My Garden

Well, I finally got into my house (after waiting about 4 months!)

I should have taken some before pictures cause the garden was like a jungle! Really bad. Anyway, I have tidied it up and started to put a few plants in (there were some already there). The grass is in a really bad way but hopefully with a bit of raking and raking and raking......

back garden



front garden

 

Hi Lelly looks like the conifers in the back garden are sucking a lot of the moisture out of your soil when they get to that size they can be a problem.

 

Hi Lelly, agree with Walnut on the conifers, my lad had them all round his place when he bought it, nothing would grow near them, all gone now and it's starting to look much better.

 

We had the same problem here Lelly, even just one of those tall ones can drain a lot of water. Now we just have one left where it really matters and it must stay for shade purposes near the pond.

 

when i moved in i also had the problem of massively overgrown conifers. I had a tree bloke in to get rid of them for me, but instead of taking them out completely, i left the trunks in with all the branches removed and all cut at 6 foot high. I use them to put my bird boxes on and joined each stump with a system of wires for climbers and then underplanted it all with evergreen shrubs.

The tree bloke says that the stumps will last a good few years before they rot and in that time the new shrubs will have had time to get established.

during the process it did cause a bit of a dispute with my neighbours unfortunatly, they were adamant that the trees were mine to deal with but as soon as i started having them cut, they were up in arms saying i was destroying their privacy. they have since put a fence up on their side of the border.

I'll get outside in a bit and take a couple of snaps, it'll probably explain it clearer!

good luck with whatever you decide to do with your garden

 

I've got 2 of those massive conifers on my drive, the bushes round it all grow well, got lilac and other stuff next to them, i never do anything with them and they all flourish (probably cos i do nothing with them, if i did theyd probably die!!)

Looks like anice garden you've got there, especially with the decking.
personaly i'd keep the trees, you want your privacy and i thin you would regret it if you got rid of them, plus theyll help mask sounds - youc an always have pots on the patio bit.

 

The trouble is conifers just get bigger and bigger, when I first moved into my house we had loads we had to have cut down, made a tremendous difference to the lawn and the amount of light being let into the garden.

Personally i think they are ugly.

What is behind them?

 

There are quite a few large houses behind which would mean that we were overlooked. The people behind have already hacked them before we moved in which I am gutted about really.

Apparantly there is a conservation order on them. When the plans were put forward to build the houses behind the residents in my street complained about being overlooked, they got planning for less houses to be built and the trees were protected to make sure we all didn't lose our privacy!

She has proper hacked at them aswell! I think they will probably end up dying!

 

If you like them, and they give you privacy lelly then you could try just topping them.
I dont think they will die as long as you keep a fair amount of green growth your side and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that whoever hacked the other side will always be looking at a brown dead tree, from their side. :D

 

My sister moved in a house about 5 years ago now, her lawn was water logged and the garden never got any sun as on 2 sides there were 18 ft connifers.
As 1 of the houses was council property, she went in and complained about them, they told her to take down all branches that was hanging over her garden and to deliver them to the property which they grew.
She did and words were spoken!
She told them she had been told to do it by there council.
2 weeks later the conifers was taken down competly.
Her next door neighbour got a letter of the council as well to tell them they had to reduce the hight of there conifers to 8 ft.

 

i think huge confers must be one of those emotive things and can cause neighbour disputes. i know loads of peoples lives have practically been ruined through leylandies (sp?) saw a programme on tv about them a few years back.

my view is privacy is priceless and worth almost anything. I want another 2 trees in my garden as it'll stop 2 people looking in.