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Woodland trashed
a1154
Posts: 1,108
I wasn’t going to post about this as it’s not a question, but kind people have asked.
I have spent the last 2-3 years planting up a woodland ahead of our self build. The build is on half of the plot and will have a surrounding smallish garden (not started) and the woodland is separate, divided by a hedge.
The only activity in the woodland was a drain going through it. I mapped out where it was going from the plans and put a wide piece of weed suppressant down. I was thinking mini digger.
The rest I put paths in using bark chips and branches, lots of bird feeders and nest boxes, and started planting. It was already covered in bulbs, mostly snowdrops and daffs. It was looking great, all the neighbours came for a look and were wowed.
The ground workers did the drain, not from the plans but punching through the hedge in 2 places, and with a full sized digger. After the drain and gravel were in, they dumped all the subsoil that had been dug up on my planted area, and of course ran over it with a massive digger lots of times just to make sure.
I lost a magnolia I’d had for 12 years, carting it about in a pot, 2 acers doing well, a larch that had sentimental significance. I’d bought 50 primroses, and 30 hostas. A fatsia, 10 white birch trees I’d bought bare root, and lots of geranium, and other bits and bobs I thought suitable for shade, that had been in pots, divided and planted out. Plus all the bulbs already there.
The soil had been dark and soft and is now pale coloured subsoil with rock in.
I was unable to speak to the ground worker when he apologised, but they had gone through the hedge as they thought it would be better (!). The teenager he’d left in charge with the digger thought ‘it was all weeds’, and they claim the dumped subsoil is topsoil.
I now have something resembling a car park between the original trees. I’m struggling to get over it and seem to have lost interest in gardening.
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There probably isn't an easy answer but hopefully, come the Spring you may find new shoots where some things have survived. Most plants are fairly resilient.
I do hope you recover from the heartbreak and re-discover your love of gardening.
My very best wishes.
Is the woodland your land? You say it is seperate from your 'plot'.
You or someone else (?) brought in a digger to dig the drain; did you have permission to do that? What was the drain for?
Did you employ the groundworkers to install the drain? If not who employed them?
I would have concerns about a 'weed suppressant membrane' in a woodland.
you really should pursue compensation - I know it won’t reinstate what you had but it would help you to do something .. if you want to.
I expect that to an untrained eye with zero clue about plants and how valuable gardens and their contents are, and a mission to do their task, I don’t suppose they had a thought to ‘being careful’ or checking if it was ok to do what they had planned. I know it’s too late now but you should have pointed out that the area was a created garden which you want to keep as intact as possible.
If they can’t recompense you financially, perhaps they could provide manpower to remove the dumped subsoil and rocks. If you haven’t already paid them, I’d withhold that until they have done something towards compensating you in cash or kind. And definitely write a review somewhere!
Sadly, this sort of thing reinforces my reluctance to employ any form of builders and the like, and if we do, I watch them like a hawk to monitor what is being done.
Just do what you can, but don’t let it ruin your life. Gardens evolve anyway, and plants grow or die, there will be another spring to start afresh in.
But I can't quite understand from your post if the land is yours and part of your plot?
If it is yours you should pursue a claim for damages and replacement.
Although it will not compensate your for the loss and (I am sure genuine) heartache you feel.
Really just as Ergates has said.. Which is why I "liked" their post.
I cannot imagine how you feel having yours all trashed and subsoil dumped...