Clearing an overgrown garden

Davesnave

We have done lots of this over more than half an acre.

For my money, on smaller trees up to 25cm diameter, a digger is more effective than hiring someone with a stump grinder, who won't be able to remove all the roots etc or work at the same speed. However, the more of the tree you remove from the ground, the more you'll have to dispose of! Sawdust is easier than whole stumps, which cannot be chain-sawed, because of the soil and rock particles, which would wreck the chain.

If the trees are really large, and it sounds as if some are, it's unlikely that any size digger will be able to bring out the whole root. In that case, the digger would be able to break up the soil close to the stumps and take out the roots near the surface. Many useful sized diggers will go through a gap about 1m wide, as their tracks can move inboard.

Modern weedkillers based on glyphosate don't contaminate the soil and prevent you growing plants after you have used them, but they only work on living plant tissue, so if you chop stuff down before using, they will be less effective. They are pretty good at dealing with roots you miss, such as bramble, if painted on to emerging foliage.

When you get to the stage of turning the soil over on the cleared garden, it would be good to put some heart back into the soil by adding organic matter (manure, composted bark, old mushroom compost etc) and adding slow release fertilizer such as blood fish & bone. I can't advise about using a rotovator for the digging, because I don't know the state of the soil. Bear in mind that a wussy one won't cut through really compacted earth & stones, and the larger ones that might, can be a bit of a handful in themselves!

Lotus-eater

I was going to say similar to Dave, get as big a digger in as you can and pull up as much as you can.

Very nice garden, I love gardens like those!

Eenymeeny

Lots of good advice on here thanks. Good thread, I'm sure that we could keep it going as we progress? Thanks to op
I've taken some cuttings of Forsythia and lilac which usually root easily and will come in handy when I am eventually faced with bare perimeters.:D At the moment I have views of the back of my neighbours greenhouse and sheds.
Someone suggested chicken manure pellets to me as a quick fix to help condition the soil? Although apparently it could promote a lot of soft growth as it has a lot of nitrogen in it.
Since I am burning a lot of twigs and leaves can I use the ash at all? Been sprinkling some onto my heavy clay soil thinking that it might help break it up. Haven't established a compost heap yet. Thanks for any advice. I hope this is ok as I don't intend hijacking the original post but thought that it might be a help to all of us in the same situation...:o:)

amcluesent

>Any advice would be great,<

Stump grind all the trees then buy a couple of tonnes of topsoil to refresh the ground before planting anything. Raised beds would give you 15cm-20cm of good soil.

Lotus-eater

Eenymeeny wrote: »

Since I am burning a lot of twigs and leaves can I use the ash at all? Been sprinkling some onto my heavy clay soil thinking that it might help break it up. Haven't established a compost heap yet. Thanks for any advice. I hope this is ok as I don't intend hijacking the original post but thought that it might be a help to all of us in the same situation...:o:)

Don't burn leaves, they made great soil conditioner, stack them in a giant pile somewhere and you can use them in beds in a year or so.
Yes you can use the ash, I don't think it will help condition the soil, but it's a decent short term fertiliser. If you can, it's better added to the compost heap, it doesn't get leached out so fast.

sirbrainy

We got a Bobcat digger in and that was a smart move in hindsight - we grubbed up even quite big trees and pushed them all together so that we could burn them later.

Regarding your trees that are too tall with no lower branches: you'd possibly be surprised how well most trees grow back when cut back severely. Eg we had a huge oak maybe 35ft high. We cut it back to 8m or so with no branches showing at all, just the trunk.

A few years later it has remained smallish (10ft) with a lovely round top, very healthy and the birds love it. The branches grew back strongly very quickly the spring after we cut it in October/November.

Just a thought - you might have a horror show with your remaining 5 monsters but maybe one or two would be worth keeping/ maybe screen out a neighbouring house or give you privacy plus be valuable architectural elements to your garden?

Eenymeeny

Thanks again for the advice. We've got plenty of leaves as we have a huge beech tree casting shadow over the bottom half of our (and neighbours garden:o) Thinking of leaving some leaves along the back of the border as I've already disturbed 2 toads and would like to keep them happy;). So it looks like piling up the other leaves and mixing them with bonfire ash would be ok? and thanks for the tree trimming advice as I'm trying to persuade OH who wants to keep it and I want to prune it. Looks like it would survive if we do as sirbrainy suggests.:T

Mrs_Huggett

You need to find yourselves a decent tree surgeon, who is insured and has an established business in your area, not someone from a leaflet shoved through the door, try getting two or three to give you a quote, also they can advise you on any problems you may have when removing larger trees, such as heave, this can cause major problems for nearby houses, they should also be aware of any council laws regarding your trees depending on the species and whether they would be subject to a tree preservation order. I had a tree surgeon who stopped work on a stump of a very old apple tree because we found stag beetle larvae in the under growth and I shook his hand! he came back much later that year and did sort out the stump, that's the sort of company you need, not slash and burn!!

m4rky

I need to get some more pictures up as the garden doesn't look quite same after a few bank holidays of work.

I am ok with getting the trees removed or not removed. I will get a few quotes/opinions from the pros about them.

I am more worried about the bramble and ivy. I have dug out most of the big roots from them but there are masses of smaller roots that therad their way across the garden.
If I get myself a small digger (the only access to the garden is via the garage or a small gate at the side so it will have to be tiny) and dig the top couple of feet of ground will I have to remove that soil or will the digging/churning of the earth be enough to stop the roots from regrowing? Or should I then also spray with someform of weedkiller?
I don't want to start planting and getting a nice new lawn in to find Ivy growing in the middle of it.

Eenymeeny

Hi m4rky I've used Wilkinsons tree stump and perenial weedkiller today. 2 sachets in a box for £3 something, quite a bit cheaper than Roundup. I mixed it to 1 litre and painted what I could reach with it... then sprayed what I had left. I'll let you know how I get on...:)