clearing waste ground

John Mason

myself and himself have decided to do a bit of guerilla gardening on some land at the back of my house.

we have been out there for ages this morning and we are covered in nettle stings:(

anyway, there is a lot of dumped tree branches, looks like a good few trees have been cut down and dumped.

does anyone know of anyway to get the branches to decompose quickly without destroying the ground? a skip is out of the question as the only access is climbing over my back garden wall.

we are going to set up a compost heap for the weeds that we have been clearing.

i would say its going to take a month or so to clear the rubbish away, so any help or ideas would be great,.

we are planning on making it in to a vegetable garden. am i right in thinking it is illegal to burn garden waste?

i have photos which i will post later

fodda

Depends how thick the branches are.

Options are...

Cut up branches for firewood or offer them to someone who burns wood.

Hire a wood chipper from your tool hire places and chip all the branches, you will soon find use for wood chippings around a veg patch, especially as your ground will have lots of weed seeds waiting to grow.:) Especially the first year.

In this case if you can buy young veg plants this year as opposed to seeds as we are a bit late for seeds now, and spread wood chips around the young veg plants to suppress any weeds.

If you want some hand tools for digging your garden over use these www.chillingtonhoes.com they are great things and it appears there is videos on youtube now. They say one of these tools is used for ground clearance.

I would go down the wood chip route if it were me.

Enjoy your blisters:)

John Mason

hmmm, wood chipper - how big are they? would we be able to lift it over over a 6 foot wall?

does is need electric power?


the branches are thicker then my arm and some would be thicker then my whole body and 10 times the height of me





this is only a very small bit of the branches that we moved

fodda

Then what you have is a great valuable supply of firewood that you could use or someone else would gladly chop up and take away.

If you cant do it yourself put an ad in a shop and someone will do the lot for you if you have as much as you say

goat2

fodda wrote: »

Then what you have is a great valuable supply of firewood that you could use or someone else would gladly chop up and take away.

If you cant do it yourself put an ad in a shop and someone will do the lot for you if you have as much as you say

have you a quiet part of your plot, which you are not using and cannot see from the house and road, say at the back of the hedgerow, i would cut them into managable size pieces, put them there in a pile, and leave there until next year, they will be seasoned for firewood, when they will be easier to cut up
this is what i do every year
have a fine steady supply of wood for winter evenings, keeping warm at no cost to my pocket, also no need to pay for clearance with tractors or trailers

mossfort

irishbird wrote: »

hmmm, wood chipper - how big are they? would we be able to lift it over over a 6 foot wall?

does is need electric power?


the branches are thicker then my arm and some would be thicker then my whole body and 10 times the height of me





this is only a very small bit of the branches that we moved

if i were you i would invest in a new saw.

fodda

Yeah i agree with Mossfort, giving a man a saw like that to saw up trees!! How could you Irishbird?? What did the poor bloke do?? Thats taking being in the doghouse to the extreme:D

fodda

irishbird you recently asked about a bumblebee house, well i can tell you that a neatly stacked pile of logs in the corner of your garden is the perfect home for insect life which will be very beneficial for your proposed veg garden and the rest of the garden. If you cant find a use for them then stack them up (laid flat) and let the wildlife move in.

One little fella who will love this place is a hedgehog who will take care of any slugs who go after your veg:)

John Mason

thanks for the ideas.

i know poor des, i will have to buy him a new saw the only saw i could find was the the old rusty one he was using

i dont know anyone who has a fire but i think the idea of cutting it up and making little nests for wildlife is a great idea. its going to be a big project, i dont think we realised how much to had to cleared, there are a loads of cement blocks hidden there as well, but we think we can use them as the ground is on a big slope, so we are planning on stacking them up as a barrier and level the ground off.

we didnt do anything today as it was too hot but we have levelled off some of the ground and put down some of the blocks so when we put our ladder over the wall, we have level gound:)

i dont think we will get to plant anything this summer but am hoping by september time we will be able to start planting for next summer. will keep you updated - i am really excited about this, we have been talking about it for so long. eventually, i am hoping to a new wall built and up in a metal gate. it is really beautiful there, there is a lovely steam at the end of the slope but the amount of illegal dumping is horrible

goat2

fodda wrote: »

irishbird you recently asked about a bumblebee house, well i can tell you that a neatly stacked pile of logs in the corner of your garden is the perfect home for insect life which will be very beneficial for your proposed veg garden and the rest of the garden. If you cant find a use for them then stack them up (laid flat) and let the wildlife move in.

One little fella who will love this place is a hedgehog who will take care of any slugs who go after your veg:)

i agree wholeheartlly with that
i have something like you said in a corner of my garden, and i know i have a family of hedgies, leaving a patch go wild with nettles, and pile of wood is brilliant, you will have the butterflies, nettles are one of the best homemade fertalisers you can have, i cut them back all through may and they go stronger, i put cuttings in a drum of water cover it and leave to sit for approx 6 weeks, brilliant for fertalising the crops you use on the table,
waste not want not

Sonnenblumen

irishbird wrote: »

myself and himself have decided to do a bit of guerilla gardening on some land at the back of my house.

we have been out there for ages this morning and we are covered in nettle stings:(

anyway, there is a lot of dumped tree branches, looks like a good few trees have been cut down and dumped.

does anyone know of anyway to get the branches to decompose quickly without destroying the ground? a skip is out of the question as the only access is climbing over my back garden wall.

we are going to set up a compost heap for the weeds that we have been clearing.

i would say its going to take a month or so to clear the rubbish away, so any help or ideas would be great,.

we are planning on making it in to a vegetable garden. am i right in thinking it is illegal to burn garden waste?

i have photos which i will post later

OP - just to clarify, is the waste ground within your property or at the back meaning 'not your property'? As you know Guerilla gardening ie gardening on land without owners consent is illegal, and although your efforts to make good what appears to be 'wasteland' might be considered positive by some, you are potentially open to litigation for trespass/accidents etc

John Mason

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

OP - just to clarify, is the waste ground within your property or at the back meaning 'not your property'? As you know Guerilla gardening ie gardening on land without owners consent is illegal, and although your efforts to make good what appears to be 'wasteland' might be considered positive by some, you are potentially open to litigation for trespass/accidents etc

no public land, it is only illegal on private land

Sonnenblumen

irishbird wrote: »

no public land, it is only illegal on private land

?

paddy147

1-get sabre saw or chain saw
2-cut up into 300mm long lengths
3-allow a little time to dry out
4-throw on open fire or stove and get heating for free.

problem solved

NextSteps

You could use them to build a support structure for your compost heap or your raised beds.