How Do I Start?

Hi
I have recently bought my first house with my boyfriend and our garden is a mess! There are absoloutley no trees, shrubs or flowers.
There is a block paved patio just outside the patio doors which we have weeded and applied pathclear, so this is about the best bit of the garden!! We're doing the house up at the moment so won't start designing and planting until next spring (assuming this would be the right time of year to start plnting etc?!)

In the meantime I need to do something to stop the garden turning into a jungle! The soil is clay and at the moment is covered with a mixture of weeds including dandelions and bindweed (arggggh!). I'm not sure of the best way to get rid of the weeds and keep them away. I'm reluctant to use any weed killers because i have pet rabbbits which will be loose in the garden and i wouldn't want them to eat weeds that previously have been treated with weed killer. Do i just need to dig the garden over with a fork and pick the weeds up as i dig? What tools may i find helpful/useful (obviously i'd need a fork - can anyone recommend a lightweight decent quality brand? Im a girl and by my own admission i'm not very strong! lol!) Also, do i need to mix something into the soil, such as manure, to help fertilise it?

Thank you for any advice you can offer, I'm a complete garden novice so please explain well as i'm not famililar with some terminology!!

 

Bindweed is a really nightmare. A glyphosate based weedkiller like Round-Up is your best bet. I know you are worried about your rabbits eating it, but after a day or two there will be no weedkiller left on the weeds, and besides unless I'm mistaken, Bindweed is a bit toxic anyway, so the rabbits will probably ignore it.

Glyphosate is not poisonous (though I wouldn't test that theory). In plants it works by changing the plant's internal chemistry so that nutrients flow out of the plant instead of being absorb by them, so the plant (weed) starves to death. Microbes in the soil quickly break down any residual glyphosate so once its done its magic it just turns into harmless compounds that exist in the soil naturally.

Digging out bindweed is futile. If you leave any root at all in the ground, it will grow back with a vengeance.

One other option if you are not going to start til next spring would be to cover the whole lot in black plastic sheeting, which prevents plants from seeing the sunlight, preventing photosynthesis, and ultimately starving them, but that creates a perfect hideout for slugs.

 

Best time to plant shrubs is November, so I would recommend trying to be ready by then.

If there are any plants in the garden seeing what & where they are, over the course of this year, will be good. Put a stick / label for each one that springs up - so you can find them in the jungle!

If you get the ground cleared this year that will be a bonus - i.e. letting it fallow. I agree with Clueless that Glyphosate or black plastic is a good bet - then you can just pretty much leave it be for the year. Glyphosate will kill everything it touches though - including any plants that may be there.

I don't rate your chances of digging, unless you have very light soil, after the next couple of weeks - it will be very hard during the summer, not to mention hot work.

 

How many rabbits :cnfs: how bigs the garden :cnfs:

My previous experience of rabbits is , if they don`t eat it ,they will bite it off at the base anyway, so if its not huge ,they could have a lot of the surface cleared by late summer anyway, :dh:

 

The trouble is, even if they do munch the bindweed, which I don't think they will, the roots will remain intact so the problem will not go away. But yes, rabbits do either eat or randomly destroy most plants.

 

That is all very helpful info everyone, thank you very much! I have two rabbits and the garden is small, approx 13' x 30'. We don't live there just at the moment whilst we do some plastering in the house so the rabbit's won't be on the garden and therefore won't be affected by weed killer.
Kristen, you don't rate my chances digging (i'm inclined to agree with you on that one) but i don't know how else to get rid of everything?
There is no lawn, just a weed-fest! Long grass, clover, bindweed, dandelions and whatever else i don't know the name of! I feel like digging it over, levelling it off (the ground level kind of drops down along the sides of the garden) and then cover with black plastic until planting can begin, is my only way of getting a fresh start - are there other better ways?
I take on board what clueless says about round-up and i will def go down that route. Would it be best to dig and remove what i can by hand and then use round-up on any weeds i can't get to the route of?

Thank you all very much

 

Dig. I inherited a front garden full of Voldemorts, aka bindweed. I dug out everything possible last spring, this year its just weekly weeding and I'm in control. The weed is still there but I'm definitely having the upper hand, and since I did the profound digging last year, this year it's just satisfying to pull out a 1m bindweed root from the soft soil.
I'd be over- cautious with pets and poisons, anyway they dislike sharp- leaved grasses. I proudly grow dandelions in an old bedpan for our guinea pigs.

 

Leave the spade well alone for now. Don't dig or chop anything. Just blitz the whole lot once or twice a week with Round-Up for two or three weeks. By the end of that time the whole lot should be looking pretty dead, but it wont be quite finished off at that point. After allowing about 4 weeks for the Round-Up to really do its magic, then tear out all the dead stuff, but still don't dig just yet. By clearing off the stuff that is obviously dead (ie has gone yellow or black with no hint of green), you will be able to see the ground better so you can watch for the stragglers coming through. Give any stragglers a chance to grow a little bit then blitz again.

The important thing to note about Glyphosate based weedkillers like Round-Up is this: They only work while the target is in active growth. The leaves absorb the glyphosate and take it down to the roots. If you damage the plants first, the glyphosate won't be carried through the entire plant's system, so it will just recover.

If I was starting it now, my schedule would look something like this:

Now: Spray the lot.
May 25th: Spray the lot again
June 1st: Spray the lot once more
June 8th: Spray the lot again
July 6th: Rip out clearly dead stuff, and discard (you can compost it safely as long as there are no seed heads among it)
Early August: Spray the lot again if there is any new growth, then again a week later. In fact spray it weekly as long as stuff keeps coming, up until the end of September
October: Dig the whole lot over, and pull out as much root as you can find.

The thing is Bindweed is horribly persistent stuff. I blitzed my garden last year because Bindweed had taken over. The more you pull it out the faster it comes back. Despite having carried out a relentless blitz over several weeks, I am still getting a few hangeroners this year. Fortunately only a few, and I zap then as I see them and just leave them there to die.

 

Its not that I don't rate your chances of digging it, I don't rate anyones chances of digging it in the Summer! We might get a wet summer, and you might have light sandy soil ... but ...

The whole Chemical/Organic thing is a personal choice, so up to your if you are happy to go the weed killer route. You can read up about Glyphosate and decide for yourself what risk you associate it with. Its been around a long time, its problems are well documented, and for something that has been round a long time they seem realtively minor to me. There are problems with aquatic life, so don't use in/near a pond, but beyond that most of the problems have more to do with the Surfactants (detergent components that help it "stick" to the plants) than the Glyphosate active ingredient itself. Others may disagree, and as I said best you do your own research.

You've got the house to work on, the earliest you will plant the garden is the Autumn (November is the best time) so all you really need is for the weeds to be dead, and minimal effort required, so you can fix the house, and ready for planting when you are ready (I'm taking that to be November earliest)

You can spray with Glyphosate. You ought then to turn the soil - that will bring weed seed to the surface, that will germinate, and can be killed again - before you plant. The more stuff you can get to grow, and kill, before you plant the less hassle picking the weeds out of the new precious plants next year.

In addition to weed killers you can also kill it by digging, hoeing, burning with a flame thrower, or covering with black plastic.

Turning the soil in summer (light sandy soil possibly excluded) is not easy. You could hire a rotavator for the weekend (kill off the tops and then clear them off - mow, burn, or chop and rake off - otherwise they will wrap round the rotavator tines and you'll spend more time removing them from the tines than turning the soil!)

Rotavating will chop up any weed roots, and each bit is libable to make its own weed plant - so you should do that after using weed killer (or some other means of killing the weeds). Whatever route you take there will still be some viable roots, so rotavating will bring them to life - plus all the seeds that germinate. Again, that is all good, and knocking them on the head will mean they can't come again next year!

If you go the black plastic route you could plant through it next year. Its not ideal for trees and shrubs, but it would work well for Pumpkins and Squashes (it would work well for those THIS year - if you are quick)

 

Thank you all again!!
I think i need to do a little research on round-up to make sure i'm happy using it with my rabbits about, although they wont be on the garden until autumn time. I'd rather not use weed killer at all but i'm not sure there is any other way from what you all say.

Could i chop down the worst of the weeds and get rid of them. Then cover the entire area with black plastic to kill the weeds, then dig it all over to pull up the roots - or would it not be that simple??!! If i could do that successfully, how long, roughly, would it take? I'm rather impatient and kinda want to get clearing!!

 

"I'd rather not use weed killer at all but i'm not sure there is any other way from what you all say."

I think there is a middle ground, which is to use Round-up / Glyphosate once, to clear the ground, and then be as chemical free thereafter as possible

"Could i chop down the worst of the weeds and get rid of them. Then cover the entire area with black plastic to kill the weeds, then dig it all over to pull up the roots - or would it not be that simple??!! If i could do that successfully, how long, roughly, would it take? I'm rather impatient and kinda want to get clearing!!"

Yes, you could definitely do that and indeed it is a commonly used solution for people taking over an allotment that has been abandoned and become a jungle!. The bindweed would last a long time, at least a year, under plastic, so I don't think that is a solution for the impatient, and it may be a less ideal solution for a garden, rather than an allotment.

 

Thank you all for your help - i really appreciate it!

 

Hi busybee. If your not actually living there right now, I'd definitely give it the Roundup treatment. The thing with Roundup is that there's no residue left in the ground, in fact, as weedkillers go, it's very friendly. Your jungle will only get worse over the coming weeks/months, something to bear in mind. One thing though, Roundup is quite expensive. What I've used in the past is Wlkinsons own weedkiller, 'Systemic Weedkiller' (I think it's called). It's main ingredient is Glyphosate, same as Roundup. The big difference is the price, I reckon maybe a third of the price :thumb: There IS another option though, maybe get a goat ? :D Cheers...freddy.

 

"The thing with Roundup is that there's no residue left in the ground, in fact, as weedkillers go, it's very friendly"

I'm in the Chemical User's Camp, and my view is that Round-up has been around for a long time, the damaging effects are limited (damage to aquatic life can be significant, don't use it in / around ponds), and on that basis I am happy to use it.

But having said that I do read posts from people who claim that Roundup is bad for the environment, and who knows what we don't yet know? so even if the people who espouse that view seem, to me at least, to be banging their own drum I have an ear open to their opinion; I'm old enough to remember the disaster that was Thalidomide :(

So I think each to their own decision, but its worth researching Round-up / Glyphosate before use (important to research the product / Brand you plan to use, because I think the toxicity has much more to do the with Surfactants (chemicals that make the stuff stick to the plant) than the actual active ingredient Glyphosate.

 

Hi Kristen. All you have said is true/good advice. I DO however think that we've come a long way since Thalidomide ( I know that's stating the obvious ) and I have quite a bit of faith in what we get told regarding this stuff. Call me naive, but from what I can tell, these things are fairly well regulated. I know there was that thing about some herbicide that some farmers were using ( I forget the name of it ) that was finding it's way into some gardens via manure/compost, but that was sorted fairly quickly, and from what I remember, there was no suggestion that there was any risk to human health. As you say, Roundup has been around for some time which in itself, I find re-assuring. I'm actually quite a fan of the organic way of doing things, it makes perfect sense. The only thing wrong IMO is that it sometimes it just doesn't work :D Cheers...freddy.