Help! How do I sort my garden?

Hello

I am a newby here and in fact a newby to gardening really too so I hope that I will be able to tap into the wealth of knowledge owned by you all and then at some point return the favour one day.

I have a problem in that I have just moved in to a new house and the rear garden really needs some work but I don't know how to start going about it.

The garden is at least 100ft by 80ft which is huge in comparision to anything I have had before, hence one of the reasons we moved here. I have four young children and I would like to put the majority of the garden to lawn for them to play with some space for a vegatable patch etc. The issue is that the garden was so overgrown (6ft in places) and there was alsorts of things growing in it, including a yellow flower that burns the skin :(. I have strimmed this all down to within six inch but have do I dig it all over to get roots out etc. Should I hire a mini-digger and take the top off and then literally rake through it all or should I dig deeper and then get some top soil in?

Any advice GREATLY appreciated.

Ta
Dave

P.S If it makes a difference, we are in the Yorkshire Dales so you can imagine the grass that is there at present is "fell" type grass, really thick and in mounds.

 

Hello Dave. My son had exactly the same problem. He bought his first home and the garden had not been touched for years. It was an overgrown jungle He had never gardened before. He removed everything. There were shrubs and trees growing where he wanted to put up a fence and the neighbours were quite happy for them to go. He toiled away and removed the roots by digging down well below the surface and sawing through them. He rotavated the whole area then raked and levelled and put down topsoil. He then turfed it. I wish I had a before pic but this is what it looked like just after turfing. Worth the work. He intends putting in a veg patch and flower beds later

 

Hi dave,

Trouble with taking over an wilderness is that there will be all sorts of things that will come back up even if you dig the whole thing over. If you've got the time to wait before putting your veg patch in then putting old carpet or black polythene down for a year is a good way of clearing the ground. When you lift it, you'll still have the odd dandelion or couch grass hanging on but at least you can see them & dig them out.

I reclaimed a further portion of my sisters garden last year, it took all day to weed out the thistles from the onions & spuds. Putting a mulch of compost to exclude light also gives you a fighting chance.

 

Hi Dave,


You may look at it at the moment and just see "work", I think the majority of people have been there too. Whilst on this forum I have seen some garden developments that have blown me away. Take heart, it will be gorgeous with the right kind of determination. It will look and feel worse before it gets better so try to keep your spirits up when that happens. As I say have a look at some of the garden projects threads they will inspire you.



I don't think it is a good idea to dig it all through and start again. Chances are you will spread the thousands of weed seeds and chop up any dandelion and dock into hundreds of cuttings and in the process of turning over the soil you will have also created the perfect conditions for them to thrive. You also risk inadvertently destroying and plants that you may wish to keep.


Of course you need to start on the things you know you want-the lawn to start with really, and a nice lawn in the garden makes working with planning and planting borders much more comfortable and pleasurable, there is a subforum here for lawns I think.


Take the opportunity to look at other garden- on telly, in magazines on the internet and if you can find the time other gardens so you can determine what it is you really like about gardens.


And as you go along take pics and post them here so we can all enjoy seeing your efforts bear fruit, aswell as having a record of it for yourself just to prove you are making clear progress.

 

If you can afford it, get a digger in. He'll have everything removed in hours what'll take you weeks (months?) manually and then get him to level a few lorryloads of good topsoil.

If the price is OK, it'll be well, well worth it.

 

Thank you for your repsonses. I am almost certainly going to put some hours in clearing what I can by hand in an attempt to limit the spreading of weed seeds etc.

I will take a photo or two tonight and post them on here to give more of an idea of what I have to work with and as suggested, use these photos myself to monitor progress.

Thanks again everyone for your words of advice