Advice please

Hi All,

We moved into our house in March this year. We have managed to sort the front garden into something nice, still needs work but the back is our problem.

It's pretty much all laid to gravel and hasn't been touched for at least 20 years. there is a weed suppressing membrane under the gravel but it's rather knackered. We have horsetail and a small amount of bindweed coming up through the gravel.

The long term plan is to have lawn on one side of the garden and increase the number of raised beds on the other. The side with the raised beds has much less horsetail.

Money is a bit tight at the moment as we're expecting our first child, but it does mean we will need some grass for him to play on.

Are we better just trying to keep on top of the horsetail until the winter? Or should we get the gravel up, treat the whole area with weed killer and then cover till next spring.

Know we can compltely eradicate the horsetail but just not sure on the best way forward.

 

I'm not the person to give advice like this. But congratulations on the impending little one!

 

Don't attempt to dig either the horsetail or bindweed out Sarah. Any roots left in the ground will produce new growth.

I'd be inclined to get the gravel and membrane up and spray with a systemic weed killer like Round-Up, it will kill the roots. It will only work though while the weeds are still actively growing. There will be no need to cover afterwards and any fresh growth can be sprayed again. Be careful when spraying as drift will kill almost anything it touches.

 

I would get the membrane off and the soil dug this Autumn so that air and weather (particularly) frost can get into the soil over winter. If it has been covered for many years it needs to "breath" to let the fauna re-establish.

Digging (particularly rotavating) will break up the roots of pernicious weeds, and all the bits will grow back :( If you are digging you can try to be thorough and get the bits out (if you want to compost them put them in a bucket of water for two weeks first). Horsetail would bother me less, in that regard, because so long as you pull up everything that grows back (next year) you'll get it under control (its not as vigorous growing as Ground Elder or Bindweed in that sense). If you have Horsetail then it will be in surrounding land / gardens, so it will come back whatever you do. Its very hard to kill it with weedkiller (because of its waxy coating), but it would be worth spraying all weeds with Glyphosate based weedkiller a couple of weeks before disturbing them to try to kill as much as possible first. Walk on the Horsetail to crush it a bit before spraying as that will help it take up the chemical.

As Sheal said don't get the weedkiller on anything you want to keep (and beware of walking across any lawn after walking through the area you are spraying!)

 

Presume you meant that you know that you can not completely eradicate it?

 

Sarah, that's a really good size garden you have, I'm sure you will make it stunning! Please keep us posted on the progress.

Any job involving poisons or heavy digging is best to be left to the happy OH though- you are unfortunately confined to oversee his labours from a comfy chair, sipping smoothies and giving gentle but firm guidance to him. Gardening in general is great for expecting mums, but some jobs are probably better to be avoided until the junior is born. Congratulations!!!

 

Is there room in your plan for a willow den? So simple to make and my son and his mates love the one I did for them. I have a brand new one now too, just arrived last week. The willow den is a good place to put him in his car seat to get a bit of fresh air out there, while at the same time keeping the sun off him.

I'd also get a load of herbs on the go. Babies can smell things before they can see and appreciate things. I think mine enjoyed the smell of the various plants when tiny. It might even stimulate their senses in some way, I don't know.

Main advice though, don't panic. Depending on when your baby is due, it could be a full year yet before baby can really sit out there with you very much.

 

Thanks for replies.

Herb garden is in progress, it seems to be doing quite well. Currently has: parsley, mint (in a pot) rosemary, bay, camomile, lavender, oregano, lemon balm (in a pot) chives, dill, thyme. The bees are loving it

I hadn't thought about a willow den, but will look into it. Hubby keeps joking about a football pitch and floodlights!!

Know we've got a while but just wanted to know best way forward for this year. Gentle weeding I can just about manage but with expanding bump and hips that have decided they don't like working properly I manage about 30 minutes at a time before I get stuck

 

Its really easy. You can buy the poles from lots of online suppliers. You can either get a kit, or just get the sticks. The latter seems logical to me as the kit will just be sticks anyway. Then having chosen your site, give it a bit of a dig and a feed if the ground needs it, then you just push the poles into the ground where you want them and weave or tie them together at the top, remembering of course to leave a door

The willow supplied for these projects is a hybrid bred of speed of growth, straightness and flexibility, making it ideal for such projects. Close to 100% of the sticks will root themselves without any help, so you just need to think about building it, and nature will take care of the rest.

I struggled for a while with my plans because it crossed my mind that my son (and any future ones, I now have 2 lads) might want a big space for footy, and in effect, I've made the garden have less open space with all the other little projects in there. In the end I decided to go with the adventure theme, figuring if he wants a kickabout and the lawn isn't enough, there are many open spaces outside that he and his mates can use, whereas there aren't that many adventure play areas near by. Far more important (to me at least) than the current setup is the journey to getting there. I've involved my son in every aspect I dare ever since we moved in here when he was just a year old. Half the stuff out there was his idea, or at least had his input on my ideas. He's 4 now and I've seen him go from tickling the soil with his little spade thinking he's helping, to being able to dig holes to plant stuff, move earth about for various projects, knock nails into wood (under supervision) when building stuff, and come up with new ideas for what to do next. There'd be none of that if I'd gone for the flat footy field approach. As a dad, I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I would definitely recommend the approach to other new dads. You can make a footy pitch in a few weeks, but then what? You have a kickabout, the kid gets older, he decides he wants to go with his mates for a kickabout down the park instead, and you're left with a footy pitch and a ball and nobody to kickabout with:(

 

Clueless, Thankfully we've got enough lawn out the front for footie or other games. Hubby is joking about floodlights, well pretty certain he is!

It's going to be a slow process but I think gardens are always are a work in progress.