Turning brambles and moss into grass

Hello,

I bought a house that is in need of renovation and the garden was left for 10 years.

The ground is covered in brambles and moss, and is very uneven, as shown in the pictures. My aim is to turn the whole area into grass. It’s a relatively large area 80ft x 40ft. I don’t want to use any form of weed killer as I have two small children and a dog.

My plan was to hand dig as many brambles as I could. Get a rotavator across it all. Cover with grass seed and tend to it.

Is there any easier way or a step that I’m missing?

thank you!

 

Good luck with your clearing project. Brambles are a nightmare to get rid of but once the grass is sown and growing constant mowing may well work work on them. Brambles root where ever they touch the ground as well as grow from fruit dropped by birds etc. The root spread from brambles needs to be seen to be believed. You have some hard work in front of you.

 

Welcome @Scottt , good luck with your project. It'll look great in time and that spurs us on

 

I understand you don't want to use weedkiller but without it you have got some very hard work ahead of you, unless your children and dogs are going to drink it then it's harmless to them once it's dry on the plant

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you for the response. That is the idea that I'll continuously mow them down with the grass and hope this keeps them at bay! Wish me luck.

 

I certainly do wish you all the luck you need. I have a constant battle with brambles climbing over the banks around my garden. They are like trifids. They come from surrounding fields and encroach into my garden with vigor and determination. I have to admit, I use glyfosate on them but it is still an uphill struggle to prevent them taking over the garden within a very short space of time. They put on so much growth in a single year it is scary. The fields are just blankets of bramble bushes about 4ft high, there is a chicken shed in one, completely submerged.
Soul destroying.

 

I'd be wary about using a rotovator unless you can be a million percent sure you've got all the brambles out first. Even the tiniest bit of root will take. Where the grass is, mowing will help, but if you have borders with planting, you'll probably just have to keep an eye on any pieces that appear and keep pulling them. They can be really vigorous. If they're coming from a nearby garden, or any wilder areas, it's a constant battle to keep them at bay.
You'd also have to spend a lot of time raking, firming, levelling and then raking again to get a reasonable surface for sowing seed, and it's not an ideal time of year for that - you'd really have to wait until spring. However, a perfect sward is rarely worth trying to achieve while you have young children and pets. They'll wreck it! You'd also need to keep them off for a good while until the grass is really well established, or you'll constantly be amending and resowing etc. If there's a lot of moss, it suggests a shadier, damper site, so pick seed that will suit that, although it may just be down to the site being overgrown and the grass has been dwarfed by everything else.
I also agree with @mac12 re the weedkiller, but it also isn't a suitable time of year for that as decent growth is needed for it to work well, and for things like brambles, the standard stuff won't work anyway, as the new formulas are less speedy and need more applications. You'd need something heftier - a stump killer type of product.
Good luck though.

 

I totally like the approach. I think it's absolutely fine, 24x12m is not a big field. If land is rotovated and some of the roots stay, yes, they will sprout next year, but I don't see a problem to pull those out time from the time. And with mowing the grass other weeds will give up eventually.

 

Thats about the size of a doubles tennis court. Unless thats your aim I would work on seperate areas to provide an area for ball games, an area for dog purposes, perhaps a trampoline/swing/rope climbing/wendy house/small pet area etc. Consider a weatherproof walkway to link these and maybe laundry drying, bbq.Then there is Growing...
Least mowing the better!