On Oct 9, 10:17*am, Brooklyn1 Gravesend1 wrote:
On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 13:00:45 +0000, dunchutch

wrote:

Hi all,

Please be gentle with me as I am no gardener and new to this site!

I have decided to completely clear all plants from a very neglected
border and have got half way through pulling up what I can. I want to
plant some "easy care" plants in the spring and would like to know what
I should do now and over the intervening period in order to get the
border ready for planting. Please be aware I have very little cash so
please only give me cheap or free ideas!!

Also some advice on what to plant in the spring would be good (I live in
the north of england and my border is in semi shade).

How large a border, need measurements. *After clearing I would till in
lots of organic matter (compost) and then lay down a couple inches of
organic mulch (shredded pine bark). *Come spring rototill again and
add more organic matter, then plant. *What to plant really depends on
the physical size of the border.

It also HEAVILY depends on choosing plants that can handle .border in
"semi-shade" .

Dunchutch, you said you pulled up what you could. How much is left,
and how invasive is it? You don't want to end up re-pulling the same
stuff. If you have no "moral"objections to using something like
Roundup, you might be able to kill everything, or most everythingl If
you choose to employ Roundup or something like it, read the
instructions CAREFULLY, noting, inter alia, that you have to water
before you apply the stuff, precisely to encourage growth that you
will then kill. These substances operate through the leaves.

If, OTOH, you are able to mobilize some muscle, you might be able to
dig up down to the roots.

As Brooklyn has pointed out, much also depends on size of your plot.
Tell us that, and also approx # of hours of (semi) sunlight area
gets, in winter and summer.

Good luck,

HB