This patch puts two very different kinds of garden either side of a council boundary. In Birmingham, Edgbaston has very large town gardens, with trees planted when the Calthorpe family laid out the estate in the 19th century, and Harborne mixes Victorian terraces with the Moor Pool garden suburb. In Sandwell, Bearwood and Smethwick are tightly packed late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces, and Oldbury and Langley mostly interwar and post-war semis.
B15, B17 and B32 are Birmingham City Council. B67 and B68 are Sandwell Council. B16 and B66 straddle the two: most of B16 is Birmingham, while most of B66 (Smethwick and Bearwood) is Sandwell. Tree rules, bin services and tips all depend on which council you are in.
Branch and Bramble never carries out work itself. We pass your enquiry to one local specialist who covers these postcodes, and they give you a fixed price.
Garden waste and tips
Sandwell (Bearwood, Smethwick, Oldbury, Langley). Garden waste is a paid subscription, frozen at £40 for 2026 for up to 20 collections, running from spring to December with a winter break. Subscriptions for 2026 opened on 19 January (Sandwell garden waste). The borough's only tip is on Shidas Lane, Oldbury, close to B68. Every visit needs a booking, which can be made up to two weeks ahead, and you must bring ID for the property the waste came from. Vans and cars with trailers are limited to one booking every four weeks (Sandwell tip).
Birmingham (Edgbaston, Harborne, Quinton, Bartley Green). The council's paid garden waste service was suspended in 2025 because of the bin strike, and 2025 subscribers were refunded; check the council page for any restart. Birmingham has no tip in this part of the city. Harborne, Quinton and Bartley Green residents usually use Kings Norton, Lifford Lane, B30 3JJ, currently being redeveloped with fewer slots. Perry Barr, Holford Drive, B42 2TU can be easier from north Edgbaston and Ladywood. Book ahead and bring proof of a Birmingham address (booking).
Birmingham residents cannot use Shidas Lane, and Sandwell residents cannot use Birmingham sites, however close they are.
The local landscape
Edgbaston has Regency and Victorian villas on large plots with old trees: London plane, common lime, horse chestnut, copper beech, cedar of Lebanon, holm oak and yew. Many are well over 20 metres, so work near houses and walls needs rigging.
Harborne is more varied. Victorian and Edwardian terraces off the High Street have long, narrow gardens. The Moor Pool estate, built from 1907 as a garden suburb, has cottage-style houses with hedged front gardens and mature trees along the roads. Quinton and Bartley Green are mainly interwar and post-war semis, with conifer screens and ash along the boundaries.
Bearwood and Smethwick are dense terraces with small back gardens and rear entries; trees are often self-sown sycamore, ash or buddleia grown into walls. Warley, Oldbury and Langley have 1930s semis, and Warley Woods and Lightwoods Park bring mature parkland trees up to some back fences.
Garden clearance in Edgbaston & Harborne
In Edgbaston the challenge is volume: autumn leaf fall from a few mature planes and limes fills bags every week, and a large garden left for a year or two can take a crew more than a day. In Bearwood and Smethwick it is access, with everything coming out through a narrow entry or the house.
Clearances start from £220, with all the waste taken away. Common jobs:
- Overgrown garden clearance for rented terraces in Bearwood, Smethwick and Harborne between tenants
- Bramble clearance along back fences next to Warley Woods and railway lines
- Green waste removal for autumn leaves and prunings, especially on the Birmingham side where there is no council collection at the moment
- Hedge trimming of privet and beech on Moor Pool and Edgbaston frontages, at about £10 a metre
- Shed removal before a garden is landscaped
The council tips on both sides do not accept commercial vehicles or trade waste, so a clearance specialist uses licensed sites as a registered waste carrier. Our fly-tipping guide explains why that matters to you.
See the Edgbaston and Harborne garden clearance page or all clearance services.
Local questions
I live on the Calthorpe Estate. Who do I ask before tree work?
Possibly two bodies. If your home is within the Calthorpe Estate's Scheme of Management, you need the estate's permission for tree work (fruit trees aside), arranged through its managing agent. If the tree is in a conservation area or has a TPO, you also need to notify the council or get its consent. The estate's permission does not replace the council's.
Are all the trees in Moor Pool protected?
The council's appraisal says every tree standing when the conservation area was created is covered by TPO No 534 (1971). For those trees you need formal consent from Birmingham City Council before any cutting or removal. Later trees are protected by the conservation area, which means six weeks' notice. Check the council's online TPO map, and see do I need permission to cut down a tree?
Is Bearwood in Birmingham or Sandwell?
Bearwood is in Sandwell, although it sits right next to Harborne and Edgbaston. It means Sandwell's £40 garden waste subscription and the Shidas Lane tip, not the Birmingham services. Most of B66, B67 and B68 is Sandwell; B15, B17 and B32 are Birmingham.
Can a tree surgeon work from my neighbour's garden?
Only with the neighbour's agreement, so talk to them early. If it is their tree overhanging you, see our guide to cutting neighbours' overhanging branches.