Advice needed: Clearing an overgrown garden

My back garden hasn't been touched in 2 years now, so it's a little overgrown... the grass at it's peak reaches 5 feet high and some of the weeds are the size of small trees. Hell, some of the weeds *are* trees. I've got a 9 foot sapling growing by the shed, and there's a whole copse growing over the other side. Oh, and there are brambles everywhere. The previous owners grew them in the greenhouse and I didn't realise just how quickly they can spread. The biggest patch is gone now, but they are starting to pop up everywhere.

The garden isn't small, we're a corner plot so got all the left over space. It's probably around 8m x 16m in total, and on a bit of a slope. It's very uneven which I'd like to sort out, and has holes all over the place from the dog digging (which are kind of hard to spot under the grass at the moment).

How on earth do I tackle this? I'm thinking I might be best killing everything off so I can get to the soil and get it level, but I'm really not sure what to do. We've got a 3yr old labrador, and an 18 month old girl, so I don't really want anything too toxic out there.

Having said that, I don't mind if I have to fence off some of the garden for a while to keep them out, and with the size of the garden doing it in two parts might be worth it.

 

Myxi, welcome, any chance of some pics?

 

Hiya and welcome and as Dave says pics would help. It sounds like you've got a lot of work ahead of u. I think I would roundup most of it then go from there but don't get it on anything u want to keep. Not sure if this will kill the brambles as they're tough. Its safe for kids and dogs too I think. Maybe if u split it like u said u could tackle it bit by bit but not sure if the weedy bit will re seed the good bit :confsd:

 

Hi Myxiplx,

Welcome to the forum.

I had a similar task when I moved into my home. But take heart, it looks a bigger job than it is if you try to break the tasks down into little hour long jobs.

I think the best thing to do is prepare a small area where you can "holiday" the plants you wish to retain, then you can go hell for leather at the rest.

Then sort out a place where you can have your morning coffee and let the ideas flow.


Good Luck

 

I don't know what you're allowed to do where you live. But I do remember when we moved to the Ozarks we had a similar prob. There we were allowed to do a controlled fire to deal with the overgrowth of the garden. Like I said I don't know what you're allowed to do.

 

Pics would be a good idea, just so we can see the extent of the problem. I don't know how easy it may be for you to hire any equipment, but it sounds as if you could really benefit from hiring a brushcutter, weed burner (flamethrower) and a rotorvator at least. It will save a LOT of backbreaking work using handtools alone.

 

Take some time to identify the plants worth keeping (if any) too many people wipe everything out and end up with a baren slash and burn landscape.

Good luck!

 

Could u have a BBQ and invite some of your butch mates over to help clear it then feed them up and give them booze

 

Heh, ok, here are some pictures.

A video first to show the whole garden:
http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/?action=view&current=P1010227.flv

And then pictures for the detail:
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010227-1.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010228.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010229.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010230.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010231.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s268/myxiplx/P1010232.jpg

As you can see, there aren't really any plants to save. It's all grass and weeds. There aren't even borders here, and what used to be the vegetable patch was long ago taken over by nettles.

Fortunately I've a very good petrol mower, and the neighbour has a lot of tools (including a strimmer), but it's a massive job and I'm definately thinking I'll want to hire a rotorvator at some point.

 

Cor it is quite a bit overgrown. Good luck with it. I saw in the pics your helpers (babe and dog) were surveying the situation :thumb:

 

OMG. Where to Start :cnfs: AND Leylandii My Advise is..Move house :D Seriously, All you can do is, Take your time, Pull out everything and Start again, its a good size garden and with hard work it can be beautifiull...Wev,e seen far worse than this on GC :thmb:

 

Wow. What a jungle, but full of potential. I'd definitely start with a bruch cutter to get rid of the grass and saplings. Once that is done you can then see what is next to do.

 

Hi Again,

Just seen your vid-it`s a first for me on the forum and definitely a great idea.


I don`t see it as that much of a problem really. it`s very healthy and lush-perhaps a bit too much at present, but that`s ok.


You could hard prune the shrubs right back and that would give you a clearer picture, survey for dodgy weeds-marestail etc and treat them with weedkiller before you rotavate or else you`ll just sprinkle thousands of cuttings around your hard earned soon to be beautiful garden.


And honestly, it might ;look like there isn`t anything worth anything in there, but I will add my voice to TropicalGazs and advise you to wait for a year until you decide to rip up prize winning peonies or something. It`s been overgrown for a while and the goodies have probably been stifled.


Anyways-good luck and keep us up to date with pics of progress however you decide to proceed.

 

It will take time, you can see my story here:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=14470

My advice would be to:

1. Be very careful about what you pull out now - my garden had a number of hidden gems which I only discovered once a number of things were cut back
2. Take it slowly and be prepared for it to take a number of years
3. Set your sights on an area, get that 70% and then move onto the next. That way you'll achieve more progress adding to your enthusiasm - a big project needs constant progress to keep you motivated. Also, if you set yourself high standards, the other 30% won't be noticed by firends and family.
4. Take pics before and after - they bring about a satisfying smie

Nick

 

I agree with tree surfer and lollipop, cut the grass to start with, then the saplings that you don't want. Check on what shrubs are there and cut them back (if you can). You look like you've got an almost blank canvas. A neighbour of mine had a laylandii hedge - about 20' tall, the trees were cut down to 6' and all the branches cut off and now they've got some pretty climbing plants growing up them, it looks really nice and much better than it did.
Good luck it'll be worth it in the end.