Does anyone know anything about gardening?

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Bobbo
Couple of questions:
1. I need to widen my driveway and now I have all this spare time on my hands it seems like the perfect opportunity. My plan is to cut down a couple of plants in the beech hedge and knock down the wall. What is the best way of removing the roots of the hedge? Do I need to remove all of them? Its a well established hedge but much smaller than a tree so I'm guessing the roots will be pretty shallow so will I be ok to remove the bulk of the root ball and concrete over?
2. We have this wattle tree that we love but it's growing sideways quickly. What is the best way to encourage it to grow up rather than out?
Thanks oh green fingered wonders

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ColinTheBald in reply to @Bobbo

Beech is fairly shallow rooted, so removing the bulk of the root ball should be fine. You need at least 4"/100mm of concrete, if your van is frequently heavily loaded I might be tempted to go to 6"/150mm, possibly with reinforcing mesh at half depth. Fill to the bottom of the root ball holes with concrete or backfill with rammed MOT Type 1. Don't backfill with soil or a void will develop and the concrete could crack.

I would just prune back the lower branches regularly.

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Bobbo in reply to @ColinTheBald

Cheers, my van will continue to be parked where it is in that photo as I can back it tight up to the garage doors and hedge to prevent scrotes trying to break in. I'm widening the drive so that my wife's car will fit in when I'm parked up so 4" of cover will be more than enough.

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