On 4 Sep, 20:11, "Nowhere" wrote:
Hi
Being a real novice at gardening I have some basic questions
1. I have recently cleared an area of ground that was covered in
nettles, weeds etc and want to prepare it ready for laying some turf
and planting some shrubs I want to prepare the area and am concerned
about the nettle roots etc underground and how to deal with them I
would like rotovate and add some extra topsoil / sand etc Is this OK or
will this make weed regrowth worse Any alternatives I should try?
I don't use chemicals and never encourage anybody to do so. Digging
and hard work to remove all roots of perenial weeds is an effective
way of getting rid of them. It is not going to ruin your day if you
see a little weed suddenly one morning appearing in your lawn. Just
dig it out making sure you get every bit of roots out. Rotovating will
break up the weeds roots in hundreds of bits and will multiply your
weeds.
Also nettles like acid soil - once you've raked and added your
topsoil, sand and whatever you need to do prior to layering your turf
(which I'm not expert in), the soil will slightly change ph and
therefore it is likely that the nettles will disappear. I 'move' my
nettles by cutting at them if I'm unhappy where they are. I just keep
cutting at them until they are gone. It works even in one year. Also I
encourage nettles in my garden - but that's another story.
2. I have some overgrown shrubs but not sure what they are I want to
cut them back quite a bit but not sure if I should or not Anybody know
of sites that might help me identify them and what to do etc
The RHS has a brief and concise page on pruning old shrubs, find
below. You can look around the site and find lots of shrubs and trees
but it is difficult to find what you are looking for if you don't have
a name to start with. What I'd do is get a good encyclopedia or book,
one which is good is the Dirr's Hardy trees and shrubs. Costly but
will be useful for ever (might even send you towards a vocation you
didn't know you had). Failing that, take a picture of the shrubs
you've got and post it here. It is always a pleasure to help identify
a plant. HTH
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile...vate_shrub.asp