overgrown garden need help where to start

I forget who mentioned the pigs, but I'll echo the idea, but suggest goats.

In my last but current house, we ha 1.5 acres of what used to be field. It's previous owner had set off with grand designs and then obviouly got board about half way down the fgarden and gave up.

I initially stimmed everything back with a strimmer from a tool hire place - wire cutters and a petrol engine, after spending a day with my little electric strimmer and then saying lots of bad words.

I then borrowed a couple of goats from a chap at the other end of the village. The goats live in what is basically a shed on wheels, and then can be either penned off or put on the end of a very long chain.

They trough everything in site, although they are much kinder to trees and shrubs than weeds etc.

That way, once you've strimmed it, you have a constant strimming service working for you. That means you can get on with gardening rather than chasing weeds etc.


As an approach it was really good. Everything stayed under control, apart from at the height of summer when I perhaps could have done with an extra goat for a few weeks. Only real issues were:

1) One goat trying repeatedly to climb one of the trees.
2) My cats going demented trying to work out what the large wooly things in the garden were and whether they could eat them. Happily, goats seem far more intelligent than cats, and when ever one of the cats was up to something the goats would just stare at it until it slunk away embarrased.

I'm using the same approach in my next garden, but will probably end up buying the goats outright, as I want a wild flower meadow, and it would seem as though having a gaot in the meadow keeps everything under control.

Hope this is useful

Steve

 

Yes, me too!:thumb: