When Gavin and I went to the house viewing of our cottage back in October 2020, we had no idea the real size of the garden. House viewings at the time were limited to 15 minutes because of Covid restrictions. We knew the South facing aspect of the back garden and saw that there was a big lawn with lots of potential to plant more perennials, shrubs and evergreens, along with a more functional space for socialising and entertaining. Not to mention the cute outbuilding that matches the North facing facade of the house.
It wasn't until we got the keys in January 2021 that we had the opportunity to really explore the garden. We then realised the Laurel hedge at the back of the garden was actually massive, it took up more than a third of the land that was ours! On paper, I suppose a Laurel hedge seems like a good idea. It has pretty oval shaped shiny green leaves, and the Japanese Laurel is variegated with fun yellow speckles. It is an evergreen so it keeps its leaves all year round. It being one of the fastest growing evergreen shrubs, that also means it can get out of control very fast. It appeared that our Laurel hedge would drop a branch which would then grow new roots and keep spreading. I'm not sure how long this hedge was left neglected, but in most parts of the garden it was the better part of 3-4 metres deep, and the width of the garden.
After a few months time we were able to survey the garden and realised that there was so much more potential in it. Three things were certain - the Laurel hedge had to go, the derelict swing and the fence needed replaced. These two things were a good starting point to give us a backdrop to redesign the garden. First up was getting rid of the hedge.
This took place over the course of two summers. Summer 2021, Gavin and his dad took a chain saw to the Laurel hedge. They cut the hedge down to the roots, discarded the small branches and leaves into the garden waste bin, and turned the stumps of the hedge into logs for our wood burning stove. Part of the difficulty in clearing out an over grown garden is simply managing the garden waste. This was a big job, and the roots were left for a year while we came up with a plan to get rid of them and also figure out how to be new parents with a massive renovation project on the horizon. The options to get rid of the roots were to hire a small digger and literally dig them up, or hire a stump grinder which would shred the roots into tiny wood chips. We've never used a digger or a stump grinder before, but after seeing how a stump grinder worked from our DIY Hedge Project, this seemed like the right approach.
In Summer 2022, we hired the stump grinder for a week. This job was heavy going. This machine was a beast, it was really heavy, loud and it took ages to grind away every single root that was left. We had ground marking spray that helped us identify the roots so we didn't miss anything. Gavin's dad Gerry, cousin Alec Dan, Gavin and myself took turns going at it with the stump grinder. This really isn't the type of thing you can on your own as it's physically and mentally numbing and you also kind of need the support from others to motivate other on. While one person used the grinder, others would help to turn the dirt with a digging fork and spade to make sure we didn't miss anything.
Once all of the Laurel hedge and roots were cleared away, we had a clean slate to design how we would be using the garden. At the top of the garden, we were also able to get a fabulous view of a listed building in the neighbourhood which we never would have known we had if that hedge wasn't taken out. It is now March 2023 and I can happily confirm that the Laurel has not yet resurfaced. Yes, this was a multi year project, but in the end it only cost us around £300 to remove this hedge ourselves. I don't even want to know what kind of a quote we would have gotten from a landscaping company to take this on for us.
Removing the hedge did leave quite an eye sore from the deteriorating fence at the back border. This was the next project, prepping the ground and finalising plans for the new fence. Check back soon for a step by step guide on how to DIY a feather edge fence!
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