No experience in gardening- advice required
lukedarwin1
Posts: 4
Hi all.
after recently buying a house and finishing(ish) the inside I am now trying to tackle the garden.
It originally had many large bushes and trees. I have removed most of these as they were completely overgrown and unsightly, leaving the tree that I liked.
I then hired a rotavator and turned the soil, but due to one reason or another didn't have time to continue my work. As you can see from the pictures the garden is now taking back over!
Id like to clear this area and lay turf/ sow sead with some low maintenance bedding areas.
I am planning to dig out as much of the grass/ weeds as possible then apply roundup. Probably repeat this as many times as required.
Any advice on how to tackle this will be appreciated.
Luke
Last edited: 03 September 2017 12:15:08
Posts
Hi Luke - if you want to use a weedkiller to get rid of everything there, it would be best to do it now as they need a decent amount of foliage to be effective. If you dig them out, there's nothing for th eweedkiller to work on.
The only problem is, at this time of year, you need to be sure you can then prep the ground well enough to sow seed. You need enough warmth for it to germinate. If you're in a warm enough area, it should be fine. If you're going to turf - and that might be a better option - the same still applies, ie prepping the ground well. The main difference is that you get an instant lawn, and autumn rain means it'll be easier to get it established without having to get the hose out
If you do it now, bear in mind that the weedkiller will be active for a few weeks, so you'd need to leave the grass part until the weedkiller dissipates, otherwise your efforts will be wasted.
The first alternative is to just keep strimming or cutting it for now, and wait till new growth appears in spring, and go from there. The second is to get rid of all the weeds just now while the weather is still favourable, put a landscape barrier down topped with gravel or bark over winter, to keep it fairly weed free, and then you have a head start in spring to prep, seed or turf. I'd avoid rotovating, because persistent, perennial weeds just get chopped up and regrow from every piece, giving you more work.
If you have an idea of where you'd like some beds, you could mark those out just now and get them ready for planting up, and leave doing the grassed area till spring. There's quite a few options available to you, depending on the amount of time and energy you have. It's not a big area, so it shouldn't take too much graft - whichever way you go.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Luke, I would suggest you make a paper plan or graph. Take measurements of your garden width and length. Decide what you need to have in your garden i.e. bins, washing/drying facilities, a shed or patio for relaxing or bbq.area etc. and then decide how you would like your garden to look from various views inside your home and from your relaxing area.
You may decide you would like a small lawn, a pond or a patch to grow a few vegetables, some pots of flowers that you can move around to suit various times of year. Any trees will give shade which may be a problem in a small area or over shadowing the neghbours who may not be too happy to have your tree overhanging their property.
You will need to level the earth before you can make any improvements and I suggest you use string and pegs to mark out any paths or flower beds before you actually finalize your plans - it is easier to make changes on paper or with markers than once you actually start digging.
I don't believe in using weed killers or any other chemicals in a garden. Roundup will destroy everything that is living in your patch including the little worms, butterflies, woodlice, birds and hedgehogs that all help to bring a garden alive, after all the garden belongs to them, we are only the custodians.
Good luck with your project and keep us posted with your progress. We are here to help answer your questions and I am sure other forum users will share their ideas with you too.
Thank you very much both.
After buying a big bottle of roundup and reading the back I realised exactly what you both said. Its not nfact a weed killer but an all out garden murderer!!.
I am going to take it back and persist with digging and trying as best i can without chemicals.
And Donkey...
. I have indeed made a plan which helps with my OCD and boredom!!
If only doing the work was as quick as drawing up the plans
A man with a plan - it's always a good start Luke
Just make sure you get all the weed roots out, and the issue then is to keep them out until you get your grass in place. I'd do the beds and any hard landscaping first, to be honest, then you know what space you've got left to deal with. In the meantime, strim/mow the weeds elsewhere, until you're ready for doing the lawn
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
And one and final question
The existing grass that is starting to grow through.
If i turfed over these are they going to end up fighting over the same nutrients or will the new turf flourish>
I am really pleased to see you have a plan Luke - I think that is the best way forward, and it seems that you have included what you will need for the future in your garden. So glad you have decided to ditch the roundup, as far as I am concerned it should be banned for small garden use, but that's just my opinion and I guess it has it's place.
One thing I would suggest is to check the fence. Does it all belong to your property? Does it need repairing or replacing in any area? Would you be allowed to paint it a colour to suit you and your plants - i.e. you may need to ask your neighbours before painting or repairing if necessary. There are some lovely coloured fence paints now, so you may not want/need to stick to brown. Just a thought.
When planning your planting, think of wildlife - if you want to encourage bees, birds and butterflies, then add the appropriate plants to your scheme, like honeysuckle, echinacea, single flowered dahlias etc. the list is endless and is easily available to google.
Good luck
Don't worry if there's any existing grass there. As long as the weeds are removed and your soil is properly prepared ( ie big stones removed, levelled, firmed and lightly raked) you can sow seed over and around anything that's still there. If you're turfing, the turf would be lain over it, and the grass below will just die off and become soil again.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...