"Sacha" wrote ...

I doubt very seriously that taking cuttings is a skill that has been
acquired by that garden owner, as yet! The 'scorched earth' policy would
rather argue against the likelihood!

Funny you should mention the scorched earth policy but some years ago a
young couple, she was Polish, moved into the house next door to us that had
a well planted mature garden and proceeded to cut everything in the garden
down at soil level, mature fan trained apple trees included. These dead
trees and shrubs were then left there for about a year, the apples with
apples on them, until they were eventually gathered up and burnt in the
middle of the lawn. Gradually it grassed over again, it did look choice. She
told us she was going to get it landscaped but never did, it was actually
landscaped before she killed and burnt everything.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 2013-04-18 17:19:08 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote ...

I doubt very seriously that taking cuttings is a skill that has been
acquired by that garden owner, as yet! The 'scorched earth' policy
would rather argue against the likelihood!

Funny you should mention the scorched earth policy but some years ago a
young couple, she was Polish, moved into the house next door to us that
had a well planted mature garden and proceeded to cut everything in the
garden down at soil level, mature fan trained apple trees included.
These dead trees and shrubs were then left there for about a year, the
apples with apples on them, until they were eventually gathered up and
burnt in the middle of the lawn. Gradually it grassed over again, it
did look choice. She told us she was going to get it landscaped but
never did, it was actually landscaped before she killed and burnt
everything.

The OP might want a green rectangle but even so, he's gone a difficult
way about it. Ask first before acting should be engraved on every set
of house deeds! But seriously, it did make me a little sad to see what
was a carefully planted garden, lending 'just out of sight' interest to
a not-huge-plot and screening from neighbours, simply flattened!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 18/04/2013 18:08, Sacha wrote:
On 2013-04-18 17:19:08 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote ...

I doubt very seriously that taking cuttings is a skill that has been
acquired by that garden owner, as yet! The 'scorched earth' policy
would rather argue against the likelihood!

Funny you should mention the scorched earth policy but some years ago
a young couple, she was Polish, moved into the house next door to us
that had a well planted mature garden and proceeded to cut everything
in the garden down at soil level, mature fan trained apple trees
included. These dead trees and shrubs were then left there for about a
year, the apples with apples on them, until they were eventually
gathered up and burnt in the middle of the lawn. Gradually it grassed
over again, it did look choice. She told us she was going to get it
landscaped but never did, it was actually landscaped before she killed
and burnt everything.

The OP might want a green rectangle but even so, he's gone a difficult
way about it. Ask first before acting should be engraved on every set
of house deeds! But seriously, it did make me a little sad to see what
was a carefully planted garden, lending 'just out of sight' interest to
a not-huge-plot and screening from neighbours, simply flattened!

Garden makeover programmes have a lot to answer for!

Is the advice to wait for a season to see what you have got in the FAQ?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:37:08 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:57:33 +0100, Sacha wrote:

On 2013-04-17 14:44:53 +0100, MichaelD said:


I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]

I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old
bushes and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly
made progress:

Does this all sound achievable?

The simple answer is 'no'!

On BBC house programmes the next step is to cover the whole garden in
gravel and paint the shed duck egg blue

ROFL!

--
Terry Fields

On 2013-04-18 18:18:14 +0100, Martin Brown said:

On 18/04/2013 18:08, Sacha wrote:
On 2013-04-18 17:19:08 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote ...

I doubt very seriously that taking cuttings is a skill that has been
acquired by that garden owner, as yet! The 'scorched earth' policy
would rather argue against the likelihood!

Funny you should mention the scorched earth policy but some years ago
a young couple, she was Polish, moved into the house next door to us
that had a well planted mature garden and proceeded to cut everything
in the garden down at soil level, mature fan trained apple trees
included. These dead trees and shrubs were then left there for about a
year, the apples with apples on them, until they were eventually
gathered up and burnt in the middle of the lawn. Gradually it grassed
over again, it did look choice. She told us she was going to get it
landscaped but never did, it was actually landscaped before she killed
and burnt everything.

The OP might want a green rectangle but even so, he's gone a difficult
way about it. Ask first before acting should be engraved on every set
of house deeds! But seriously, it did make me a little sad to see what
was a carefully planted garden, lending 'just out of sight' interest to
a not-huge-plot and screening from neighbours, simply flattened!

Garden makeover programmes have a lot to answer for!

Is the advice to wait for a season to see what you have got in the FAQ?

I'll try to remember to look tomorrow because I simply don't remember.
Someone else might who hasn't already hit the hay!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:12:17 +0100, Sacha wrote:


The more I think of this and read of the wasteland that's been created,
the more I wonder if this is a wind up. Who on earth would do that to
a well-planted garden, creating huge bare areas which allow the
neighbours to look into the house and garden where, before, they had
privacy and mature planting? I think it's a reverse posting, if you
see what I mean. Or at least, I hope it is. That scene of devastation
is pitiable. Imagine doing that to any garden and then writing about it!

I think it is, in all likelihood, not a wind up. It is what we should
have done. When we took over our current property (an executor's
sale) the garden was in a similar, if rather more overgrown state than
that depicted in the first of the OP's images. We had to cut back the
shrubbery that had seriously encroached on to the drive before we
could get in. As there was so much to do renovating the property we
decided to just cut everything back a bit and then, when we had time,
start to replant where necessary.

In retrospect this was a mistake as we have ended up with a somewhat
muddled, difficult to work with garden and we have repeatedly said
that we should have bitten the bullet and got a digger in at the
beginning to clear the majority of the shrub beds, leaving the odd
couple of specimens which would have been difficult to replace.

The advantage of the slash and burn approach is that you can then
start with a fresh canvas allowing more freedom to execute your own
design and not have take into account the stumps and remains of trees
and shrubs that have been allowed to grow out of control for many
years. I agree that it is inevitable that it will look a mess
following the destructive stage but we know that a couple of years
later we would have had a more pleasing garden if we had gone down
this route.
--
rbel

On 2013-04-18 23:01:55 +0100, Martin said:

On Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:19:08 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Sacha" wrote ...

I doubt very seriously that taking cuttings is a skill that has been
acquired by that garden owner, as yet! The 'scorched earth' policy would
rather argue against the likelihood!

Funny you should mention the scorched earth policy but some years ago a
young couple, she was Polish, moved into the house next door to us that had
a well planted mature garden and proceeded to cut everything in the garden
down at soil level, mature fan trained apple trees included. These dead
trees and shrubs were then left there for about a year, the apples with
apples on them, until they were eventually gathered up and burnt in the
middle of the lawn. Gradually it grassed over again, it did look choice. She
told us she was going to get it landscaped but never did, it was actually
landscaped before she killed and burnt everything.

Somebody moved into a house across the road. One weekend the owner and
about ten of us friends spent the weekend cutting down and grubbing
out a leylandii hedge. The following weekend the owner planted a new
hedge - leylandii again. When I asked him why, he told me his wife
thought the original hedge had leaves that were too dark and added
that he knew that the new hedge would end up the same colour as the
old, but she didn't.

That is just the most extraordinary waste of time, money and others'
good nature I've ever heard of! What a really mad thing to do!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 18/04/2013 22:56, rbel wrote:
On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:12:17 +0100, Sacha wrote:


The more I think of this and read of the wasteland that's been created,
the more I wonder if this is a wind up. Who on earth would do that to
a well-planted garden, creating huge bare areas which allow the
neighbours to look into the house and garden where, before, they had
privacy and mature planting? I think it's a reverse posting, if you
see what I mean. Or at least, I hope it is. That scene of devastation
is pitiable. Imagine doing that to any garden and then writing about it!

I think it is, in all likelihood, not a wind up. It is what we should
have done. When we took over our current property (an executor's
sale) the garden was in a similar, if rather more overgrown state than
that depicted in the first of the OP's images. We had to cut back the
shrubbery that had seriously encroached on to the drive before we
could get in. As there was so much to do renovating the property we
decided to just cut everything back a bit and then, when we had time,
start to replant where necessary.

In retrospect this was a mistake as we have ended up with a somewhat
muddled, difficult to work with garden and we have repeatedly said
that we should have bitten the bullet and got a digger in at the
beginning to clear the majority of the shrub beds, leaving the odd
couple of specimens which would have been difficult to replace.

The advantage of the slash and burn approach is that you can then
start with a fresh canvas allowing more freedom to execute your own
design and not have take into account the stumps and remains of trees
and shrubs that have been allowed to grow out of control for many
years. I agree that it is inevitable that it will look a mess
following the destructive stage but we know that a couple of years
later we would have had a more pleasing garden if we had gone down
this route.

You still have the option to slash and burn if you want, but usually
there are many more pressing things to do in a newly bought neglected
property. Waiting to see what you have in the garden is worthwhile.

If you prune things back and take out a third of the old wood and any
crossing stems in the first winter season you can quickly get something
that looks plausible again very quickly. Then you know what looks pretty
and is worth keeping. Nuking everything without waiting to see if there
are any choice specimen plants is crazy unless you are heavily into
these insane garden makeover programmes fantasies.

I reckon they should be made to go back to gardens they have "improved"
and show as planted and "now" so that we can see how much of what they
did instantly actually survived for more than a couple of years.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

The issue is that OP has not done his slash and burn effectively. He had a lot of brambles, and those need properly killing if they are not to repeatedly grow back. He doesn't even know if the garden is badly affected by bindweed, etc, as he didn't wait and see.

When I inherited my garden, there were some completely useless shrubberies full of selfseeded overgrown shrubs. There was no need to wait to see that those needed completely digging out, it was obvious from what they contained. One has been turned into our vegetable patch. But in other parts of the garden there were many useful plants and trees which have been saved and kept. I cut down some overcrowded conifers, and it became apparent that they all had the same number of rings - someone had planted a load of cheap conifers precisely 13 years before I moved in, without giving them space to grow, and done very little beyond mow the lawn since, not even weeding out the self seeded shrubs, which had become huge, also the completely overgrown hedges.

On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:44:53 +0000, MichaelD
wrote:


Hello everyone,

I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]

I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old bushes
and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly made
progress:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5903/garden2b.jpg]
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6974/garden3u.jpg]

My initial thought was that you had a nice sheltered, secluded
garden.If you are going to make a tennis court , well done, other wise
it seems a great shame. Can you tell us what the shrubs were which you
have removed? It wasn't all brambles.

Pam in Bristol

On 19/04/2013 16:08, Pam Moore wrote:
On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:44:53 +0000, MichaelD
wrote:


Hello everyone,

I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]

I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old bushes
and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly made
progress:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5903/garden2b.jpg]
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6974/garden3u.jpg]

My initial thought was that you had a nice sheltered, secluded
garden.If you are going to make a tennis court , well done, other wise
it seems a great shame. Can you tell us what the shrubs were which you
have removed? It wasn't all brambles.

Pam in Bristol

Suspect that if the OP could name the shrubs then they wouldn't have all
been removed.

On 19/04/2013 16:08, Pam Moore wrote:
On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:44:53 +0000, MichaelD
wrote:


Hello everyone,

I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]

I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old bushes
and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly made
progress:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5903/garden2b.jpg]
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6974/garden3u.jpg]

My initial thought was that you had a nice sheltered, secluded
garden.If you are going to make a tennis court , well done, other wise
it seems a great shame. Can you tell us what the shrubs were which you
have removed? It wasn't all brambles.

Pam in Bristol


Typical.
We have heard nothing from the OP after his first posting.

"David Hill" wrote in message ...

On 19/04/2013 16:08, Pam Moore wrote:
On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:44:53 +0000, MichaelD
wrote:


Hello everyone,

I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]

I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old bushes
and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly made
progress:

[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5903/garden2b.jpg]
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6974/garden3u.jpg]

My initial thought was that you had a nice sheltered, secluded
garden.If you are going to make a tennis court , well done, other wise
it seems a great shame. Can you tell us what the shrubs were which you
have removed? It wasn't all brambles.

Pam in Bristol


Typical.
We have heard nothing from the OP after his first posting.

.................................................

With the attack he has received from the experts who have never ever made
the slightest mistake, are you surprised?

Mike

On Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:08:08 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:


If you prune things back and take out a third of the old wood and any
crossing stems in the first winter season you can quickly get something
that looks plausible again very quickly. Then you know what looks pretty
and is worth keeping. Nuking everything without waiting to see if there
are any choice specimen plants is crazy unless you are heavily into
these insane garden makeover programmes fantasies.


As I mentioned in my comment it is indeed a sensible idea to leave
'the odd couple of specimens which would have been difficult to
replace'. You do not have to be 'into these insane garden makeover
programmes fantasies' whatever they are, to want to start with a clean
slate and save a lot of time and effort by using a digger to effect
this in one swoop.
--
rbel

On 2013-04-19 20:06:29 +0100, rbel said:

On Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:08:08 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:


If you prune things back and take out a third of the old wood and any
crossing stems in the first winter season you can quickly get something
that looks plausible again very quickly. Then you know what looks pretty
and is worth keeping. Nuking everything without waiting to see if there
are any choice specimen plants is crazy unless you are heavily into
these insane garden makeover programmes fantasies.


As I mentioned in my comment it is indeed a sensible idea to leave
'the odd couple of specimens which would have been difficult to
replace'. You do not have to be 'into these insane garden makeover
programmes fantasies' whatever they are, to want to start with a clean
slate and save a lot of time and effort by using a digger to effect
this in one swoop.

At least people who do want to rip everything out could ask neighbours
if they'd like what's moveable, or cuttings from what isn't! The pity
of this is that some nice stuff has been destroyed, perhaps and little
can be done about it now. I do understand an inexperienced gardener,
or new home owner wantinig to put their own stamp on a place but this
has turned a well-matured garden into a mess with an owner who has no
idea of how to go forward! If any lesson is to be learned from this, it
should surely be that if you don't know what you're doing, you ask
BEFORE you act, not after!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk