Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
One easy option in my mind - subject to access - use/hire an Etesia AV95 or 98 Ride on Brush Cutter.....;-)
Search for an old thread of mine where we had to the same to clear an area of scrubland ready for a marquee for a company fun day last year. Area had 6-7 ft weeds/brambles/willow self sets et al..
Great fun as well - go kart style machine. Easily fits in a van. Hyrdostatic drive. Completely mulches vegetation.
Failing that hire a suitable small JDere Unit with a 5ft Fail out front attachement. We used that for a large area the year before last.
Can recommend some Ground Mant. Suppliers that would hire that out,
Here t'is: http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/xn/detail/2074886:Comment:266393
I clear such brambles with either my ferris 36 or the etesia pro56. Amazing what a bog standard powerful mower can do. Not done a job anywhere near that big, and would be tempted to hire a ride on brushcutter as above.
Atilla 95 comes in at £300 per week at a place up here, so you should be able to negotiate under £100 for 1-day hire. I imagine you'd have a good job done within 4 hours.
Here's the other original post I started with a picture included...
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/options-for-clear...
The first time we did we used a Saxon ride-on (which is the same as the older Etesia AV95 - which is what our dealer now stocks.
I would go for manual removal of trees around 4-6" dia and above; then use a 10/10' tractor driven flail mower. You'll probably need a few passes as won't want to go too near ground initially in case of obstacles.
I used this method recently for a 800m2 garden - by far the most efficient way.
(We removed all trees and brash that wasn't 'flailed' with telehandler and trailered away.)
What about regrowth ?
I went the same route as Andy Thorne a couple of years ago - the client thought we could strim it LOL. Cleared it in a day, scraped the toppings to remove most of the cruddy roots & nuked regrowth several times with Roundup Bio (Agricultural strength). Did the trick & one or two made a valiant effort to regrow, but if you keep on it, it works - using 'Grazeon' for grassy areas with regular weeds. This was only around half an acre I'm talking about, but it was an area surrounding a pond & replanted as a wild meadow & needed to be complete in a season - still looking good!
Did a similar job last year we cleared it in 3 days but had to take it steday due to the ammount of foreign object on site All brambles were tracked down with a 5 ton slew so that a small Kubota and flail could nibble at it. The trees were hand cut and piled for later disposal. We would have liked to get a forestry flail in there however there was so many foreign objects includeing gas cylinders that nobody wanted to touch it.
Many thanks for all the thought provoking replies.
The land is owned by a church which it is next to. They want it cleared to permit a crowd and a large bonfire to celebrate something in february. Someone has made a small impression with a brushcutter and given up. I'm not sure if they really know what they want... Spending money on a full surface clearance only to allow growth to reappear seems foolish just for a one off celebration.
With all the options I'm not sure which course to take at the moment. Initially I thiught a tractor and flail mower would be sufficient, and a chainsaw for the trees, that's what the site owners thought too. We will see how it pans out.
With a flail mower you should be to easily flatten the brambles in a day assuming you go round the trees. If the trees are small, then use the same tractor with a front loader and back hoe to grub them up. Maybe another day including clearance of tree waste. I presume you would want to rake up the cut bramble into piles for burning but would maybe need to be left for a few weeks to dry. If it were me (although I haven't seen the site) I'd Glyphosate the whole site first and then start the clearing a few weeks later.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next