On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:32:56 -0400, Scottyboy
wibbled:

Hi All,

I'm not a confident gardener and typically in the past I would hire a
gardener to do bigger jobs but I figure that if continue to do that I'll
never learn how to do these things myself so this spring/summer I have a
few jobs that I am keen to get stuck into it and all I need is the know
how (maybe time off work too). I will attempt this task first and
depending on its success you never know .. I could be hooked.

I have a shrub bed about 20 x 5 ft that is overgrown with weeds and the
shrubs look dead or tired. It also contains 1 tree and 1 dead broken
tree. I have a new baby in the house and get little time to tend to the
bed so I'm planing on clearing it and sowing a lawn which should
hopefully be less maintanance.

This is my plan thus far from reading various site. I would appreciate
any advice or pointers:

1 Kill weeds - Treat the weeds with Bio Glyphosate probably spraying or
with a watering can but being careful not to damage the remaining good
tree. Leave for 1 week.

I'm not very organic - this is what I'd do (I might use ammonium
sulphamate as that's both not legal and turns into a nice fertiliser
after a month or two - not sure if this would be wise with the good tree
though?... Otherwise I'd use the glyphosphate as you suggest.). Leave
everything to die. If you keep it off the leaves of the good tree, it
should be OK - try to apply to the foliage of the weeds.

2 Dig out the broken dead tree. Will this be hard work?

Axe or jigsaw/reciprocating saw/Bosch pruning saw will make cutting the
roots easier if they are big. How big the the trunk? Tap root can be the
one that gets you. Iron bar as a lever or even a rope on teh back of teh
car if you have line of sight between them to help rip it out. Burning
the stump out is another option (pile of coal or charcoal or pile of wood
round the stump - need an intense small fire that can be fuelled for some
time until the stump is reduce enough.

3 Clear the area - Strim, rip and dig out tired shrubs and any weeds.

Or burn them off - once good and dead, after a few weeks in the sun
they'll be fairly flammable. Or don't bother and till them into the
ground which is what I'd do if adding topsoil on top.

4 Till the bed with a hired tiller.

Good plan - done that, it works. Simple 2 blade petrol jobbie will manage
this perfectly well in half a day. Have a box ready to collect any big
stones that surface - may as well remove these.

5 Add some top soil - Get some 50lb bags of tops soils Any idea how
much I would need and do I need to get it delivered or just buy it from
a garden centre?

Possibly cheaper to get a one ton bag delivered and barrow that round.
20x5 foot sounds like it would benefit from a ton rather than a few 50lb
bags. Check the price from a few local suppliers - 25kg bags are
notoriously expensive way to buy soil - you may find a ton bag is no more
expensive than rather a lot less in bag form.

6 Mix in top soil and rake to Level. The bed adjacent to an existing
lawn so hopefully I can get it level enough to blend in with that.

If the topsoil is good, I would just rake it and leave it at the top.
Give it time to settle and possibly add more soil if maintaining level
with an existing lawn is important - after all that tilling, there will
be quite a bit of settling unless you really pack the soil down as you go.

7 Sow some grass seeds and water.

Choose your grass well. Don't just buy any old stuff. Do you want a fine
grass, a rougher hardwaring grass (usually has rye grass in, and most of
the generic packets of seed have rye unless otherwise stated). Would it
benefit from a shade tolerant grass due to trees?

I'm not much of a gardener, but I've had some success with seeding lawns
in similar conditions to yours

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.