ElyDave
Yamadori
Here are a few pics of a massive yew I've just collected from the front of my drive. It had been topiarised as cuboid block for the last 15 years by me, probably planted when the house was built in 1985. The trunk is 11" across at the soil level. My wife had been complaining that it "scratched her car", personally I always found it easy not to drive on a tree.
I reduced the top by about half last year, and it has sprouted back massively, so is a very healthy tree. I've been digging it out over the last month or so, with the final push in the last two days - I will admit, it nearly broke me, and once the roots were free it was another big effort to get it into the wheelbarrow. The root ball was actually very shallow as the soil in my garden is heavy clay from about one spades depth down, and this has just casued the roots to spread.
I've replanted it in a slatted compost heap as a container, loads of my home made compost and soil from the hole it came from. I'd been keeping the roots moist by laying damp towels on them and covering with soil when my work was interrupted. On planting it's had 4 gallons of water over the roots and foliage. It will stay in that location until next spring to recover. Some photos below - the box is 90cm square for reference.
My only question is should I further reduce the top growth to minimise water loss whilst it re-establishes root growth?
I reduced the top by about half last year, and it has sprouted back massively, so is a very healthy tree. I've been digging it out over the last month or so, with the final push in the last two days - I will admit, it nearly broke me, and once the roots were free it was another big effort to get it into the wheelbarrow. The root ball was actually very shallow as the soil in my garden is heavy clay from about one spades depth down, and this has just casued the roots to spread.
I've replanted it in a slatted compost heap as a container, loads of my home made compost and soil from the hole it came from. I'd been keeping the roots moist by laying damp towels on them and covering with soil when my work was interrupted. On planting it's had 4 gallons of water over the roots and foliage. It will stay in that location until next spring to recover. Some photos below - the box is 90cm square for reference.
My only question is should I further reduce the top growth to minimise water loss whilst it re-establishes root growth?