How do you go from newly cleared, overgrown garden, to lawn and vegetable garden? (newbie)

[baps]

Hey folks,

Gardening newbie here. Just got a new house that has a garden which hasn't been touched in years. Taken weeks to cut it all back, demolish rotten sheds, dig up old stumps and trees, bushes etc.

Going to dig up that concrete path we found and old clothesline (if we can), and have the asbestos removed that we've found in the hedges around the garden. Also planning on building a couple compost bins since there's a big compost pile at the bottom I'm guessing it'd be a shame to waste? It's now a bit bigger than we expected, but the problem is we have no idea what to do after that.

What we'd like is half of it as a lawn (it's maybe 5m longer than shown in the picture), and the other half vegetable garden/flowers etc. So I guess two different approaches perhaps? The top part is quite uneven what with digging up tree stumps and old flower beds, but that's where we'd like a lawn. The bottom part (most of the picture) is where we'd like to have the rest. Be nice to keep the pear tree in it, pears are nice!

Any thoughts as to how we should approach this would be much appreciated. The more idiot-proof the suggestions the better. Been poking youtube, and there's lots of useful information there, but mostly at different stages or views of different stages of gardening. We have no clue how to get from this to what we want essentially.

Like do we dig up the what grass there is currently in the lawn area and put down grass seed? How do you get it level? Do we just dig up the all the vegetation on the vegetable area or is this not a good time of year to do that?

Oh, also, should I not use tanalised lumber to build compost bins?

Any direction would be appreciated really.

Many thanks,

Baps.

 

[wrathkeg]

No problem digging now, so long as the soil isn't too heavy. Actually, I quite like working in the autumn: weeds don't grow as quickly so you can take your time, and you can't really plant anything yet either so another reason not to rush!

To my mind there are two options here. One is to take a slow and steady approach and accept that it will take a long time to get it something like the way you want: not so back-breaking but there is the possibility of losing interest in it all. The other is take more drastic action. You could kill off the surface vegetation using your preferred method (so weedkiller or for the organic but slower option exclude light for a few months with fabric of some kind), then rotavate it so you can get the levels the way you want them with a rake/shovel, perhaps improve the soil if necessary and start again with a new lawn (turf or seed) and beds.

Compost bins can be made from any timber, really. With all that moisture it will rot soon enough anyway.

 

[Deleted2797112]

As above - dig, rotovate, level. Plan it out on paper and mark out with pegs and string where you want the different elements to be - watch how the sun moves around your garden and try to put your flower and veg beds where they'll get most exposure. Try to get one veg area ready for early Spring so that you can get some early crops in - it's a great incentive to keep going at the hard graft when you can see something growing.

 

[baps]

Thanks guys, appreciate the input.

Will go have a read up on weedkiller. Not too keen on the idea as the dog loves the garden, but if it's only for a couple of weeks might be ok. Have to have a look for a rotavater too.

Not sure about the light actually, there's some massive fir trees in the neighbours garden that probably shade quite a bit of the bottom of the garden. Still, don't want a vegetable garden at the top, so it might have to go there anyway.

Baps.

 

[maltaron]

You do not say what size the garden is, but it does'nt look over big. In that case I would not use a rotavator, unless the ground is completely free of weeds, as it will spread the weed seeds all over the plot and you get a free lawn of weeds. For your proposed veg plot dig it over now incorporating plenty of manure or well rotted compost, then in early spring plant potatoes in the whole plot. This will clear the ground then the following year try to split the plot into 3 parts for crop rotation. i.e. Taters, greenstuff and peas/beans etc. Good luck!

 

[Deleted2797112]

Thanks guys, appreciate the input.

Will go have a read up on weedkiller. Not too keen on the idea as the dog loves the garden, but if it's only for a couple of weeks might be ok. Have to have a look for a rotavater too.

Not sure about the light actually, there's some massive fir trees in the neighbours garden that probably shade quite a bit of the bottom of the garden. Still, don't want a vegetable garden at the top, so it might have to go there anyway.

Baps.

It doesn't look like you've got anything that needs weedkiller and anyway, it's the wrong time of year. The weeds need to be in strong growth with lots of leaf surface to transport the weedkiller down to the roots. Annual weeds are dying now and perennials are going into dormancy. Dig them out and it will help to break up the ground.

 

[blightymam]

I wouldn't use a rotavator either, unless you've killed all the weeds like mentioned. Not only the seeds but also some weeds such as creeping charlie or buttercup, couch grass and bindweed will grow again from the smallest piece of root left in the ground, so if you chop them up with a rotavator you'll make the problem much worse next year.
I agree with manure now tho, best time to buy it and let it rot down. Another idea is you can often buy gardening tools now on the cheap if you've not already got a load and stuff for grow your own as it's out of season. Enjoy your gardening!

 

[JohnD]

If you do rotovats it, you will then have to spray it repeatedly to kill the regrowth that comes through. SBK will kill most things but not grass. Glyphosate will kill seedlings but only weaken suckers and shrubby growth. You have to keep killing them before they can establish.

Or hoe weekly.

I like to hoe or spray then apply a thick mulch of muck. It will smother small weeds and you deal with anything that comes through. After several months the worms will have dug it in for you. You can plant through it. You can also use grass cuttings or leaf mould, but they need to be about six inches thick to smother weeds, and they will also carry some seeds.

I use stable muck from wood-shavings bedding which smells OK. Straw bedding is very smelly and unpleasant to handle.

You will not want lots of organic material where you want the lawn, as it will settle. Grit or coarse sand for the lawn, and gypsum (plaster) will lighten the soil if it is heavy.

 

[richardrich79]

One further tip is to plant lots of potato's as your 1st crop, as you earth them up together the daily/weekly hoe between rows goes a long way towards clearing the weeds.
Don't rotovate as your garden doesn't look big enough to justify all the con's that go with a quick and easy spin with the machine. You have to remember that chopping up the roots of a lot of weeds just acts to increase the problem unless you remove all the roots or like to spray.

 

[baps]

Garden is about 25m x 7.5m, albeit with a bit of a bend. The top half doesn't have a lot of weeds, just a scraggy looking bit of grass really. The rest was covered. We did try to dig up all the briars as we found them, but quite a few probably still have roots. Not sure what the rest of the weeds are/were. We did find a pretty big compost pile at the bottom of the garden that's been there for years I'd imagine, so was going to use that?

So, try to dig up what's left of the vegetation and grass first?

Baps.

 

[wrathkeg]

One thing you could try is indeed just to resurrect the grass that is there. Have a really good tidy up and dig out any obvious weeds and raise up any sunken areas with soil from elsewhere in the garden to get the levels satisfactory. Remember this is a garden not a bowling green. Give the grass a cut (not too short time of year) and then look into feeding and overseeding what is there though I doubt now would be a good time of year to do this. Grass is very good at recovering, and regular cutting will control a lot of weeds. This will all take time (months+) though not much effort or expense. If that all gets going you can then construct your beds wherever and however you like: strip off the turf in the relevant areas, dig in as much organic matter (compost, leafmould, manure) and off you go. You could of course construct raised beds if you want, but they are not necessary. Bear in mind though that grass around beds of any type leads to a lot of edging work.

 

[Egmond]

Sorry another newbie here. And apologies first of all for piggy-backing and bumping someone else's thread.

I have a small front lawn that I have just dug over. The grass was very patchy and there were lots of weeds and a couple of unwanted shrubs to dig out. The intention is to just return it to level weed-free soil to be kept like that until I can plant new grass on it. The soil itself is very stony and I'm intending to sieve most of that out.

What I also found, however, was that every couple of feet (or so it seemed) at random there would be an old house brick, half-brick, or piece of stone of similar size lying just under the surface at about a fork's depth. From a lawn area of roughly 11 ft x 18 ft there were easily enough of these to fill a couple of small car boots. I dug these out and they are now piled round the back of the house.

My question is: will these bricks etc have been put down under the surface soil deliberately to assist drainage or something? (i.e. should I put them back before doing anything else?). Or will they just be leftovers used by the builders to reduce the amount of soil needed to create the 'lawn' in the first place (the house is about 20 years old)? As mentioned above they were spread out across the lawn in no particular pattern and not just in one area, from which I'm guessing they were not part of a specially constructed 'soak away'.

The lawn is not on a slope but slopes away at the front edge. There was very heavy rain here this morning and the water filled some small dips in the upturned soil but only an hour later this has drained away, so no immediate problems are resulting from removing the bricks, to the untrained eye anyway.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[JohnD]

lazy builders

very often they will level the rubbish and put turf on it.

In dry conditions, if you keep raking the soil, you can level it (it will settle uneven after digging) and this will also catch stones just under the surface, which are best removed from a lawn.

You may want to dig and clean out your flower beds before the garden gets established. there might be scraps of plastic sheeting, spilled cement or sand, and even patches of spilt diesel.

 

[Egmond]

lazy builders

very often they will level the rubbish and put turf on it.

In dry conditions, if you keep raking the soil, you can level it (it will settle uneven after digging) and this will also catch stones just under the surface, which are best removed from a lawn.

You may want to dig and clean out your flower beds before the garden gets established. there might be scraps of plastic sheeting, spilled cement or sand, and even patches of spilt diesel.

Thanks for getting back so quick - very helpful, I'll do that.