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Clearing over grown garden
tombrown22
Posts: 5
Hi there,
Hoping someone can help with some advice on the following:
My wife and i have just bought our first house with a long garden. We saw some of the other gardens on the street and saw the amazing potential. However, our first aim is to clear all of the weeds, tree stumps, brambles etc... to allow us to turf a big portion of the garden. (to the tree line in attached pic).
Current thoughts are to hire a mini digger to clear the weeds and gravel of which there is a lot. We've been doing it by hand but progress is very slow.
just wanted to ask if this is the best way forward and anything else we should consider?
0
Posts
You should be careful not to remove any good plants, so I would wait till late in the year so that you know what you have before doing anything drastic!
Good advice. It's always a good idea to watch a garden grow for the first season you're the proud owners. That gives you time to see what's there, what you like, what you hate, what needs helping along or removing and also time to watch how the sun and rain and light behave so you can plan what and where to place and plant features in your garden.
Get in there now and clear by hand any obvious rubble and rubbish. Pull or dig up any obvious brambles of thistles. As soon as possible, buy, hire or borrow a strimmer to cut down long grass and herbaceous stems but not shrubs or trees and rake away the trimmings to start a compost heap.
Then wait and see what grows come spring before you start sweeping everything up with a digger and risk losing treasures.
Yes I also agree, that you should wait to see what comes up during the year, decide what you would like to keep and which plants to replace or remove. Make some plans on paper of what you would like the finished garden to look like, whether to incorporate washing lines, shed and or greenhouse, rubbish bins, composting site etc. then paths and flower beds can be added to the plan. You may be able to transplant some of the established plants (preferably when they are dormant) if they are in the wrong place for your plans.
It's fairly easy to recognise rubbish, tree stumps, Bramble's, dockens etc so just remove them by hand as the others have said. There's two of you so you should manage it all yourselves. Come the spring you will have the joy of seeing what you have in the way of perennial and shrubs.
However, if you have the intent of clearing the ground at the end of the grass and grassing it all, then use whatever means available to clear it and sow grass seed in the spring. As the years progress of course you may find that you want to reintroduce plants and borders so you will Be cursing yourself for chucking so many plants away!
follow Gd's advice and plan your garden on paper first. You may not achieve all you want in the first year but look on it as a five year plan. Instant gardens only happen on the TV unless you have pots of money.