Weed Problem, Guessing it's a common question

Hello All,

I am to new gardening and our new property has a large mature front and rear garden. The previous owners never took care of things, so it is a right mess.

I have no fears of starting from fresh but I am little disheartened after our previous work has been completely destroyed by weeds and nasty thorn bushes. To get us motived again, we are having a local company clear out all the bushes and weeds in the front garden, with the idea of winter coming so I can get everything cleared out for the summer in the following year.

Once the guys have cleared the front, I plan to create a new lawn once the winter months have passed. I asked him about killing the weeds permanently so I can add extra soil at a later date to make it ready for a new lawn. However, they mentioned they can no longer use the chemicals because they are not environment friendly. So my question for you seasoned pros can you recommend anything for killing off the weeds and old plants?

I am not worried about anything out there, it can all die for all I care I just want to be able to start afresh with out my work being destroyed every month or so.

Any other tips or advise will be most welcome!

Thanks in advance

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

Not an easy one, systemic weedkillers (ones that will kill the roots as well) only work when the plants are actually growing, so wouldn't be much use over winter.

You can still get pathclear, but you would have to wait for the spring and then at least 3 months before planting anything else.

You might be better off digging it all over to get as many roots out as you can then spraying with Glyphosate in the spring

 

Hi,

I find it interesting that you mention I should wait until spring to use Glyphosate. (Just reading about that) I was always under the impression, Frost will kill most plants, so turning the soil and using Glyphosate now and hopefully the frost when it arrives will do the job. As the glyphosate will be in the soil and hitting the roots? (Maybe it don't work like that?)

The fact the weather is still warm, and the plants are not dying yet, maybe a couple of Glyphosate treatments wouldn't a go a miss, as its not cold enough to kill anything yet and plants are still growing.

Might be silly questions\views, but its the only way to learn

I have attached a picture of front garden that will be cleared today, the picture really don't do it justice.

Thanks

 

There are no silly questions

Frost will kill off the annual weeds, but not the roots of perenials like Dandlions & bindweed.

The plants need to be growing to absorb the weedkiller. You'll also have regrowth from seeds in the soil.

Might be better off using a weed supressing membrane and turfing over that

 

I am assuming the idea behind this, is to turn the base over, make it flat and smoothish, lay this on top then add a layer of soil, which you can then add turf and plants and so on.

I am guessing this would have to be atleast 2 - 3 inches under the surface level, to allow for roots to grow, or should they penetrate this stuff?

B&Q do a 10M roll for £6 roughly. Might be able to get cheaper at the garden centre.

Would we be better off leaving it now and waiting for Winter to take its toll? or would just recommend getting it all pulled down now as it's never to late in the year to start?

 

Something like that, you could dig out and skip the top six inches or so (most of the annual weed seeds will be in that) then put the membrane down and use something like spent mushroom compost which should be pretty much weed free.

Most garden centres sell the membrane off a roll by the metre

 

@Casey03

Glyphosate is inactivated by soil. It is absorbed through the green leaves and then travels through the plant into the roots. So it works a lot better when plants are growing actively. Glyphosate is also not that cheap so another reason for not applying it unless it is going to work well.
You could put the weed suppressing membrane on top of your soil. this would keep the light off and any thing that germinated over winter would die from lack of light. Then tackle it in the spring.

 

All my growing ground is now undercover to stop me having to weed it every few weeks, so now I have time for other gardening bits

 

To gardeners corner @Casey03, I like the photo of your front garden, I'm sure you will have the garden looking great in no time at all . Please ask as many questions as you need to, we were all new to gardening once, you will never wait long for an answer, we are a friendly lot & love to help. I shall very much look forward to chatting to you on the forum & watching your garden grow.

 

Talking of weeds, I'm assuming that this is definitely Bind Weed? It's everywhere near me.

 

@EnglishmanCFC
It doesn't look like bindweed to me, leaf shape and colour don't look right.

 

It's living in a 4x12ft or so area where the bloke downstairs should have his bins, however, it was just a mass of weeds which I killed and got rid of a few months ago, been trying to kill every bit that rears its head since then.

Though it may be BW as its everywhere around me and was plenty there originally.