Hello.

My house is elevated about 4 foot above the level of the road.

There is a wall that allows most of the garden to be level with the house, but there is also a fair section of garden that is on level with the road and effectively excluded from my private garden space.

I was thinking of extending out the wall to reclaim this section of garden but there is an established tree growing on it.

Would it be possible to seal the base of the trunk with some kind of liquid sealant or plastic wrap so that i could bury the trunk without killing the tree off?

Thanks

Why do you think burying it deeper would kill it? If it was necessary to waterproof it, I don't think it would work. There are some plants that don't like to be buried any deeper, but I think those are the exception rather than the rule. For example, if it was grafted, as for many fruit trees, it would be important to keep the graft above ground. But tell us what it is, and maybe someone can say definitively yea or nay.

Why not dismantle the wall down to ground level, or just above, and have a terrace with steps down?

"MrsBrown" wrote ...
I have just bought my first house and on the boundary with a neighbour,
they have a large bulbous mature holly bush that is growing onto my
driveway by about 2-3 foot.

The main trunk of the holly brush is pretty much on the boundary so if
i cut it right back off my driveway i get the feeling it would become
bare in the middle and possibly stay that way.

It is also a privacy bush.

Can someone advise me if there is a way to cut a holly bush right back
off my property, but for it to restablish dense leaf cover around the
trunk and sidewards along the boundary?

Thanks

Yes you can, they have dormant buds so it will grow again and green up if
you cut it back hard. I cut one to the ground and it's now 12ft high again.
Just cut it back to your boundary and it will green up again

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I read that if you bury a tree above it's natural base that the water would eventually damage the trunk and it would die.

The steps idea is a possiblity, but if i made it private it would look a bit like a pit with step down to it because it isn't a huge chunk of land, but a fair chunk of my garden on the whole.

echinosum wrote:
MrsBrown;868198 Wrote:
Would it be possible to seal the base of the trunk with some kind of
liquid sealant or plastic wrap so that i could bury the trunk without
killing the tree off?

Why do you think burying it deeper would kill it? If it was necessary

Some trees do object to the ground level being raised by more than a
couple of inches. If the roots rely on oxygen from the air to breathe.
Attempting to waterproof it would make things worse.

to waterproof it, I don't think it would work. There are some plants
that don't like to be buried any deeper, but I think those are the
exception rather than the rule. For example, if it was grafted, as for
many fruit trees, it would be important to keep the graft above ground.
But tell us what it is, and maybe someone can say definitively yea or
nay.

You could probably build it up a couple of inches per year and the tree
would not object. That is about what it might expect to get from leaf
litter build up in a forest.

Regards,
Martin Brown

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"MrsBrown" wrote ...
I have just bought my first house and on the boundary with a neighbour,
they have a large bulbous mature holly bush that is growing onto my
driveway by about 2-3 foot.

The main trunk of the holly brush is pretty much on the boundary so if
i cut it right back off my driveway i get the feeling it would become
bare in the middle and possibly stay that way.

It is also a privacy bush.

Can someone advise me if there is a way to cut a holly bush right back
off my property, but for it to restablish dense leaf cover around the
trunk and sidewards along the boundary?

Thanks

Yes you can, they have dormant buds so it will grow again and green up if
you cut it back hard. I cut one to the ground and it's now 12ft high
again.
Just cut it back to your boundary and it will green up again

But ask/tell your neighbours first, if it's their bush, it's polite.
I am annoyed with my neighbours atm, they have severely pruned my damsons
and plum trees which has now made them lop sided. It's not like it mattered
much as they were a hundred yards down the garden and they never normally go
that far down there.

However, I do get a lot of footballs over here from their horrible child, I
usually throw them back but...
It's like this - you destroy my trees, the balls are toast.

Tina

In article , lannerman
writes

Hi, Mrs.Brown, one of my most favourite trees is Acer 'Crimson King'

Better still E. red Wine

--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

Christina Websell writes
But ask/tell your neighbours first, if it's their bush, it's polite.

The prunings also theoretically belong to them - you have to offer them
back (this does *not* mean that you can chuck the whole lot on to their
garden for them to clear up). They might also prefer to do the cutting
back themselves. Also, as you say, it's a privacy screen, and they would
like notice of its removal so that they can prepare for the loss of
privacy.

Goodwill of neighbours is valuable and worth nurturing.
--
Kay

On 2009-10-30 10:54:42 +0000, K said:

Christina Websell writes
But ask/tell your neighbours first, if it's their bush, it's polite.

The prunings also theoretically belong to them - you have to offer them
back (this does *not* mean that you can chuck the whole lot on to their
garden for them to clear up). They might also prefer to do the cutting
back themselves. Also, as you say, it's a privacy screen, and they
would like notice of its removal so that they can prepare for the loss
of privacy.

Goodwill of neighbours is valuable and worth nurturing.

I just wonder if this tree is actually doing any harm to the Brown
driveway, as in restricting access, scratching cars etc. Or is it more
a question of it feeling intrusive? If the latter, I'm wondering if
it's worth waitiing a while to see if they get used to it and thus
avoid any neighbourly dispute, however mild.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

However, I do get a lot of footballs over here from their horrible child,
I usually throw them back but...
It's like this - you destroy my trees, the balls are toast.


That is what garden forks are designed for. Flicking back footballs. A
secondary use is for digging soil.

mark

On Oct 29, 12:14*pm, MrsBrown
wrote:
Hello.

I have just bought my first house and on the boundary with a neighbour,
they have a large bulbous mature holly bush that is growing onto my
driveway by about 2-3 foot.

The main trunk of the holly brush is pretty much on the boundary so if
i cut it right back off my driveway i get the feeling it would become
bare in the middle and possibly stay that way.

But the foliage would remain on their side and so will continue to do
the privacy job.


It is also a privacy bush.

Can someone advise me if there is a way to cut a holly bush right back
off my property, but for it to restablish dense leaf cover around the
trunk and sidewards along the boundary?

It might depend on the soil type; Ordinarily, I would have seen no
problem to it, but I notice that around here (west Flanders Belgium)
it's generally sandy (like a beach) and cutting back hollies, as in
blindly hacking back, can often be disastrous, leaving only a great
many dead stumps of twigs.

So if you do cut back, I suggest you do so the first time round by
cutting back to the last live growth :living shoot; (has actual leaf)
If that point is another branch, then cut that back to last shoot/
leaf.
Don't chop-back to what might look like a promising bud.

This might mean that either you don't need to go to the last living
shoot to regain your driveway, or that you have to go further so as
not to leave potentially dead shoots.


Thanks

--
MrsBrown

In article ,
says...

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I read that if you bury a tree above it's natural base that the water
would eventually damage the trunk and it would die.

The steps idea is a possiblity, but if i made it private it would look
a bit like a pit with step down to it because it isn't a huge chunk of
land, but a fair chunk of my garden on the whole.




--
MrsBrown

You can cut Holly back as hard as you like, it makes a great hedging
plant.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea