I have a semi-woodlands garden, am I wasting my time trying to control it?

Question

I have strawberry trees, lilac,laurel,rhodedendrums and lawn. The length is 90ft. If I ignore, they creep in making the garden narrow,If I cut back it looks messy.Fallen leaves by the ton, Oh, and I forgot the oaks!

Answer 1

Laurel and Rhododendron are extremely invasive and shade out other plants.  I would remove them totally.  Well - the laurel anyway.  Try and keep the Rhody under control - it does have nice flowers but thats about all that is going good for it.  Strawberry trees are lovely and are not as invasive or fast growing as Laurel and rhody so I would leave it.  Lilac can also be a nightmare and produce a lot of suckers.  Cut it back hard every year to keep it in check.  Dont touch the oaks - they are lovely.  When you cut the shrubs back you will have a lot of material and leaf litter to deal with.  When you get it all tidied up it will look lovely in a while as other plants get light and start to grow.  You could try getting a garden shredder to put the woody material through to produce a nice mulch for your garden to keep weeds under control. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I would destroy the rhodedendrons (chop down and kill with herbicide), as they are depressingly dark, invasive and will eventually take over the whole garden.

What are "strawberry trees" ?!?!?!?  (last thing I knew, strawberries grew on small plants on the ground)

Answer 3

agree with getting rid of rhododendrons as are not a natural species, that is poisonous to native fauna and will crowd out native flora and make soil acidic,

you have a great space in which to create a mini eco system that

is attractive to many species

pile up those leaves and cuttings in a 'corner' so they have somewhere to live and overwinter

and leaving some  leaves will provide mulch and deter spreading