Beginner needs help.

I'm having half of my garden cleared of rubbish and scraped next week after a big clear up from previous tenants.

The thing is that half of my garden is covered in different kinds of weeds, a lot of which is bind weed. Most of the trees are coming down from the garden because they need to take them down to get the digger into the area that has to be cleared.

I need to know how I can get rid of the weeds by next summer ready to start planting and making my garden all lovely. Then hopefully I can re plant trees.

 

The bindweed will come back next year, most probably. You can deal with it then - if you are vigilant (in particular if you are happy to carefully apply the appropriate weedkiller to the young plants, as they appear, or if not then to hoe them off regularly) you will weaken / kill it off.

You don't want to lose the topsoil, so better to leave it there (rotavate if you need to loosen it up, but that will chop up the weed roots, and more will come next year), or pile it up for a year and then spread it back down again, or use it on another part of the garden.

Which isn't really gong to get you an instant garden I'm afraid. "Money no object" approach would be to remove the soil, and replace it, I suppose ...

Why are the trees coming down? Takes a long time to replace a tree :( Can they be pruned / "reduced" by a tree surgeon instead? or are you having building work done, or somesuch, and that is the only access?

 

Thanks for all this. The trees hve to come down because they were blocking access to the area of the grden that has to be dug out with a digger.
There was lot of rubbish dumped up there by previous tenants and so there is a lot of contaminated earth in the top half of the garden.
I'll post pictures before they start work. I cleared most of it last year.

 

I don't know the depth but they are putting 100ml layer of topsoil over it after they have cleared it. The weeded area comes out further from where they re diggin out though so i'll still need to clear it out. I'm told I can cover ti with old carpet nd leave it till next spring. Is this true?

 

Don't use old carpet. It will rot down, fall to bits, and be a nuisance forever :( - and also not good if you grow food-crops in that soil.

Some weed supresing fabric (a sort of woven blast plastic sheet) would be fine. You could plant through it, which will then help keep the weeds down - some types are designed to be covered with bark - both to look nice, and to stop them breaking down quickly in UV light.

 

First of all, hello and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you have quite a job on your hands, if you need a digger to clear the area. Do you know what is contaminating the soil? Are the workmen replacing as much top soil as they are removing?

I am relatively new to gardening myself, but I have just cleared a large plot to erect a polytunnel. Got to tell you that from my experience and the more experienced gardeners that I have spoken to, there is no short cut to clearing and preparing a plot for planting.

To give your new garden the best chance of success you need to spend time and energy on the prepartion. If you have a large plot, it may be worth hiring a petrol powered tiller. Usually available by the day.

If it was my plot, I would first of all make sure I had enough topsoil. Then rough dig the whole plot. Taking out any weeds and roots that I could. Talk to your local farmer or horse riding school and see if you can get a bulk load of manure. Spread it out over the plot and fork it in roughly. Cover the whole plot with a weed membrane and leave it till spring. If there is a lot to be dug, don't try to do it all in one go as you will most likely do yourself in and lose enthusiasm. Spread the job over a few days instead.

Come spring I would do a soil test and see if there is any important minerals missing or lacking then add whatever is required a couple of weeks before planting anything.

You will have lots to do over the winter months sorting out and planning what you are going to plant and grow.

Best of luck

Chopper.

 

" there is no short cut to clearing and preparing a plot for planting."

Oh yes there is: "heavy machinery" ... I shall be a miserable old git when I get to the point where the garden is sufficiently "done" that my DW no longer sanctions the annual hiring of the Boy's Toys JCB for a "new patch of garden" :hehe:

 

I know what you mean Kristen. I had a lot of fun with the digger when I started on my project. Loved every minute of using it.

Now stop being a grumpy old man, when I was trying to help someone. :hehe::hehe::hehe:

Even with a digger there is still a hell of a lot of work to do that the digger just cannot manage.

Chopper.

 

" I remember when you first joined GC, you were still using your JCB allot then"

I'm happy to report "no change yet"!!

Just had my annual JCB-jamboree, dug trenches for about 500M of new hedging, scrapped off an old area that we want to make into a knot-garden, or somesuch, dug & filled some paths we need and dug out the stumps from some "scrub" that the Electricity Board clear-felled as it was getting into their lines (and will now become the Cherry Tree Boulevard :D)

"Even with a digger there is still a hell of a lot of work to do that the digger just cannot manage"

OK, I'll tootle off and invent a JCB-bucket for gently weeding between plants

 

While you are at it, see what ya can do about one that makes tea and butties.

Chopper.