New garden

Quatre Mains

Hi
I bought a new house last December. The back garden is just muck (levelled-ish)
and has grassy weeds starting to grow. I left it for the winter months but now the weather is improving I was wondering what I should do to start the ball rolling. I'm just looking to grow grass with some hedges around the edge for now (can't afford walls!). I have no experience around fertiliser, peat moss etc. so the simpler the explanation the better!

Thanks
Neil

Lex Luthor

Go at it first with a really good weed killer and kill every weed you see. Give them about a week-2 to die and get some bugger in to rotivate & level it. I would recommend getting a good quality seed that can take a bit of traffic and spreading it even over the surface and let it grow. Don't try rotivating yourself or your arms will fall off.

Most hedges will grow in Irish soil without fertiliser. Normally are planted about 18-24" apart depending on type. Go ask at your nearest garden centre for advice.

fre

Be careful about the weedkiller though, afaik you can get one's that wash away in rain after a while (i think they're water-based) so it won't affect your grass. Also, you can get weedkillers that just kill broadleaf plants and don't affect grasses.

Lex Luthor

never mind that Roundup crap. get the agricultural stuff that takes a pint to every 50 litres of water and get yourself a sprayer and kill everything in site. wear a mask & gloves as this stuff is lethal but will do the job. keep kids & pets indoors or upwind while spraying. I use it all the time. better start soon as the best time to plant grass seed in April/May. After you spray wait about 2 weeks till everything is dead and get it rotivated. once level give it some seed. I would say, if you're in doubt about your plan for plants, just give it all grass for the time being and worry about your layout later.

ConallOM

I am currently planting my brother's back yard on the cheap (there’s a quarter of an acre in it). An option for the hedge and for shrubs is that you can plant them from cuttings. If you like the hedge or a shrub in some friend's garden, ask them for cuttings. Put rooting compound on the stems, put them in a hole and push the soil around them (simply shoving them in rubs the powder off). You don't actually need the powder but it helps.

When you should do this depends on the plant. Some plants take very well and of others, only one in ten might survive. The time of year varies for different ones, but generally speaking, you can start now with many of them. The summer is a better time for others. If your friend knows the name of a plant that you like, you can search for it on the internet. I have found the following URL excellent for help in how and when to plant things:
http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/D_search.html

magpie

Anyone know how much it should cost to get the concrete removed from a back yard about 20' by 25' and get the soil rotivated and levelled?

Also, railway sleepers, best place to get them?

Lemo

Friend of mine got some out on the Nass Road. I think it was in Fountains & Decor (?) I think they were around €25 each but I can't remember exactly. Be careful with them. They weigh a ton.

Victor

Originally posted by magpie
Anyone know how much it should cost to get the concrete removed from a back yard about 20' by 25' and get the soil rotivated and levelled?

Are we talking solid concrete or paving slabs? Can you get a JCB in?

magpie

It's poured concrete, I would guess to about 6 inches?. There is rear access to the garden, so you could get one of those mini jcbs in, or just do it with a pneumatic drill I guess. Any ideas what someone would charge? (roughly), as I'm not gonna attempt this myself!

casper-

Originally posted by Lex Luthor
Give them about a week-2 to die and get some bugger in to rotivate & level it. I would recommend getting a good quality seed that can take a bit of traffic and spreading it even over the surface and let it grow. Don't try rotivating yourself or your arms will fall off.

I figure I'd tack on my question here since it's also a "new garden" ... just spent the entire weekend freeing our back garden of all the vines, weeds, etc. that seemed to have sprouted from nowhere. It turns out we actually have a window on the shed we never saw before

Anyway, what I'd like to do now is

a) level the yard (if possible)
b) replant the grass as it's very uneven and completely missing in patches
c) actually create a straight line for flower beds on the sides of the garden by the fence .. right now there is a very jagged sort of border around the garden; some of it blocked off with bricks, some not, etc. etc.

It's impossible to get any kind of vehicle (small or otherwise) to the garden as we only have a narrow side entrance, and the back of it is walled off. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach this? I guess I'd like to know if (a) is possible, and the best way to go about taking care of (b) and (c).

Lex Luthor

see if you can get a company in that specialize in concrete drive removal. They will cut through the concrete with large diamond tipped circular saws into small pieces rather than some guy punding away with a kango for 2 days. That job should take them a few hours. Could work out cheaper if they are in & out quicker. ALso, a lot less mess.

magpie

see if you can get a company in that specialize in concrete drive removal

yeah, that was kind of what I was thinking, much quicker and less messy.

Any ideas where I would find such a company? I tried a google on concrete removal and got nothing

Victor

Originally posted by magpie
Anyone know how much it should cost to get the concrete removed from a back yard about 20' by 25'

Probably ˆ1,000-2,000 for the demolition only, add in the cost of topsoil etc.

What do you want to do with the garden? If all you are ever going to do is grass and flowers, how about laying the topsoil on the concrete (you might need to do somethign about drainage though).

magpie

Yeah, was planning on just grass and then having some raised beds at the sides for some climbers / flowers. Mainly putting plants in post was the idea. How much drainage do you need for grass? There's a drain in the middle of the concrete if that would do it!

Only other problem would be raising the level of the garden, but I suppose a few inches wouldn't matter much...

Anyone come up with any reasons why not?

yankinlk

before you go hiring someone to remove that concrete, borrow a sledge hammer and give ti a few good whacks yourself. Depending on how well it was laid to begin with, how deep etc it may come up easier than you think. I had a really ugly path down the center of by back garden (for a washing line) and the sledge went through it like butter.

magpie

Yeah, thanks yank, I'll give that a lash