In article ,
RobertFaa wrote:

Hi, i'm new to gadening and i was just wondering if anyone could advise
me...

My garden is an absolute mess and would probably be best if someone
could just hit the 'reset' button.

Is there any way that i can simply kill everything green that's in it in
such a way that the soil would still be plantable after X amount of time
so i can simply seed the entire thing and plant the flower beds where i
want them?

A few years ago I did exactly this with my front yard. I hired a crew
to come in and bulldoze out the bushes, etc. Then I had them build an
arrangement of raised beds for flowers. Since I wasn't going to grow
anything I was going to eat, they could use railroad ties that were
treated to prevent decay for the structure of the beds. They filled the
beds with a good soil mix, and on the ground between the raised beds
they put landscape fabric (to keep the big stuff from coming up again)
with crushed river rock on top. They picked a color of rock which
coordinated with the colors of the house.

Since then I've planted many different kinds of flowers in those raised
beds: roses, lilies, many other perennials, annuals, spring bulbs,
ferns, etc. Right now they're at their spring peak with daffodils and
tulips as well as a few late crocuses. The roses are leafing out, and
the perennials are starting to come back up.

I had hated the way the previous owner of my house had designed the
front yard, but now I just love it. The raised beds save my back and
knees, and since it gave me a tabula rasa, once the crew was done, it
has exactly what I like growing in it.

The whole thing (clearing out, building the raised beds, materials,
labor) for a yard of approx 50 x 20 feet cost me about $6,000. It was
definitely worth it. If I were to try to sell my house these days, I
wouldn't have to worry about whether I have curb appeal or not. I do --
in spades!

My whole lot is 50 x 140 feet, and the house has a small footprint, so I
have plenty of room out back for veggie gardening and some tamed
wildness, too.

Good luck!

Priscilla
--
"What you fail to understand is that criticising established authority by means
of argument and evidence is a crucial aspect of how science works."
- Chris Malcolm