Mouldy trees, part 2

In October, tree surgeons lowered our South Beech Hedge & gave us some advice on the ailing trees in the South Lawn. This month, they came back to trim back the North Leylandii hedge & to take the poorly trees down... :(

Rip it off like a plaster

As I posted last time, since the triage trim the trees had taken a turn for the worse. Every time I looked at them, it made me sad to know they were dying.

Whereas every time I looked at the Leylandii (every morning - they're part of my breakfast view), they seemed to be taller. I have literally been watching them grow, swamping the oak & the birches at either end of them.

In both cases, I thought it best not to prolong the agony:

1. The sooner the Leylandii are curtailed, the easier it will be to maintain them in the future.
2. The sooner the dying Cherry & Laburnum are out, the sooner we can get in something healthy. 

But it would appear that these thoughts were mostly in my own head... apart from contacting the tree surgeons for a quote, I definitely did that bit out loud. But crucially I hadn't really chatted to hubby about it... well, I might have, but he was probably jet lagged at the time so it doesn't count.

So it was a shock to him when I wanted to discuss the quote. Whilst he could see my logic was sound, it was all a bit, well, sudden. He's suspicious of pruning at the best of times, & we're still getting used to the open, bordering-on-exposed feeling from the lowered Beech Hedge. Removing the 2 ill trees will remove our last bit of cover to the South.

But fair play to him, in the spirit of "Do something rather than do nothing", he agreed, & so I mobilised the troops.

Nice day for it

I'm on my Xmas hols now (woop!) so I was home the day the tree surgeons came. We confirmed we were dropping the Leylandii by a third & the 2 sick trees were coming out completely. Unfortunately, these guys don't offer stump removal so we've decided to save that cash for now - we might have them ground out later, when we're feeling more flush.

I left them to it, heading out walking with a mate - after, that is, she'd asked them to quote for her too ;) We weren't out for long though. The plan was to take her dogs to the top of Simonside crag, but it was soooooo windy we stuck to the shorter route along the forest paths.

When we got back, most of the chainsaw action was done. The guy up the top was swaying all over, & loving it. He still had all his limbs by the end of the day too, which was nice.

The Laburnum is certainly pretty on the inside...
Does that make me sound like a homicidal maniac?



Revamped log pile topped up with all the new off-cuts

Too much?

Neither of us go to the hairdressers very often, mostly cos of that feeling when you leave & you realise they've been a little enthusiastic...

As a species, we like to kid ourselves we're logically beings. But really, we're a seething vat of emotional soup with a gift for plausible post-rationalisation.

Now you see 'em...

As sad as it was looking at dying trees, it's really bare out there on the South Lawn now... :/
Hubby summed it up: The heart's gone from the garden.

Fuck.

The Laburnum is the biggest miss - hardly surprising as it was slap bang in the middle.

What to do, what to do? Have I already done too much...?

Moving forward

Playing with trees is always a long long game, & I need to keep this in mind. 

The logic is still sound: they were dying; sooner out, sooner replaced, sooner something beautiful & healthy. So rather than dally with the ultimately useless regret that's creeping around in the shadows of my mind, it's time to get busy deciding what trees we're going to plant next year, whilst gazing at the extra splash of deep blue Northern sky afforded by the shorter Leylandii.

Crap photo alert. The sky was blue, honest.

Anyone got any suggestions for medium sized feature trees for a South facing lawn on clay soil with intermittent drainage issues? Am I sounding panicked? :/

Tackling the Lawns

Small, or far away...?

This time of year, you really can watch the grass grow... You can almost see it heave itself upwards before your very eyes.

Hubby's done all the mowing since the move - a Herculean effort of one man & a flymo against the marching sward. Mind, this early Summer cycle of sun & showers means that keeping on top of it has more than a whiff of Sisyphus about it.

It's time I went to mow.

The South Lawn

Done & dusted on Wednesday evening. Yay!

It's about the size of the old lawn but the terrain is a tad more challenging. New house is on top of a small hill, & the land falls away quite rapidly on most sides. We're not talking cliff-side gardening here, but it's no snooker table either.

The South Lawn has 2 key obstacles: The sharp drop to the Big Beech Hedge; & the loop around the Laburnum.

On a slope & heavily shaded, neither spot is ever going to be lush & verdant lawn, but at the mo we're happy with bramble-&-nettle-free.

Even with these tricky bits, I guess it took less than an hour. Most doable on a sunny weekday evening. Marvellous.

The North Lawn

I didn't bother timing this task, largely cos I didn't want to rush myself. Getting it done Saturday morning before the rain arrived was going to be a close call, but let's not go mental & be exhausted by Noon, eh?

The North Lawn is an isosceles triangle to the West of the drive. A 20m run up by the side of the gravel, then 15m in front of the house, then back along the boundary hedge. It slopes mostly North West, is pretty damp, & is balding in many places due to mature trees past & present.

Not as flat as it looks...

Hubby gave it a weed n feed a few weeks ago & that's done wonders, but in some areas the measures may need to be more drastic - there's a row of Leylandii by the road & they are big. The heavy shade from them stops anything growing underneath - not even brambles or ivy dare to tread.

We already know our Westerly neighbours are not fans of the Leylandii, but they're also not 100% sure who they belong to. We'll need to have a sleuth around before getting the chainsaw out...

The North Lawn is also home to a smattering of daffs. They made us feel very welcome as we moved in during April. Their dying back leaves make mowing a bit of a slalom though, so I used Mum's old technique of tidying them up. The theory says the longer the leaves are photosynthesising, the stronger the bulb next year.

Use an old flower stem as the tie - they're stronger than the leaves

Not that Mum uses this technique anymore. I'm not surprised - it's a bit of a chew on! But to me they look like little haystacks & I'm enjoying that :)

With a little help from Hubby, who mowed while I tied, we were done just as the first spots started to hit. Timing!

New house! New garden!

I've been stressing again. Moving house is stressful - we all know that. But I've been topping that stress with a whole bunch of blog guilt. It's a special talent.


But today that ends. I am reminding myself of my 'Post it!' resolution from the blog's First Birthday round-up. I will, as my friend Clair would say, rip it off like a plaster.

So what's the new place like?!

Vast!


Not quite Capability Brown-worthy, but our old back garden would fit into the new one several times over. It took hubby TWO HOURS just to mow The North Lawn. & yes, that means we now have more than 1 lawn - there's a smaller South one too.


I'll get around doing a map & some panoramas & stuff, but in the meantime, here's a few nice pics of some of the plants that came with the place. I freely admit I've no idea what half of the resident greenery is, so I think a horticultural soirée might be helpful - an evening of cake, cava & can-you-tell-me-what-this-is-please?

The new growth on this shrub is much more red than the pink in this pic.
Update from Sharon: "Pieris 'forest flame'"

It's a fairy grotto under one corner of the Big Beech Hedge.
These guys remind me of kodama.



The Cherry Tree on the South Lawn.

Snake's Head Fritillaries! We've always wanted some of these! *dribble*

One of the many large grassy clumps. This one is in the Shed Bed.
Update from Sharon: "Carex pendula"
The wiki page says "preferring damp, heavy clay soils"... sounds about right ;)

We had no idea what the large old tree in the middle of the South Lawn was...
until it flowered. Laburnum it is then.

They've got these in the Farmshop carpark beds & I've always admired them.
We've not got as much as them - only this small clump at the top of the North Lawn.
But it's a start.
Update from Steph & Clare: "Perennial Cornflower".

We brought our own, but there are a lot of ferns here already.
I'm amazed to see Hostas tho' - new place has an abundance of snails AND slugs.

One of the other grassy clumps turned out to be this gorgeous Iris.
This was in the Fence Bed, but there's another clump over in the Birch Bed.