neglected trees-2 oaks, cherry and the dreaded leyllandii

hello averyone, i am new to the forum and hope i have posted in the correct place.

i moved into my house about 4 years ago. the house and garden was neglected and i have tried my best so far to tidy up. there are two mature oak trees-each about 25 m high with big thick gorgeous trunks. however i think they were planted and after some time some one built up a raised bed around them. the soil is parched dry and quite unproductive. i am about to unnassemble the raised beds and was wondering how much of the soil do i need to clear from the base of the oaks-do i go as far down as the big roots-and then maybe plant snowdrops and bluebells between them?


there is a mature cherry tree aswell in another bed and it does not look well. bad crop of fruit-not that the birds leave any for me anyway but i want to rejuvenate it. any rules i should follow?

and last but certainly not least, at the opposite end of the raised bed is a giant of a leyllandii in which at present are nesting birds and bats. obviously i dont want to disturb these little creatures and dont want to remove the tree itself. when and how much should i lop off the top-it is currently about 35m high.


sorry for the length, just had to get it off my chest.

regards

 

Hello and welcome.

I'm not a expert on anything but am learning fast from this very informative forum.

If you have bats in the leyllandi, I'm pretty sure you will have to speak to the bat conservation peeps before you do anything with that tree.

A leyllandi is only worth planting if you have 20 acres of land. I think it is a very invasive tree for the UK. We had 6 of them planted really close together when we moved into our house 3 years ago. luckily they had been planted only 5/6 years before and we were able to have them cut down and the roots dug up.

 

thanks for your reply, as well as bats there are song thrushes, robins and sparrows nesting there too. the thicl foliage keeps the magpies out too. they are enormous which i can actually live with (mad I know), but the lawn underneath it (its spread is about 3 metres out)is knackered and the continuous scraping and seeding is like flogging a dead horse, but i still do it. my husband says i am pig-headed, i like to call myself persevering

 

Lollipop, re the Leylandii, if there are Bats in there, then as Init Sister says, you need to get in touch with the Bat protection people. As for the deep bed around the Oaks, why not MAKE it productive? Add peat and fertiliser, plant some small woodland plants, and save yourself some work.:thumb:

 

thanks david,

i have had an email from bats.org and they say that as they are just using the leyllandii as a short term "holiday let" then novenber will be perfect to take some of the height off.

as far as unassembling the raised bed, i may have to do a rethink and go for your advice

thanks

claire

 

Claire, as they are protected, the Bats are the most important thing in your garden, so keep the Bat people notified of what you are doing.:thumb: I think the Oaks could give you a nice little shade garden, there. If you want advice on what to plant, just say. As for UNDER the conifer, use Pachysandra, it`s evergreen, low growing has white flowers and is about the ONLY thing that will grow under Leylandii.:D

 

again thanks so much david, i will get some pachysandra, you always seem to see it in parks and it looks good all year round. i would gratefully accept advice for under the oaks i will try and overcome my technophobia and post some pics. it would be a perfect spot for a little woodland garden-instead of being overwhelmed by the size of the garden (now i have come to work on it intensively) it would be nice to remember why i put up with the dampest and derelict house in the area-the garden and its possibilities.

thanks again you are a great garden chum.

 

Claire, post your pics, and show me what I`ve got to work with.:D

 

hi i am trying to post pics, i have checked and am looking for a manage attachments spot-where is it? sorry i am a technophobe

 

just seen on my settings i may not post attachments how do i get the pics up

 

okay lets ttry this photobucket thingy mi jig! my nan would have had astroke at all this!!

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and just for reference





if there is a god this has worked, but knowing him and me it probably hasnt lol

 

You`d better go to church,Sunday, because it has worked.

 

I am truly shocked, by jove I think I`ve cracked it!

 

Hi lollipop73,

Do you know how long the raised bed has been around the oaks? Trees can be surprisingly susceptible to changes in soil level - sometimes quite seriously. If the raised bed has been in place for some time then it may be prudent to leave it in place, add some soil improver and plant out some plants. Removing the soil may introduce harmful pathogens into the roots and into the tree.

 

hi treesurfer, thank you for taking the time to reply, the raised beds were put in at least over 10 years ago, they were there when the previous owner moved in and he had a problem growing stuff under them-but by his own admission he wasnt a gardener.

i just have a romantic notion, probably from being a kid who spent her years traipsing through our local park that you are supposed to trip over the big exposed roots of a tree and find wild woodland flowers between them.

i can leave the soil there as david said last night and save myself some work of course. i have little enough knowledge to be guided by any one more knowledgable (which in this instance hardly narrows down the field).

the leaves on the larger oak are darker than the younger one next to it this year, and maybe slightly less thick, but i cant be sure on that, i seem to be seeing only problems at the moment, but i suppose that happens when you make a decision to commit to the garden full time.