Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Creating a garden from scratch!

flamingkatyflamingkaty Posts: 4
in Problem solving

Help please! 

I have a piece of rough ground that adjoins my rear boundary and I have finally gained planning permission to incorporate it into my garden.

The area is about 125 square metres, very compacted, covered with weeds and wild grasses and, although reasonably level overall, has numerous hollows and humps.

It will be necessary to engage professionals to carry out the work and, looking for ways to minimise the cost of the labour involved in physically removing the weeds, I wonder if I could save some money by killing the weeds chemically myself.

If this is feasible, I should appreciate some opinions about the best chemical to use.



Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Hello Kate  :)
    Do you know which weeds they are ?
    A photo or two would be a help, if you can provide a couple. 
  • flamingkatyflamingkaty Posts: 4
    AnniD said:
    Hello Kate  :)
    Do you know which weeds they are ?
    A photo or two would be a help, if you can provide a couple. 

    Hi Anni.
    Thanks for such a speedy response!

    The weeds seem to be fairly innocuous - just the usual daisies, dandelions, docks, ragwort etc, although I've just noticed a single bramble stem so I'll get on to that a.s.a.p!
    Hubby's been keeping their growth under control by mowing just to stop it turning into a jungle!

    I took a photo of the general area but it doesn't want to load and I'd probably need a week to work out how to modify it to make it work!  I'll keep trying if you think it would help.



  • flamingkatyflamingkaty Posts: 4
    AnniD said:
    Hello Kate  :)
    Do you know which weeds they are ?
    A photo or two would be a help, if you can provide a couple. 

    Hello again, Anni.
    Just remembered how to compress images!
    On looking again at the photo, I realise that I forget to mention clover - lots and lots of clover!


  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Hello Kate, lucky you to get PP and a new bit to garden. May I ask what are your plans for the area, you mentioned employing professionals?
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    If you want to get rid of the whole lot, including the grass then glyphosate is probably your best bet. It will take about 3 weeks, then you can rake it all up and start again. But if there are stubborn weeds it may take another go.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Hi Kate, as @Lizzie27 mentioned, it might also help if you can tell us your plans for the area and what the professionals are going to do. If they're going to clear the area anyway, it's probably not worth worrying about the weeds too much.
    However, if you want to keep some of the grass and just kill the weeds in it, you could try something like this
    https://www.littlefieldsfarm.com/gardening/roundup-lawn-ultra-no-glyphosate-ready-to-use
    I just chose this supplier as an example, you can buy it places such as B&Q, Homebase etc. but make sure you buy one that is suitable for use in lawns, otherwise it will kill everything. 
  • flamingkatyflamingkaty Posts: 4
    Lizzie27 said:
    Hello Kate, lucky you to get PP and a new bit to garden. May I ask what are your plans for the area, you mentioned employing professionals?
    Thank you, Lizzie27.

    We actually chose this house because it had a dinky little garden compared to our previous house - bit of a long story how all this has come about!

    One problem is that I've no set ideas for this space - it will have to have some hard surface(s), planting areas and probably lawn (simply because grass is less costly that hard landscaping!). I'm hoping that I can find someone who can both advise us and then execute whatever's decided upon.
    Busy-Lizzie said:
    If you want to get rid of the whole lot, including the grass then glyphosate is probably your best bet. It will take about 3 weeks, then you can rake it all up and start again. But if there are stubborn weeds it may take another go.
    Thank you, Busy-Lizzie - that sounds like a good solution.  That should have at least some effect by the time the fencing goes up.


    AnniD said:
    Hi Kate, as @Lizzie27 mentioned, it might also help if you can tell us your plans for the area and what the professionals are going to do. If they're going to clear the area anyway, it's probably not worth worrying about the weeds too much.
    However, if you want to keep some of the grass and just kill the weeds in it, you could try something like this
    https://www.littlefieldsfarm.com/gardening/roundup-lawn-ultra-no-glyphosate-ready-to-use
    I just chose this supplier as an example, you can buy it places such as B&Q, Homebase etc. but make sure you buy one that is suitable for use in lawns, otherwise it will kill everything. 
    Hello again, AnniD.
    As per my reply to Lizzie27, I'm wandering around in the dark about this land - the only thing that's certain is that everything that's there will have to go!
    The grass is self-sown, very coarse and, depite how it appears in the photo, hides numerous hollows and humps that have caused a few twisted ankles.
    My original thought was that getting rid of the weeds might make levelling the ground more straightforward, saving time and labour costs.  However, I take your point that it probably wouldn't make much difference to people who actually know what they're doing and have the right equipment to do it!

Sign In or Register to comment.