Huge Elaeagnus(?)...need to know what to do with it!

Hello all

I'm new here and will pop over the intro section in a moment, but in the meantime I'm really hoping for some friendly help and advice with what to do with this huge beast that we have growing in the front garden. We would like to revamp the garden but this makes it very difficult to even start to plan.








Having looked it up, it looks like an Elaeagnus (intermingled with some other spikey thicket), approx 8ft high and the same in depth and it is overtaking our small front garden. If we were to cut the whole thing hard back to 3-4ft or so, would it grow back or would that be enough to kill it? I'm not overly keen on killing it because we need to have something growing there but this is getting to much for us to handle.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts & suggestions.

 

Elaeagnous is a shrub that can be chopped at quite severely in my opinion, so I'd say give it a go, and hack it back! I'd make sure that all the cuts that I did were 'clean' cuts, so I'd use a pruning saw/bow saw as I would think that there will be a lot of quite thick branches, and would be better than loppers.

I would start with the height, and let some light into the centre of the 'mass', and then you will be able to see how quickly it will start to re-grow. You may want to do it in stages, as you will have a large amount of 'stuff' to get rid of, and you may get sick of going to the recycling centre!

The thing growing in it is either pyracantha, or a type of berberis, I'm not too sure,both can be treated harshly, but I think you will also find all kinds of saplings growing like ash and sycamore, that ideally you will want to take out also, just to save on problems with them in the future (roots and foundations, leaves and blocked light etc)

Hope this Helps!

 

Thank you so much for the helpful reply...we will definitely get on and do it now! Starting at the top is a great idea too, many thanks