Tree Lopping in Bendigo Done as Crown Reduction

Why we reduce Bendigo trees rather than top them

Topping, which is what lopping usually means in practice, cuts every limb back to a stub at whatever height the operator picks. The tree responds by throwing out a thicket of fast, weakly attached epicormic shoots below each cut, the large flat wounds begin to decay because there is no branch collar to seal them, and bark that spent forty years in shade is suddenly cooking in a Bendigo summer. Within a few seasons you have a tree that is taller than before, more dangerous than before, and much uglier. The elms and planes in the older streets show the results of this on every second corner.

A crown reduction takes a different path. Each limb is shortened back to a living lateral branch that is big enough to take over as the new leader, so the tree keeps a natural outline, the cuts are small and placed where the tree can close them, and regrowth is slow and well attached. AS 4373, the Australian Standard for pruning amenity trees, sets out how those cuts are made and how much canopy can be taken in one go. That is the version of tree lopping TB'S Trees offers, and it is the only version we will put our name to.

The problems that get us called out, and the fix for each

• An elm or oak over a Quarry Hill roof. Reduction of the limbs on the house side, plus lifting the lower canopy clear of the gutter line, keeps the tree and stops the leaf litter and rubbing branches.
• A radiata pine or cypress that has outgrown a Long Gully yard. Conifers do not respond well to hard reduction, so we take the tips back conservatively where it will hold, and tell you honestly when removal is the better spend.
• An ironbark or grey box on the Strathdale fringe reaching into the service line. Clearance pruning to the required distances, with the reduction spread across the crown so the tree does not end up lopsided.
• A plane tree shading the solar panels. Selective reduction of the limbs casting the shadow, worked out for the low winter sun, rather than a haircut of the whole crown.
• A tree someone topped years ago that is now a mass of regrowth. Restorative pruning over two or three visits, thinning the epicormic shoots and selecting new leaders so the canopy rebuilds properly.
• Storm-cracked limbs after a spring blow. Crown cleaning to remove the damaged wood and rebalance what is left, often on the same day through the emergency line.

What a typical Bendigo crown reduction looks like

A common scenario: an interwar brick home in Kennington with an English elm in the front garden that has grown to twice the height of the house. The owner wants it smaller, the neighbours want it off their roof, and nobody wants it gone. Our climber goes up on ropes, works from the top down, and reduces the overall height and spread by a proportion agreed at the quote, taking each limb back to a lateral of the right size. The ground crew feeds the brush through the chipper at the kerb. The finished tree is noticeably smaller, still looks like an elm, and will not need touching for several years. Put that beside a topped tree three summers on and it is easy to see why we push reduction.

Old-street exotics and bush-edge natives

Bendigo's inner streets were planted in the gold years with European trees that were never sized for a quarter-acre, let alone the subdivided blocks that many of those gardens have become. Elms in particular are everywhere: Rosalind Park's avenues went in from the 1870s, and the same species spread into private front yards across Ironbark, North Bendigo and Flora Hill. With only about 510 mm of rain a year and long, hot summers, these trees are already working hard, which is one more reason to reduce them gently rather than shock them. Out on the bush edge the natives, mostly grey box, red ironbark and yellow gum, are a different proposition: eucalypts shed limbs readily when stressed, they tolerate reduction poorly if it is heavy-handed, and blocks in Spring Gully or Strathdale bordering the Box-Ironbark forest may fall under a bushfire overlay that shapes what work is sensible. The Bendigo suburb page gives the fuller picture of the city's trees.

When to book crown reduction in Bendigo

Timing matters more for reduction than for removal. Deciduous exotics, the elms, oaks and planes of the old streets, are best reduced in late winter while dormant, so the cuts are made before the spring flush and the structure of the tree is visible without leaves. Avoid the weeks straight after leaf-out, when the tree has spent its reserves. Eucalypts can be worked most of the year, but we steer away from heavy reduction during heatwaves because freshly exposed bark and foliage burns. For anyone on the fringe, getting reduction and clearance work done before the fire danger period starts is sensible planning, and for anyone with a big tree over the house, late winter is also ahead of the spring winds that bring down the most limbs in this town.

If a tree is too far gone to reduce safely, our Bendigo tree removal page explains the alternative, and lighter work such as deadwooding is covered under tree pruning in Bendigo. We do the same reduction work in the suburbs around the city; the tree lopping in Golden Square, Eaglehawk tree lopping and tree lopping in Epsom pages cover how those blocks differ.

Crown reduction questions from around Bendigo