Clearing an overgrown garden

m4rky

Our garden was very overgrown when we moved in 2 years ago.
Nobody had looked after it in years.
There were no plants anywhere just 15 large trees and 5 smaller trees with everything else covered with bramble or Ivy.
The little grass that is there doesn't want to grow, probably due to the number of trees etc that are taking all the water and nutrients.

We have now nearly finished renovating the inside of the house so I have started on the garden.

So far I have managed to cut down most of the trees (5 have been left for the professionals as they are too tall for me to do safely) and chopped down the Ivy and the brambles.

I am in the process of trying to dig out the roots of the trees I have cut down and the Ivy and brambles. Boy is it hard work!

The first 6 inches seem to be all roots and no soil. After that depth it becomes mainly soil with some bigger roots for the trees.

Obviously I cannot remove all the roots and weeds from the garden. Is there anything I can do to help clear these up?
Should I rotovate the ground?
Should I put down a weedkiller and leave for 12 months?

Once I have done my "weeding" what should I do take convert the space back into a garden?

I have a design in mind for the garden and it will have borders along the back and right side. The back will have a bamboo screen to block out the townhouses behind. The left side of the garden will be a patio and space for my shed. The middle and the right will be a lawn. As for plants I have no idea yet.

Any advice would be great,

Thanks

yumyums

Sounds like hard work! I'm trying to dig the soil in my front garden where we had a few trees cut down and it is really difficult. I tend to cut the smaller roots off with secateurs / loppers and sometimes go at the bigger ones with an axe. It makes it difficult to get your spade in though so I know how you must feel (though your situation sounds a million times worse)

Did you leave the stumps in when you cut the trees down? Roundup do a product called stump & root killer but I haven't used it. Maybe someone else can advise on whether this product is any good.

I wouldn't bother putting down a weedkiller but that's just me. I'd concentrate on digging where I want the new beds to be and then leave it a while to see if any weeds come up before planting anything.

I wonder if it would be possible for you to overseed the lawn once the trees are gone and there is more light for the lawn to grow. I know you can get seed mixes for shady spots so maybe you might want to try this in the mean time? (If it ever rains! Don't think you'll have much luck getting it to germinate in this weather)

ETA: Sorry I should have said I'm completely new to gardening. Got my first garden 6 months ago and I'm trying to tackle the issue of starting a garden almost from scratch. I'm sure some more experienced people will be along shortly to give better advice!

lostinrates

Is there any chance any of the reaining trees could stay? Even just one of them? A ature tree adds a great thing to a garden.....something newer gardens just can't achieve without a long time....a sense of being established. And, in th right place shade, privacy and style!

warehouse

You can get the trees cut to a few inches above ground level then get them ground down to below ground level, cover with soil and forget. Grinding is fairly quick and doesn't cost too much. Makes a lot of sawdust though .

m4rky

Three smaller ones are being kept but the rest have to go.

The final 5 big ones are twice the height of our house, but the branches only start half way up the trees as ivy has been allowed to stangle the them. So if you have them crowned there really isn't much left but a very tall trunk.
Also I can see large roots above the surface of the ground for these trees within a couple of metres of my house.
Finally within days of us moving into the house we had several neighbours around complaining that the trees are cutting out light to their gardens.

I am not against trees and have no objections to replanting some smaller ones that will be maintained but the ones that are left are too far gone.

There is a large park with plenty of trees by our house so its not as though there are none around.

m4rky

warehouse wrote: »

You can get the trees cut to a few inches above ground level then get them ground down to below ground level, cover with soil and forget. Grinding is fairly quick and doesn't cost too much. Makes a lot of sawdust though .

Yes this is what I hoping to have done.
I was a bit worried that new tree saplings may start sprouting even after this has been done maybe from any roots I have not managed to remove?

m4rky

yumyums wrote: »

I wouldn't bother putting down a weedkiller but that's just me. I'd concentrate on digging where I want the new beds to be and then leave it a while to see if any weeds come up before planting anything.

Yes its very hard work but I am quite enjoying it. The weather and the bank holidays over the last couple of weekends has really helped!

My real problem is that its my entire garden that has been covered in trees, ivy and brambles. So it all needs digging!

m4rky

Maybe a couple of pictures will help explain better.
http://cid-6bf14f2ac1d4655f.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=6BF14F2AC1D4655F!194
As you can see a large chunk of the garden is quite dark even though it is a very sunny day!

These pics were taken before I started work on clearing it so its nowhere near as bad as this now.

Eenymeeny

Hi, I'm in the same situation, the garden hadn't been touched for years. We have loads of berberis shrubs with triple spikes that should be banned! We've just bought a tool called a mattock (like a pick but flat-edged) from screwfix for about £24. A lot of money but absolutely brilliant for breaking up solid soil and getting some leverage while removing those deep shrubs. Really worth the money as I couldn't get deep enough with a spade or spit (and kept jarring my neck and wrist!) HTH Looking forward to choosing nice shrubs and trees to replace them... Good luck everyone.

boo80

Wow, that's a lot of clearing there! Good luck with it, looking forward to seeing your results

getmore4less

With a lot of stuff to cut back/down.

A decent electric saw, (chain makes jobs realy quick)

decent loppers to cut off the smaller stuff.

A shredder is a great investment for reducing the bulk of stuff upto about 40mm, easier to dispose or keep for mulsh/compost.


It can be a good idea to cut and leave to dry out die back before clearing, especialy Ivy, brambles and leafy tree/shrub branches.