Joe Shmoe wrote:
Hi folks.

Im lucky enough that my new house has a 150ft garden. It wasn't tended
for over 10 years and was totally overgrown with massive established
brambles. I've cut them down and am hlaf-way though digging out the
roots and turning over the top 6inches of soil as I go.

On that scale my instinct is always to go for a basic chemical kill
using glyphosate spray followed after it is all tinder dry and raked
well away from any combustible fences to torch the dead plant material
in situ.

You effectively get two kills for the price of one. Expect some
buttercups to survive this, but not a lot else will. You still have to
dig out the deeper roots but there is less bulky top growth.

BTW do you have any nasty deep rooted or pernicious weeds to see off?
Marestail, groundelder, bindweed being obvious examples. You want to
nuke them into oblivion before planting anything special.

I think the soil is reasonable fertile as I've heard that Brambles and
nettles only grow on fertile soil (is this true?) and I know that the
previous gardener used to grow serious crops of vegetables before he
got too old to tend the garden, so this must have been approx 20years
at least. However, about 12inches down, the soil turns to clay.

Clay is also very fertile just not well drained.

Now the trouble is, I don’t know what to do with the garden once I have
finished clearing out all the weeds and bramble roots.

I'd leave some nettles and even brambles down the far end for the
butterflies. Bramble jelly is quite good.

I'm not really ready to do anything specific with the bottom 60ft or
so, and am happy for it to just grow wild with wildflowers and tall
grasses, but I don't want it to get back into a state where its filled
with nettles and brambles and I'll have another hard job of clearing it
again.

Seed it with a wildflower meadow mix for now and cross your fingers.

I had visions of a couple of newly planted fruit trees, with lots of
nice tall whispy grasses all around etc, but not sure where to start as
I am a complete beginner.

They are cheapest and arguably more successful bare rooted in autumn
from a specialist nuresery (mail order is OK).

Does anyone have any ideas of what I should plant ?

If you have the space two or three varieties of apple tree, a pear tree,
rhubarb, and soft fruit are all worth growing. In a smaller space the
family trees with two cultivars on one stock are worth a try.

Regards,
Martin Brown
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