Hopefully you've probably got it all sorted by now, but when I saw your message I have so much sympathy for you, as we too had the EXACT same problem with the house we moved into in Feb 2012!
Only a 50 foot X 20 foot rear garden, but when my wife merrily went out to plant a few sweet peas one sunny day and couldn't stick her fork more than 2 inches below the soil, we knew something wasn't quite right.
I soon dicovered that this was the case throughout the entire garden. Every square inch of soil was laced with all manner of builders rubbish up to a depth of 2 feet; broken soil pipes, broken cement slabs, iron hinges and nails, plastic guttering, met posts, bed springs, crushed metal dustbins(?!), bricks, you name it, it was in there.
I literally felt myself cracking up, having to spend our whole Summer breaking our backs digging out tonnes of rubble when we should have been sitting around enjoying our garden with a nice G&T in between watching the Olympics!
We had to hire a skip and take it all through the house in a wheel barrow there was so much of it and we've only now finished preparing the soil ready for some lovely new turf at last.
So you're not alone, it does seem to be a disturbingly common and tragic problem. Builders need to be watched like hawks so they don't do this to people.
Funny how the garden is never given a thought in a builders survey, yet a nicely done, pretty garden can practically sell a house...
I've got a garden covered in brambles & bindweed. I also suffer from ME/CFS.
Take it slow and steady, a bit at a time if you can, rather than going like a bull at a gate and doing yourself injury. 'Pacing' is a technique you have to learn with ME, self-management is the only way to deal with it.
Put the fruit trees in large 30 litre containers (you can get 4 for 16.99 plus p&p from ideal world - go through topcashback, get some money back by buying them from there, the code 675736 will also get you 20% off) They will be quite happy in there for a couple of years, until you can get an area cleared - then you will make sure you've planted them in the right area. So not tonnes of rubble like others, still a big job with lots of digging.
I enjoy the garden, time on my own, to think and dream, and the ache I get is a different ache to the illness aches and pains, it's a good ache, and if I can see a difference in the garden after an hour or two I'm happy.
Don't turn it into a chore. It's very therapeautic, something to be enjoyed, rather than endured.
Bill i have to agree with everyone else and I sympathise totally. One thing that can be quite rewarding is to take 'before and after' pix as even a small improvement lifts your spirits and keeps you motivated! Learning about your plot is valuable but I do understand that you want to get on and sort it all out! Re you r tree stumps- someone local might take them out with a grinder - for cash. Worth a go anyway. Barter system can work well in this kind of situation!
Joe- I have to agree with you about tv. I think novice or new gardeners got a bit misled by it all and thought you could do the same as you can do with a living room or a bedroom- a couple of days graft and 'ping'- a new look that lasts for years and you don't have to do anything much to it!
Oh if only it was so simple!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi Bill - lots of sympathy! But yes, it is absolutely worth it and you will be incredibly proud of how it looks in a few years. Take Fairygirl's advice about the before and after pics - you will look back at them with amazement (and so will your friends...)
Keep going, and do take some of the ideas above to make some 'quick impact' improvements so you can enjoy it too. I was a new gardener ten years ago and in the same situation!
It is amazing the stuff that gets dumped in gardens. I found two sailing dinghies and trailers buried under rhodos and conifers and the remains of a caravan which had been burnt down about 6 inches under the surface. Trying to dig a plot found chain link fencing buried about a foot down as well as miles of wire. Another patch yielded enough stone to build a wall round my greenhouse. There are also several piles of bricks and tiles hidden in the undergrowth. The previous owner was in the building trade you won't be surprised to hear!
Bill, you have my sympathy, I started off with a sea of mud on a slope and had to get a small digger in, even so, I still come accross the odd sack of solid plaster or cement which has to be chiselled into bits that I can lift. The advice above is all good; gardens do take time. Perhaps for your sanity you could make a small area this summer which catches the evening sun and place a couple of garden chairs there so you can look at the garden and dcide what you want and in what order to do it. Good luck and it will keep you very healthy
Bill, I know how you feel, we found a whole cast iron bath buried in our garden, it's still there but concealed. could not dig it out and it would have left a giant hole. We also had loads of electrical bits. I think possibly beware if you are buying a house from tradesmen that have used the garden as a 'storage area'
I've had this problem in a minor way. One solution - or rather avoiding a problem; in a small garden, I didn't want a titchy wee lawn. Put in a patio and/or gravel over the worst bits, at least for the moment. You can remodel it later, and it gives the place a mask of respectability and open usefulness for now.
Very interesting reading some of the other horrific "buried garden rubbish" stories here.Fairygirl has a good point re before and after photos to keep your spirits up and give you the strength to carry on, so you can see how much you've achieved.
It is worth all the pain and anguish and you will be rewarded 100 fold for your work.
Here are a few of our before and after photos to give you a confidence boost Bill! Like I said earlier, I became really depressed with our garden, we had both reached the end our tether and literally wanted to kill the people responsible for being so irresponsible and causing us so much trouble -I still do at times..! ; ) Jokes aside though, you will do it and be able to enjoy your lovely garden in the end.
Good luck to anyone who has experienced what some of us here have and remember -take it one step at a time!!!
BEFORE (August 2012)
AFTER (March 2013) Ready for turf and new flower beds!
We also got rid of the over-bearing Palm Tree...!!!
Posts
Hi Bill,
Hopefully you've probably got it all sorted by now, but when I saw your message I have so much sympathy for you, as we too had the EXACT same problem with the house we moved into in Feb 2012!
Only a 50 foot X 20 foot rear garden, but when my wife merrily went out to plant a few sweet peas one sunny day and couldn't stick her fork more than 2 inches below the soil, we knew something wasn't quite right.
I soon dicovered that this was the case throughout the entire garden. Every square inch of soil was laced with all manner of builders rubbish up to a depth of 2 feet; broken soil pipes, broken cement slabs, iron hinges and nails, plastic guttering, met posts, bed springs, crushed metal dustbins(?!), bricks, you name it, it was in there.
I literally felt myself cracking up, having to spend our whole Summer breaking our backs digging out tonnes of rubble when we should have been sitting around enjoying our garden with a nice G&T in between watching the Olympics!
We had to hire a skip and take it all through the house in a wheel barrow there was so much of it and we've only now finished preparing the soil ready for some lovely new turf at last.
So you're not alone, it does seem to be a disturbingly common and tragic problem. Builders need to be watched like hawks so they don't do this to people.
Funny how the garden is never given a thought in a builders survey, yet a nicely done, pretty garden can practically sell a house...
I've got a garden covered in brambles & bindweed. I also suffer from ME/CFS.
Take it slow and steady, a bit at a time if you can, rather than going like a bull at a gate and doing yourself injury. 'Pacing' is a technique you have to learn with ME, self-management is the only way to deal with it.
Put the fruit trees in large 30 litre containers (you can get 4 for 16.99 plus p&p from ideal world - go through topcashback, get some money back by buying them from there, the code 675736 will also get you 20% off) They will be quite happy in there for a couple of years, until you can get an area cleared - then you will make sure you've planted them in the right area. So not tonnes of rubble like others, still a big job with lots of digging.
I enjoy the garden, time on my own, to think and dream, and the ache I get is a different ache to the illness aches and pains, it's a good ache, and if I can see a difference in the garden after an hour or two I'm happy.
Don't turn it into a chore. It's very therapeautic, something to be enjoyed, rather than endured.
Bill i have to agree with everyone else and I sympathise totally. One thing that can be quite rewarding is to take 'before and after' pix as even a small improvement lifts your spirits and keeps you motivated! Learning about your plot is valuable but I do understand that you want to get on and sort it all out! Re you r tree stumps- someone local might take them out with a grinder - for cash. Worth a go anyway. Barter system can work well in this kind of situation!
Joe- I have to agree with you about tv. I think novice or new gardeners got a bit misled by it all and thought you could do the same as you can do with a living room or a bedroom- a couple of days graft and 'ping'- a new look that lasts for years and you don't have to do anything much to it!
Oh if only it was so simple!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi Bill - lots of sympathy! But yes, it is absolutely worth it and you will be incredibly proud of how it looks in a few years. Take Fairygirl's advice about the before and after pics - you will look back at them with amazement (and so will your friends...)
Keep going, and do take some of the ideas above to make some 'quick impact' improvements so you can enjoy it too. I was a new gardener ten years ago and in the same situation!
It is amazing the stuff that gets dumped in gardens. I found two sailing dinghies and trailers buried under rhodos and conifers and the remains of a caravan which had been burnt down about 6 inches under the surface. Trying to dig a plot found chain link fencing buried about a foot down as well as miles of wire. Another patch yielded enough stone to build a wall round my greenhouse. There are also several piles of bricks and tiles hidden in the undergrowth. The previous owner was in the building trade you won't be surprised to hear!
Steephill-Words fail me-and I know how bad builders can be!
Very satisfying though once you get it all sorted, but it's heartbreaking while you're doing it
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Bill, you have my sympathy, I started off with a sea of mud on a slope and had to get a small digger in, even so, I still come accross the odd sack of solid plaster or cement which has to be chiselled into bits that I can lift. The advice above is all good; gardens do take time. Perhaps for your sanity you could make a small area this summer which catches the evening sun and place a couple of garden chairs there so you can look at the garden and dcide what you want and in what order to do it. Good luck and it will keep you very healthy
Bill, I know how you feel, we found a whole cast iron bath buried in our garden, it's still there but concealed. could not dig it out and it would have left a giant hole. We also had loads of electrical bits. I think possibly beware if you are buying a house from tradesmen that have used the garden as a 'storage area'
I've had this problem in a minor way. One solution - or rather avoiding a problem; in a small garden, I didn't want a titchy wee lawn. Put in a patio and/or gravel over the worst bits, at least for the moment. You can remodel it later, and it gives the place a mask of respectability and open usefulness for now.
Very interesting reading some of the other horrific "buried garden rubbish" stories here.Fairygirl has a good point re before and after photos to keep your spirits up and give you the strength to carry on, so you can see how much you've achieved.
It is worth all the pain and anguish and you will be rewarded 100 fold for your work.
Here are a few of our before and after photos to give you a confidence boost Bill! Like I said earlier, I became really depressed with our garden, we had both reached the end our tether and literally wanted to kill the people responsible for being so irresponsible and causing us so much trouble -I still do at times..!
; ) Jokes aside though, you will do it and be able to enjoy your lovely garden in the end.
Good luck to anyone who has experienced what some of us here have and remember -take it one step at a time!!!
BEFORE (August 2012)
AFTER (March 2013) Ready for turf and new flower beds!
We also got rid of the over-bearing Palm Tree...!!!