Pruning that leaves the tree stable afterwards

What pruning is actually for

Three things, mostly. Safety: getting dead, hung-up and structurally compromised limbs out of a canopy before the wind does it for you. Clearance: pulling growth back off roofs, gutters, solar panels, driveways and the private service line. And structure: shaping a young tree now so it does not become a problem tree in twenty years.

Everything else — light, views, leaf drop, the neighbour's complaint — is a reason people call, and each of them can sometimes be solved with pruning. Sometimes it cannot, and the honest answer is either "live with it" or "remove it". Both get said.

The work that gets done

Deadwooding. Standing dead limbs taken out of the crown. On the coastal strip from Stockton through Bar Beach to Redhead, salt-burnt canopies carry a lot of it on the seaward face, and it is the single most useful thing you can do to a mature tree before storm season.

Crown thinning. Selective removal of interior branches to let wind through the canopy rather than against it. Done properly it takes maybe ten to fifteen per cent of the foliage and leaves the tree's outline unchanged. Done badly — all the interior stripped, foliage left only at the branch tips — it creates a lever arm and makes failure more likely.

Crown lifting. Lower limbs removed to get clearance over a driveway, path or fence line. Straightforward, and the most common request on the big old figs and camphor laurels through Hamilton, Islington and Mayfield.

Reduction. Shortening limbs back to a suitable lateral so the crown gets smaller without being stubbed. There is a limit to how much can come off before it stops being reduction and starts being topping, and that limit is species-dependent.

Hedge and screen work. Lilly pilly, murraya, photinia and viburnum screens cut back to a line. Height reduction on a hedge that has been let go for a decade often exposes bare woody stems that will not re-shoot, and you will be told that before the cut rather than after.

Species that give trouble here

Camphor laurel responds to hard pruning with a wall of regrowth and is a listed weed through much of the Hunter, so heavy investment in pruning one is usually money better spent on removing it. Port Jackson fig takes pruning well but its roots are the real issue on older blocks. Spotted gum and blackbutt drop limbs without warning in hot dry weather and are best deadwooded rather than reduced. Jacaranda and liquidambar, common through the inner suburbs, are brittle and split at tight forks. Cocos palms need their seed heads taken before the fruit drops and germinates through the whole street.

Booking pruning

Pruning is quoted on site because the work is judged from under the tree, not from a photo. Call (02) 4071 2525.

Whether you need council approval depends on how much is coming off — significant pruning is regulated the same way removal is in most Hunter councils, and the council rules page covers it. If the tree turns out to be beyond pruning, the removal page is the next step, and storm-damaged trees go through emergency work. Suburb coverage is listed on the service areas page.