SBK (or stronger?) - please don't judge!

As a direct result of me being extremely busy work wise and the simple fact that I cannot do things at the same level I once could, my garden got completely out of hand this year. It wasn't helped by the fact that I simply lost my mojo for it too (I suspect that was in part driven by looking at it and knowing it was becoming harder by the day).. anyway, here was the state of it:









I invested in some power tools to assist, as doing things by hand isn't really an option anymore and intermittently this week we have been tackling it - this is as it stands now:







The laurel needs some 'refinement' to its shape, and those evergreens will have to be dealt with in the future. As you can see, there is a ton of branches etc to deal with (thank goodness I have two different styles of shredder and can burn the thicker stuff in my chimnea)

Now, once I get this cleared out, I need to do something to stop it/kill it if it appears in future. We tried putting down weed suppressing fabric last year and that did the grand total of nothing - the two worst weeds are the buddleia (grows out from behind the greenhouse, from a crack at the bottom of the fence) and brambles. The brambles have appeared since we bought 'thornless' ones years ago that came to nothing but seem to have subsequently reverted to thorny ones and they grow with vigour - stems that needed a brush cutter to get through them as they were so thick.

I am contemplating putting some SBK brushwood killer into my armoury but wondered if it was the ideal one? I realise that, if used, there could be collateral damage but at this stage I don't really care.

 

I was thinking more when things reappear if I am honest - I am well aware that this is merely the first battle and nowhere near winning the war, not least as we have quite literally just hacked the living daylights out of stuff so we can see the wood for the trees. There are entire strips (such as in front of the greenhouse) that I would rather nothing grew there at all, so even if it required some repeated applications...

I have an acer and hydrangea in one part that I would rather keep if we can, but otherwise I am not overly bothered - and the way things are, even if they bit the dust, I would accept it. I'm assuming that I could (hopefully) selectively apply the SBK or whatever I get?

 

Yeah, I think my plan is definitely longer then - hack it down for this year and then from next spring break out the SBK.

 

Paint on a very strong mix. It's how I've used SBK and seems quite effective and is targeted

 

I didn't think of painting it on - good call.

 

I don't think I will manage ship shape this year if I am honest; I do need to tidy it before winter though. I have a reciprocating saw joining the fleet tomorrow which will help chop up some of the thicker branches and we can shred the rest.

 

What is a couple of days to you as a fit person runs into weeks to someone disabled, hence the garden has gotten into the state that it is in. I've been doing battle with this for the past four years and each year it gets worse rather than better - to the point, that this year I all but gave up on gardening at all. If SBK or anything else means that nothing will regrow for a year, then so be it, but literally nothing I have tried so far is keeping this at bay.

I cannot afford a pro, so have to do it myself (or at least myself and my other half) and whilst I know I will get there with it, I simply cannot have this repeating at this level because it is making gardening a major chore rather than a pleasure.

 

I can't remember the brands off the top of my head - I have rotary/disc type which I think is a Challenge one and the other is the grinding drum types; both are from the cheaper end of the market really, with the former being best for the smaller/green stuff and the other for the larger more woody stuff. For the stuff thicker than that, I will get cut into logs suitable in size to put into the chimnea and can keep my toes warm once dried (next year's fuel).

The fabric seemed like a great idea at the time, but now.. not so much. Maybe if I had put bark on top, it might be a different story, but the amount of bark I think I would need would cost a fortune.