Andrew71s Project - South France

Hi Andrew, It's nice to see someone else working on their French land.
We seem to have many of the same problems.
It will be interesting to follow your progress.

 

Thanks Naylors Ark,

Its good to know someone else on here with a project in the same country as you may know somethings from your experiance I may be able to call on.

Going to try and get an overall plan of the garden in a format people can view as I only have it on CAD at the moment.

Cheers

Andrew

 

OK, the next thing I want to do in relation to the hard works is as follows:-

If you look at the picture which shows the new stone wall, above that to the right as a mass of blackberry bushes all the way up the slope. These encroach about 15-20ft into the garden, I have trimmed back about 12ft with my big petrol strimmer, but in my next visit will obviously have to trim back the new grown then continue to trip the remaining back to my boundary. The stems of these fellas are getting on for 25mm which is not a problem for my strimmer so I should be able to clear it all.

The question is, how can you prevent these things growing back?

The next question is, I want to plant a form of boundary hedge which requires no or very little maintenance, I was thinking of (excuse me for not having any idea what they are called) mini conifers/laylandi, the types of trees you see in peoples gardens which only grow to circa 8-10ft and planting a long row of them so when they are fully grown they will create a 'green screen', do you think this is a practical solution?

I am hoping I can put a post and wire mesh fence up on my boundary then put the row in front of them, which would hopefully prevent legged pests like ferral cats, and other legged creatures getting under the trees if it was left open.

Regards

Andrew

 

Hi Andrew,

Just want to say I have enjoyed reading your posts - I too am in France, but permanently and have similar rock hard clay in the summer and temps of - 20 in the winter - so plenty of challenges here!
Emma

 

Cheers Emma

The stuff is chuffin hard to dig thats for sure, a few beers and some good music does tend to make it a little easier though, although mid-day sun does wipe you out very quickly. Same here, my place has a very high altitude and similar, my max min thermometer read +41 and -18. I was the for the last few days in September and first couple of days in October and the temperature was still 23+ when the sun shone.

The solar panel company I am in discussions with at the moment appear to be concerned about the temp variations etc, but hopefully we will get there and I will be able to install my solar heating design in the house.

I was over for the early summer for a week and managed to clear all the lower part of the garden, I went to the gerden centre, got some hard wearing grass seed and sowed it across the whole area, for 3 days I watered it in the morning and night etc to give it a start, but then had to return home. I returned 2 months later and the only section of grass that had grown was under the trampoline. I think the sun had basically scorched the ground or I now have very fat birds.:lollol:

This will be the frustrating part of doing the garden as I will only be able to do certain work there untill I finally get chance to spend more and more time over there so I can keep on top of things like getting seeds/baby plants established etc.

I have found that my local garden centres are very very expensive for plants and especially trees etc as I looked at fruit trees and they were spindely and expensive. ( I do not have a great memory for things but I think they had a potted apple tree about 4ft high and they wanted 49euros for it) Over here I have found somewhere which has an offer of 5 mature fruit trees for £50, so on my next visit I will visit there and purchase them from there I think.

I was in a Aldi in a town I had to visit for a Brico Depot and they were selling bare root apple trees for 10 Euro, I though it is worth a punt, planted it and it is doing ok, even in the bad ground, so I will keep an eye on that and see how it progresses as it has been in the ground a year now.

I am in a situation where the property needs some big chunks of money spending on it which I can not afford at the moment, so most of my future visits will be sorting out the layout and structure of the garden.

Kind Regards

Andrew

 

OK, I have been doing some research and decided I am going to do a hedge rather than a fence.

The big problem at the moment is one side of the garden is full of blackcurrent bushes. I am going to cut the bushes down to the ground with my big strimmer, and was thinking of rotivating the ground to try and destroy the roots and stop further growth. Am I thinking correct here as the current spead is about 75ft by 20ft of bushes.

I was then thinking of putting a weed membrane down circa 750 wide on thr border, and planting bareroot hedge plants through, once this was done I would cover the weed membrane with stones. I am installing a wire fence on the border with small holes so that when the hedges grown, the fence will provide a low level barrier to prevent creatures coming under the hedge etc like ferral cats, chickens from the farm next door.

Deos this sound like a solution

Regards

Andrew

 

"The question is, how can you prevent these things [brambles] growing back?"

My in-laws bought a place in France some years ago, with an overgrown garden, and the locals recommended something sounding like "Debroussayant"(sp?) on the Brambles. They never came back! No idea if it is deadly-toxic-to-man-and-beast, or if now banned, but recommended!

We looked up "Debroussayant", or however it was spelled on the packet, in the dictionary and it seemed to just mean "Clearing scrub" or something like that, so I'm not even sure if it is a brand name.

In the UK I would use SBK for the same job - although I think that used to be 2,4,5-T or somesuch, and may well be a less vigorous concoction now - most of those "Agent Orange" type things have since been found to be way too noxious for the environment.

 

"I was then thinking of putting a weed membrane down circa 750 wide on thr border, and planting bareroot hedge plants through, once this was done I would cover the weed membrane with stones"

Sounds fine. Rotavate well down to 9" or so, incorpoating organic material (rotted, not fresh, manure or somesuch). I would recommend that you install a leaky-hose under the weed membrane so you can irrigate in the first few summers. Cut an "X" at each planting-station, and plant through. Bare-rooted should be planted between Nov-Feb or Mar, and the usual recommendation is to shorten the leader quite a bit (1/3rd? I have forgotten) - but NOT for Yew. The idea is to encourage them to bush-up, but it always seems sad to buy a 12" plant and then chop 1/3rd off it!

If you want a thick hedge plant a double-row in a zig-zag pattern

 

Ok, at least I was thinking on the right tracks.

I was thinking of the zig-zag pattern.

I have not decided what hedge plants to use. It would be easy to get a hedge in a short period of time by planting fast growing plants, however this would give me a much more maintenance demanding hedge in the future.

I have a lot of small rocks and very big rocks so the idea is to create a dead zone under the hedge which would hopefully require no maintenance. I know if you put a row of laylandii (sp) this would create a dead zone, but I am trying to create a headge that is dense at the bottom as well. The most critical part is that the hedge is evergreen as this is going to be around 80-100 ft long and the main divider between my land and the neighbours. The wire fence should then create a vertical face along the boundary for circa 1200mm high on the neighbours side with some of the hedge growing through to hide to visual impact for him.

It is just the choice of plant now, I want it to max at circa 8-10ft.

This is the next part of the project during my next visit.

I am just looking on ebay now for a rotivator, can purchase something not working as I am very handy with the spanners as well if it needs some work. No rush to purchase as not returning for a few months. If anybody knows where there is one for sale PMme please.

Will put some more pictures up after the next visit, but have lots more ideas to discuss before then.

Thanks

Andrew

 

I think Thuja Plicata Atrovirens makes a nice evergreen hedge. All the benefits of Leylandii without the drawbacks!

Other than that its:
Yew (faster than most people think, but relatively expesnive and certainly slower than most others)
Berberis darwinii if you want an unkempt-looking ("graceful" and "arching" perhaps?!!) but impenetrable thorny thicket
Escallonia for something flowering - can get a bit scraggly
Euonymous (also available in variegated form), tends to be more expensive
Box is probably a bit on the small side
Can't remember if Privet is evergreen?
It grows reasonably fast, but not 3' a year, so will be tolerable to maintain.

It will regenerate from old wood, up to a point, so can be taken back if it gets neglected (whereas Leylandii can't, and will just be "dead" if you do that)

Dunno if you can get the Atrovirens" cultivar locally, but I think it makes a nicer hedge plant, if you just ask for "Thuja plicata" you may get any-old-cultivar ...

I would recommend that you hire a big Rotavator (even perhaps a mini-tractor plus PTO-driven Rotavator). Then if you want something for on-going work you can get a small one - even something as small as a Mantis (which is a great workhorse, but not going to make much impact on compacted / untilled soil)

 

Kristen, thanks for the reply.

I have had a look at each of the suggestions you mentioned via google searches etc and I do like the look of the Thuja Plicata Atrovirens. And looking around found them at less that £2.00 per plant so could complete the whole hedge for circa £100. 2ft per year is manageable but can reach 100ft!!! Note to self, get some tall ladders.
If a hedge was made from these would you suggest zigzag or just a straigh row at 2ft ctrs.

I was also looking at a Laurel hedge as well. But it mentions it is not good in windy conditions and I do get some strong winds where I am at.

I think a rotivator of that size like you say (Mantis) would be good for on going maintenance but for the initial work I think I will need something a lot more heavy duty. I may have to have a chat with my farming neighbour and see what he has, but I do hink he only has a plough type thing. Still going to keep my eye out on Fleabay as some much bigger old ones come up which are not working at acceptable money, just miles away. LOL

Kind Regards

Andrew

 

I've planted 3 or 4 Thuja Plicata Atrovirens hedges at various properties over the years. All have been single-row planting, and have wound up as solid as a wall - definitely cannot see through them

They look pretty much as smart as yew when clipped - although the new growth is upright and "fluffy", so they look a bit shaggy (in a nice, rather than untidy, way) until clipped.

I have done Laurel hedges too. They tend to want to grow much broader than Thuja. Also, you should ideally cut them with secateurs by cutting the stems rather than the leaves - as a half-cut leaf goes brown along the cut-edge. Many people cut Laurel with hedge cutters, so its not a huge problem, and probably something you onolw nitice when you get up-close. They grow a more "rounded" shape than Thuja (or Yew, Leylandii, etc.) - so if you want a straight-up-and-down shape then not a good choice. Can't say I have had a problem with them in windy places - they are often used as a surround planting for new woodland as they establish quickly and keep the wind off the small trees (and probably keep the deer out as well ...) - I mean, I doubt they would be used for that purpose if they were susceptible to wind.

When we started here I had the farmer come and plough it up, and then hired a mini-tractor plus PTO Rotavator to convert the furrows into something manageable! I can't find a photo of the Plough and rotavate stages, but here's one of shortly after rotavated:

 

Just like to say, we have a hedge of Laurel that manages fine in the wind (and snow) and looks good all year. Only down side is it's not suitable where animals can eat it. We planted a lot of golden privet hedging elsewhere which unfortunately drops it's leaves in winter here.:(

 

Mandy,

Thats good to hear, so I can still consider a Laurel hedge, I got that information about the wind from a web site that sells all forms of hedge plants.

I like Laurels as the leaves are a real nice solid thick colour.

Kristen, had a look at your blog and what awesome projects you have and are undertaking. That is one huge garden and project and it has given me more courage in relation to my project.

Regards

Andrew