Our next door neighbor has a big magnolia tree in his backyard. The leaves and seedpods falling in our yard are constant work but the shade it provides in the summer is great. He needed to trim it back as it was getting too close to our house which is a wildfire hazard. (we live in a townhouse so our homes are attached). Since he's retired he has been doing it himself, slowly over the past month. At this point there is little tree left. I'm bummed that we won't have much shade this summer but it's his tree so I suppose he can do with it as he pleases. And he was polite enough to let us know that he'd be doing this and has been cleaning up the mess made in our yard due to the part that crossed over the fence. Is this how one should trim a magnolia?
Here are the before/after pics (helpfully turned sideways by the forum software so that everyone can stretch the muscles on the right side of their neck...)
before.jpg
after.jpg