New House, New Overgrown Garden.

[Myrkk]

Hi Everyone,
Not been here for a while as no garden or allotment. We have however moved house and have a shiny old, overgrown garden to love now. It’s full of trees which are either in inappropriate spots (i.e. under the wires into houses, we have the pole just outside our garden), or fruit trees popping out new runners. There are also some very overgrown shrubs some of which I can name, Fuchsia, Hypericum, Honeysuckle, Potato Vine, but lots I can’t. I’m at a loss where to start.

Is there a way to rehome mature trees?

I’ve chopped the ivy at the base, but the leaves aren’t dying back. Is there a way to reliably kill ivy?

How do you decide where to start?

I’m thinking taking a third off the honeysuckle late winter and similar with the potato vine. But the fuchsia is stumping me. We are over-run with lots of butterflies and I really don’t want to tidy the garden up so much we lose them next year. Suggestions please.

[Westi]

Hang in there Myrkk, this guys are early birds so will no doubt give you the required info in the morning. Congratulations on getting a garden!

[Myrkk]

Thanks Westi

[tigerburnie]

The usual advice given is live with it for a year and see what is growing, make a list of what you want to keep then attack this time next year. Obviously you can have a tidy up, but be careful there might be bulbs underground you might want to keep.

[Primrose]

I,d go with tigerburnie in waiting to see a full year out as spring could reveal a whole host of bulbs you have no idea of at the moment.

I,d personally start with the trees, especially as the winter gale season could bring unexpected damage. Decide which you want to keep, have felled or severely pruned back and get this done once the leaves have dropped. This will open up more light to the garden next spring and help you better decide where flower or beg beds might be better located. Y doing this early will also reduce potential damage to other parts of the garden you might wish to work on.airily ewrly on in your garden development. I doubt if mature trees u less very rare or unusual can be replanted or rehomed but your local council parks department ight have a tree replanting scheme. Autumn,winter, once the leaves have fallen and the tree has gone into hibernation would be the only time one could risk attempting his and you would really need a tree specialist, aI suspect, to u dertwke this task.

Ivy is a pain to eliminate. Just cut back as much as you can and dig out as many roots as possible. It,s almost impossible to eradicate completely. Autumn is a good time to cut back overgrown shrubs so thst is something you can make a start on now.

Important if wanting to grow vegs to have clear spaces and plenty of light and sunshine so if the trees block light you need to tackle this problem first in my opinion.

Also think abiut where would be a good place to have a greenhiuse, she'd, water butts and a compost heap while at the early planning stage as these things are difficult to move once in situ if yiu get them wrong.

Also watch how the moving sun throughout the day falls on areas of your garden so thst plants or veg can be positioned in the best/sunniest places . And ensure that silly things like walking to dump your kitchen peelings on a compost heap can be ndertaken in winter without having to walk across a patch of muddy lawn as the only route. . It,s often little things like this that can cause irritation so take your time.

Perhaps making a list of what you want yiur garden to achieve as a place of pleasure, activity and relaxation will help you decide gradually how best to approach things. "I wish we had done XYZs is all too easy if you rush things. By all means clear the worst of the weeds. This will help familiarise yiu with the type of soil yiu have whixh will also I fluence which plants eill grown best

Good luck. It,s an exciting time for you. Hope you get lots of pleasure from your new acquisition. Come back with yiur queries. Am sure somebody will have an answer or be able to point you in the right direction.

[Myrkk]

Thank you.

I’ve started a drawing of how I would like the garden to look vaguely. There are some immovable objects i.e. oil tank, and some i don’t want to move i.e. 3 sheds and 6 raised beds, a pond and a couple of large shrubs. The drawing is showing a utilitarian garden and I will have to think a bit harder on what will give it a wow factor for me. It’s a north facing garden sadly with the house in the way of the southern sun (great for keeping the house warm) but does get quite a bit of east west sun.

The one thing I’m really unsure about is where to place the greenhouse. Do I put it at the end of the garden which catches most light and will involve cutting down trees, moving the pond and the raised beds. Or do I pop it closer to the house where it still gets sun but won’t overheat… ah dilemmas.

[Primrose]

The geenhouse location is a real problem. Do you want to use it primarily for veg or flowers, as given the potential for hotter summers, nearer the house without the need for blinds may be more convenient, especially if you need to lug heavy watering cans to water everything. I guess it depends on how important the trees are to keep or lop in the overall equasion. If you plan to spend a lot of time in the greenhouse, I'd opt for keeping it closer to the house.

If you're hoping to be in the house long term, try to feature in a design which makes it easy to garden in older age too, so tall hedges which need regular cutting might not be a good idea.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Myrkk, nice to see you back on the forum…..
Mature trees can be moved, but at great expense….far better to have them down and use the wood and either plant more in a better place in the garden, or i’m sure you can sponsor a tree for planting, somewhere.
Regarding the Ivy not dying on the tree, being an evergreen, they can still look as if they are still alive for up o a month, then you should notice them starting to go more of a silvery colour!
If there is a lot of Ivy on the ground, it’s best just to keep at it, pulling what you can, and digging out bigger rooted bits….if it’s a big area, just do a square yard at a time and it isn’t quite such a bad job then.
If you want to be ruthless with some of the shrubs, most will tolerate some hard pruning, the worse that will happen is, the ones that flower on this years branches, won’t flower next year…..
So I would just go for a general tidy up and plan where the veg plot needs to go, (if you are having one) and above all, enjoy what you are doing.

[Myrkk]

I have replied to this 3 times now and done something wrong each time so that it doesn’t post the reply so the short and sweet answer is… lol

Deffo more a veg gardener
Have decided the greenhouse will go near the house
Hope this is our forever home
Have started on the pruning.
Thinking will remove the inappropriate trees now as when they are bigger they will be more difficult to remove.

Was worried about the butterflies but seems the UK is having a butterfly year this year so don’t think me pruning hard will affect next year as it’s late in the season now and most caterpillars will be tucked up comfy in their cocoons.

Thanks you to everyone who was super helpful x

[Myrkk]

P.S. It’s lovely to have a garden and be able to be back here, you were always a lovely and helpful group