Garden tidy up!

I have a terrible garden for anyone who likes gardening. Its heavy clay and in the winter it never dries out. If you put a spade in to turn it, it just pulls out a soggy block of soil, that you cant even pull apart, You can just cut it into smaller blocks. In the summer you dont even consider getting a spade in it, it's like concrete, weeds come out where it cracks, but you cant pull them out complete with roots! Now the flowerbeds are on the same plane as the lawn and my plan is......Remove EVERYTHING that is in the bed now, Kill the weeds, build a raised flower bed about 200mm high put weed control matting at the bottom, plant shrubs and backfill with good quality soil/mulch....basically. There must be loads of you out there that have my issue. Please dont suggest soil improver, I'm sure it's well past that. What I am asking is for you to kindly advise on the practicality of what seems a simple fix, provide the pros and cons of above , and if......if it's a good plan could you please elaborate on what I need to do and buy. I'm planning on building the bed (fully surrounded because I obviously cant put 200mm of soil against larch lap fence) Its about 9M long X 1M deep. ANY advice, suggestions, ideas, support would be hugely appreciated. The other option is to dig it down a bit, kill the weeds, add the weed control fabric and mulch on top. If I can get away with that, and not the extra expense and extra work I'm making for myself buy building it higher, then that would be good. One other option (but the least favourite) is to use decorative paving and pave it with random hoels in the paving to allow the planting of shrubs. Probably the most important thing is to reduce the maintenance (or at least improve the ability to maintain it) and ensure nothing that is there now never comes back up.

Many thanks in advance, Tim.

 

Hi,

Well everyone has their own method but think we would attack it in this way.

Treat all the weeds/scrub with Glyphosate first then remove those bigger plants you don't want to save.

Build your raised beds with whatever material you prefer, though probably timber of some kind as you will need a good foundation for any brickwork etc on that clay.

Would suggest you go a bit higher, say 300mm - 400mm or greater. the more depth the happier your plants will be, plus the edge of the raised bed can act as a seat if you put a wide enough capping on.

Line the inside of the bed walls with some sheets of thick plastic like the cheap DPM steets etc. so the moisture and dirt does not show though the wood or bricks joints etc.

No need for any fabric over the clay soil as normal weeds will not grow up out of that depth of soil above it, plus some of your bigger plants will root down into the clay which will be much softer because its being kept moist from the water in the raised beds soil.

 

Thank you so much ricky101. That's just what I need, someone who can confirm that what I had in mind was at least something close to what I needed. Certainly wouldn't have thought of lining it, and as I think I said, didn't know how deep the top soil needed to be to keep the weeds down or what is the correct weed killer I need so all useful info that I was after. And as for foundations for a low retaining wall, I had considered a pile driver! I am probably going to use reclaimed railway sleepers, sounds as though 2 high would just do it on their edges (not flat)
Thanks again for taking the trouble to reply.

 

You are welcome.

The Glyphosate spray, known more often as RoundUp, only affects the plants it reaches and any hitting the soil is degraded straight away so no need to worry about anything persitent.

 

Does this kill Brambles ricky101? I've got a nice crop I need to get rid of in the left hand corner as you look at the photo. There used to be a shed there and when I took out the breeze blocks the shed stood on, it left a convenient place for me to put any soil I dug out from various other locations, particularly where the decking you can just see on the right hand side. I have a lot of work to do as you can tell, but I want to get it right first time as I dont want to go to all this trouble and expense to have to do it a second time. Should I cut stuff back and then spray or does it work better if the foliage is still intact. Sorry to have so many questions!

 

You want some of this -
Vitax SBK Brushwood Concentrate Killer 250ml | Wilko

You use / mix it as instructed into a watering can with a rose attachment and just water it onto all the foliage you can see.

Last spring (2019) we had a similar area at the back our the garage coming in from a neigbours garden , took a week or two to die off after treatment, but has never returned.
Just let it die off , would say avoid pulling any up until then to let it work its magic.
Perhaps wait until this cold snap has gone so the bramble will be growing actively when you treat it.

 

Thank you. I'll try all that then and keep you posted as things develop. May be a slow process with the current situation....green bin fit to burst,,, and few shops open but as and when I can and following your (and Boris's) advice, I'll get things under way and put some more pictures on here for the before and after. So thanks once more and keep well!

 

Be careful when using systemic killers Tim. Many of them contain glyphosate or other chemicals that will kill or damage every plant it touches, also use on a calm day to prevent drift.

 

Thanks JWK and Sheal. All stuff I didnt know! I dont think killing anything off in my garden accidentally is too much of a worry at the moment (suppose I need to keep my neighbour's pride and joy in mind though.) The only thing that seems to give garden grief that I dont have is the dreaded Leylandii, but someone will no doubt tell me they aren't all bad. I built a pergola and planted a Russian vine once because I asked the garden centre for something that would grow quickly . Woke up next day and couldn't get out of the house. That's another story though but maybe explains why I've called myself "Timnotthegardener." Thanks again all for you invaluable advice!!!

 

Ah. Leylandii and Russian Vine, two of what we name here as thugs. My own experience of a neighbour's Leylandii many years ago cost me a fortune in drain repairs.

 

I know this is way off topic Sheal, but I'll never forget watching a neighbour trying to lop his Leylandii by leaning a ladder against the tree and the higher they got up the ladder, the further the top of the tree moved away!!!! He was good....made me look like Alan Tichmarsh! Sorry all, I'll stick to the point now.

 

Dealing with the height when they get out of hand is one thing but many people don't realise what's going on underground. The root spread of Leylandii particularly is quite far spreading. I wouldn't plant one within 40ft of any buildings or the mains services surrounding them.

Don't worry too much about going off topic, we like a little diversion now and again. Besides you/we are still talking gardening.