16. Orchard Clearing

The big autumn project is to establish a mini-orchard along the south and west facing walls of the Walled Garden. Years of neglect has allowed the climbers, shrubs and weeds to take over. Drastic action is called for.

Clearing the bramble patch …….

There is a very impressive bramble patch running all the way along the south wall. It has self seeded, and after three years of uninhibited growth it is waist high and three metres deep. It is aided and abetted by a neighbour’s massive Russian vine coming over the wall. Brambles are notoriously hard to get rid of, so Steve the digger has been called in, and we are approaching it in three steps.

Step 1 is to use the digger to dig up as many of brambles as we can, piling them up on a large roof tarpaulin to prevent them taking root elsewhere. Step 2 is to use the digger to rake through the area, turning up to 20cm of topsoil and dragging all the roots out. These two steps have removed the bulk of the brambles. Step 3 is to establish a 1m deep bed for the fruit trees, and put down a thick layer of bark mulch. The bark will make it easier to spot any bramble re-growth, and to hand weed the individual plants when they do appear. It will take another couple of years of maintenance and hand weeding to remove all trace of the brambles.

Clearing the Climbers

The Russian vine coming over the south facing wall is ferocious, but my neighbour is very fond of it and determined to keep it as a privacy barrier. We have come to a neighbourly arrangement: I will remove the bulk of it as a one-off exercise and he will be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of it, making sure it is kept within his boundary wall. In practical terms it means him having to trim it back every couple of weeks, but it is an arrangement that (so far) is working well.

The ivy growing on the east, west and north facing walls belong to me, and have been cut back to the ground. I use a poison on the roots to prevent any further growth. There were a couple of interesting finds beneath all that ivy: road safety signs, now proudly on display by my potting benches.

Clearing the Shrubs

The elders are self-seeded and have been there for at least 5 years. The roots are well established, so tree surgeon Mark’s skills are needed. He arrived with his saw, chipper and stump grinder to tackle the job, leaving behind a large pile of chippings to be distributed over the wall beds.

Mark has also removed the large ivy growing around the sycamore tree in the corner. Left to its own devices, it will eventually strangle the tree. He tackled that by cutting the ivy at the base, and then systematically removing the individual tendrils wrapped around the crown of the tree.

This opens up the last section of the garden, making it available for planting. I hadn’t realised that there was a small recessed section in the back wall It has also revealed a small recess in the wall - the perfect location for a variegated holly hedge for the birds.