I’m pretty certain I’ve asked about this before, but I’d be grateful for a revisit to this subject thanks. The last couple of years gardening has had to take a backseat to health issues which means that I’m looking at some pretty tough work that needs doing.
Unfortunately when we first moved here 18 years ago I let wild cornus bushes grow up into young trees as a cheap and easy way of getting interest in what was a large bare patch. The cornus “trees” themselves look great, but not the suckers and young saplings that are invading my borders. In the past my only solution as been to dig out what I can (exhausting!) and cut the rest down to ground level, when of course they sprout again with even more vigour. The challenge now is to get them out, ideally permanently.
Can anyone suggest please a solution that is compatible with (a) my organic principles and (b) does not kill off the surrounding plants (for example, one small “copse” has established itself right alongside the main stem of the vine that goes along our terrace). I’d be grateful for your help. Thanks.
Local service à la personne gardener. I got a young super-fit person to dig out all the ancient shrubs I didn’t want un an old bed. He did in half a day what would have taken us a week or more. Well worth it. After that we could cope again.
Yes, otherwise known as CESU. But people tends to advertise as service à la personne. About 19 types of household task eligible like cleaning, gardening, petit bricolage.
Very straightforward to sign up to CESU, the you pay the person for the work they and do register the amount and CESU sorts out the rest - tax, cotisations and so on. At the end of the year you get an attestation for tax, and get 50% abatement or 50% back if you don’t actually pay tax.
We use it for gardening work that involves a ladder ever since OH fell off one, and deep digging.
Thanks Jane, I will explore further. We’ve just signed up some elegage guys (OH up ladder again!) but I think they are too busy to take on something as mundane as digging out saplings,
I seem to remember also some advice for an organic approach that would kill off stumps - I don’t think anyone can get close enough to the the copse alongside our vine without ruining the vine roots, so I wondered about cutting everything right back and either painting onto the stump itself or waiting for the next crop of young suckers and painting something on their leaves (not glyphosate obviously)
I think it will as will hand digging, but will the surrounding plants survive? Chemical methods will poison both the cornus and surrounding plants. The roots of both plants are now intermingled.
