The other holiday project: the tree from hell

Belhambra or Phytolacca dioica is a South American tree that has become an invasive species in my country. Due to the size of the tree base, they have a reputation for destroying walls and foundations and as you can see, it took down the back wall at my place. Instead of removing the tree, the previous owner paid to build another extremely ugly, badly-built wall which promptly started separating in the corner.

2 years ago, we started cutting down the tree and managed to get 3 of the four main trunks down but the left-hand trunk proved impossible due to the extent which it overhung the neighbour's place and I was short of cash to pay a tree-feller so it ended up remaining and kept on growing new branches which eventually made it start to resemble a natural ladder, giving me a chance to attack it again.

My friend Thomas's daughter is a student and stays with me and he and the family came to stay for a week or two and he agreed to help me with this. It turned out I was the only one who could safely get up there due to the amount of swaying while it still had branches so after we cut off all the lower branches, I had to cut off all of the upper branches using an axe and a machete. Definitely made me wonder just how crazy I actually am, the trunk was a good 7 meters tall but I also get a kick out of conquering my fears enough to do something like that so I called on my inner teenager and found that it was up to the task.

Finally, by Friday I had this:

But then we were stuck: my chainsaw wasn't up to the task. Yes, I own a pissy little chainsaw and the axe wasn't easy to wield at an angle more suited to a left-hander, which I am not. Coincidentally, there were some plumbers working next door and one of them told me to take it easy and phone his friend Elias, a tree feller. I called him up and after some negotiation, we agreed on a reasonable price and he came by at 8am this morning with his chainsaw and assistant and got it down in 2 hours.

Halfway there: it was educational to see how trees are cut down professionally using strategically tied straps to control and lower falling logs and well-thought-out cutting angles. Elias is a master of his craft and fearlessly went up the tree in his boots with heavy chainsaw and no safety harness although he showed us the scars on his fingers from an old chainsaw accident so he isn't blind to the dangers.

Now it is up to us to chop up the humongous base to prevent it regrowing and continuing it's destruction of the wall. I also need to think of how I am going to disguise that awful wall. I'm considering planting a natural screen of a good-looking giant bamboo.