Moving a 400' hedge row

[TCBoomer]

Last fall I had a thread about my missing property pin and the possibility of me moving some of my Arborvitaes. As much as I appreciated the suggestions of not moving them, I thought long and hard and have decided to do it. I was hoping to get it done over the winter, but the amount of snow mother nature dumped here put that plan on hold.

I'm only concerned with moving the newer trees this year... 100 of them ~12' tall as the remainder are over 20' tall. I removed all the mulch...40 large bags worth lol...and cut the sod for 300'. We dug the trench yesterday, so today I need to collect the potatoes (rocks) we harvested and clean up the trench a little. Then I need to tie up the branches like they do with Xmas trees and I'll be ready to start. Doubt I'll move any today as I'm working alone for now. My tree guy will be back when I need him.

I took a few pics yesterday, but they don't really give a true indication of the size of this project. I'll take more today and hopefully better ones as well. If there's any interest in seeing this project in detail...speak up

Well I'm out the door in a few and prepared for a full days work...I have about 11 hrs of daylight in front of me and I intend to use every bit of it!

 

[sixdogs]

Yes there's an interest in photos...I was wondering how this turned out. If you are moving with a tree spade there is no need to tie up the branches. Even with a backhoe, you break a few but they grow back. Most important is that they need lots of water.
What's the plan? How's the neighbor? Have it surveyed?

 

[TCBoomer]

We're going to hold off with the tree spade for now and I'll explain why--shortly.

Neighbor is still a twit at times, otherwise no problem...so far. I've said nothing to him about moving the trees yet, but I'm sure he knows something is going on based on his/her previous nosiness. Since the trees block them out for the most part, haven't really seen or spoken with him since last fall. But that will change pretty soon as I need to access his side of the trees with my tractor. Doubt he'll deny me but one never knows...

Yes I had another survey done for that property line. Good thing too, because what I thought was a boundary pin midway down the line, was actually just a control point she set. I thought it was odd that a control point would have surveyor ID markings, but she said it's not uncommon. All said and done, I now have 3 clear proper pin locations set for that boundary and the trees are in fact 8" off the line (my side) from end to end. I'm not going to bother wasting my time seeking any reimbursement from the neighbor. All I want is for these people to leave me alone and respect my property, which I'll do the same. Once the trees are moved, he'll have no reason to whine about his parking being limited and I'll be in a position to 'fight fire with fire' if need be.

Here's the plan...

I'm moving the trees over 28" so that the trunk sits a full 36" off the line, or an inch or 2 more depending...
What we found is the trees are only rooted down about a foot and with no tap root, they should move quite easily--according to my tree guy. The trench was cut 28" from the drip line, which leaves just over 24" of root ball intact on the outsides of the trees. In between the trees will only be 18" of root ball since they're spaced 36" apart, and should be fine as well...I hope lol.

I'll cut the roots with a spade shovel and then pop them loose with the pallet forks I just bought. It'll be a trial and error journey, but in theory it should work and my guy agrees. I'll pop them loose on my side first, then go around to the neighbors driveway side. I'll plant the forks perpendicular to the grade in the spade shovel cut and work the rest of the tree loose. Then if all goes as planned---using the forks, I'll push the tree over the 28" and up against the trench wall. Obviously getting a straight line again will be critical, but a string line will insure that along with eyesight. Hopefully that all made sense? I'm not actually lifting the tree out of the hole, just sliding it over 28"

I'll tie up about 6 trees at a shot so I have working room between them to cut the roots and then as I move over a tree or 2, I'll have room to haul the fill dirt from my side over to the neighbors to fill in the void...likely by hand with a 5 gal bucket. Compact as best as I can and water them good!!! Repeat that routine until I move all 100...uggg!! lol

Pics to follow...

 

[sixdogs]

Sure wish you could use a tree spade. Have plan B if he doesn't want you on his ground since that's a good guess.
Good luck, take lots of pictures for us and let's not see you on "News At Eleven". We're rootin' for you.

 

[TCBoomer]

300' of sod line cut
made quick work of stripping it off and not tearing up the lawn

 

[sixdogs]

That is a nice looking job.

 

[TCBoomer]

Here's what my guy used to rip up the sod and cut the trench. A 600 series Cub and worked perfectly. It was a total PITA for me though, because digging at the drip line required the machine to be tight against the trees. And every couple trees I had to hold back the branches so the outrigger could be set between them. Did this routine twice the entire length. 1st to rip the sod out and then again to cut the trench. Ended up with a huge pile of sod and soil which I'll put to good use

 

[TCBoomer]

I mentioned harvesting potatoes...Not too bad considering it's CT

One pic shows the largest one we found in the trench line, however when I put in the lawn yrs ago, I found a few as big as a VW Bug
Another shows the pile that resulted. I'll sort out the useable field stone and dump the rest over the bank.

4 bucket loads and my NH handled it easily, though had to keep it low and slow



>>>need to figure out how to add pics inline sometime and then add a caption to each pic<<<

 

[TCBoomer]

couple more random shots...300' is a long trench!!

Didn't get much done yesterday other than pick up all the rocks. Something came up and required my presence

I hope to have the trench cleaned up during the week and start moving trees this coming weekend. Rain last night and again this evening so that will keep the tree roots watered for now.

 

[TCBoomer]

Sure wish you could use a tree spade. Have plan B if he doesn't want you on his ground since that's a good guess.
Good luck, take lots of pictures for us and let's not see you on "News At Eleven". We're rootin' for you.

I know what you mean but my guy is confident the forks will work fine. 2 concerns with the tree spade is tight working area with the 3' spacing and then the rocks. Quite a few of what we removed were located where a tree would land. Easier to trench it all and see what we're working with and also to see how deep the roots grew.

Plan B is similar to A, only I'll use my tractor to pull them over instead of pushing. If that won't work, the tree spade will be used. Either way I'm moving these trees and my guy has all the confidence in me to be successful. In fact he even told me if anyone else---he'd be hesitant to advise them to do it. I'm a determined individual and very confident with my abilities and he agrees, so here I go

The neighbor has never forbid me from edge trimming on his side of the trees and in fact when I put in the lawn on that side, I used his driveway to remove my hay bales/silt fence from his front yard line. So hopefully he'll have no issues with taking my tractor down his driveway again. And considering I've kept my cool in spite of all his shenanigans, probably puts this situation in my favor. Besides, the end result will allow his visitor parking with out my tree limbs encroaching the space.

Last pic for now...my new pallet forks
These things are sweet!!