On Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:44:53 PM UTC+1, MichaelD wrote:
Hello everyone,
I recently bought a house with a 30x90ft garden, which was massively
overgrown:
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img580/1193/gardenold.jpg]
I have since spent quite a bit of time pulling out all of the old bushes
and trees, burning as I go. As you can see, I've certainly made
progress:
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img27/5903/garden2b.jpg]
[image: http://imageshack.us/a/img6/6974/garden3u.jpg]
However, I am now moving towards being in a position whereby:

- There are lots of roots in the ground from the large bushes / small
trees
- I have attempted to remove the bramble roots, but not done a great
job - lots left in there / hidden
- I want to remove all of this, and then lay grass!

My plan is to hire a mini excavator (it's about 800cm wide - will fit
through the door in my garange!) and pull up the remaining large roots
(e.g. against the fence on the left, and over on the right).
I plan to use the excavator/digger to pull up the small amount of grass
that exists, and also level the ground a bit more.
I then plan to get a heavy duty (13 horse power) rotorator, and use it
across the whole area. I hope that this will pull up any roots / weeds
/ stones which are under the surface, so that they can be easily picked
up and removed.
The rotorator should also leave the ground in a good condition to lay
grass seed... I hope.
I wanted to check with you guys regarding this - have I missed anything
or am I going about anything the wrong way? I am aware a rotivator is
going to blitz certain roots (e.g. the brambles), but I am unsure how
else to get rid of something dotted hidden across a garden of this size.
Obviously the mini digger will identify some bits...
Please do advise / help - I was hoping to get the digger this weekend
and do most of the digger work, with the rotivator the following
weekend. I can only spend weekends on this due to work, and we have
some extra help (probably 3-4 of us each day).
Does this all sound achievable?


Most has been said already.

Lawn weeds: Close to everything clears from repeated regular mowing. What little doesnt flowers beautifully before the grass needs mowing.

Brambles: Cutting them won't get rid of them. Apply glyphosate to above ground growth. The more leaf area there is, the more glyphosate gets into the roots. Blackberries are yum, if you don't mind hacking them back annually you could let a patch
grow somewhere out of the way in half sun - but never neglect to keep them in check.

Lumpy ground: A roller works wonders.

Grass: Rotivating would kill any bulbs, and isnt needed.

Plants: if you want to reinstate what you removed elsewhere, cuttings from it may be still good.


NT