Starting a garden from scratch...

When we bought our house we realised the garden had at some point been somebody's pride and joy but everything was tired and had ivy growing through it. There was also concrete everywhere. We decided we needed to start again from scratch.

We dug out all the concrete and blocks, cut down all the trees and bagged up the debris. We want to make the garden into one large turfed lawn with a border at the end. And now for the question....

How do I remove all the weeds/ivy/bindweed/tulip bulbs/daffodill bulbs and ensure that then don't poke their head up through our new lawn. I tried to rake it, the rake broke... There is just so much! I was hoping there might me some sort of liquid weedkiller I could pour on but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Trying to find the professional way to deal with something like this has proved really hard so some advice would be brilliant! Thank you!

You can see the garden destruction in the photos attached.

Thanks,

 

Hiya Lisa. Not been gardening long really but done something similar when I moved in 8 years ago, best bet rotavate it over, get all the junk out, level it best you can, wait and see what pops up, kill, rake it over again you'll find so many stones and then seed or turf.. Good space you got, do you have sun most of the day? What plants you thinking of for your border? Someone else with better knowledge and experience might pop along and offer better advice, good luck

 

Thanks for your advice Linz! What does the rotivator do? We've been over it with the mini digger but not sure if that is going to be enough! It's so hard trying to find advice on this sort of thing!

In summer the garden gets sun all day until about 8pm in winter only half of the garden gets sun. Well I got a bit excited back in spring and started filling the greenhouse and the veg plot and planted up the bed and the back but realised that all the flowers in the world could not get rid of the ugly concrete! I love gardening but working full time I don't have the time to do much so I need to be a bit more realistic!

For the border at the back I've got a mixture of plants, I tend to buy what I fancy (which isn't always educated! I love tropical plants so I have a couple of date palms, also bananas but they will have to come in in the winter, then I have some clematis, roses and a rhodendron?! Random mix!

What's your garden like?

 

Its a like an automatic tiller, kicks up all the ground.. you need strong arms and big boots its not a light job but its worth it. I cheated and got the old man to do it for me. Have a google.. do you think the mini digger got everything? You could just go ahead, grass it and pulling up anything as it grows.

Did the greenhouse come with you or the house? I'd love a proper one.

Theres a few people on here that grow beautiful tropicals, have a look at the thread "whats looking exotic"

My gardens still quite pants to be honest, its has a patio level to the house at the back which us shaded by the house then steps up to a raised lawn area with a few plants dotted about which is mostly sun. I tend garden in pots on the patio, tried veg first time this year and I have dahlias in pots round the front with a lawn one side of steps and the other a flower bed I made a few weeks back.. http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...doing-in-the-garden-today-2016.108742/page-69 the top of it has bushed out quite nicely. Do you have a front garden too?