Recently the missus and I had to get our beloved tree in our backyard removed. The tree has been on the property longer than we have, and had grown into quite the monster – more than 40 ft tall. We initially called the arborists, thinking that the tree would only need a trim. A couple of the branches near the top were breaking and we thought it was a bit dangerous. But when the professional arborist came around for the consultation he said that the tree was diseased and hollow inside and was on the verge of crashing onto the house! We were very surprised.

So we ended up getting the full tree removal. Near Ormond, where we live, there are a lot of large trees in the back of properties like ours. I only hope their trees don’t suffer the same fate as ours did. My wife and I watched the arborist in fascination. He did an incredible job of dismantling the tree, using ropes and harnesses to get up there and remove one branch at a time. It was very professional and and you could tell he’d had a lot of training to be able to do that sort of things so efficiently. I was glad that we found a company nearby and that we didn’t have to look far across Melbourne. Tree removal services seem obscure but I guess they’re common enough.

By the end of it, although we were sad to see our tree gone, the arborist offered us a few mementoes from our once-beloved bush. He gave us free firewood to keep us toasty during the winter and also some mulch for the garden. We don’t use enough mulch that’s for sure, and the earth gets too dry and compact and it’s hard to plant veggies. So the freebies were much appreciated.