The days start to grow longer as the temptation to stay outside returns and, of course, the barbeque starts to make a more regular appearance.

July and August has seen some wild weather hit Sydney and the surrounding areas, pummeling us over the winter with strong winds, storms and torrential rains. Trees in particular are susceptible to this kind of wild weather with winds regularly bringing down branches and sometimes even uprooting whole trees each and every year at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to property and sometimes even at the cost of lives.

Spring is almost here, and with it comes the excitement of a new growing season. A wet July and a few chilly weeks in August have probably kept most of us inside up to now but, weather permitting, now is the time to don those boots and get your garden ready for spring. There’s still a few weeks to get everything in order before the weather starts to warm up and things ‘spring’ into action (sorry about that).

Take a stroll through the garden and make a list of jobs that need doing and make note of any areas that could do with a total revamp. You could draw up a plan as well as a list noting down any trees that may need removing on it, any damaged branches that can be pruned back, looking carefully for any signs of disease –generally you’re looking for any trees and shrubs that could use a tidy up or be removed altogether. There’s some pesky broad-leaf privet Ligustrum lucidum that has sprung up in my own backyard so I’ll need to get it removed before it spreads –and since it’s classed as a noxious weed in Sydney the sooner I get onto that the better!

Now that you’ve had a tree removed from your garden –or maybe you just have a space you’d like to use– how do you decide what tree is the best choice? A tree can make a beautiful addition to your garden but it is also one of the most important landscaping choices you will make.

The type of tree you choose can determine things such as the amount of light in your garden, the view you will have (or not have) and the overall aesthetic a feature like a tree will provide. To avoid long-term problems and the possibility of having a tree removed at a later stage never choose a tree unless you know how high and how wide it will reach at maturity.

Why remove a tree?

Sydney’s North Shore is full of beautiful trees. Despite the beauty a tree can bring to a garden however, sometimes the unavoidable happens and it has to be removed. Whether by disease or simply because of poor placement in the first place a large tree can be quite a job to take down –especially if its in a tight, hard to reach area near your house. A large tree that needs to be removed will have to be climbed by professional arborists.

But how do you decide if a tree needs to be removed in the first place? The reasons you might have for the removal of a tree can be many and varied. The most common reason is if a tree is dead or dying and presents a danger to the area around it –especially houses. But it’s commonplace for a tree to be removed simply because it was the wrong choice originally and has now grown too large for the area it’s in. A tree left to grow in an unsuitable space can end up causing untold damage to driveways; wrecking your paving, utilities, fences and even present a danger to your house and your family. So therefore it must be removed.