Originally Posted by Mike Lyle

Mr_Parsons wrote:
[...]
Thanks for such a warm welcome mike.... why should this be a
joke???

For the questions asked and doubts in mikes mind i shall elaborate
on
what my garden consists of:

The garden is roughly 17 metres long by 7 metres wide, the garden
has
suffered around 5 years of neglect and absolutly nothing grows
there.
There are 2 small lawn areas which i have cut down to a resonable
state although the grass is of poor quality in areas due to lack of
sun and moss readily grows in this area also.
The lawns run from the house to around 6 metres up the garden
stretching the width of the garden. the rest of the garden has not
been touched in years and there is all sorts of weeds and such
growing there. The area is that over grown that digging is
impossible
for all the roots that are there. They are small stringy roots
which
need to be killed off really to weaken them.

The garden is completly uneven, especially at the bottom end so i
want
this all leveling out.

Yes.. it was roundup that i saw, my apologies. Basically, nothign
in
this apauling garden will remain the same. Every last detail will
change and i know exactly what i want and where i want it. The part
of
the garden which gets no sun will be patio'd. I want a decebt sized
custom point spanning the width of the garden with a wooden bridge
over it. At the bottom of the garden will be a decking area for
BBQ's
and a wooden summerhouse overlooking the pond.

The plants and suchlike wont be thought about this year. My main
aim
is to get the foundations of what i want in my garden done in the
coming months.

OK. Lawns are no problem, and involve no trade secrets, just a bit of
work (often less work than one thinks): all the books and websites
will broadly agree with one another. The overgrown beds probably
contain more plants than you think; but to get everything out, I'm
afraid you've just got to dig, even if at present it looks impossibly
daunting. You won't be able to plant without digging anyway, and you
probably won't be able to install hard landscaping features without
shifting soil, either.

To get rid of, e.g., a bramble clump, you have to cut away all the
top growth in convenient lengths (tough gloves, secateurs, patience,
and a bit of bad language). Then get the roots out with a fork. If
you just wait for new growth at the stumps and hit it with herbicide,
it'll kill them off nicely, but leave you with the roots in the soil;
these will militate against either new planting or hard landscaping.
Things without thorns you attack in the same way, but with less
damage to your ear-lobes (my barber once extracted thorns from my
scalp that I hadn't even known were there).

It's actually rather a satisfying job. You may not share my view, of
course!

You may want to consider leaving some of the unevenness alone, or
even increasing it: flat can be dull. You'll have to get rid of some
topsoil somewhere, unless you use it to level the lawn.

About the patio in the sunless spot: it may be less depressing to
make a bed for delightful shade-loving plants. If there's no sun,
nobody will use the paved area, and it'll grow green slime: very
frustrating having to carry out annual maintenance on a feature you
don't use.

What's a "custom point"? "Point of sale" kind of thing? Are you
planning to sell stuff to people?

--
Mike.