Seriously overgrown area of garden

Hi, all

Complete novice here. Don't know a shrub from a bulb! Moved into a house, and there is a sizeable sectioned-off area at the end of the garden - about 15yds by 20yds - which is seriously overgrown. Hasn't been touched for around three years or more. There are a couple of trees, but the rest is green stuff which has grown out of control! There appears to be no grass, just plain earth underneath, which is quite uneven under foot.

I don't want to pay a gardener to clear it, so I'm going to attempt it myself. I have no tools and not the first idea how to begin clearing it. Ideally, I'd like to turn it into a meadow-like area for the kids to play around in.

Where the hell do I begin? What tools should I buy? Would I need any other equipment?

Attached is a photo of one half of the area. I am assuming these are just high weeds. (I really am that much of a novice!)

The other half is comprised of the trees, underneath which is a mixture of weeds and bare earth.

Thanks so much for any help.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Sydney.

I think the best thing to do is clear the whole lot and start again with the exception of what lies round the edges of the garden. At this point it looks like you have a huge crop of nettles and little else, so start by clearing those, cover yourself up though, you don't want to be stung!

The ideal thing would be a sickle, but it would be back breaking work and if you've not handled one before it's perhaps not a good idea, so a strimmer would be a good investment and take them all down to ground level. If you have anything in the garden that looks like a shrub leave those for the time being. Anything that remains you can put pictures of in the Identity Section here on GC, which will enable us to tell you whether it's worth keeping or not.

If your pocket will stretch to it the following would be good investments as basic tools.......garden spade and fork, gardening gloves, secateurs and pruners and perhaps a wheelbarrow, so you can move everything you've strimmed down.

All the above will get you under way and perhaps it's best left now until you've have cleared the worst, then come back to us with some more pictures and we'll help you move on to the next stage. Don't wear yourself out and take your time, it's hard work (I've been there) and as you progress and things start to take shape you will be able to think about what you want there for the future.

Good luck!

 

Hello and welcome to GC.

Its mostly nettles, which means the soil underneath is almost certainly excellent, as nettles like good fertile soil. The downside is that makes your meadow plan a bit of hard work, as for that you really need poor soil.

The first thing is to clear it. There's two options that I can think of here.

Option 1: Blitz it with RoundUp (other glyphosate based systemic herbicides are available). I recommend Roundup because its active ingredient, glyphosate, is harmless to almost everything. Lethal to all types of plants, harmful to aquatic organisms, harmless to everything else. After about 2 weeks you'll see the nettles turn yellow, then brown and black, and then they're dead right down to the roots.

Option 2: Strimmer the lot as Sheal said.

Both options require you to tidy it all up afterwards, and for nettles, I'd go straight to option 2 as they are not very deep roots, not that hard, but they do seed prolifically, and glyphosate wont touch the seeds.

Having scalped the lot, I'd then dig it over. You'll see miles and miles of yellow roots as you dig. Pull as many of those out as you can (they are the nettle roots).

Don't waste any of it, it should all go on the compost heap/in the compost bin.

Having dug it all over, I'd level it as best I could, then sow grass seed over it. You said you wanted a meadow, you can actually buy seed mixes comprosing native grasses and wildflowers, selected and mixed for different types of ground. The trouble is the ground will be full of thousands of nettle seeds, and unless you mow your new lawn regularly, the area will quickly become a nettle field again. Trouble is regular mowing will wipe out all the native flowers in the meadow mix, so I'd go for a cheaper grasses only mix first and just keeping it short. The nettles will try to come up with it, but regular mowing will weaken it until eventually all the nettle seeds that were going to germinate will have germinated, and you'll be more or less nettle free.

So for tools:

* Strimmer and Mower (you can get cheap but functional sets for less than £70)
* A good spade. Not a cheap one. A cheap one will bend or snap, but not before its done your back in.
* Rake
* Fork

That should get you started, then you can add the rest of the tools as you go along.

 

Thanks so much, guys. That's incredibly helpful. Really appreciate the advice, which I shall follow closely. As suggested, I've just posted a couple of pics on the ID thread of a tree and a bush situated within the same area.

Thanks again.

 

Meadow areas sound nice but in practice are not very easy to maintain, they look wonderful for a month or two in Spring and a bit unkempt the rest of the time - just like a real meadow.

A plain lawn makes an excellent playing surface and is straightforward for a novice to establish and maintain, although will need regular input of time for mowing.

All that regular cutting would discourage the nettles, as Clueless says. It's fairly easy to remove if and when you decide to do something different with the land, too.

 

Thanks, Madahhlia. Yes, on the basis on what you have all advised, I think a plain lawn is the best idea, so that's what I'll go for.

Cheers.