"Glen L. Madigan" wrote in message
news
Greetings from New Zealand.

I have a sort of a problem. I have a tortured willow tree growing in my
section, and it is getting quite large. It was there before I moved into
the house ten years ago, and it looks as though it has been there another
30
or so years. The tree is not only getting large, it always grows over the
power line to our house. Coupled with that, there is a quite a boggy
area,
(I think that it is a natural spring) near the tree.

What is the best solution, cut it down, or prune it? I want to put a
garden
around the area of the tree, but the roots are well embedded in the
ground.
I have just last weekend planted some water loving plants (including
Chatham
Island Lily) and at present not sure how they are going as yet. I dug the
area for planting, and have found that immediately the area had filled
with
water, and the roots of the tree caused a bit of a headache when trying to
dig.

If I cut the tree down, would the water problem be worse? I need some
advice
on what the best solution could be.

Glen L Madigan



The tree's doing well BECAUSE of the water. Cutting it down will make little
difference in the water situation. Someone picky will chime in here and say
"Oh, but everything you change makes SOME difference". Right. If a butterfly
dies, something happens at the other end of the universe. But the removal of
your tree won't change the characteristics of the water table on your
property. How about having a competent tree service prune it nicely? Here in
the states, the electric companies sometimes contract the work out to
private companies, some of which are good at what they do. What about NZ?