Basic advise for a first timer

squalshy

Hi,
I bought a house about just over 12 month ago with almost half an acre as the back garden surrounded by hedgeing.

I grew up in the city all my life and don't know the 1st thing about gardening.During last summer it got really overgrown with weeds and I really want to have at least somewhat of a lawn this year but don't know where to start with turning the weed infested back yard into a proper lawn. Its also quite stoney as the ond house on the land was demolished. We pulled out a lot of the larger stones but I'm sure there's still a lot left in the ground.

Ideally I'd love to have someone into do it but I don't know what I'm asking exactly asking to have done and am worried that I'll be ripped off.

I don't have a lot of money and really would appreciate any starting advise you can give me.

Thank a million

The Sweeper

There appears to be a few ways to work with the blank slate garden you have.

The first method is a sort of 'scorched earth', poison everything, wait until it dies, rotovate it and then re-seed. You can hire a rotovator yourself (backbreaking) or hire a landscaper to do the job for you.

You could also cut everything way back to ground level and try rotovating then, but if you have a lot of weeds they'll simply reseed and start coming up through your new lawn. Poisoning the original area will help to prevent this.

You can also poison everything, then rotovate when it's all dead, taking stones out and mixing in something soil improving, then you could rake and level the surface and have someone install a living lawn for you - that's rolls of grass sod. Depending on surface area and quality of the grass sod, the prices will vary, but it is instant lawn.

If you don't want to do something as dramatic, you'll be left with a sort of lawn maintenance process of cutting everything back (but don't cut too harshly or you'll kill it), spot-poisoning or pulling out the larger weeds, using a weed and feed product for the rest of the lawn (instructions for use on the packet you buy at the garden centre) and continuing to try to nurture it to health over time.

Here are a few questions to consider - is your garden level? How is the drainage - are there any seriously boggy patches? Just how stony do you think this ground is?

If it's a rubble-strewn, uneven wilderness of four-foot thistles and running grasses, you really will need to go a 'raze it and start over' route. If it's just unkempt, the spot tending approach may work for you.

squalshy

Thanks a million for the advice.

I'm hoping now to poison the whole thing, kill all plant life, rotavate it and seed it before the weather picks up and the weeds take over.

Fingers crossed!!

Sleipnir

I did this about 3 years ago and it is backbreaking work but there's no getting around that.

Get yourself a sprayer and some Roundup and start spraying the grass. If you can, mow it first as it's easier then trying to get it all up after you've killed it. Once it's all dead, rake off as much as you can and start rotovating.

If you want a decent lawn I would have a read of this first. If you do it right, you won't end up with a crappy looking lawn and have to do it all over again.

Ideal time to seed a lawn is March so get your skates on. You'll also need to water it throughout the summer (unless it's like last year) so you'll need a hose too.

magicbastarder

will rotovating not be soul destroying if it's stony?

Sleipnir

magicbastarder wrote: »

will rotovating not be soul destroying if it's stony?

Yes, but it must be done if you want a decent lawn.
The end result might restore the soul though, unless the flesh suffered a major cardiac event while rotovating.

magicbastarder

go for a forest so. forests are more interesting than lawns.

sorella

Less upkeep too and magical. YOu can make interesting clearings and glades, with the stones playing their part.

We have a smaller wild patch; I was planning to do some serious digging etc, and put black plastic mulch down; refuse to use chemicals here and am allergic anyways.

The gale came and literally tore and rearranged the mulch; so now I have several small beds around a central "meadow" which the dogs love to run in.

Bluebells started to show up wherever we planted also.

There will be perennials, eg lupin, the primroses split and scattered in nooks, and anything else that we can grow, and vegetables amid therein.

( we have no budget to speak of; grew lupins from saved seed last year so they will flower this summer; ditto honesty etc)

Around all, we have planted native trees and hedging; inexpensive from coillte. ( these were a gift)

Not a chemical in sight, and no grass to mow.

And trees for the birds to nest in.

Much better than the original idea.

magicbastarder wrote: »

go for a forest so. forests are more interesting than lawns.

The Sweeper

Sorella, half an acre isn't much of a size to allow run totally wild. It won't look like much more than a mess.

If there's a house on that plot too, there doesn't really leave much room for foresting it without having that encroach on your living space. If the OP puts some work into the space he has, he'll have an opportunity to go for a 'hidden garden' type effect, planting trees and bushes all around the boundary of the property and allowing the centre a more manicured treatment if he wishes. He does have enough room to allow a section go fallow, with one or two trees and some long grass, but whatever is in there will continue to seed into the neater part of his garden if he leaves it.

sorella

Ah, well; our patch is smaller than that.

Chemicals are dreadful things.
We will not use them.

Wild flower meadows are pretty.

And we need to grow food also to live; but then all is choice is it not?

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Sorella, half an acre isn't much of a size to allow run totally wild. It won't look like much more than a mess.

If there's a house on that plot too, there doesn't really leave much room for foresting it without having that encroach on your living space. If the OP puts some work into the space he has, he'll have an opportunity to go for a 'hidden garden' type effect, planting trees and bushes all around the boundary of the property and allowing the centre a more manicured treatment if he wishes. He does have enough room to allow a section go fallow, with one or two trees and some long grass, but whatever is in there will continue to seed into the neater part of his garden if he leaves it.

squalshy

It was wild last summer as we didn't do anythign at all with it and I had pheasants nesting down the back and foxes etc coming through.
This winter we've had a bit of a rat problem so now I have cats and I really don't want the pheasants, foxes and expecially rats coming back.
I have 2 dogs but they are no good as hunters so hopefully the cats can keep vermin at bay if a fox doesn't eat them!

Seriously - I live in the middle of nowhere next to farmland!! I really just want to be able to go out and sit in my garden without wondering what is living a few feet away in the wilderness of the weeds!

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a ride-on rotavator as by all accounts it sounds like I would end up killing myself pushing one for about a month before I got anywhere??

Aeneas

squalshy wrote: »

It was wild last summer as we didn't do anythign at all with it and I had pheasants nesting down the back and foxes etc coming through.
This winter we've had a bit of a rat problem so now I have cats and I really don't want the pheasants, foxes and expecially rats coming back.
I have 2 dogs but they are no good as hunters so hopefully the cats can keep vermin at bay if a fox doesn't eat them!

Seriously - I live in the middle of nowhere next to farmland!! I really just want to be able to go out and sit in my garden without wondering what is living a few feet away in the wilderness of the weeds!

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a ride-on rotavator as by all accounts it sounds like I would end up killing myself pushing one for about a month before I got anywhere??

If you want a very fine lawn then clearing the ground, digging and reseeding is necessary. But if you simply want an area of green grass and your ground is reasonably level here is what you could do. First remove rocks, stones, debris, branches etc. Strim the area cutting down the weeds, thistles, brambles, nettles and rough grasses right back to almost bare earth. When the growth returns in a few weeks mow the area - a few times over the spring and every week over the summer months - from now to year's end. Eventually the continuous mowing will kill most of the weeds and you will be left with an area of green grass. Use "weed and feed" to get rid of ground hugging plants like thistles, dandelion and daisies. I have done this in on a completely overgrown section of my own garden and the result is almost as good as where I painstakingly poisoned, dug, seeded etc.

squalshy

Aeneas wrote: »

If you want a very fine lawn then clearing the ground, digging and reseeding is necessary. But if you simply want an area of green grass and your ground is reasonably level here is what you could do. First remove rocks, stones, debris, branches etc. Strim the area cutting down the weeds, thistles, brambles, nettles and rough grasses right back to almost bare earth. When the growth returns in a few weeks mow the area - a few times over the spring and every week over the summer months - from now to year's end. Eventually the continuous mowing will kill most of the weeds and you will be left with an area of green grass. Use "weed and feed" to get rid of ground hugging plants like thistles, dandelion and daisies. I have done this in on a completely overgrown section of my own garden and the result is almost as good as where I painstakingly poisoned, dug, seeded etc.

Now that sounds much more managable than having to rotavate and seed and add earth etc.
At the moment I dont' think there is any grass on the land but that could be becuase of the amount of weeds having taken over.

I think the main thing then is to clear the land of all the stones (can't wait!!) and just mow and strim all the weeds for the next few months.

Is it worth doing a patch at a time then to start a proper lawn or is it pointless with weeds still alive in other parts of the land?

Aeneas

squalshy wrote: »

Now that sounds much more managable than having to rotavate and seed and add earth etc.
At the moment I dont' think there is any grass on the land but that could be becuase of the amount of weeds having taken over.

I think the main thing then is to clear the land of all the stones (can't wait!!) and just mow and strim all the weeds for the next few months.

Is it worth doing a patch at a time then to start a proper lawn or is it pointless with weeds still alive in other parts of the land?

I'm assuming from your posts that the area around your house is old meadow that has become overgrown and weedy. This can look completely wild with a mixture of thistles, nettles, bindweed, brambles, various wild flowers, sedges, rushes, and grasses. If left long enough woody plants like blackthorn will begin to take over from the leafy plants. If you have these you will need to pull them out at the same time as you remove the stones etc. In summer it is three or four (or more) feet high and almost impenetrable. In winter, as now, it would be brown and tussocky with a mixture of dead plants, and straw coloured grasses. As you cut the weeds down the grasses are given a chance to colonise the area. Grass is one of the few plants that can withstand constant mowing. I think it is probably best to tackle the lot. Don't expect instant results. You will have a patchy field for several months, but by summer grass should have begun to grow. It will take a year or so to get the area into shape.