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Garden Gate:  Questions about trees, tilling and mulch.  |
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
 Posted - May 13 2009 : 2:21:04 PM
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Background: We live next door to my father-in-law's house. He has signed over ownership of the house to us, and we live in an apartment upstairs from our landlord, a family friend. We're doing work on my father-in-law's house and hope to eventually live in it.
Last week we hired a tree service to cut down some large trees in my father-in-law's yard that were leaning at a dangerous angle over our neighbors' fence and garage. We also got the stump and roots from one of the trees ground, a bunch of dead branches cut off of the rest of our trees, and some small choke cherry trees cut down. Then things went badly. The tree service that we hired rolled big trucks into our yard to do this work, damaging our landlord's driveway. (We couldn't let them use FIL's driveway, because the trucks would have done much more severe damage. We're going to pay to have our landlord's driveway repaired). So the tree service cut down the huge tree and ground the stump, but they refuse to come back to do the rest of the job for the same price that they originally named, because they can't get their huge trucks back there to do it and refuse to carry the debris out to the street. There is currently a large tree trunk in several pieces all about 6-8 feet long and a huge pile of woodchips.
The other issue is that we wanted to till the yard anyway. The guy who owned the house before my FIL (my husband's family moved in in 1984) had the nasty idea to cover the ground with polyethylene plastic and then peat moss to keep the weeds out. In the interim, practically nothing has been done to the yard, so there is still a lot of plastic under approximately a 3-inch layer of dirt. Growing a lawn back there is pretty impossible due to the shade from the trees, but there is a sunny spot that would accommodate a garden. We were thinking of rototilling and planting some ground cover on the rest of the lawn.
So we were contemplating doing something with the wood and chips, either hiring a different tree service to remove them or gassing up the chainsaw, cutting the tree ourselves, saving some of the wood for firewood and freecycling the rest, and using the woodchips as mulch for the backyard. Would woodchips on freshly rototilled soil be beneficial? How would I do this?
Also, the service cut down the choke cherry trees but didn't do anything about the stumps, and we know that they'll sprout again. short of digging them up ourselves, is there any other non-toxic way to keep choke cherry saplings from sprouting again? |
Edited by - ivmeer on May 13 2009 2:27:04 PM |
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ddmashayekhi
True Blue Farmgirl
4739 Posts
Dawn
Naperville
Illinois
USA
4739 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2009 : 3:13:23 PM
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Did you have a signed contract with the tree company? If you did, then you have some recourse.
Make sure you get all that awful plastic pulled up if you plan to rototill the garden, otherwise it will get all mangled up in the tillers blades.
You can use the chips as mulch once you are done planting providing the trees they come from didn't have a disease. Just put the chips carefully around the trees, plants, shrubs. The muclh will keep moisture in, weeds down and will eventually break down like compost. Check to see if there is someone who picks up logs to use for furniture. We have a guy in northern IL who prepares the wood for several area furniture makers. Hopefully you have something like that by you.
Choke cherry trees are an awful nuisance. They will try to come back no matter what! You could hire someone to remove the trunks for you. You need to pull the saplings out by the roots to try to get rid of them.
Good luck with your new home!
Dawn in IL |
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2009 : 3:24:04 PM
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1. No signed contract, and the estimate they gave was way lower than anyone else's, so we're still coming out ahead moneywise. I'm going to let it go rather than make myself nuts.
2. The plastic is only in certain parts of the yard, and we're not sure exactly where, so we've got to till a bit to figure out where it is.
3. The trees are maple, so I doubt they'd make suitable furniture. |
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willowtreecreek
True Blue Farmgirl
4813 Posts
Julie
Russell
AR
USA
4813 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2009 : 7:53:19 PM
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If you plan to till the yard be sure there are noleech lines.
My dad make BEAUTIFUL furniture with maple! I have a gorgeous red maple kitchen table!
Farmgirl Sister #17
Blog
www.willowtreecreek.wordpress.com
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - May 14 2009 : 06:31:02 AM
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| Interesting. I'll look into it. |
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kristin sherrill
True Blue Farmgirl
11303 Posts
kristin
chickamauga
ga
USA
11303 Posts |
Posted - May 14 2009 : 06:42:03 AM
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Sounds like a big ole mess ya got there, Amanda. It's so hard to find anyone these days that will do a good job or do what they say they'll do. And tree cutting is so expensive. I sure hope you get it all straightened out and fixed up.
I think you need to let fresh ground up trees set awhile before you use them as mulch. I could be wrong, though. When the tree trimming guys would come around cutting branches off power lines, I'd get them to dump a load in the corner for me to use as mulch and they told me to wait at least a year before I used it. But it was all kinds of trees. So maybe just maple would be different.
Good luck, Amanda.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - May 14 2009 : 12:23:47 PM
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Crud. Did they say why?
Maybe we'll just move the pile to the back of the yard in the shady spot where we can't plant anything anyway. |
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kristin sherrill
True Blue Farmgirl
11303 Posts
kristin
chickamauga
ga
USA
11303 Posts |
Posted - May 17 2009 : 1:24:52 PM
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I'm not totally for sure but something about really fresh pine needs to set awhile because of the acidity? And also there could be poison ivy or other vining stuff that you don't want to have growing in your gardens. So as a precaution you should wait at least a few months. And if possible keep it turned.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 1:28:52 PM
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| Ah. If it's not pine, can we use it right away? It's maple. And we don't have poison ivy in our backyard. |
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Thistle Cove Farm
True Blue Farmgirl
141 Posts
Sandra
Tazewell
VA
USA
141 Posts |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 4:05:32 PM
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If the tree company didn't have a clause stating they would take out the stumps, you still have a few options. There's a Stump Removal product you can buy at Lowe's or other hardware stores; not sure what it is but it does work, eventually.
Or, you can make a mixture of buttermilk and plain yogurt, dig out a hole in the middle of the stump, pour the milk yogurt mixture into the hole, cover with plastic wrap and wait. Eventually, it will work its way into the stump and rot it out from the inside. You'll probably have to re-do the milk yogurt mixture but, over time, it does work.
Making the tree company get the stump out is best though -smile-. They have a machine that will do this in a matter of Minutes!
Be careful about using the stump as mulch; if it's pine it could cause problems with other plants. Also, some trees harbor insects and you don't want to spread "vermin" around to your other healthy plants.
Sandra @ Thistle Cove Farm ~ God's blessings on you, yours and the work of your hands & heart ~
www.thistlecovefarm.com
www.thistlecovefarm.blogspot.com |
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ivmeer
True Blue Farmgirl
409 Posts
Amanda
Pawtucket
RI
USA
409 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2009 : 07:15:57 AM
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Sandra, this is exactly the kind of homespun wisdom I was looking for: effective, non-toxic, and won't affect the maple that the choke cherry trees are growing next to. I appreciate your help.
And the stump is maple, so we're ok. |
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Garden Gate: Questions about trees, tilling and mulch. |
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Questions about trees, tilling and mulch.
