starting a new boarder

Hello again! I'm after a bit more advice.

I have an area near my workshop which is south facing that I'm hoping to build a cold frame but also I want to dig it up and make it a cut flower border. No one can actually see it. At the moment it is all grass and weeds, stinging nettles bell bind and a couple of nice roses! What would you suggest would be the best way of getting rid of all of the weeds. I fear that I'll be there for years if I try and dig them all out.
thanks in advance

 

The easy way would be to use roundup weedkiller, but you would need to wait probably until April before that would be really effective.

Digging the ground over and taking out as many weed roots as you can is probably the only other effective way of doing it.

 

A photo would be good Tara.

Yes Roundup is good, I had to use that in my Dad's garden a few years ago. As Pete said wait until at least April as the weeds need to be actively growing for the very best outcome to be achieved.

 

Thank you. Do you think it will get rid of the grass too?

 

Round up kills everything. You'll see

 

My approach when starting a new border is to just gradually remove sections of turf and then keep turning over the soil until I've removed as many roots as I possibly can. Better to work on a small area and do a thorough job than taking on a larger space and doing it more sloppily. A bit of a chore yes, but not too bad if you do a bit every couple of days. Not using any chemicals also means my garden is far more pollinator-friendly!

Nick

 

Yes it kills any green growth it touches, it is not supposed to be able to penetrate brown bark, but to be on the safe side I'd not use it within a foot or so of any plants I'd want to keep, you would need to hand weed those areas.

You would need to leave it a further 4 weeks or so after spraying to allow the weedkiller to penetrate down into the roots before turning over the ground, which means its not a fast process really, replanting times are usually stated on the bottle.

 

Yes do not spray on a windy day. It takes about two weeks to kill the weeds ( or grass! )
It works a lot better when the plants are growing, so I would only use in the Spring or Summer.

 

I believe, after killing the weeds, a good thick layer of well rotten farmyard manure on the ground helps to smother any stragglers. I did that on my beds.

 

I used this one ...


Not only could I control where it went but I also had to be ultra careful of not getting spray drifting into my Dad's 2 ponds.
Time consuming for a large area though, but it had to be done!

 

Roger that. I'm on it!

 

I do have a powerful amount of that to hand!