Be careful what you wish for!
Fieldtamer
Posts: 20
Hello to everyone. This is my first ever thread, so bear with me.
I've always been lucky in life, but I've really fallen on my wellies this time. Just bought what is almost certainly my 'forever home' and it came with an acre of derelict field. I'm in heaven! Or at least I will be when I've grappled the first lump of it into something resembling a garden.
Problem: soooo much to do, so many possibilities, too many ideas, and rubbish weather. I need some advice/encouragement about what to do first.
Solution so far: I think I should clear the rubble and rubbish off an area at a time, rake the old grass and dead stuff out, de-turf an area to dig and start some basic veg off. Until I win the lottery I've got a rake, a few buckets, a bent wheelbarrow and a willing spirit. Will I make progress this way?
Question: How am I doing? Should I be doing this differently? Just tell me I'll get there in the end, please!
Thank you, D
Posts
I think you are thinking along the right lines. Do a bit at a time. But first plan out what you want where. Where will the flowers be, the veg, the lawn, the wild bit, the rubbish bit for compost etc? Plan large and work as much as you can manage at a time. Will you be putting in paths? They should be on your big plan and put in earlyish for pushing your wheelbarrow up and down. Starting nearest the house would be easiest then working out. Will you have a patio? An eating area? A pergola, a trellis? Long grass can have paths mown in it to make it look as though it's intentional wild garden. An acre is a lot. You could have an orchard!
Have fun, but it's hard work. I know, I've done it
I'm afraid it's not cheap either. Have you got a mower yet?
I think I'd be in heaven too - what an exciting opportunity!
I'd second Busy-Lizzie's good advice. I'd spend some time with some good gardening design books, taking photos and having long meaningful thinks. Is the ground flat, good soil, waterlogged - which way is it facing?
What's on your wish list?
Good luck.
Once you've decided where you want fruit and veg, get planting! Clear and plant, clear and plant. That was how I had to do it with my allotmenot last year.
Seed potatoes are in the shops now so a good time to pick some up and get them chitting ready for planting in around six weeks time, depending on where in the country you are
Hi Fieldtamer welcome to the forum
I'm so envious, or I would have been 15 yrs ago 
Bit at a time because as the months go on you will learn more about the surrounding area & your ideas will change. Things like where do you get the best sunset view, which birds are in your hedgerow, what birds do you want to encourage in, have you got foxes, voles etc all things that you learn over time.
We were in similar situation 18mths ago when we bought our forever home, we wanted desperately to get stuck in and sort it out. Came with 7acres of neglected gardens & fields, but a wise old-time gardener told me go slowly & they were right
. We are nowhere near finished got many years ahead of us yet but like you little bit at a time you will get there. My OH says only thing he can chip in is when you have got good drainage and a lawn in get yourself a ride on mower with a holder for your beer!
Thank you Busy-Lizzie and Lizzie27!
Great advice BL - orchard corner identified and chicken breeds being considered, paths are indeed going to be mown into the longer grass and wild flowers, and the veg patch is going nearest the house. I thought I'd start there as I'm just itching to grow stuff - all I've done for weeks now is pull up stuff, kill bugs, and knock down hideous stumpy walls made out of pierced blocks; I need to create, not just destroy!
Lizzie27 - my wish list has to be seen to be believed! When I was house-hunting, I would have found plenty of possibilities in a concrete 'postage-stamp' yard. Now, though, it would appear I want the world in my back garden - clearly all rational/affordable/reasonable thought has fled. No mower yet, but it'll be some considerable time before I can even see the grass, so I'm working to uncover it and then mow it before it rises, phoenix-like, from the winter's wreckage to mock me with its rampant lushness...
I'll let you know about the soil when I finally get down through the jungle far enough to see some. Previously a cow field, so should be good, but have identified an area for major compost arena.
Which why does it face???? Every plant with thorns, spines, or poison is facing my throat each time I look at the ground. Then each one turns with me to snack clothes, hands, tools, anything! Crone-fingered shrublets seem to beckon from every angle. Largely, though, the land gets full sun from East and South, with plenty of West when the sun sits higher.
Oodles of plans. Plenty of meaningful thinks in the offing.
Fruitcake, I like your style -
"clear and plant, clear and plant"
This has a nice, rhythmic, forward-moving feel of progress about it. I also hadn't even thought that perhaps I could start growing things to run parallel with my emerging land. This, I think, would also cover the 'need encouragement' angle - the growing stuff would pressure me to keep clearing so they have a home to live in when they need it.
Again, all good advice.
Sandra8 - 7 acres - OMG. I'm humbled.
We got spaniels its for them
i would begin by walking around and deciding what you don't want to see-the neighbors hen house, the community rubbish tip or just your neighbors house. then decide what you want to screen them with-trees and shrubs. i think all gardens benefit from a sense of enclosure and the woody things will take years to make their presence felt unless you have a whole pile of cash for big things. i personally would work from the edges and think big to fill in those spaces.