Monday, April 17, 2006

 

At last, we attack the garden

Back in July last year we started the redevelopment of the garden with a fancy fence for plants to climb up (in preference to the neighbour's rusty chain-link). Today we dug the soil over and planted things! A hundred bulbs, three roses, a tree and various greenery. A really productive day.

All the big plants we already had living in pots for a year or two. Sue likes to buy plants from garden centres; I plant what I find on the floor. My collection includes 2 Horse Chestnuts, an Ash and a Sycamore (not forgetting the long-suffering avocado). The conkers I picked up maybe 10 years ago and potted at our old house; the Ash was a thin stick hiding in the front garden of our current house, spotted by my eagle-eyed dad, dug up and subsequently potted; the sycamore was from seeds that regularly fall from the full-grown trees across the road, the crown spread of each being bigger then our garden.

Now our garden (measured from Google Earth satellite photos) is only 12 metres long so we need to be careful what trees we plant. According to the Association of British Insurers, we can get away with fruit trees and evergreens so the Pear Tree we transferred today from pot to soil near the end of the garden should be OK. The Horse Chestnut, Ash and Sycamore would grow way too big for the garden so none of these will ever be removed from their pots and put into the garden proper. It would be a great shame to watch them grow to a decent size, only to chop them down years later when they became a problem. Maybe we'll treat them to some bigger pots one day although there is a limit - I have to be able to lift them without causing myself damage. 


Relative Subsidence Hazard of Full-grown Tree, i.e. Safe distance (metres) from tree to building.

 Type of tree

Actual safe distance 

Willow40 metres 
Poplar 35 metres 
Oak, Elm30 metres 
Horse Chestnut23 metres
Plane22 metres
Ash21 metres
Cypress, Lime, Maple 20 metres
Sycamore17 metres 
Beech15 metres 
Hawthorn12 metres 
Cherry, Plum, Rowan11 metres 
Apple, Pear, Birch10 metres
Laburnum9 metres
Pine 8 metres
Spruce7 metres
Holly, Laurel, Magnolia, Yew5 metres

The Leylandi that was torched 2 years ago finally came in handy today. We had chopped up the branches and trunk last summer (unleashing chemical warfare on ourselves as we did) and used the thinner logs as a wavy border. Can't wait until it is time to trim the grass at the edge of the lawn...



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