Neglected plot taken over by weeds

Posts

• Market Boy Posts: 101

  August 2023

  If you cannot find weedkiller then I suggest that you get a strimmer and cut every thing there as close to the ground as possible. Then use a good quality weed killer on it and cover it with black plastic or old carpet put some weight on it to hold it all down and leave it until next spring. Then you can dig it over and start again.

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• StephenSouthwest Posts: 635

  August 2023

  My suggestion would be that you start with thinking together about what improvement your neighbour wants for this area.

  
  

  At the moment, there's quite a rich, interesting and useful area of native flowering plants - there may well, for example, be cinnebar moth caterpillars on the ragwort...

  
  

  So one option would be to enjoy it as it is.

  
  

  Another would be to decide on what your neighbour would like there instead - some ground cover? A lawn, something else? It might be interesting to talk about what was there previously.

  
  

  To repeatedly poison the ground in order to produce a dead area seems like the worst if all possible outcomes.
  

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  August 2023

  If you want to - there are plenty of easy ground covering plants which will colonise that area, rather than leaving it as a sterile area which will always have weeds seeding in. Many will require virtually no attention at all.  That would be a far better solution than just covering it with plastic/fabric and adding something like bark or gravel, or constantly using weedkiller.
  If you decide to go down that route, you can remove the weeds by whatever means suit you - strimming/mowing, and then waiting for new growth to appear in a couple of weeks for weed killer to be effective, waiting a few weeks to allow that to work, removing anything that's left, and then adding some decent soil before planting. You could wait until spring if you're in a colder area.
  You'll get help with suitable plants which will then benefit all sorts of insects and wildlife if you give some info about the conditions and climate there. That's also important as not all plants will suit your conditions 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• Busy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043

  August 2023

  If the neighbour doesn't plan to do anything with it then does it bother her that it's like that? Or does she want lawn?
  
  If she's not a gardener then just mow it once a year at the end of summer and let it turn into a wild meadow. If she wants lawn then spray it with glyphosate, dig it a month later, doesn't have to be very deep, rake it and throw grass seed all over it. Keep it moist. It would need more work to make it a good lawn but it doesn't sound as though she's very fussy. Kind of you to offer to help.

  Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.

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• Joyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933

  August 2023

  If your neighbour would like a bit of colour but no garden, cut the weedage down as low as possible, peg down a sheet of weed matting to cover the whole area, top off with slate chippings, gravel or pebbles and then have a few containers with annuals or evergreen shrubs.
  Creepy crawlies can live under the matting and others like vine weevil can live in and under the containers.
  Finance may be an issue for your neighbour.
  
  

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• Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

  August 2023

  Glyphosate  (e.g. Roundup) will kill all of those and will not harm the soil.
  But, there will also be a lot of seeds from them that will still germinate, so it would need to be repeated.
  Glyphosate usually takes about 2-3 weeks to completely kill weeds.

  
  Billericay - Essex
  
  Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
  Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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• bédé Posts: 3,095

  August 2023

  Ask your neighour what effect she (?) would like.  Aim for that.

   location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
  "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

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• Lyn Posts: 23,190

  August 2023

  As the plot is just rubble,  if the neighbour wants to grow anything on there it will have to have a lot of ground work done.  Some rubble removed and top soil added. 

  
  

  I would pull out all the willowherb as that will spread for miles and take over everyone’s gardens,  then see what’s left.
  Wild flowers grow well on rough soil that’s why they’ve thrived.

  Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 
  
  

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