People call about trees for three reasons. The tree has got too big for the garden. Something has died or split. Or a new patio, drive or fence cannot be built until the stump and the low branches are dealt with. All three are normal Hertfordshire jobs. The timing, and the paperwork, are what catch people out.
Check whether the tree is protected
A tree preservation order, or a tree in a conservation area, can mean you need consent before you fell it or cut it hard. The council depends on the town:
- Hertsmere — Elstree, Borehamwood, Radlett, Bushey, Potters Bar, Shenley
- Watford — the borough itself
- St Albans City and District — St Albans, Harpenden, London Colney
- Dacorum — Hemel Hempstead
- Welwyn Hatfield — Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City
- East Herts — Hertford
- Stevenage Borough Council — Stevenage
Asking the council is cheaper than replacing a tree you were not allowed to fell. We treat that check as part of booking the work, not as an optional extra. Certificates for the arborists are kept up to date, and the site is run with health and safety first.
Nests, sap and the month you pick
It is an offence to damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird while it is in use or being built. Through the main nesting months, which in practice run from early spring into summer, a tree should be looked at before anyone climbs it. If a nest is active, the job waits.
Species matter too. Birches, walnuts and maples bleed heavily if they are pruned hard in spring, when the sap is rising. A reduction is often kinder in the dormant months. Fruit trees and hedges have their own windows. Deadwooding — taking out dead timber — can usually be done with less argument from the tree, but it still needs a look for nests.
The Potters Bar garden we published had the light taken by overgrown conifers. Cutting those back was part of the design, not a separate afterthought. If a row of conifers is the reason the patio is gloomy, say so at the start and the tree work can be sequenced with the build.
What the visit can include
The surgery list is felling, crown reduction, crown lifting, re-shaping, deadwooding, coppicing, thinning, pollarding, pruning and stump removal. Stumps matter if you are about to pave. A stump left in a new patio is a trip and a rot pocket.
You do not need the vocabulary on the phone. Describe the tree, what it is doing, and what you want the garden to do afterwards. Jake will tell you whether it is a prune, a reduction or a felling, and whether the council needs to hear about it first.