Trunky's New Garden

@Trunky you have done well with those tree's

 

On a dull, cold and misty day with a slow thaw setting in, it was the ideal day to tackle a little job at the front of the house which I've been wanting to do for a while.

Our front driveway has hedges on either side, both owned by the neighbours. These hedges have encroached on our driveway making it a little narrow and sometimes tricky to get larger vehicles down.

So today I set about this hedge with loppers, pruning saw and secateurs and took about a foot off our side along the whole length. The hedge is becoming quite thin in places and rather 'top heavy' with most of the thicker growth right at the top, so I've cut it off lower down in places and removed much of the dead growth, along with a couple of invading sycamores and an ash which were smothering the original hedge plants.

Hopefully, all this will encourage the hedge to thicken up and put on new growth lower down this year, giving a better hedge with a less top heavy appearance. The neighbours, by the way, were quite happy for me to do this.

Doesn't look much now, but it should improve the hedge in the long term and give us a little more driveway. I did the hedge on the right today, still got the one on the left to do.



Got quite a pile of branches down the bottom of the garden now, might have a little bonfire tomorrow.

 

A little more progress made at the weekend



This is part of a very old hedge running up one side of the garden (photo taken last October). It's the remains of an original field boundary hedge at least 130 years old and still contains quite a bit of elm and hazel.
It also contains a huge amount of ivy, which in places has completely smothered the original hedge, as in the section on the left of this photo, where the mass of ivy had begun to topple over under its own weight and the previous owners had resorted to propping it up with a piece of 4 x 4.

Last week at work, we completed the planting of a large mixed native hedge and luckily there were a few hedge plants left over, which I was allowed to take.

So, we set about clearing the huge, tangled mass of ivy, removing as much of the root as possible, dug over the ground and replanted the gap with a mixture of native hedge plants.

This is the same section of hedge now, after clearing and replanting. It doesn't look like much in the photos, but I've planted about twenty hedge plants in that space. There's a mixture of hawthorn, field maple, hazel and dogwood from the plants I bought home from work, along with a couple of healthy elm suckers I transplanted which had grown from the original hedge nearby and three small self-seeded holly saplings I dug up and removed from elsewhere in the garden.





I know it's a bit late in the season to be planting and moving bare rooted plants, but the cool wet weather we're getting at the moment will give them a chance to establish and I'll make sure I keep them well watered over the next few months.

 

Hi Trunky they're establish in this weather alright mate and you did well clearing it...it's all about time and maturity

 

It is going to look stunning (and very "natural") before long. That is a lot of hard graft! Take good care of your back.
I love the selection. You have food plus evergreens for making Christmas decorations; dogwoods for dramatic winter colour and above all, the wildlife is going to love you!
It's wonderful to see you getting stuck in and putting all your knowledge to good use. I bet that long wait to move in now seems like a blink of the eye

 

Finished constructing the first pallet compost bin today. This is very much at the upper limit of my carpentry skills.



Now I can start making lots of lovely compost. The soil here is quite sandy and free draining, so once I start creating new beds and borders I'll use it to improve the soil fertility and moisture retention.

Got it done just in time too, our local council plans to start charging for green waste collection next month. They'll get nothing out of me.

 

Trunky you know the saying "As long as it does the job that's all that counts"

 

Hi @Trunky have you achieved anything more mate ...while i've not been on line

 

We've made a little more progress @Gail_68.

We actually planted something today! I wasn't planning to start creating any new beds or do much new planting until the autumn. However, we have a Magnolia Stellata which was given to Mrs Trunky as a birthday present three years ago. It's been growing in a large pot until now, but was becoming pot bound and needed planting out urgently, so we decided we couldn't put it off any longer.

We had planned to create a new bed in this area anyway, so I set about digging out the two ugly doughnut shaped Junipers (which proved to be quite a task) and cleared the area in front of the holly. The Magnolia was then planted and thoroughly watered in, hopefully we've got it out of the pot and into the ground in the nick of time, as it was looking quite poorly this spring.

Before


After


In time, I'll add more plants and create a new bed around the Magnolia. The holly is a matter of debate between me and Mrs T at the moment. I quite like it, I'm not sure of the variety but it has a somewhat pendulous habit, spineless leaves and produced plenty of berries last autumn which were much appreciated by the birds. Mrs T just thinks it's ugly. So its fate hangs in the balance for now.

Today I also had a quick look through my small stock of plants which I grew from division and cuttings last year, in the months leading up to our move. They've all made it through the winter so I'm happy with that. I've potted on a few things to keep them going until I'm ready to use them later in the year.





One of my next projects will be to try to create a couple of small raised vegetable beds from this scrap timber which was given to me by our former neighbour, a builder by trade. It's untreated wood so should be fine for growing veg in for a year or two. DIY is not my strong point so not sure how they'll turn out.

 

You’re doing some great work there Trunky, I’m sure in relatively no time it’s going to look great

 

Hi @Trunky you've done well there mate and you've planted one of my dads favourite plants ..when he was a live he had a white magnolia and a purple one...they're beautiful when really established and they're a costly plant at garden centres but with your other plants around it...it should really look striking when they're in flower.

You should be ok with those planks of wood, it's when they're bowed they can be a nightmare to line up

 

I’m sure you know this already, but just thought it worth a mention. Regarding raised beds, it’s best imo to not make them any wider than 4ft, otherwise you’ll struggle to reach the middle from either side, especially when it comes to seed sowing