How do I sort this out

Hi there, I will tell you all straight from the start that I know nothing about gardening etc......
Basically we have lived out in the sticks for four years and have 3 acres of land, (agricultural, peat soil). I have done absolutely nothing with it for all this time through fear of the amount of work involved. Now i feel i would like to tackle it.
It has nettles over waist height covering all the land, and I need to know what to do to convert the best part of an acre to a hard wearing lawn for the kids. Money is tight, so i gotta do it myself, and I do enjoy a challenge....can anyone advise me the best way to tacke it. I am a competent digger driver, so I am thinking scrape it off, but then what? Please, please give advice.
Thanks.

 

Just bought some more wildflower seeds for a patch of my land from www.scotiaseeds.co.uk

http://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk/meadowmix.htm
Just an idea - if would be soo much easier than putting a lawn in.

Quite a good right up at
http://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk/howtoestablish.htm

I've recently use some wildflower seeds on a 20 by 2 yard stretch of land - like two weeks back, and already the seedlings are shooting up.

On the size of land that your talking about strim it back and hire a rotovator from your local hire shop.

It would be so good to have hte ammount of land that you've got - i've got just about an acer of land.

 

If i strim it and rotovate it, do i have to pick out all the weeds? And how do i stop them returning?
Like i say, i am clueless.

 

If you just want an area of roughish grass, then cutting down clear any rocks etc and mow it regularly.
Its suprising how quickly the wild grasses take over and the broad leaved tall growing weeds die out.
It wont be a lawn by any means but it will be usable, and it will improve each year. :D

 

liquidforce:
Quite a good right up at
http://www.scotiaseeds.co.uk/howtoestablish.htm

I've done this across in america one summer for about 2 times that area - there were about 2 of us at any one time though.

Anyways - strim, rotovate it - leave it a few weeks (for the weeds to shoot up again) - then deal with the weeds - cheapest would be to rotovate it again - then seed it with your choice of meadow mix.

Its worth thinking about - tending a lawn the size that your planning is quite intensive - for quite hard waring lawn - given your kids et al - have a word with your local greenkeeper at the football park, golf course and see what they recommend. you get different lawn seeds for different purposes - they'd have good ideas - ask them for their supplier deatails - might even get it cheaper!

 

A hard wearing lawn and a wild flower meadow are not the same thing at all. A hard wearing lawn needs to be mown every week - a wild flower meadow just from July to October.
If you have waist high nettles then you have a rich soil and not suitable for a wild flower meadow. So if you want a hard wearing lawn for the kids, forget the meadow and forget lawn seed and turves.
Option 1 Spray everything with a total weedkiller, rake off dead nettles and burn them. Result - poisoned land that will grow nothing for ages
Option 2 As above, but cut nettles first. At least you can use the nettles to make first class compost
Option 3 Spray with weedkiller that works through the leaves, kills the nettles but doesn't poison the land. You may need to do this two or three times but at least the ground won't be poisoned and you can sow grass seed
Option 4 Cut the nettles, rake them off for compost. Rotovate and remove all roots as they will just regrow
Option 5 As for option 4, but leave roots. Be patient and repeat when they regrow. Three cuts should finish them off.
Option 6 For a wild flower meadow only. Cut nettles, scrape off rich top soil to reveal less fertile soil. Meadow flowers will grow soft and leafy and not flower if soil is too rich.

Assuming you want a mixed hard wearing lawn and not a bowling green, sew with grass seed and don't worry about weeds - they will toughen up your lawn for the kids to kick about on or whatever. Good luck!

 

Thanks all, some good advice, think I'm going to strim it and rotovate it, getting as many of the roots out, then level it and throw some seed down.
Looking on ebay for a rotovator, fancying a Howard 350, or a Landmaster with a villiers engine, will these do the job you reckon?

 

Only problem with rotovating is that it does chop up the nettle roots and runners. Every fragment will root and grow.

 

So all things considered, best to chop it down and seed it and just keep cutting? When i say best I mean easiest!!!

 

if I treat with weed killer, will it kill the seeds?

 

Have made a start on the garden, here are a few photo's.