Congratulations, no damage to the gnome. If you prune any other branches of a similar size or smaller you could use a step cut prior to the final cut, essentially you make two cuts either side of the branch separated by a couple of inches, this depends on species and is informed by experience. With respect to the leaves, have you experienced any frosts recently? With respect to crown asymmetry as long as the root system is sound at this moment I would not be unduly worried by removing dead branches from the other tree. It is not a particularly tall tree and does not look to be exposed to high winds. It is surprising the horrendous damage which can be sustained by a tree and yet still survive. Much as I would like to, I can’t really ask you and your family to stay off the root zone but anything you can do to avoid further compaction would help both trees. You might find sectioning the larger limb a bit testing with your hand saw but if the branch has been dead for some time it may well be dry enough to behave like seasoned wood.

For those that were expressing interest in trees and arboriculture, if you have time the Arb. Association are running a series of freely accessible lectures by Andy Hirons, A.A. membership not required.

Oh that’s a good heads up, cheers.

Nice work OP. I’ve spent this morning removing dead branches from a mature Mulberry tree. The tree had fallen over some years ago but is still growing and producing fruit (it’s more like a mulberry bush) sadly it’s had no tlc, so nettles and brambles had to be removed before I could start the dead limb removal

Cheers Matt. I’ll post up a picture of the other tree so you can see what I mean.

Yeah, I guess wind exposure isn’t too bad, being in a built-up area with not huge distances between houses (probably 100-150 yards to the two-storey house in the direction of the prevailing wind) plus the big conifer.

There was one or two days last week when there was a mild frost, yes. Hopefully that’s it.

The roots aren’t in a high traffic area so compaction hopefully isn’t a problem – just the odd trip to the composter or to fill the bird feeder.

Thanks for the heads up about the lectures, I’ll have a listen – I find it really interesting, and a few years ago considered semi-seriously changing careers to arboriculture. Seems a nice combination of applied technical knowledge and physical work.

I found it strangely satisfying just removing this branch and breaking it down into kindling and bigger logs though.