[ConfusedGardener]

Thanks ilan. I'll look into that.

[ConfusedGardener]

I went for the Draper Expert 45576 32 cc Petrol Brush Cutter and Line Trimmer since it had good reviews. All of the Ryobi products I looked at had mixed or bad reviews.

It came today, and only took 20 mins to assemble. Feels solid - I'm impressed, although the fuel tank cap is broken but still usable. I'll get it replaced anyhow.

I don't suppose anyone could recommend some 2-stroke oil? I'm not sure which to get.

[RJR_38]

Half of my new plot was like that (so about 50m squared) and there is another 50-100m which is slightly worse that I have been told I can 'extend into' over time if I want.

I am anti-chemicals and because of my limited budget I have cleared it all by hand. The stages were:
1. Cut down dead stuff using long bladed shears, scoop it up into big piles at the edge which I will burn
2. Under the dead stuff I had the whole floor covered in ivy so this got ripped up
3. Rough dig the area - this involved taking out the massive root balls from the giant nettles that had obviously died down over the winter (the were 2/3 times the size of my fist and extended a long way)
4. Left it for up to 2 months over the Christmas period as soil was too wet
5 . I have now done another dig and and am raking it etc and it is looking pretty good all things considered

It is a lot of work to do it by hand - and the area I have cleared is a lot smaller than the area I think you want to clear? I would clear a small area by hand though so you have some idea what you are dealing with - mine had a lot of stones in for example which I think might have damaged machinery?

Good luck - and take lots of photos as you go

[Madame Cholet]

Have you concidered forest gardening ie under planting the trees with perrenials which are low maintenace some edible some for insects I've just borrowed how to create a forest garden my Martin Crawford from the library he talks about green manures too and all the preparation may be some useful information and ideas.

[ConfusedGardener]

RJR_38 - Thanks for the words of encouragement and advice.

I think the shots I took make the plot look a little larger than it is, and I may have over estimated the size a little. I'll have to go out there with a tape measure, but I estimated that I could probably get around 13 or 15 mostly small-medium sized apple trees in there and perhaps 1 or 2 larger trees.

I will clear a small patch by hand to get an idea of what to expect, and I'll get some shots to document the progress.

Madame Cholet - Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't considered forest gardening, but I'll look into it. I was planning to plant some fruit bushes along the south edge.

[ConfusedGardener]

I read somewhere that "a bit too fresh" pig manure that someone put on their beds acted as a great weed suppressant, so I'm thinking it might be worth trying to find something similar to go on the plot after having it scraped. Would most manures used fresh have a similar (and beneficial for my purposes) effect?

[ConfusedGardener]

Just a little update.

We started clearing the plot yesterday, and have been making good progress, although the pics I took don't make it look like we've made as much progress as we have.





There have been one or two surprises, like some the large rubble we uncovered at one end of the plot which will need a small digger to remove. Thankfully it's only a small part of the plot!


This stuff will also have to be mechanically removed!


We were aware of the rubbish, but I cant help being annoyed that someone would treat their property like a rubbish tip!




This pile of brush probably best represents our efforts. It doesn't really look that big in the pic, but it's about 4 feet tall at the end, 10 feet wide, and about 14 feet long!


In the next couple of days I'll clear the remaining brush with the brush cutter (weather permitting!), and one of our neighbors has promised to go over the plot with a scraper once that is done. He also promised to bring over a couple of trailer loads of fresh cow manure to dump over the plot in two weeks time if we cover his fuel costs.

The shredder I bought on Ebay also arrived today, and will be put to good use once I've put together a long extension to get power to it.

Lastly I went around the plot with a tape measure and came up with these dimensions: 75 x 60 x 35 feet, and I found this area calculator tool which told me that the plot is around 0.1 acres.

[jonewer]

Looks great! I'm very jealous. What are you planning to plant?

[ConfusedGardener]

Looks great! I'm very jealous. What are you planning to plant?

We want to try a little bit of everything... at least a couple of apple trees, pears, cherries, plumbs, peaches (although I think they may do better in the polytunnel we are planning), and maybe a green gauge.

Also a walnut and sweet chestnut. There is already a hazelnut (or cobnut - is there much of a difference?) on the plot. If anyone has any other suggestions we'd like to hear them! Our soil is a little bit on the acid side, so I know plumbs should do quite well.

[RJR_38]

Looks great so far - well done! I am hating clearing the brush the most - I haven't found an easy way to do it yet. How are you doing it ?

[ConfusedGardener]

Looks great so far - well done! I am hating clearing the brush the most - I haven't found an easy way to do it yet. How are you doing it ?

It's actually not too bad. The vast majority of the brush is very brittle stemmed, and it was easy enough to simply sweep the clumps that were still standing with a rake and break the stems. Much of it was already laying flat on the ground already, and it was just a matter of raking it up into piles which could then be loaded on to a wheel barrow.

I used the brush cutter to cut down the more solid stemmed brush and brambles that could not be easily felled with the rake. I'm really enjoying using this brush cutter too. It easily fells small saplings, although the larger ones (it'll handle up to 2 cm) do make it shudder a bit - I think some that I cut down were closer to 3 cm although they did need a few swipes.

There's a hazel nut tree (which has got to go to make way for a polytunnel) on our land who's main trunk was surrounded by literally hundreds of 1-3 cm stems coming out of the ground and it was perhaps 14 feet from edge to edge. It probably would have taken me at least 3 or 4 hours to go around individually lopping each stem, but the brush cutter sliced through all of them in about 20 minutes! I love it! Well worth the money I paid for it!

[RJR_38]

Mmm interesting! I think my problem is that the people had my plot for 6 months and made a half-hearted attempt in some areas made my job harder by cutting most of it down and then leaving it on the stony ground and allowing the ivy and nettles to grow over/through it, breaking it all up into pieces.

The brush cutter sounds like a perfect tool for you though! Well done for making such a good start

[ConfusedGardener]

Ivy and stones... that would probably wreck a bush cutter blade very quickly. If you could find strimming line that has a steel core (not sure if such a thing exists - perhaps you could just use some appropriate gauge standard wire) and load a strimmer with that, it might get the job done. Hope you can find a solution!

[RJR_38]

Ivy and stones... that would probably wreck a bush cutter blade very quickly. If you could find strimming line that has a steel core (not sure if such a thing exists - perhaps you could just use some appropriate gauge standard wire) and load a strimmer with that, it might get the job done. Hope you can find a solution!

Yep - which is why I have been doing it all by hand! It is a slow process but there is a real sense of achievement

[ConfusedGardener]

The only other solution I can think of would be to borrow a goat, and tether it so it can only reach the edge of the plot  I'm guessing goats would eat ivy since they'll eat everything else.

Or how about burning it off? Napalm