The Method
How I Work a Tree, Step by Step
From your first email to the last rake across the lawn, told the way I would tell you standing in your garden.
Written by Henrike. Eight steps, in the order a job runs.
Step 01
You Write
Write to hello@sylovance.com and tell me where the tree is. The town or village is enough at this stage. Send two photos taken from different sides, ideally with something in the frame for scale: a bin, a garden chair, a person. Give me a rough height; even a guess helps, and "taller than the house" tells me a lot. Then tell me how we get in, because the chipper runs on tracks and the stump grinder needs a gap of 72 cm. If there is a deadline, a wedding in the garden or a builder arriving, say so.
I answer on weekday evenings, normally within three working days.
Step 02
We Come and Look
I walk round the tree before I look up. The root plate first: is the soil heaved on one side, has an old drain trench cut through the roots, has someone raised the lawn against the trunk. Then the bark, from the ground to as high as I can read it with binoculars, for cracks, seams, weeping patches and the loose plates that mean dead wood underneath. Then the deadwood in the crown, the old wounds and how well they have closed, and the brackets, if there are any. Every species answers a cut differently. A lime you cut hard will throw up a forest of new shoots the following summer, dozens from every wound, and if nobody comes back to thin them you end up with a heavier, weaker crown than you started with. A walnut does the opposite: it sulks, it bleeds sap for weeks if you cut it in spring, and it takes years to forgive a large wound. Horse chestnuts sit somewhere between the two and are more stubborn than they look. A bracket fungus at the base can mean everything or almost nothing. Some rot the wood that holds the tree up; others live quietly on one dead root for decades while the tree carries on regardless, so I look at which one it is, where it sits and how the wood sounds under a mallet before I say a word to you about it. And I always walk round to the neighbour's side too, if they let me, because a tree that looks balanced from your terrace can be leaning its whole weight over their garage roof, and that changes where every rope goes.
The visit and quote are free within 25 km of Freiburg.
I could go on. Ask me when I'm there.
Step 03
The Written Quote
Within ten working days of the visit you get a written quote. It lists the work cut by cut: which limbs come off and back to where, how far the crown is reduced, what we carry out and what stays as mulch, how long it takes and what it costs. If I think a tree is better left alone, the quote says so.
Beyond 25 km the visit costs €45, credited against the job if it goes ahead.
No deposit on private jobs under €1,500.
Step 04
Setting Out the Day
The week before, we tell the neighbours which day, roughly which hours, and whether the chipper will be running by their fence. On the morning we put barriers across paths and pavements, lay boards over lawns so the tracked chipper and the barrows leave no ruts, and move whatever can be moved. In churchyards every grave under the crown is covered with ply and sheeting before anyone climbs, and the day is agreed with the parish office so it never meets a funeral.
On site Monday to Friday, 07:00-16:30.
Step 05
The Climb and the Cut
We climb on ropes, anchored high in the crown, and move through the tree on them. Climbing spikes punch a wound with every step, all the way up, so they only ever go into a tree that is coming down anyway. When I reduce a crown I take each branch back to a side branch at least a third of the diameter of the cut, so there is a living limb to take over and draw sap past the wound. I never top a tree and I never strip out its inside, which people call lion-tailing. Every final cut sits just outside the branch collar, where the tree can close it.
A crown reduction takes about half a day.
Plate 2
Reduction to a Lateral
The leader comes off just above a side branch big enough to carry on.
- Cut 1
- just above the lateral, angled with the bark ridge
- D
- diameter at the cut
- d
- diameter of the lateral
- Rule
- d ≥ D/3
Plate 3
Cutting at the Branch Collar
Where the tree can seal the wound itself.
- C
- the cut: outside the ridge, outside the collar
- F
- flush cut, too close
- S
- stub, too far
Step 06
Felling Where Felling Is Right
Some trees should come down: dead, dying, split, or standing where they will do harm. Where there is room to drop one in a piece, I cut a notch on the side it should fall towards, then a back cut from the other side a little above the floor of the notch, and leave a band of wood between the two. That band is the hinge, and it steers the tree all the way to the ground.
Where there is no room, beside a house, a shed, a wall or a row of graves, we take the tree down in sections. Each piece is cut, held on a rope running through a lowering point higher in the tree, and let down under control by whoever is on the ground.
A sectional fell takes one to two days.
Felling is done from October to February.
Plate 4
The Felling Notch, Hinge and Back Cut
The hinge does the steering. Never cut through it.
- 1, 2
- the notch, opened 45-70°
- 3
- back cut, from the far side
- N
- notch depth 1/4-1/3 D
- H
- hinge about 1/10 D
- S
- step 3-5 cm above the notch floor
Step 07
Lowering, Chipping, Clearing
Brash goes into the tracked chipper as it comes down. Logs are cut to 33 cm rounds and stacked wherever you want them, by the shed or along a wall, or loaded and taken away at the chip rate. Up to 3 m³ of chip and brash removal is included in every job, or you can keep all the chip as mulch at no charge; under shrubs it holds moisture better than anything you can buy in a bag. Before we leave we rake, sweep and blow the paths, and walk the lawn for the small twigs.
- Logs
- 33 cm rounds
- Chip
- 3 m³ included, then €38/m³
Step 08
The Stump
The stump grinder is a narrow machine with a toothed wheel. We swing it side to side across the stump, a little deeper and a little further back with each pass, until we are 20 to 30 cm below the surface. The grindings go back into the hole and are levelled and firmed, and you can sow grass or plant straight over it. A single stump takes 30 to 90 minutes.
The grinder needs a gate or gap at least 72 cm wide. Anything narrower is ground with a hand-fed machine at the crew-day rate.
Plate 5
The Grinder's Sweep Pattern
Plan view on the left, section on the right.
- 1-5
- sweeps, each a little further back
- G
- 20-30 cm below the surface
- Gate
- 72 cm minimum
- Time
- 30-90 min per stump
Afterwards
The Invoice, and One More Visit
The invoice follows the work; please pay it by bank transfer within 14 days. If we reduced a crown, I would like to come back after its first summer and see how the tree has answered the cuts. There is no charge for that visit. It is how I find out which of my guesses were right.
Private jobs over €1,500: 20% at booking, the balance on the invoice.
Henrike
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