This is one of the younger oak trees along the drive, towards Garrard House, maybe over fifty years old, vigorous and in good health.
This next picture is of one of the best trees in the whole parish, an old giant of an oak that sits just outside Garrard House, and must be well over 100 years old.
This lovely oak opposite the staff car-park entrance has been heavily pruned in the past. The large boll on the left shows several apparently flush pruning cuts of what appears to be secondary branching that have no signs of later callusing over, although they are now very much hidden in the surface of the main trunk.
This picture below is an example of a very large branch having been removed. The tree made valiant efforts to heal itself, and there is a good roll of callus in a nicely circular surround over the wound. The decay in the heartwood in the centre however was pretty inevitable when making such a large wound, and removing such a large branch, and really the only way to avoid this is to think fifty years or so ahead, and do your formative pruning while the branch is still small!
The surface of the decaying heartwood looks as though it has been covered with black wound paint - the wood below looks much paler - now very much out of favour, although it was very much in vogue up to about 15 years ago. It is now thought to do more harm than good.
It is however interesting to compare the picture above with the one below, a large wound, which does not show any sign of wound paint applied, that has healed pretty well on the Garrard House oak - although not too many conclusions should be drawn as there are so many factors involved.
This tree in the picture below is quite a bit older, middle-aged perhaps, and has not had an easy time of it. It has now been greatly reduced to provide greater safety to passers-by. This should allow it to be retained for many more years to come, although probably not all the way through its natural lifespan.
This lovely oak opposite the staff car-park entrance has been heavily pruned in the past. The large boll on the left shows several apparently flush pruning cuts of what appears to be secondary branching that have no signs of later callusing over, although they are now very much hidden in the surface of the main trunk.
This picture below is an example of a very large branch having been removed. The tree made valiant efforts to heal itself, and there is a good roll of callus in a nicely circular surround over the wound. The decay in the heartwood in the centre however was pretty inevitable when making such a large wound, and removing such a large branch, and really the only way to avoid this is to think fifty years or so ahead, and do your formative pruning while the branch is still small!
The surface of the decaying heartwood looks as though it has been covered with black wound paint - the wood below looks much paler - now very much out of favour, although it was very much in vogue up to about 15 years ago. It is now thought to do more harm than good.
It is however interesting to compare the picture above with the one below, a large wound, which does not show any sign of wound paint applied, that has healed pretty well on the Garrard House oak - although not too many conclusions should be drawn as there are so many factors involved.
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