Sycamore tree dropping bits into garden!

[annie12]

Hello everyone! I'm totally new here and I'm afraid I'm about to show my total ignorance about trees and see if anyone can advise me!

My nextdoor neighbour has an absolutely massive tree in his back garden that I believe is a sycamore - it has large green leaves, grows bobbly greeny yellow bits in the spring and drops 'helicopters' in the autumn. It overhangs my garden by several feet and so it has just dropped all the greeny yellow bobbly bits (pollen?) all over my garden. My garden is gravel and last year one of the other neighbours told me these bobbly bits would cause loads of weeds in my garden if I didn't pick them up, so I spent six hours one weekend picking them all up by hand Now this year, I was planning to do the same again but another friend told me she believes these wouldn't cause weeds at all, and I should just leave them alone rather than waste time picking them all up. Sorry to sound so ignorant but what's best to do?

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by annie12

Hello everyone! I'm totally new here and I'm afraid I'm about to show my total ignorance about trees and see if anyone can advise me!

My nextdoor neighbour has an absolutely massive tree in his back garden that I believe is a sycamore - it has large green leaves, grows bobbly greeny yellow bits in the spring and drops 'helicopters' in the autumn. It overhangs my garden by several feet and so it has just dropped all the greeny yellow bobbly bits (pollen?) all over my garden. My garden is gravel and last year one of the other neighbours told me these bobbly bits would cause loads of weeds in my garden if I didn't pick them up, so I spent six hours one weekend picking them all up by hand Now this year, I was planning to do the same again but another friend told me she believes these wouldn't cause weeds at all, and I should just leave them alone rather than waste time picking them all up. Sorry to sound so ignorant but what's best to do?

Whatever the tree is - and it does sound like a sycamore, the stuff that's falling now will not produce seedlings - your Autumn 'helicopters' however are different matter, as those are the mature seeds. What you are currently seeing are the dead 'male' flowers that have finished distributing pollen.

CM

[Lance Morgan]

We have a very large Sycamore with the same problems. The bobbly bits are the old flowers not seed so they won't germinate. They are sticky and get in the house on your feet and make a mess but will shrivel and go away.
The helicopters are seed and will germinate in the spring. I usually pull the seedlings out then in the border or mow them over if on the lawn before they get too big. Then there are the leaves falling the birds roosting and messing etc.
I don't like Sycamores

[annie12]

Ooh, I love it here already - such quick answers and exactly the ones I wanted - thanks so much both Yep, I'm resigned to picking up the helicopters in autumn as I know they produce scary baby trees, but I'm pleased to know I don't have to worry about the bobbly bits, fab news. Luckily, they only fall into my back garden, which we don't walk through to reach the house, so the sticky problem shouldn't be too great.

Incidentally, I hate sycamores too - and this one is enormous. Bit of a bone of contention with the neighbour as he refuses to get a tree surgeon to it and it really does need cutting back - he's not even willing to let me go halves on it, which I think is a rather reasonable offer, but that's a whole other story

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by annie12

Bit of a bone of contention with the neighbour as he refuses to get a tree surgeon to it and it really does need cutting back - he's not even willing to let me go halves on it

You are entitled to cut back any growth that extends across the boundary over your property. The limitations of this cut back approach is that it doesn't allow 'shaping' of the tree, which makes your offer to share costs of a proper job even more reasonable. If you do go down the cut back route, you are legally obliged to offer your neighbour all the material taken from the tree and you have no right to cut anything on his side. And to be on the safe side legally, check with your local Council that there's no Tree Preservation Order in place as that may affect what you are allowed to do, even on your side of the fence.

CM

[Hobjob]

Rather than try and pick up all the helicopters in the Autumn, it is probably
easier to go round next spring with glycophosphate or an hoe and get rid of the ones that have germinated.

At the 2-4 leaf stage they are easy to destroy.

[annie12]

Thanks again for more good advice We did do a bit of a cut back job on the tree last year but, if you can picture this, the neighbour's property is about six feet higher than mine and the tree is then about 3 storeys high, so it's impossible to get near the very top branches without professional equipment. Neighbour refuses to budge though, says he can't afford even to go halves and that if my only concern is the leaves etc dropping into my garden, he's willing to climb over the fence and pick some of them up occasionally, which isn't really what I had in mind! I'm actually more worried that the tree is too big for the area it's in, but he reckons it's a reasonable height and what can you do when the tree owner isn't bothered? He's a strange bod - he also has a tree in his front garden that grew so far over my side that I had to duck to get into my front door, so he reluctantly agreed I could cut it back as long as he had the branches back - which are still lying in his garden two years later - obviously not as garden proud as I am

[Fuzzy-felt bloke]

I love sycamores

Fuzzy-Felt Bloke

[artdemole]

Try the local council.They may take him to court or remove branches and then bill him.But then you might make him an enemy.

[Gill Catton]

I'd agree with Hobjob, pulling up baby trees is easy (and weirdly quite satisfying!) far easier than picking up the seeds.

Incidentally though I know that obvously different people have differing priorities for their garden, a garden that is too tidy can be a bit like a desert for wildlife and leaving dead branches in your garden is actually quite good for wildlife as it really it draws in insects that feed birds and amphibians and gives helpful slug-eating frogs and toads somewhere to hide too.

I wouldnt worry too much about leaves either as so long as they are on grass the earthworms are likely to take care of them over the winter.