Thank you I like the sound of the wild flower seed. I am pleased that you can grow on the soil they have been in as it is such a shame to be wasting that space. I am grateful for you help!
I also had around 100ft of 20ft high mixed conifers along the front wall of my new house. They'd been there for decades.
I set about them with chainsaw and mattock and got almost every stump out. Two stumps were too much for me so I dug around them and cut to 6" below surface with the chainsaw. A couple cubic metres of compost and a new mixed bare root hedge has been planted and is growing great.
What a difference!
We do still have a conifer corner in the front with a few very mature exotic evergreens and I really rather like it. One is a Korean fir. I cut out a whole host of other conifers from around the garden and generally hate them.
I'd get them cut down, dig out as many stumps as possible and turn it into a nice area. Planting stuff to hide stumps is lazy and half a job!
I agree Dan, leaving the stumps is ok for a while maybe, I know thT wouldn’t have satisfied me and everywhere you dig you come across roots. They are not deep rooted so do try to get the out if you can.
i have some others as stand alone trees, they are very tall, the birds nest in them so they stay.
my dad planted the whole lot when he first moved in here, they are all from cuttings and seeds from pine cones he’d picked up.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I have done a variety of things with the conifers in my garden. Five which were planted in a row and were huge, I got the tree surgeons in and they felled them and ground out the stumps. The area that was freed up I just dug over and turned into a flower bed with shrubs and perennials. One 5 stemmed conifer about 20 foot high in another bit was cut down by a friend and we dug out the roots by hand. Another group of 3 conifers I have kept trimmed on the width and it is topped every year by the hedge man so it is just under the telephone wires - so about 15-18ft high. I've kept that group as it is on the side of the prevailing wind.
So you have a lot of options. Firstly I would get behind them and look over the boundary wall just to get an idea of how overlooked you would be if you were to get rid of them. If you still want them gone then a tree surgeon with a stump grinder is the way to go.
But perhaps think about taking them down by half. That would give more light into the garden but still give you privacy if you are overlooked from that direction. .
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
A gardener/ground maintenance op, with a stump grinder, will almost always be cheaper than a tree surgeon though! What with not having to pay a team of climbers and ground staff plus a £10000 towed chipper and so on.
I agree with you about the birds Mike and feel slightly guilty about contemplating destroying their nesting sites. But I also want a garden I can enjoy and that is not plunged into contant shade. I think I need to talk to a tree surgeon as you suggest.
Do you know what type of conifer they are? Some will cope with severe height reduction better than others. My neighbour has a section of Leylandii hedge which was reduced to about 8 feet just 4 years ago, it's now back to nearly double that at its highest.
At that height on a boundary I assume with a neighbour your neighbours would be pleased to see them go as well probably.
What will you be able to see beyond where the trees are now and vice versa? They will of been planted like that for some good reason in the past!
Conifers in general have little to offer wildlife and are generally boring too I agree.
If you are planting the area up with other things attractive to wildlife in general then pulling them down and doing this would be more beneficial than a row of conifers.
Remember this though, if the trees have a girth of more than 75mm I think it is at a height of 1m from the ground I believe you'll need planning permission from your local council to undergo any kind of work on them at all. If you just get on with it and a neighbour complains to the council you could be in serious trouble and face a seriously heavy fine.
On applying for planning permission to underworks on the trees one of two things can happen.
They could say NO and then your stuck with them forever!
They could say YES fell them but usually they will insist that you plant a new tree for every tree you fell unless you can convince then it's a hedge rather than a row of trees.
If you fell eight trees you have plant eight replacement trees usually but not always but you can plant much smaller trees (Ornamentals and fruit trees etc) and dot them about. You don't have to put them in exactly where the original trees were. You could plant the eight and if it's too much then 3 could die a few years later couldn't they if required to balance up the garden a bit.
I think that must depend on each council, I’ve never heard of permission to cut down quick growing conifers. They are not native trees, mostly are short live anyway. That’s why they grow acres of them on the Moor and fell them after 30 years. Three inch trunks? are You sure?
I had a row of Beech trees cut down a few years ago, the council said...do what you like, they’re on your property!
It was the fashion to plant them a few years back, everybody had them! The OP is only talking about a few, I’m sure the neighbours will be delighted.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
my understanding is ( AND I MIGHT WELL BE WRONG ) you only need planning to remove trees if they are subject to a preservation order, or if you're in a conservation area.
Posts
Thank you I like the sound of the wild flower seed. I am pleased that you can grow on the soil they have been in as it is such a shame to be wasting that space. I am grateful for you help!
I also had around 100ft of 20ft high mixed conifers along the front wall of my new house. They'd been there for decades.
I set about them with chainsaw and mattock and got almost every stump out. Two stumps were too much for me so I dug around them and cut to 6" below surface with the chainsaw. A couple cubic metres of compost and a new mixed bare root hedge has been planted and is growing great.
What a difference!
We do still have a conifer corner in the front with a few very mature exotic evergreens and I really rather like it. One is a Korean fir. I cut out a whole host of other conifers from around the garden and generally hate them.
I'd get them cut down, dig out as many stumps as possible and turn it into a nice area. Planting stuff to hide stumps is lazy and half a job!
I agree Dan, leaving the stumps is ok for a while maybe, I know thT wouldn’t have satisfied me and everywhere you dig you come across roots. They are not deep rooted so do try to get the out if you can.
i have some others as stand alone trees, they are very tall, the birds nest in them so they stay.
my dad planted the whole lot when he first moved in here, they are all from cuttings and seeds from pine cones he’d picked up.
I have done a variety of things with the conifers in my garden. Five which were planted in a row and were huge, I got the tree surgeons in and they felled them and ground out the stumps. The area that was freed up I just dug over and turned into a flower bed with shrubs and perennials. One 5 stemmed conifer about 20 foot high in another bit was cut down by a friend and we dug out the roots by hand. Another group of 3 conifers I have kept trimmed on the width and it is topped every year by the hedge man so it is just under the telephone wires - so about 15-18ft high. I've kept that group as it is on the side of the prevailing wind.
So you have a lot of options. Firstly I would get behind them and look over the boundary wall just to get an idea of how overlooked you would be if you were to get rid of them. If you still want them gone then a tree surgeon with a stump grinder is the way to go.
But perhaps think about taking them down by half. That would give more light into the garden but still give you privacy if you are overlooked from that direction. .
A gardener/ground maintenance op, with a stump grinder, will almost always be cheaper than a tree surgeon though! What with not having to pay a team of climbers and ground staff plus a £10000 towed chipper and so on.
I agree with you about the birds Mike and feel slightly guilty about contemplating destroying their nesting sites. But I also want a garden I can enjoy and that is not plunged into contant shade. I think I need to talk to a tree surgeon as you suggest.
Do you know what type of conifer they are? Some will cope with severe height reduction better than others. My neighbour has a section of Leylandii hedge which was reduced to about 8 feet just 4 years ago, it's now back to nearly double that at its highest.
At that height on a boundary I assume with a neighbour your neighbours would be pleased to see them go as well probably.
What will you be able to see beyond where the trees are now and vice versa? They will of been planted like that for some good reason in the past!
Conifers in general have little to offer wildlife and are generally boring too I agree.
If you are planting the area up with other things attractive to wildlife in general then pulling them down and doing this would be more beneficial than a row of conifers.
Remember this though, if the trees have a girth of more than 75mm I think it is at a height of 1m from the ground I believe you'll need planning permission from your local council to undergo any kind of work on them at all. If you just get on with it and a neighbour complains to the council you could be in serious trouble and face a seriously heavy fine.
On applying for planning permission to underworks on the trees one of two things can happen.
They could say NO and then your stuck with them forever!
They could say YES fell them but usually they will insist that you plant a new tree for every tree you fell unless you can convince then it's a hedge rather than a row of trees.
If you fell eight trees you have plant eight replacement trees usually but not always but you can plant much smaller trees (Ornamentals and fruit trees etc) and dot them about. You don't have to put them in exactly where the original trees were. You could plant the eight and if it's too much then 3 could die a few years later couldn't they if required to balance up the garden a bit.
I think that must depend on each council, I’ve never heard of permission to cut down quick growing conifers. They are not native trees, mostly are short live anyway. That’s why they grow acres of them on the Moor and fell them after 30 years. Three inch trunks? are You sure?
I had a row of Beech trees cut down a few years ago, the council said...do what you like, they’re on your property!
It was the fashion to plant them a few years back, everybody had them! The OP is only talking about a few, I’m sure the neighbours will be delighted.
my understanding is ( AND I MIGHT WELL BE WRONG ) you only need planning to remove trees if they are subject to a preservation order, or if you're in a conservation area.