On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 15:56:27 +1300, Glen L. Madigan wrote:

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

Good Day Glen. I, personaly, would remove the tree all together. Once you
factor in the fact that this tree will need to be re-pruned in X amount of
years at X amount of cost, it's cheaper in the long run. Furthermore
you'll have to spend the time in between pruning's looking at a
dis-figured tree. I would suspect that the previous home owner planted the
tree to firm up the ground and to soak up some of this water.

If you do decide to remove this tree, it's quite possible that the tree
may re-grow from the stump. This may have to be dealt with a non-selctive
herbicide or a good 'ol fashioned stump grinding.

If the water is an issue for you, you may look into a curtain drain,dry
well or a french drain tile set up.