My old apple tree’s got some rotten branches and a tree surgeon told
me it's probably only got a couple of years left. It's at the end of
my garden, on clay soil and gets partial sunshine. In replacing it I
want to minimise the hole in the tree-line at the end of my garden as
much as reasonably possible.

I’m looking at what replace it with (today’s fave is the Paperbark
Maple). The new one doesn’t have to go exactly where the old one was,
so I was thinking of planting it a metre or so away and then slowly
trimming the apple tree back over the next couple of years before
cutting it down completely. This would give the new one room to
expand, while minimising the loss of greenery in my garden .

I don’t know much about tree planting, so was wondering if this is a
sensible plan or would it stifle the new tree?

Michael