Is it a sin to cut down a tree?

Eucalyptus trees will drop perfectly healthy branches without any warning if the weather gets dry. It's part of their survival mechanism to reduce the amount of water they need to survive.

They are not safe trees to have near a house. Also as someone mentioned they are quite flammable - if you go to Australia you see mile after mile of Eucalyptus trees that are scorched but not destroyed as they just fuel the fire with their resin and it leaps from one tree to the next.

The tree will survive at the expense of anything around it, or anyone under it.

They are an interesting tree but I wouldn't want one in my garden.

I'd warn your neighbour and explain why, but tell them the same day or the evening before and plant something more appropriate.

My neighbour had a beautiful mature flamingo willow that hung over my fence and was the nicest thing in my garden until I could afford to get my garden properly done. They sold and I came home one day and new neighbours had chopped the tree down and were digging out the beautiful garden to put down fake grass😭. Then having destroyed it all, they moved out themselves 6 months later 😠 . People do get very attached to natural things in their environment.

Cut it down and replace with native hedgerow plants, or something insect and bird friendly.

I've just had to chop down an apple tree as it was next to the kids playhouse and half the trunk had rotted but the tree was still happily flowering. I'm upset but we'll replace it as soon as possible.

CUT IT DOWN! I say this with experience. Eucalyptus grow taller than their roots grow out If it hasn't been maintained in its early life. it will take years for the roots to catch up. I perhaps say this with judgement as we had a similar situation. Difference being the wildlife were using it to access our loft space. ££££'s of pounds later trying to get on top of a squirrel invasion we finally cut it down. Having said that, if it doesn't sway too much in the wind (the earth would move up and down with our one when it was windy) then it's probably safe to cut it back. However they do need cutting back yearly as they do grow super fast. So you need to decide if that's something you can justify paying for 😊

Yeah, you shouldn’t ‘consult’ the neighbours unless you are neutral about the decision and are happy to go along with what they want.
You might want to ‘inform’ the neighbours in some circumstances, so they know there are good reasons for your decision and that it is non negotiable but that you will be replacing it with something more suitable.

I wouldn't replace it with a lilac - lovely in bloom but the rest of the year not so much. I'd put a hawthorn in - native, beautiful, you can get really showy ones, and you get good autumn colour too. Or a mountain ash.

If the tree is in light, would you consider planting a lilac in its place? They don’t grow fast and are great for pollinators.

I'm also in the get rid camp. Replace it with a nice fruit tree or something similar.
We had several conifers at the back when we bought our house. Hated them, they stopped the grass growing around them and left the neighbours in shade. We waited until summer, removed the dividing fence between us and the neighbour for the day and we had a tree felling party.
DH and neighbour got them down (neighbour was a loon who climbed up a ladder and lopped the buggers half way yelling timber as he went. health and safety was most certainly not followed 😂), neighbours wife and I started the BBQ and a lovely afternoon was had. Neighbour even took the wood for his log burner.

I replaced them with some cotoneaster for the berries, a cherry tree and a couple of other smaller fruit trees.

The problem with consulting the neighbours is that it really ties you into a course of action. If they say “Oh no! We love that tree” then it looks terrible if you go ahead and chop it down.

It won't have a TPO, they're not native and grow ridiculously fast, they're not really suitable for built up areas and definitely not for small gardens. We had one removed years ago. A tree surgeon told us they have a very shallow root system, but grow too big in this country (they're not native) so become unstable and are at greater risk of toppling. I would have it removed and replace with a smaller, slower growing native tree.

@Alexandra2001

TBH the thread is not about you and your neighbour problems.

I don't have neighbour problems, I made a comment and then have responded to other posters replies about said comment. Normal flow of conversation?

I shall step away because it's clearly becoming a derail and I never intended that.

I was eating my lunch in a Sydney park one day, underneath a beautiful eucalyptus tree. A light breeze came up and all of a sudden a MASSIVE (at least 10cm diameter) branch crashed down about a metre from where I was sat. It shook me and is one of my near death experiences. I learned an important lessen that day as an immigrant to Australia!!

TBH the thread is not about you and your neighbour problems.

I'd tell the neighbours (most people do get on with them) because cutting down a big tree is fuggin noisy i.e chainsaws & shredders.

Not even in Hinduism and we worship then. Consider it freeing it from the earthly plane.

There isn't really a backstory- not telling the neighbours but m cutting a tree because I don't talk to them doesn't mean a huge backstory it just means I don't owe them the common courtesy a PP suggested.

It won't be that old, eucalyptus grow like billyo. Not a native species, not remotely endangered, get rid. They are profoundly unsuitable for the average garden anyway.

Oh my ! Mud. Before moving to the country I did not know that being stuck in the mud was an actual thing. You try to walk but your boot is still stuck behind you, then you've got a bare foot with nowhere to go. It's awful. I'm buying some water sucking trees now. Last winter was horrific.

The buggers do randomly drop huge branches or just randomly fall over in a big wind or a flood. I'd get rid of it and plant three in its place. Therefore you have more than atoned 😅

We just had to cut down a tree in our garden as the sap attracted so many wasps that it became almost impossible to sit in the garden without wasps everywhere. Felt really sad cutting it down but year on year it just got worse and worse :(

It's MN, there's always a back story. Probably involving three nuns, a rotavator, and a mystery coach tour to Blackpool.

We are having two massive leylandii felled sometime this year. They are about 30 feet tall and at the bottom of our garden. They don't cause a nuisance to anyone else as they back onto a field and were planted by the previous house owners years ago to hide a telegraph pole.

They are just ugly and unsuitable, I would rather see the telegraph pole! Also the other trees near it in the garden will have a chance to thrive.

I would say the first thing to do is to get some more quotes! I had a tree taken down a while ago and the quotes I got were very different, but also, way lower than that.

Also think of it as an opportunity to improve the environment for wildlife by choosing a more appropriate tree. Eg RSPB best trees for wildlife

You can do penance for the sin of tree felling. The woodland Trust suggests replacement planting 3 saplings for every tree felled.
So it is fairly easy to earn forgiveness for that sin.

Go ahead and get the tree cut down. It sounds as though it makes it difficult for you to use your garden.

@Youheshetheysaid

So there’s a back story 😂

Even without the (funny?) backstory, which isn't really a story, we just don't talk, I don't see why anyone should be telling their neighbours about their plans to buy their own tree.