On 20/07/2013 19:09, kay wrote:
bluemoon 1502;987924 Wrote:
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,

Mostly grass is easy though you might want to try regular cutting first
before nuking it and starting again.

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

Initially I would just cut it high regularly every couple of weeks for
the first season and then spot weed or dig out the bad weeds.

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!

Regular mowing is probably your best bet then. Levelling an uneven lawn
is highly entertaining for the spectators if you haven't ever done it
before. Small errors can be fiddled out by top dressing in autumn.

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.

If you want to scrap and start again then hit it with glyphosate and
keep the dog away from it until it dries (largely because of the wetting
agent). If you want to kill selectively the broadleaved weeds then
Verdone and keep the dog off it for three or four days after.

Or just spot weed. I find a 12" screwdriver useful for removing old
weeds from a lawn - and also pretty handy around the house. You can also
get a narrow pointy trowel from the likes of Wilko, or an expensive
dedicated tool from a GC but the screwdriver is much more versatile and
a heck of a lot cheaper.

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.

A selective weedkiller will get most of them fairly reliably and the dog
only needs excluding for a short while after application.

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.

I agree that regular fortnightly mowing and a top dressing in autumn
would be the easiest way to regain control with minimal effort. If there
is an out of the way spot for your toads and grass snakes then leave a
patch well away from the house and put your compost heap of grass
cuttings there to rot down. It makes good compost.

Next if you want to have a fine uniform lawn of a softer grass cultivar
would be nuke it with glyphosate allow 2-3 weeks to die off until tinder
dry make a firebreak against any hedges and then torch it when tinder
dry. You could plant some spuds for Xmas now as a way to break up the
soil and a fruit tree in late Autumn.

Dig over removing any obvious weed roots, improve the soil a bit, (sand
for clay and humus for sandy soil) rake to level and plant preferred
grass next spring. You probably want a play lawn rather than a bowling
green. Fine grasses are much higher maintenance. Last time I looked
Wilkos had about the cheapest loose grass seed in smaller amounts.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown