GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Newbie from Manchester

kay · 20-07-2013, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluemoon 1502

Hi, I am knew to this forum (and gardening) so please forgive me if this is written in the wrong place, I have searched but cannot find a solution to my problem.. I am hoping someone could offer me some advice?

I have recently moved into my first house which has a 'garden'.. I say 'garden' because it is more like a small overgrown meadow! My first task was to cut the grass and privets back. The first time i cut it was about a month ago with a strimmer, but i would bet that it hadnt been cut for a good few years before that as the grass was at least 2ft long, contained moths, toads and god knows what else! My girlfriend and i went on holiday the weekend after i cut the grass and on returning home 2 weeks later, we found it had hrown again to about a foot in length! Now this grass isn't nice looking. it's thick and straggly and is more like grass you would find in a wild, overgrown field, than someone's back garden. There are weeds everywhere and the ground is not level.. My question would really be - Can I take off the top couple of inches, maybe a foot to kill the grass and weeds and use what i have dug out to level the ground? I would like to get the garden looking half decent before the winter and maybe next year look at making it actual look good!

I cannot use any kind of weed killer in the garden because I have a dog, I am on a fairly tight budget so the more cost affective the better really. However, I am more than willing to do a lot of manual labour and digging in order to get it sorted.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

If it hadn't been cut for a good few years, it wouldn't be grass, it would be scrub and bushes by now!

Grass expects to grow and flower each year before dying back for the winter, so can easily grow to 4ft high within a couple of months.

Soil is full of weed seeds, and more will be blown in - getting rid of weeds is a perennial job, like washing up or cleaning the house, not something that you do once.

I've a feeling that you probably do not like gardening, although clearly you would like a garden that looks tidy. I suggest you march noisily through the grass to disperse your toads, then strim it, then mow it with your mower on its highest setting. It will look pretty revolting, with white lower stems of grass, but green shoots will regrow quickly. Repeat the mowing every week through to the autumn. By then, it will look a lot more like your idea of a back garden, and you can think about the next step.