Starting afresh - front garden

Hi all!

Here's the deal, and the reason I've signed up to meet and talk with you guys! After moving into my first own house, and making it fit for purpose, I've turned my wrathful gaze upon the gardens. After examining both the front (a traditional, small square with a car parking space next to it), and the back (a large mess of weed, as wide as the house, and probably as long as two houses plonked down next to each other), I've come to the conclusion that both need completely redoing.
The problem? I know nothing about gardening.

The front was more weed than grass, and as lumpy as a badly made rice pudding, so I've dug it up. I've also covered it with a tarpaulin to try and discourage the weeds from growing back... to no avail..! The weeds seem perfectly content to grow, even with a huge sheet of plastic on top. It's been suggested that the green colour of the tarp doesn't stop all light, and I should lift it, put black bags underneath, then pin the tarp back down to keep them in place. Is this likely to do the job?
All I want from the front is something simple and manageable. - I want to add an extra row of stone tiles to give space to walk around the car, put a hedge along the wall which leads out to the street, and put a square of grass down in the middle, with just enough room for a small row of flowers.
If I put turf down on top of the army of weeds, am I right that they're just going to grow back?

So, erm... to summarise my waffling.
1 - How do I get rid of those darned weeds?
2 - Is my plan feasable??
3 - What do you think of the garden design?
4 - Have I properly attached my little diagram of what I want to this post??
5 - Have I missed giving any information needed to actually answer my questions?

 

The front garden, worryingly enough, the easy part... *sighs* Why do I do this to myself?? Oh yes, I want to make my house and garden a place worth calling my own.. XD!

I actually did try using a bottle of week killer; one of those ones with the squirty spray top. I think my weeds are mutants and therefore immune... I used one, it might actually have been round-up, ironically, which was supposed to kill off what was there, and leave the ground ready for fresh stuff. I used the whole thing, and the weeds didn't even flinch... Did I pick the wrong one for the job?

I'll get on and put some pictures of the garden when I remember where I lost my camera cable.... Ahem..!! *scrabbles around*

 

I did spray it on the leaves, but it was... *ahem* in winter time, so... that might be my problem..? I have a feeling I'm going to be begging you guys for advice quite a lot..

And, nope. My camera is, typically enough, non mini usb. I know I don't have anything else to fit it, worse luck! (My lack of gardening ability probably stems (ha... stems... ^_^;; from my inordinate amount of time spent on or in a computer... whoops..) Perhaps I'll swipe my boyfriend's camera and cable tomorrow...

 

I also support the Roundup plan. It is very effective stuff. Sometimes a bit too effective, I once accidentally killed a Leylandii when some spray meant for bindweed drifted off course.

The plants do have to be actively growing though, so now is the time to do it. After my fierce struggle against bindweed both at my last house and now at my new house, combined with much reading about not only systemic weed killers, but also how plants work at the cellular level, I think I've found the perfect strategy, and some of what I'm about to say might seem counterintuitive.

Keep the garden watered, even though it is full of weeds. Water on the evening if its very dry. The goal is to keep the soil moist so that any weed seeds germinate, and the established weeds have a good water supply. You want the weed seeds to germinate because roundup wont touch seeds, seeds are immune to it. You want the existing weeds to be well watered for a slightly more technical reason. Roundup is absorbed through microscopic pores in the leaves, which are there for the plant to breath through (absorbing CO2 and exhaling oxygen by day, and exhaling CO2 by night). Plants have a defense mechanism against drought, the pores close to reduce moisture loss when they have insufficient water supply at their roots. You want those pores to be open, hence keeping the ground moist.

Spray with roundup in the morning. The fact that you watered the night before means the weeds will all have their pores open for optimum respiration, because water isn't in short supply for them. This also means the active inredient of roundup, glyphosate, will be absorbed much quicker.

Repeat treatments may be necessary. Its therefore cheaper to get Roundup concentrate than ready to use spray bottles. I think the official advice is to spray weekly, but I think twice weekly or more is appropriate.

If the weeds are tall and densely packed, then after a couple of weeks you will end up with dead weeds shielding the live weeds underneath from the spray. That being the case, cut back so the mass is just a few inches high, but don't take it right down to the ground because you want the top growth to be active so that the spray works.

Once everything is brown or yellow, and layed limply on the floor, you can clear it. That's the main bombardment complete. However some seeds and even a few bits of roots might be lurking in the soil surviving. Spot treat any new weeds that come up. If they are just annual weeds, you can just pull them. Otherwise you can spot treat them with roundup. There are tricks for preventing the spray drifting if you need to (pop bottle with the bottom cut off slotted over the weed, then spray into the top of the bottle, and similar tricks).

Good luck sir, and god speed

 

Thanks for those suggestions! I'm now armed with Roundup and a hose. I'll take up the sheet and try giving the little.... darling weeds some encouragement. ((It feels rather like lulling them into a false sense of security!! I love it! XD))

In the meantime, here's a link to some pictures of the garden.. Garden - Front pictures by Raige_no_Kaze - Photobucket
Let me know what you think of my plan, now you can see what I have to work with.

Something else I didn't mention; we live near the beach, and I think the soil is kinda sandy. Not that it stops things growing in it, happily!!!

Is there any kind of hedge that would be good for against the road side wall? If possible, is there anywhere to buy one that is partially grown, so it doesn't take so long to fill the space?

 

Man! Would you believe it? Things are actually dying!! It's amazing. *Laughs* Tomorrow, I intend to go dig out the moss and general remains, then water it and see what else comes through!

 

Oh No. I was 25 when I moved to Wales:DOH:

I can feel it all coming back, like a dark memory, almost...Black.

Black as the night, Black as the Tomb, Black as the endless death that awaits us all... Black...

Can you hear them weeping Mother?... Mother?

Hi Kestia,

Thing I found the problem up there was the lack of light for the growing season, mind you, I was between a slate heap and a mountain.

Good luck with the clearance and consider slash and burn tactics for the weeds