How do you feel about a treehouse?

Question

My yard is a mess with a clump of four overgrown trees and brush below them. If I have the trees topped at 6 feet and a deck style treehouse, and clear the brush putting a thick layer of sand below would that be ok. Cannot afford to have trees cleared and levelled

Two overgrown thirty foot palms that cannot be cared for as they are too tal, and two nusience pepper trees that grew in there oportunistically.

Answer 1

Hi there! :) I love the idea of treehouses, but PLEASE do not top your trees. There are multiple reasons why topping is unhealthy and dangerous to trees.

It stresses the trees which reduces their resistance to disease and can even shorten their lifespan; it can lead to decay of the inner wood; it can cause sunburn/sunscald on newly exposed branches and/or the trunk; and it can cause new growth to quickly sprout from the topped areas -- this new growth eventually matures into branches that are attached in a very UNSTABLE way. These unstable braches are often known to break unexpectedly, which at best can damage your property and at worst can fall on a person or a pet, or in your case can cause the treehouse to fall.

Please see below for an excellent website that explains more about why topping is a bad idea, and why most arborists will refuse to even do it.

MAR. 20TH EDIT: In response to your edit -- there is NO species of palm tree that can be "topped" and still live. Palms have only one place where fronds grow from, called a "terminal bud". If you cut that off, the palm will never grow again; you'll just have a "headless" trunk sticking up in the air. I've seen it, and it's not pretty. :(

As for peppertrees, they're so irregularly shaped, I don't even think they COULD be topped! *chuckle* Most peppers don't even have a "central leader" (dominant vertical branch). I'm not sure what other advice to give you, aside from the fact that there are certain companies, especially here in California, that will actually PAY you to let them come and dig up certain species of palms, which they then turn around and sell to landscapers, hotel developers, etc.

Answer 2

Never top a tree. It leads the thing to go berserk. Imagine if your head were partly removed. . .

However, an expert can give you hints on which bigger branches to remove and from which side. You can guess too - look at the tree from all sides and find out which branches are most in the way. Look online for how to cut tree branches and what kind of saw works best. PRUNE your trees.

The house idea may or may not work, but your branches for getting the floor level need to be thick sturdy ones. Bear that in mind while pruning. Clear the brush and plant a good hardy grass or ground cover. Sand will allow what ever grew before to return. With a vengeance! Or use the bark mulch that they use in kids' playgrounds. it needs replenishing each year though to stay looking good. And it needs a barrier (railway ties are good) to prevent the stuff drifting off to other parts of the yard.

Answer 3

Don't top them, will only make things worse, one way or another. Clear the brush out. Check with your local landfill on wood chip mulch. Sometimes you can get all you want for little to nothing or free.
If you top them out, you might as well go ahead and have them removed, you'll be almost there anyway!

Answer 4

I love the idea of a rustic treehouse..