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Feeling overwhelmed about a VERY overgrown garden - can anyone help?

badgarden2021r6A5Q350badgarden2021r6A5Q350 Posts: 7
in Problem solving
Hello everyone!

I am the proud owner of what is possibly England's most overgrown garden. Unfortunately we lost a family member about ten years ago and that threw us off for a very long time - we haven't had the time or motivation to tackle the garden, and so it's been getting progressively worse and worse. However, I would like to have people over once the COVID situation has gotten better, and at the same time I'd just like to go out there in the summer.

So here is a text description of how things are going:

The house is a fairly traditional 60s-era house with a traditional 60s-era garden. It's about 8 meters wide by 6 meters long, with a back patio area that is mostly fine - it just needs decluttering and perhaps a bit of weed killer. 

The main grass area is another story, however. The shortest plants have grown up to my knee, and the bush on the left hand side of the garden is taller than the fence and is growing out at an alarming rate as the years go by. Vines and other plants have grown up the side of the house and are even encroaching onto the neighbours houses - something definitely needs to be done about that. 

The shed has completely collapsed, which is a concern, but I might be able to do something there, I'm not yet sure.

The main problem is that I have very, very limited access to tools, and even more limited funds. I have a pair of hedge trimmers, a very small handheld folding shovel with a saw end and a bladed end, and a pair of gardening gloves. I also have a tiny amount of Roundup. None of this is really enough to cut down this absolute jungle that I have ended up with!

What would you fine people recommend? I don't know anyone with gardening tools sadly, and I have a very very limited budget.

Thank you, everyone!
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Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    I think you are going to need at least a few more tools than you have.  Car boot sales often have old tools which may be within your budget and asking on your local freecycle web site or similar for free garden tools may be worth a shot.  You are going to need a fork and loppers/secateurs at least and if you think you'll need to remove anything with large roots, look for a mattock.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • badgarden2021r6A5Q350badgarden2021r6A5Q350 Posts: 7
    BobTheGardener said:
    I think you are going to need at least a few more tools than you have.  Car boot sales often have old tools which may be within your budget and asking on your local freecycle web site or similar for free garden tools may be worth a shot.  You are going to need a fork and loppers/secateurs at least and if you think you'll need to remove anything with large roots, look for a mattock.
    Thank you very much for the quick reply! I hadn't even thought about freecycle. Do you think a job of this size could be done in a decent timeframe (say, a week?) with hand tools only?
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    can you post some photos to give a better idea of what you're dealing with?
    Devon.
  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Welcome to the forum.
    Any chance of posting a few photos of the jungle? It would be a great help if we could see the problem you are up against.
    In the absence of visuals.........never try to do everything at once unless you know an army of willing volunteers. It is best to pick at things and move slowly through the garden starting at the patio, and if you could avoid the Roundup that would be great.

  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    It all depends how hard you work, how young you are and how much help you have. It took me a week to clear an area roughly 8m x 1m, dug and ready to plant. But I am not young and only worked for a couple of hours in the afternoons. Knees and shoulders couldn't take more.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • badgarden2021r6A5Q350badgarden2021r6A5Q350 Posts: 7
    Hostafan1 said:
    can you post some photos to give a better idea of what you're dealing with?
    Ceres said:
    Welcome to the forum.
    Any chance of posting a few photos of the jungle? It would be a great help if we could see the problem you are up against.
    In the absence of visuals.........never try to do everything at once unless you know an army of willing volunteers. It is best to pick at things and move slowly through the garden starting at the patio, and if you could avoid the Roundup that would be great.

    Here is probably the best picture to show it all off - taken from my bedroom window.


    As you can see, not brilliant! And that's only a small portion of it cropped so that the neighbors aren't in the photo too much to respect their privacy. 

    Busy-Lizzie said:
    It all depends how hard you work, how young you are and how much help you have. It took me a week to clear an area roughly 8m x 1m, dug and ready to plant. But I am not young and only worked for a couple of hours in the afternoons. Knees and shoulders couldn't take more.
    Fortunately I have quite a bit of energy and I am driven by a real desire to get this sorted, so I hope that works in my favour!

    Thanks everyone.
  • PianoplayerPianoplayer Posts: 624
    My garden also got totally overgrown, for a variety of reasons, so I empathise! I would agree with Ceres - do it in stages. Starting with the patio will give you a place to sit out. I would deal with the vines etc next - best to get rid of anything that might be doing damage, especially to neighbours. For climbers, usually best to cut through the main stems at the base and let them die - easier to get them off the wall - but experts on here will have more specific advice if you can show what the plants are.

    Another thing in favour of doing by stages is the sheer amount of garden waste you will have to deal with. It is a strange thing that a bush expands by about 5x when you cut it down!
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    The recruitment of friends, family and neighbours could well help. Also borrowing any tools you can for a few weeks. Where abouts are you? A team of about four neighbours managed to lop down a similar-ish space in a weekend, but we knew what was there and though overgrown, there was nothing too noxious, only brambles.

    It would probably really help to find out what you have going on, which plants are which, so you know how to deal with them. Maybe block out the next few months to do some serious work on it. The advice is often given to work on the area closest to the house first. How is the boundary? Are there fences in bad shape?

    Don't panic.
  • HomemadeLookHomemadeLook Posts: 16
    Another vote for doing it in stages. If you don't have funds to plant it all up or lay lawn then it won't look great even if it is all cleared, and will soon be full of weeds again. Clear the patio area and dig out a small flower bed nearby, preferably in the sun. Then you will be able to sow a few cheap annual seeds to enjoy while you work out what to do with the rest. 
  • rachelQrtJHBjbrachelQrtJHBjb Posts: 819
    If you neighbours are friendly and have well-maintained gardens why not talk to them? They may see giving you a bit of hand with the garden an opportunity to get it under control and enhance their own property. For example, the huge laurel may be robbing someone of light in their garden.

    It's amazing what someone coming in with a few key tools and a lawnmower could achieve. If the grass was cut back in stages over several weeks in spring you might find is usable. Just tackling that would make you feel the space had been open

    If the vines need attention sooner rather than later you could cut all vertical growth at 1-3 ft from the ground where it grows. The severed part above will then die and it can be pulled off the walls over weeks or months. It will probably be hard going if it's established so best to tackle in stages. 

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