Not a clue where to start!
hohqueen
Posts: 3
Hello everyone! Im new here after being pointed in your direction as your all so helpful. I wasnt sure the best place to put this post, so i put it in problem solving as i have a few problems!
So heres a little about my situation. We moved into a new house, that had been empty for a fair few years. Before we moved in a gardener cut the grass and trimmed back a few shrubs. But it was largely untouched. The grounds with the property is around an acre. We gained the house and land in June 2014. I kept on top of the garden that summer and disaster struck October 2014 when i suffered a sever back injury, that is only now good enough for me to turn my attention to sorting out this jungle.
The grounds consist of a driveway, and three "lawn" areas. When i say lawn i mean moss, weeds and clumps of thick grass. In the largest grassed area there is a two tier pond that cant hold water and is home to spawning frogs. The land is old farm land in the heart of somerset, (part of the land with our property but not included in the 1 acre is used by thatchers cider to house one of their apple orchards) the soil seems to be more peat, and when it is wet you sink into it if you stand in one place too long!
So far every year we have had masses of apples, pears, 2 different types of plum, and pineapple apples but never anything other than blossom on what i thought was a cherry tree (but i could be wrong). These trees are dotted around two of the larger lawns. On the smaller one there is a small tree and a larger tree with red leaves. We also have an invasive species of bamboo, masses of nettles, massively over grown bushes with yellow flowers, ants nests galore and a huge sycamore tree. We have also recently found more land that is hugely over grown (we found a half destroyed full size glass green house). We also seem to have an abundance of hawthorn trees (which i want gone due to small children).
So this is what im after in our garden: we want to keep fruit trees, but maybe keep them to one lawn which will mean destroying three trees, we dont mind losing the pond due to the children being young, and we have all the earth that came out of the pond hole, we would like colour all year round if possible, as low maintenance as possible, we need hedges/largish shrubs as the one garden runs along a main road (30mph). We also want to continue encouraging the wild life, in particular the birds and our resident robin and magpie, we would also rather have grass than moss (although moss is better than weeds and the ground is often damp), we would also like a vegetable patch where the green house is (once it is some how removed).
And here is my dilema: where on earth do i start? The bamboo is coming up through what lawn we have, nettles all over the place along with blackberry bushes and thorns that must be 2 inches in diameter. We also need to keep it friendly to deer as they reside at the bottom of the orchard (open to our grounds) and use our (usable) land to get back into the forrest area of the quarry over the road.
Im happy to work hard, and in the rain and cold, but i just dont know where to start to get it all under control. Sorry for so many questions and a long post, but i think its important people know as much as i do about my garden without seeing it. We did get a gardener, it took him almost all day just to get the grass cut (it takes 2 of us 3 days between work to do it all) and he said as much as he loved the garden, it was too much for him as an individual and he has never been back. (Grass cutting takes so long as part of the grass is on two levels with a grassy slope and we cant get a ride on lawn mower to any area of grass!).
If anyone wants a task in north somerset please feel free to come on down! ????????
Posts
Happy New Year hohqueen and welcome to the forum. It seems you have a monumental task ahead of you! I think - if it were me - I would concentrate on one area at a time otherwise the burden of trying to do all at once might prove too much. Once you decide on the area you are going to work on just keep the other areas tidy without breaking your back trying to do it. It would help if you could post some pictures to give us an idea of the plot.
Hello and welcome hohqueen.
Some of the best advice I've had is start at the house and work out. As LB says, don't try to do it all at once.
I too have a huge neglected plot and every time I go out I maintain a bit and clear a bit and repair a bit. It doesn't look like much progress is being made but take loads of pics and you'll be amazed at what you've accomplished. I only know I've cleared loads because I can go different places with my mower.
I couldn't get a ride-on due to the fact that my land is so boggy. Instead I bought the biggest, toughest, meanest mower I could afford and became best friends with a lightweight (spaghetti arms) petrol strimmer/brush cutter.
I have a natural pond which doubles as a sump and can be pumped out when the outbuildings flood so it has to stay. Small visitors are taught the dangers of ponds (and brambles/hawthorn) and so far no-one has drowned or needed stitches. They now know to stay away from the undergrowth! ;-)
Enjoy your new place but don't make it a chore. Little and often and stay on here but there's a million year's worth of experience and we're an opinionated bunch.
Yes, start small, don't clear more than you can keep clear or more, different, weeds will move in. Mowing and strimming keeps weeds down and stops them seeding, digging stirs up more weed seeds to germinate.
Not sure why you want rid of the hawthorns, they're not poisonous and great for wildlife.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thank you. I will go out and get some pictures and post them when i finish work around 2pm. I was going to do this any way so i can keep track of the progress. The grass isnt too long at the moment as managed to cut it start of october.
Hi Nutcutlet, thank you for the post. I want rid of the hawthorns due to the huge, solid wooden spikes on them. One over hangs and grows onto a public foot path at eye level and the other two are on the edge of one of the lawns, which is about 3/3 and a half foot lower thsn the path rou d to the large lawn, which means the thawns are at eye level to a 5 year old who doesnt understand much of the world. I would love to keep them for the birds, but at the moment there are more tears from a 5 year old, two 3 year olds and a 2 year old because of the thorns than of anything else. I also catch my arms on them and its quite painful when it happens.