My two oaks here in east-central Florida are probably 25-30 years old, and a few times my neighbor has trimmed them as straight up from his property as possible. He doesn't like the leaves getting in his pool. The trees are right next to the fence and starting to get lopsided due to the trimming. They have been growing further over above my screened lanai, which worries me. The trees do not have any signs of weakness or disease, other than my neighbor making them lopsided.
He wants to trim them again this spring and has offered to help pay if I get them trimmed this time. Any recommendations? The last time they were trimmed (on his side only and the company did a crap job) was probably 16 months ago.
We had a tree surgeon come look at them last summer after the neighbor trimmed the trees, because the tree closest to our house started getting a lot of water sprouts, but he said not to worry about them because, "trees never grow anything they don't need." No other action was taken by him.
It was a little difficult to get good pictures without going onto other people's property. But I think the first and last pictures show it the best.
Thank you for the help.
by CoffeeChangesThings
1 Comment
I would have an ISA Certified Arborist come out and take a look. “Tree surgeon” is a worrying term and makes me think they aren’t properly qualified to give biological advice. I would imagine that you can make some reduction cuts on your side of the tree to help balance it.
Also it’s hard to say what the past cuts look like on your neighbors side but it seems they’ve already taken a ton off and I don’t know how much more they can take without doing irreversible damage to this nice tree (if they haven’t already). I think your neighbor has no regard for the health of this tree and if they had their way they would be happy if it died. If they are already willing to split cost you need to make sure that you get a professional in there that cares about the long-term health of this tree.
Also I’m a previous pool owner and my pool was surrounded by six large trees. Keeping the leaves out of your pool it’s just part of the maintenance of owning one. Realistically your neighbor is not helping themselves that much by repeatedly trimming your tree. Wind exists and leaves are still going to end up in their pool.