Gardening in South West London – Local Experts in Garden Care & Design

The most expensive plant anyone puts in a small garden is a tree, and the cost is almost never the purchase. It is the twenty years spent trying to keep something that wants to be fifteen metres tall down to five, or the eventual removal of a specimen planted three metres from a wall by somebody who never expected to still be living there. Gardens across SW11 are long and narrow with buildings close on three sides, which makes the choice of what goes in a great deal more consequential than the planting of it.

Ultimate size is the only specification that matters

Nursery labels describe a tree at ten years, which is roughly a third of the way through its adolescence. What counts is the eventual height and, more importantly, the eventual spread, since a canopy is what takes the light from a garden and from the windows around it. On a small plot the realistic range is a tree that settles at six to eight metres: crab apple, amelanchier, hawthorn, field maple, the smaller magnolias, a birch if there is room for its spread. Fruit trees on a named dwarfing rootstock are predictable in a way seedling-grown trees never are.

Distance from buildings, drains and the neighbours

On the shrinkable clay under much of this area, a large tree close to a house can influence the moisture in the ground beneath a foundation, which is why species and distance are worth thinking about rather than guessing at. Roots do not break sound drains, though they exploit joints that have already failed. The practical rule is to keep a tree's eventual spread inside the garden it is planted in, because a canopy that reaches over a boundary becomes somebody else's decision as well as the owner's.

Planting a tree so it can be pruned later

A young tree is planted with its root flare visible at the surface and staked low, with a single short stake at an angle and a tie that is checked every year, since the commonest injury to a young tree is a tie left on until it strangles the stem. The stake comes out after two or three seasons; a tree that has been allowed to flex builds a tapered, self-supporting trunk, while one held rigid does not. Gardens immediately north are covered by our gardening in Battersea.

The first five years decide the shape

Formative pruning is the cheapest work that will ever be done on a tree, and it is nearly always skipped. In the early winters the aim is a single dominant leader, evenly spaced branches around the stem, and the removal of anything crossing, rubbing or forming a tight narrow fork, because those forks split in later life. Lower branches are taken off gradually over several seasons rather than all at once, so the trunk thickens as it clears. Cuts made at this size heal completely; the same decision deferred for fifteen years means a wound the width of a hand.

Under the canopy, and what falls from it

Ground beneath a tree is dry and root-filled within a few years, so a border planned there wants shade-tolerant planting and a mulch rather than annual digging. Aphid honeydew from lime and maple leaves a sticky film that blackens on furniture and paving below, and that comes off with pressure washing across South West London rather than a brush. Squirrels stripping bark from a young tree, or activity around the base of an older one, is a separate matter that goes to South West London flea treatment.

What comes off, and how the work is arranged

Formative work on a young tree produces almost nothing and can be done from the ground during an ordinary visit, charged by the length of it. Anything needing a chainsaw above shoulder height, climbing, or work over a structure is a different trade with its own qualifications and insurance, and protected trees need consent before a cut is made. Where a mature specimen is being reduced or removed, the volume fills a vehicle faster than anyone expects and moves in the way the local team handles a bulky load. How tree work sits inside the rest of the year is described at our garden maintenance team.