A brand new garden... Help needed

Right,

I moved in with my girlfriend and her garden is a mess. Her dad started doing it, and I think he got bored. She also has a dog who over the winter ruined what was left of the lawn.

My plan currently is to did up the entire garden, (which is quite large) and start with a blank canvas, re-turf etc etc at the cheapest possible cost (without scrimping).

The garden is quite overgrown, and will need strimming. Would I be better using a rotavator (and if so which should I hire) or spend the 20+hours digging it up?

Any advice on this or other things gratefully received

Thanks

 

PIccies please?

 

You're right about it being a mess!

Rotavators tend not to "dig" very well in soil that has not been loosened. You can get a self-propelled rotavator (the engine drives the wheels, as well as the tines, so that it goes at a fixed, slow, pace) and they can usually dig a bit - after several passes you can get some decent depth - but if the ground is hard it will be like having a wrestling match with a gorilla!

The "Merry Tiller" type of rotavator where the engine only drives the tines (and the wheels are only for transport, and you take them off when you "dig" with it) will be useless on virgin ground.

A rotavator will chop up all the weed roots, and all the bits will grow, so if you have pernicious weeds it would be better to dig the area, and take out any weed roots that you find.

It doesn't look like a "new build" in the photo, but if it is then you might have all sorts of builders rubbish buried under the topsoil. All that will likely prevent good drainage etc. and hand digging will enable you to, laboriously, get all the rubbish out and restore the soil to a state that will actually work.

Only other thought is if it does NOT drain well after heavy rain? (particularly if the soil is heavy, compacted, clay?) If that's the case you could take the opportunity to sort out the drainage at the same time.

Cheapest way of getting a lawn is to use seed. Preparation for a lawn is pretty much the same, whether you then lay turf or sow seed. Its getting late for seed (in the sense that you will have to water and mollycoddle it more during the dry weather - if we get any!); ideally leave sowing the seed until the Autumn - but that's probably impractical?

Other thing is that seed takes a while to germinate and then get to the stage where it is robust enough to walk on - so if you are wanting something more "instant" so you can party in the garden this summer then you'll need to go the Turf route.

 

wow I can really c some potential there. IF u rotavate it u will spread the weeds. Maybe u could dig it over starting at the back so your not walking over dug soil. You could alternate your digging with rubbish collection so u dont do your back in. I wpuld wait for a nice day and have a gardening party witg free beer for anyone who helps

 

It would be worth applying a Glyphosate based weedkiller first. That will be neutralised on contact with the soil, so will only kill what it touches. It will take two weeks to kill the plants (so don't panic as nothing will go yellow overnight!). Make sure the weather stays dry for 6 hours after application, and if you apply with a sprayer do it on a still day as otherwise the spray-drift will kill other plants

Looks to me that you mostly just have grass there though? But might be some annoy weeds too of course

 

Does that photo give an idea of the size? If so, it doesn't seem an unreasonably large amount to dig over.

COARSE GARDENING WARNING!!
If you are going down the turf route, if you closely mowed what grass there is left, dug out any weeds you can see and levelled the area as much as possible using sand etc, you might be able to just lay the new turf on top of what you have without much digging. (The dog seems to have done a pretty good job for you, anyway) However, I must stress that this is not the correct way to do things, just a lazy gardener's bodge!

There is no substitute to digging over the flowerbed areas and removing weeds and rubble - not in the short term, anyway.

What are you planning by way of planting areas - as you need to think about it before putting lawn down? And how are you going to prevent the dog from digging stuff up?

 

I just took up a small lawn which was full of weeds. Nothing compares to doing it by hand. Although it is back breaking after a while,I personally would do the hard work by hand first, rather than spending years trying to yank our dandelions. Like others have said if you use a Rotovator then perennial weeds will multiply. I took out 50 odd dandelion tap roots by hand from my small bit of lawn, but like to think I have reduced the number instead of making the situation worse. Get yourself a spade and skim the turf off, roll it up and then rot it down.

 

Aye, get the spade. Nowt like a bit of hard work in the sunshine to make you feel good.