I have just moved house and acquired a roughly 1000 sq metre garden, which has been untended for over 5 years. I would be grateful for any advice - especially any based on personal experience - on the kind and, particularly, the brand of garden machine which is most likely to be effective and reliable (and reasonably priced, if possible!)in breaking up, preparing and maintaining the ground, for vegetable plots and borders etc.
Many of the brands available in the UK are difficult to find here (SW France): some which are easily available are Kubota, Al-Ko and Sterwins, so I'd be interested in any comments on these.
Many thanks for reading this.
PAB

On Saturday, 8 September 2012 09:44:31 UTC+1, wrote:
I have just moved house and acquired a roughly 1000 sq metre garden, which has been untended for over 5 years. I would be grateful for any advice - especially any based on personal experience - on the kind and, particularly, the brand of garden machine which is most likely to be effective and reliable (and reasonably priced, if possible!)in breaking up, preparing and maintaining the ground, for vegetable plots and borders etc.

Many of the brands available in the UK are difficult to find here (SW France): some which are easily available are Kubota, Al-Ko and Sterwins, so I'd be interested in any comments on these.

Many thanks for reading this.

PAB

The machine you need for starting from scratch on large areas is not the machine you might want to keep with you for several years so hire a big Kubota or similar to do the initial hard work, then consider if you really need a cultivator at all in the long term and buy one to suit your work and physique/age etc.
You might want in any case to live with the garden for at least a year to evaluate what if anything is worth keeping.
A clean start will make your life very much easier so if the place is very overgrown get it mown with a brush cutter or very heavy duty rough cutter.
Wait until there is strong well leaved regrowth of the vegetation and spray with roundup or a generic equivalent. When the weeds are looking sick then hire the big rotavator. Repeat spraying any regrowth for the rest of the summer and you're ready to go.
With the clean start I've suggested you may well find you don't really need to own a cultivator yourself, spend the money on manure/compost etc.
Any areas you want to keep as grass you may find there's already some grass there which can be made into a reasonable domestic lawn just by careful management so you won't need to tear up those areas.

Rod

On 08/09/2012 18:17, Rod wrote:
On Saturday, 8 September 2012 09:44:31 UTC+1, wrote:
I have just moved house and acquired a roughly 1000 sq metre garden, which has been untended for over 5 years. I would be grateful for any advice - especially any based on personal experience - on the kind and, particularly, the brand of garden machine which is most likely to be effective and reliable (and reasonably priced, if possible!)in breaking up, preparing and maintaining the ground, for vegetable plots and borders etc.

Many of the brands available in the UK are difficult to find here (SW France): some which are easily available are Kubota, Al-Ko and Sterwins, so I'd be interested in any comments on these.

Many thanks for reading this.

PAB

The machine you need for starting from scratch on large areas is not the machine you might want to keep with you for several years so hire a big Kubota or similar to do the initial hard work, then consider if you really need a cultivator at all in the long term and buy one to suit your work and physique/age etc.
You might want in any case to live with the garden for at least a year to evaluate what if anything is worth keeping.
A clean start will make your life very much easier so if the place is very overgrown get it mown with a brush cutter or very heavy duty rough cutter.
Wait until there is strong well leaved regrowth of the vegetation and spray with roundup or a generic equivalent. When the weeds are looking sick then hire the big rotavator. Repeat spraying any regrowth for the rest of the summer and you're ready to go.
With the clean start I've suggested you may well find you don't really need to own a cultivator yourself, spend the money on manure/compost etc.
Any areas you want to keep as grass you may find there's already some grass there which can be made into a reasonable domestic lawn just by careful management so you won't need to tear up those areas.

Rod

I would get someone in who has a Large Rotavator, or if there is room a
tractor mounted machine.
The machines hired out tend to be medium size and when you don't know
how to get the best from them you will spend a lot of time trying to et
the thing to work properly, esp. on uncultivated ground.
See if you can find any Italian brands, they will probably give you
better value.
David @ the still dry end of Swansea Bay.