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New home owners…How to plan and change a landscape

Trees are always first

These are our thoughts, what are yours?

To ensure certainty with your trees find out first if they are protected with the local authority.

Look at when they shade your living space including your neighbours trees.

To avoid complaints check when they are close to structures such as boundaries walls, patios, pipes, roads and utility lines.

To avoid injury or ill health understand what they bring….pollen., seeds, saplings, poisonous berries and or foliage. .

And know where they are going…to be certain of their quality, future size and safety.

A site walk over survey may lead to a safety survey or a scope of works survey. This is then followed by tree works.

Please get in touch as we can definitely help.

Landscape is second

How and when do you want to use your space?

The landscape may be bare such as a new home or overmature following a purchase. You may consider development, or the kids have grown up.

The layout, patio, raised beds, working garden, summer house, garden office, greenhouse, hot tub, outdoor gym, children’s play area, water features and back garden football pitch.

Low maintenance garden, wildlife friendly, fruit and vegetables. Climbers, conifers, trees, shrubs. Scented and shade tolerant. Thorny barrier planting. On site consultancy exploring the options and the do-ability of this.

Please get in touch as we can help.

Finally, maintain and review.

When did you last invite an expert into your landscape?

Plan regular visits for pruning works. A healthy tree should be reviewed every 5 years. Growth of your investment requires a timely response to avoid spending more money than necessary.

Review growth rates, watch out for pest and disease. Know when to water, feed and prune.

Decide on the next stage of your project. Our select client base come back to us year after year. It may be call,or email to get a timely response.

Climate and disease variations ensure we provide you with the right tool to make good decisions.

Join us at Ace of Spades Gardens to ensure your place looks great.

Mike Barker aceofspadesgardens.co.uk

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Published on 12-Mar-2019 11:13 with

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Five Ways to Ensure a Fantastic Garden Really Sells your House

When looking to buy a new property, a tidy, well-managed garden will give you the extra 5% that makes a difference, that the buyer will notice and help them make the right choice. It will give you a better chance of getting the asking price for the property instead of wasteful time in negotiations on price based around what you did not do. clearing brash

For the estate agent selling your property, it’s a feature they can sell for you and the buyer can see how the garden can be easily used and altered to their tastes with time. Simply the buyer of your house does not want inherit problems.

During a survey of the property such as homebuyers or RICs survey tree issues may raise such as branches on the roof of the house or tree roots in the drains. However, these surveys are not carried out by tree specialists. Also noxious weeds or invasive plants such as bamboo could be an ongoing complaint.

The following are five ways to ensure the garden sells your house:

• A documented history of tree surveys and subsequently regularly managed trees. Trees are not overgrown and closing you in. This shows that the management of trees by using tree surgeons has reduced the risks from the trees and prevented future tree damage.

• Good management of hedgerows and shrubs with proper pruning at the right time of the year. The landscape then looks tidy and managed.

• Maintained boundaries well kept fences and gates - it is worth replacing them. The new buyer will hardly want their pet or child disappearing through the fence.

• Weed control of patios, driveways and beds. Weed membrane and mulching. A low-cost solution that provide immediate impact.

• Lawn works. Several months of lawn maintenance could make a beautiful lawn. It is cost effective in appearance for a small investment.

So you have it. Call out an expert , get the correct advice and plan the sale of your property.

Want to spend quality time in your garden in 2016? then Join us at Ace of spades gardens to get the right advice.

Mike Barker aceofspadesgardens.co.uk

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Published on 07-Mar-2016 11:13 with

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Weed Control

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Hedge

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Are Trees Blocking Your View of the World?

The view from your home, light into your home or garden or of the landscape surrounding you may be blocked or be reduced by the growth of trees and hedges. So what should you do?

Of course, this can be reduced or prevented but it requires careful planning. trees blocking the view

Trees and hedges are continually growing and changing throughout the year. And as the sun rises and falls during the day with a varied height during the year the effects can be become more acute. But also you may have recently bought a property with a view but because of a lack of tree management, tree pruning, ivy growth and hedge cutting you are now being closed in. There are a couple of ways to improve this:

Have your trees or hedges assessed by a qualified tree expert or arborist should provide you with advice on how the trees can be pruned and then you can plan the future pruning of the trees to ensure you have a view and the light is increased. This should take away all the worry and concern about the feeling of being blocked in by trees.

Some good advice to share:

The tree expert should know how to prune trees so they really don’t look pruned and improve the view. Many industry tree pruning standards provide this guidance.
The tree expert will find out if the trees are protected by the local authority as no one wants to fall foul of a planning enforcement. And then liaise with the local authority to ensure the works can commence.
The tree expert will guide you on the timeliness of the tree surgery works and how to prioritize tree, hedge and shrub management and the safety of the trees.
The tree expert will provide guidance on neighbouring trees or hedges blocking views and shading your home and garden. The legal position of high hedges and how to resolve this issue.
The tree surgeon will liaise with your neighbour in attempt to find agreement.

What to do next?

Talk to Local tree surgeons are competitive and will offer good advice. Often the local tree removal or tree service companies are at hand and may have worked upon the trees in the past and are familiar with the situation.
Obtain a tree survey to understand what has to be done. This is a legally defendable report that mitigates your duty of care liability should a claim for injury or damage to property follow.
Plan the management of the trees and hedges.
Tree experts will guide you on the benefits of trees and what the trees in the landscape have the potential to do.

Join us at Ace of Spades gardens to get the right advice.

Mike Barker www.aceofspadesgardens.co.uk

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Published on 14-Feb-2016 05:27 with

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What to do before your tree falls on someone’s car

Just like many other counties of UK, Norfolk has many trees along its roads, within its parks and within our beautiful Norfolk countryside. Norfolk is the home county of Ace of Spades Gardens Ltd.

So why should we care about the safety of Norfolk’s trees and ensure we protect Norfolk’s beautiful landscape?

Beautiful

Ensuring we have plenty of great looking safe trees along roadways, pathways, parks and gardens allows us to take relaxing walks within great landscape tree features. Trees soak up pollutants, capture dust, reduce noise, create perfect cherry blossom. We listen to the rustle of leaves in the wind, admire the autumn leaf colour, wildlife attractions or watch the winter sunlight silhouette between trees within a landscape.

Safety

Trees can be seen to be unpredictable and to the untrained eye you may notice a dead branch, bark seems an unusual colour, covered in ivy, some fungi is attached or see a woodpecker spending a lot of time within the tree.

In a woodland setting where few people venture, trees can be left to decline and age. In an urban or rural setting where roads, gardens or occupied land is located then trees should be managed.

Liability

You, as the tree owner have a duty of care to manage what escapes from your property and or to manage the safe passage of people invited or trespassing onto your property. This means small trees, shrubs, ornamental trees, flowering trees and large mature trees such as ash or oak, all should be managed. Good guidance is freely available online through the National Tree Safety Group standards. Simply if it does not look right call an expert before it goes wrong.

How you do this?

Invite an expert to carry out a tree safety survey for the trees you remain unsure about and those within falling distance of roads and cars. The survey will indicate the priority of the tree works, what the tree works are and time frame of when this should be completed.

Once you have this it maybe matter for a tree surgeon for tree pruning, tree felling, tree care advice or cyclic tree maintenance. There are many good local tree companies with excellent arborists.

The costs may vary but the main thing is the tree survey will tell you what to do.

When do you do this?

• If your trees have never been looked at by an expert, then get them in now.

• If you move house and inherit a new garden

• Whenever you see signs that the tree is not as it should be, after high winds, after heavy icy snowy weather.

• If construction has taken place near the trees

• If your other trees have fallen or become damaged unexpectedly

• If you have trees close to other cars, people, roads, boundaries or upon land you own that can be accessed.

The drama of tree failure

When a large tree falls on a car it is highly likely an insurance claim will follow and probably an investigation from the police if there is severe injury or death. Along with court apprearances will be there is the possibility of a high amount of costs, possibly prison and considerable headaches and stress. Many experts will become involved and your insurance may not cover you fully if at all.

Perhaps you know of trees that have fallen, its when they hit cars newspaper inches follow. Once you recognise the signs of trees that may fall on cars then you can start the safety process.

Its time to get them looked, to ensure they are safe and healthy and have a plan to manage them.

Mike Barker aceofspadesgardens.co.uk

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Published on 18-Jan-2016 07:25 with

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New home owners

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How to Remain Prosecution Free

How to remain prosecution free through the development process within a tree’ d landscape?

During a recent Chartered Foresters conference on ‘how to remain prosecution free during the planning and construction of development’ the following points are described as best practice, the guidelines for which are followed by Ace of Spades Gardens Ltd.

Landowners pre purchase clients to engage arboricultural consultants for a walkover survey to determine the “the good, the bad or the ugly” sketch of the trees and hedges. This will aid future everyone’s decisions on the landscape use and potential profitability as trees will form part of the planning and construction process constraints.
Determine early-on when bats maybe present within trees.
Good relations with planning officers and tree officers to determine how trees shall be retained. The local authority experts do also wish to see development go ahead but have to demonstrate that trees are being protected.
Tree arising’s such as tree stumps, logs or chip to be used in site. Carve the stumps and logs. Gather tree materials, liaise with the ecologist and create habitat piles.
Ensure everyone knows where the protected trees are and what you need to know about the trees.
Use the existing trees to create great landscape views with the new development. It is a fact that mature trees within a developed landscape increase the market value of the property and have many health, noise, wildlife, pollution and wellbeing benefits.
Tree protection plans should be phased depending of the type of construction. Demolition…. utilities and construction.

Construction phase:

Follow the method statement as written by the arboricultural consultant.
The consultant should be on site giving toolbox talks to the construction staff. Taking site supervision notes and reporting these to the tree officer.
Post landscape planting of trees should take place with the tree expert and new residents to educate them and get them to take ownership of the new trees. The labelling of trees with care instructions really helps the new landscape take shape and be successful.

Prosecutions:

Tree officers should and will prosecute when trees are not being protected.

Prosecutions for the following are commonplace:

Felling of trees illegally or unnecessarily.
Concrete foundations close to tree roots without consideration of how to protect the tree roots.
Dumping of building waste or storage of materials in the space beneath the tree.
Parking of plant/construction equipment beneath trees.
Felling of trees to obtain easier access to the development site.
Trenching through tree roots to install utilities.
Not using no dig solutions when developing access over tree root areas.
The belief you can develop through 20% of the root protection area without consideration for the tree species.

Prosecutions will make the newspapers. Fines are extensive and temporary stop notices cost everyone money.

The damage to trees can take years to show but can be detected easily straight away. So maybe it’s now time to talk to a consultant and get this right.

For professional guidance contact mike@aceofspadesgardens.co.uk

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Published on 16-Nov-2015 07:51 with

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