My garden is a mess... Is it too late to fix it?!

So I moved into a rental property a couple of months ago with my girlfriend, and the garden was in a fairly poor state. Unfortunately, with it starting in a poor state, we had no motivation to maintain it and right now it looks something like this (taken a few weeks ago, so actually it's somewhat worse now). There is some very patchy grass in there, but I don't mind if that gets taken with the weeds.





Not ideal.

I've got a strimmer, and I've bought a load of roundup.

I'd hoped to get some grass planted (maybe as early as next weekend?! or the weekend after) before the winter sets in. And was hoping that just maybe as we're having a nice spate of weather this could be a possibility. Even if it's not full on grass over the winter, it would keep the soil healthy and some of the weeds at bay?


What's the best way for me to do this with the short timescale I have? Or is it a lost cause for this year?

p.s The extent of my gardening knowledge is mowing my parents lawn, so go easy on me.

 

Not sure what you have growing there, I can see what looks like a potato on one of the pics, so tend to think it was probably a garden at some point.
I'd be inclined to wait until the frost has killed most if it off and see if there is any kind of lay out underneath all that.

Or you could just strimmer the lot, and try to make some kind of sense of it during the winter months. The weeds wont grow during the winter.
Too late for "round up" now.

As for short timescale, gardening is not like that, its an on going thing, once you start.

 

If you spray it now it will be a couple of weeks before you can seed it at the earliest....but, by all accounts Oct and early Dec is to be mild....so I would go for it!...

 

If you have a garden waste collection from the council I would strim it all back to see what there is. Then dig or pull out any bramble or self seeded trees. If you see any ground elder or bindweed (Google these) do NOT dig it over as you will only spread them around. I personally would want to try and clear it so I could see the potential a bit more. The soil would need a lot of work before you'd be ready to sow grass seed so I'd leave that til spring.

 

So when I said I had a strimmer, I actually have a pair of 30 year old long handled lawn shears. But they did the job (more or less).

Also realised that while everyone else seems to have a brown bin for garden waste, my flat doesn't. So will be getting one of those on Monday (hence the pile of green stuff in the corner of the attached pictures). Most of what's left there is actual grass, which I'll probably cut down a little once I have a place to put the cuttings.

So... What next? My initial thoughts were to wait a few days, or until next weekend, then spray it with roundup to kill anything still growing, then dig it over after a few more days (it needs levelling a bit too), and then plant some grass seed. However, it seems the general consensus may be that's not the best plan. In which case, what do I need to be doing over the coming weeks/months to get this ready for a fresh start in Spring.

Will there be grass for my planned (but not so likely to happen) summer bbq parties?!

Bloody good spot. After pulling the roots up I found a potato attached to it. And after some digging (literally) I found several more, fairly decent size too! That's dinner sorted (maybe).

Understood. Though as a rental property I loathe the idea of me fixing up the garden in spring, and moving out in summer before it's all had time to look nice, maybe it's an excuse to stay here a bit longer.

Yeah, weather is supposed to be nice, which is what got me thinking...

Didn't see any of the above. Though as a total amateur I must admit most of it just looked like leaves to me. Did double check the aftermath, and I'm pretty sure there's none there.






Cheers all!

 

If your thinking of moving out in spring, I'd just leave it, the frost will kill most of it back to the ground.
Its not worth sowing grass seed as you wont have anything resembling a lawn until next summer at least.

 

Well, we'll be here until at least July. Girlfriend is adamant we'll stay longer than that, so I don't mind doing it by any means.

Good practice for next time!

 

Welcome to GC Chris. I don't think you'll have time to lay grass seed now as it's unlikely to germinate below 12C. Overnight temperatures are already into single figures and the first frosts are promised towards the end of next week. I think the only choice you have is to leave it until next spring or turf the garden instead, which obviously won't work out as cheap.

 

Okay, so I accept I'm in this for the long game then.

In the meantime (as in between now and spring), what do I need to do to get this ready. I'm assuming I'm going to have to dig the whole thing over at some point and get rid of all the potatoes.

When is best to do that? And is there anything that specifically needs doing (or could do with being done) before winter?

 

If you don't mind using a prepared killer I would spray it with Round-up or similar, it needs to contain glyphosate to kill the roots. Wilko's do a good cheaper version. Bearing in mind your garden is sheltered by walls and the weeds looked to be actively growing still, I think the weed killer will still work. It will kill just about everything it touches, so be careful around anything you want to keep and use on a windless day so it doesn't drift. You won't be able to eat the potatoes unless you dig them out first. The weeds should take a couple of weeks to turn brown and then you can dig the whole lot over going down a good spades depth.

If the soil is clay then it's a good opportunity to get some sand or grit dug in to help keep the soil open, if it's sandy use compost. If available horse manure is good for nutrients or you could use another type of fertiliser. When all this is dug in rake and level the soil and firm it all gently by walking over it. Loosen the surface after with the rake and leave it until next spring.

It will never be completely free of weeds because of seed laying dormant in the ground, but next spring any new growth can be dug out or killed before laying the grass seed.