Laurel Bushes

Charco_2

Bought a new house and the entire garden seems to be vanishing behind a hedge of Laurel encroaching on all sides. I hate it! Lots of other bushes eating up my space too but the Laurel is my main grievance!

ANYWAY. Decided that it has to go and asked a company for a quote to take it all away and they came back with £1,600 :eek: ... so on Saturday i bought a machette and i have to say it's great craic - i feel like a real man (or a mid-African gang member!)

BUT I was wondering if anyone had any tips for removing such large scale amounts of foliage? Anything in particular i should be aware of concerning Laurel (which i think is poisonous!) Anything else? Worth keeping the tree trunks for anything? Any of it worth composting?

I know this will still leave behind a large network of roots etc but i'm happy to deal with those/dig them out as and when i get to that part of my garden! I want to get a vegetable patch (even though i know my girlfriend will refuse to eat anything out of the garden because of the water-tight argument that "yeuch, that's just out of the garden!")

christineperseus

Big bonfire - burns really well - surprizing with those evergreen leaves.
Yes very poisonous - cyanide!

Charco_2

Any tips for bonfiring then? (I assume you mean a small leaf burning pile!)

I know my neighbour burns leaves occasionally coz the smell gets in my bedroom window now and again - he was at it yesterday! No big flames, just a smouldering, smoking, half fire.

Are there any restrictions on this?

Mortal

you'd be wise to check your local council. Some councils are smoke free zones.
I'm sure I recall something about having to wait until after 6pm though. And it's always polite to let your neighbours know so you don't coincide with their laundry drying outside

retiredlady

I didn't know about the laurel - cyanide thing. If you burn it will the smoke be dangerous?

paddy's_mum

You almost certainly need to work now on getting out those roots. I can promise you that such is the strength of laurel that by the spring, those stumps will be sprouting and growing well again. It might even surprise you by growing strongly until we get the first really hard frost of this autumn.

I'm a bonfire woman myself but if you haven't the space or opportunity, you could bag the leaves and drop off a sack or two every time you are passing your local dump - should be all gone in a year or two!

Good luck and enjoy your future vegetable patch. ps Your girlfriend would never touch another vegetable if she should see just what (treated sewage, slaughterhouse water/blood waste, pungent pig or poultry manure) gets spread on or ploughed into the fields around here!

jellymid

**Keep your car windows open if you are bagging and taking to the tip. **
Do you have a green waste collection? If so, a good way to get to know the neighbours would be to ask if they have any space in their bins on the night before collection. Alternatively, hire a shredder?

Charco_2

http://www.gardenseeker.com/poisonous_plants.htm

"The common Cherry Laurel (below) Our garden doctor service was recently asked if the 'cherries' on her evergreen cherry laurel were ok to eat. Good thing she asked first - they are quite poisonous. (A problem here, is that the edible cherry, and the laurels all share the same family name. They are all Prunus!) A bigger problem is the nickname - Cherry Laurel.
Whilst we are talking of Laurels, it is interesting to note that there are other dangers with some Laurels. For instance, the Portuguese Laurel (Prunus lusitanica) has cyanide compounds in its leaf structure. On no account should this foliage be burnt."

dont know what type of Laurel i have but i think i'll err on the side of caution... no green bins so it'll be multiple trips to the dum for me!

jasmin10

We did a similar things with our garden, the only difference being it was covered with conifer. We managed to dig dowwn and with lots of hard work got them each out roots and all.

We then chopped up with an axe and do them to the tip. The greenery bit we bought a shredder to ease it a bit.

Funny though, as we have replaced it with laural lol

Charco_2

I can see plenty of other laurel hedges in my street but they're all maintained at about a 3 or 4 foot high and while they're small they're nice enough. Mine is 6 foot tall on one side, at least 10 foot tall on the other with some hitting 12 feet high and the three or four bushes at the bottom of the garden are pushing 15 to 20 foot!

Altogether coming in from both sides i reckon they take up 9 foot at least of the width of my garden.

I've recently laid a patio (my first ever proper piece of handymannery!) and now I intend to start a nice small low level garden with pretty flowers for the lady and a decent sized veg patch for some experimentation (to see if i like it or have the discipline for it!)

My laurels had to go - no point resting on them :rotfl:! (my taxi is already here)

Charco_2

Could have been a coincidence but i started to feel seriously unwell over the last few days ripping out the laurels... garden looks so much bigger now though!

Does anybody know if the fact that laurels have been decomposing on the ground for the last few years under the trees would have a harmful affect on the soil!? Would it cause a problem for me growing small amounts of veg for eating? Or is my paranoia going into overdrive?