Advice on overgrown garden
Joe111
Posts: 1
Hi,
I have recently moved into a new house with approx 60ft garden. The whole garden was brambles, weeds, you name it. The bramble bushes covered the whole fence on one side, and were climbing higher still - there was actually a 12ft trampoline buried in it all which you couldn't see.
I had all of this removed with a digger and found a patio and path underneath it all. I got this broken up, a hole dug at the bottom of the garden and all the broken hardcore put in ready for foundations for a large shed.
What I was left with, was an almost clear garden, a big hole full of rubble, and a very large mound of soil from the hole. Due to renovating the house, I stopped here and left it. However lots of rain and sunshine later and everything's growing back, and I have some sort of ivy plant growing everywhere all over the ground with the brambles.
I have managed to rack the majority of the ivy stuff away, but I've left with all the weeds\plants etc stuck in the ground and with the size of the garden it would be near impossible to dig up every root.
Do you think it would be best to start off by leveling the garden out with the large mound of soil from my earlier dug hole covering all of this foliage underground and applying a strong weed killer (Rosate?) over a course of a few weeks? Would I need to cultivate the ground to get the roots out? Any advice greatly appreciated.
Posts
Weedkiller first Joe to get rid of the weeds that are there. If you cover it up, the weeds that exist will just come back as they'll be the tough, thuggish ones. Avoid rotivating as you risk chopping up weeds which can grow from tiny pieces and therefore making things worse. Get the whole area weed free - as well as you can - and then put your soil down to create the areas you want, but you will still get weeds coming through and will have to be vigilant and re apply until you get it all manageable and can do it by hand rather than chemicals. Once you get planting, grass, hedges etc in place it will make it easier, but regular weeding is something we all have to do if we want to grow plants well.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi Joe. I sympathise as had similar experience. Renovating the house means that no time for garden and any progress made gets quickly undone by enthusiastic weeds. I think the solution depends on whether you are now ready to tackle it properly and keep defending against the weeds ( this will take time but it gets easier over the years as you start to regain control) or whether you want a fix to keep it reasonable until you've got more time. The quick fix is to get it reasonably level, throw extra grass seed on top and keep mowing. Grass will spread quite quickly and the mowing will reduce the weeds. Over time you'll have a reasonable, if a little bumpy and weedy, grass space. At least usable and not an eyesore to look at. Then when you've got more time you can start to make shrub borders piecemeal. And decide whether to improve retained lawn areas via weeding and top dressing or go for the whole relaying option. Good luck!
Ps. above ruins the lawnmower. Got myself a basic but robust petrol one, and when my lawn is better (actually not too far away) plan is to treat myself to something more refined....Point is, don't use your best lawn mower on it, although will need something fairly strong.