New garden no idea!.

Hello fellow gardeners

I have recently moved into a house that has a lot land and so many plants that have been neglected over the last few years. It's roughly an acre and a half of land surrounded on both sides by 50 to 60 foot conifers or trees of that type. The person that owned the house previously had great knowledge of his plants as he had three 40ft greenhouses and poly tunnels plus other potting shed and smaller tropical greenhouses. The problem I'm having is knowing where to start first and knowing what I can and can't cut back. The trees are the first job really as the are blocking out so much light and most of the surrounding plants are long and straggly stretching for the light. I have a kiwi plant that has taken over such a large area that when I cut some back I discovered a 8 by 10ft potting shed underneath that I never new was there. Should I wait until it has fruited before I cut it back and how hard can it done. I am going to post a few pics of some of the plants that I want to prune, so identification and advice on how best to reduce there size would be very much appreciated.

 

@Damski

The best advice I was given when I moved into my current home was: wait one year to see what pops up.

I won't even begin to identify and advise on your plants (we have more experienced gardeners than I here who will do you justice) but, I would still apply that same advice: you have a lot of land and you need to know what treasures (or trash!) it has in store for you over a 12 month period.

So, for example: your immediate thought is that light is being blocked. Could it be that it is actually acting as a wind break? You may well let in more light by cutting back, but, without knowing what direction that part of your garden is facing means you may be advised to cut back, yet open yourself up to the elements that it is actually protecting you from?

In which case, perhaps (aside from the size of the garden), you could also tell us:

- which direction is your land facing?
- what type of soil are you gardening on?
- what type of garden do you hope to have (in the long run)
- what activities are you expecting to have on your land? (small holding? A mix of this and that? Cottage style? Playground? Flower beds? Shrub borders? Maybe an orchard? Vegetable beds?

The wisest advice will come from a fuller knowledge of what you want to harness the land for

 

Thanks for the reply M

The garden runs north to South with the front garden facing south, the front part of the garden is about 100ft upto the house. With my little knowledge of soil I guess it is acidic as I have lots of rhododendrons and the hydrangeas are blue. The gardens have been well planted and I'd like to keep the borders as maintenance free as possible it's just all overgrown!. There's a large pond at the front of the garden that's just full of leafs as it's been so overgrown down there, it gets hardly any light. I've chopped back the hydrangeas to the ground as there are so many I'm not worried if they don't come back, there's plumb trees and apple trees there but they are just tall sticks with no fruit on them. Are these trees worth keeping or should they be pruned back and hope they grow better now that they have light?. As there is so much land I'm quite happy to have a mix and match of lots of different types of garden, there is a veg patch that's been netted to about three feet to stop rabbits and deer that I'm happy to reserect. The rest of the back garden is mainly lawn with out buildings I have some chickens ducks and a peacock so a small holding at the rear would be good.

 

Can you upload some pictures of the trees please?

 

My experience of an old, old apple tree is: it should be pruned in it's dormant period (so, January/February I took the saw to mine - it not only lived, it has thrived and needs doing again!). I would leave it alone until then - others, with greater experience may give you better advice, but, I think I'm correct.

Pond: if you are going to clean it out (which I did the June I moved into my current home), the water I took out - and all the sludgy gunk - got poured over the bases of my fruit trees (I have apple, pears and damsons). Having said that, it was probably the wrong time to do it because the damselflies and (in the next month or two) dragonflies will be laying their eggs in the pond. Not that it put my wildlife out at all! In fact, that was the year I discovered I was a Babe Magnet for .... mosquitoes (nasty little blighters ).

Tip: When my ducks and chooks free-ranged the *whole* garden (that was pre-dog) I put their water dishes under the fruit trees. So, while they had a little thirst quencher, they pooped and the fruit trees felt the love

You may like to take a look at one of our members garden photo's ( @shiney ) because he has a mixed garden with a small orchard and vegetable patch at the far end of his - you may find inspiration there (I know I did when I first joined). Others among us keep chickens (@Lolimac , @Scrungee + more I can't think of right now - sorry GC guys ) but, Foxy got my ducks this year and I'm not sure who else has those But I do think shiney has peahens who visit?

Veg patches I've only dabbled with - but, there are plenty here who are very keen and knowledgeable.

Do have a good play with the search engine on the forum for any questions you have on livestock, veg patches, fruit trees, etc. I spent hours and hours looking up old threads to glean nuggets of information to get me going

Now, while Rome wasn't built in a day - nor will a garden be! But, I learned so, so much in my first summer here ... I felt brave enough to not only ask questions, but ... even found I knew the answers to one or two as well Trust me: this time next year you will be amazed at what you have learned; how much inspiration you discover and how "adventurous" you will be feeling toward your land.

I'm going to be very excited on your behalf watching it all unfold over time

 

If you want to chop back the bushes and have no experience then it might be worth getting someone in to do it for you. I don't know how you find someone "with the right skills", but assuming you did, I would expect them to cut back in a way that will enable the plants to grow back and perform well. Pruning at the wrong time will mean you get no flowers for the next 12 months; I don't suppose that matters (as much as getting "control") but someone skilled-in-the-art could at least a) give you the option and b) prune in the right way so that the plant grows back well enough for you to then, next year, decide if it is worth keeping or not.

You chopping a Hydrangea back to the ground because you have several may be killing one of the ones that you might turn out to like more than the ones you have left (for example).

Ditto with the trees, I would get a tree surgeon in, they will know what the tree type is, how best to do a "canopy reduction" - or even whether, for that tree type, it is worth it and/or whether the tree is serving a useful purpose - wind shelter or some special flowering / fruiting that you haven't see yet (including a season you have not yet been there fore and/or if the tree is a few years away from maturity)

I don't think either of those "trades" need to be on site for long - unless you want to pay them to then the Pruner doesn't need to weed all the beds and borders - just prune the overgrown plants that warrant it. Ditto the tree surgeon, he can probably do a canopy reduction of 4 or 5 trees in a day (assuming they are not massive)

That, I think, would give you a flying start. You can deal with weeding and light maintenance for a year, see what you like, take photographs of the whole garden (ideally from the same locations each time) every 2 weeks through the year, so come Winter you can remind yourself what flowered when / looked nice with X and so on, and then start deciding how to change the garden to be what you want.

 

Thanks for all your advice so far it is greatly appreciated.
As requested I'm going to upload some pcs of my fruit trees. There is an apple and a plum in these two.

 

They look pretty leggy to me. It does look very shaded where they are so that may explain the lack of leaves on them. Do they get any direct sunlight in the day at all?