Clearing a wild garden for growing vegetables

jaffa20

Ok so i'm planning having a vegetable garden. My friend loaned me his garden and told me i could do anything i want with it. Right let me paint a picture of this garden. It has nettles, briars, long wild grass and all other sorts of weeds growing just about everywhere and i mean up to about 6ft high :eek: Scary stuff.

So am i right in thinking that i need to first cut this all back knee level and then spray the whole thing with weed killer. the thing is he has dogs so i would have to use a pet friendly weed killer. I heard vinegar is useful but i don't know whether to mix it with salt as it can harm the soil and i would need to refertilise it to be able to grow veggies.

I must sound like a complete amateur. Any helpful tips in clearing the garden and preparing the soil would be great. I'm on a budget so would probably need to look into hiring machinery for a day or so to get started.

Thanks for any help.

Sleipnir

You can use an ordinary weedkiller like Roundup with pets just so long as they aren't allowed out there while the weedkiller is still wet. When it dries out it doesn't pose a risk to them.

Once it's all killed off, rake it up and then you'll need to turn the soil with a garden fork. After that, you'll need to rotovate it but if you're planning doing an entire garden in vegetables continuously, year in, year out, I would recommend you buy a Mantis tiller. My dad has one (which I borrow!) They're fantastic and about €500. If you can't afford one right now, you can hire a rotovater from any hire centre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-P5ispuv28&feature=related

fodda

I had a garden like this and luckily i had a bush cutter (2stroke strimmer with a metal blade) but you can hire them for a day.

I then hired a rotivator from the hire shop but it was useless stupid thing just bounced over the ground so took it back, because the ground has to be dug first........so i dug it......and dug it.....and dug it:(......then i re-hired the rotivator which was then great and chopped up all the dug soil clumps into fine stuff:)

Recently i found out about these and bought a couple www.chillingtonhoes.com I wish i knew about them before i dug that bloody garden, life would have been so much easier.

If you use weed killer all you do is kill the weeds and you still have to dig them in afterwards and if you have briars they need chopping up, so use a bush cutter then one of those chillington hoes probably the heavy duty hoe or digging hoe and then you wont break your back.

Come back next week and tell us about your blisters:D

Belfast

jaffa20 wrote: »

Ok so i'm planning having a vegetable garden. My friend loaned me his garden and told me i could do anything i want with it. Right let me paint a picture of this garden. It has nettles, briars, long wild grass and all other sorts of weeds growing just about everywhere and i mean up to about 6ft high :eek: Scary stuff.

So am i right in thinking that i need to first cut this all back knee level and then spray the whole thing with weed killer. the thing is he has dogs so i would have to use a pet friendly weed killer. I heard vinegar is useful but i don't know whether to mix it with salt as it can harm the soil and i would need to refertilise it to be able to grow veggies.

I must sound like a complete amateur. Any helpful tips in clearing the garden and preparing the soil would be great. I'm on a budget so would probably need to look into hiring machinery for a day or so to get started.

Thanks for any help.

Do you want it to be an organic Garden ?

also Depends on what kind of weeds you have there.

weeds like Japanese knotweed or Horsetails are very hard to get rid of and Giant hogweed can cause burns to the skin.

do you have Japanese knotweed? I have been try to get rid of them for 5 years.
http://www.noticenature.ie/Japanese_KnotweedFallopia_japonica.html

or
Horsetails/mares tail

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/horsetail.htm
http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/info/weeds/horsetail.asp

if you are near water

Giant hogweed

http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/schoolwatch/hogweed.html
http://www.noticenature.ie/Giant_Hogweed.html
these are dangerous

useful links
Weeds and What to do
http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Weeds_and_What_to_do.php
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Aeneas

jaffa20 wrote: »

Ok so i'm planning having a vegetable garden. My friend loaned me his garden and told me i could do anything i want with it. Right let me paint a picture of this garden. It has nettles, briars, long wild grass and all other sorts of weeds growing just about everywhere and i mean up to about 6ft high :eek: Scary stuff.

So am i right in thinking that i need to first cut this all back knee level and then spray the whole thing with weed killer. the thing is he has dogs so i would have to use a pet friendly weed killer. I heard vinegar is useful but i don't know whether to mix it with salt as it can harm the soil and i would need to refertilise it to be able to grow veggies.

I must sound like a complete amateur. Any helpful tips in clearing the garden and preparing the soil would be great. I'm on a budget so would probably need to look into hiring machinery for a day or so to get started.

Thanks for any help.

I think I would go down the Roundup route in your circumstances to get rid of most of the green growth. It kills most plants (but not horsetails) down to their roots in three or four weeks after the application. If you haven't used it before you should know that nothing will appear to be happening for a week or so. Then the plants will go yellow and collapse. And finally wither. You can then dig over the ground to remove the dead roots, debris etc. A good way to proceed at this point is to grow vegetables in raised beds with paths in between. This will give you greater control over subsequent weeding and fertility. There is plenty of advice on how to go about making such beds on this and other websites.

jaffa20

Thanks for all your replies. I'm going to make a start on it tomorrow by cutting most of the high weeds down and will see if the roots are deep by trying to dig up a bit.

Aeneas wrote: »

I think I would go down the Roundup route in your circumstances to get rid of most of the green growth. It kills most plants (but not horsetails) down to their roots in three or four weeks after the application. If you haven't used it before you should know that nothing will appear to be happening for a week or so. Then the plants will go yellow and collapse. And finally wither. You can then dig over the ground to remove the dead roots, debris etc. A good way to proceed at this point is to grow vegetables in raised beds with paths in between. This will give you greater control over subsequent weeding and fertility. There is plenty of advice on how to go about making such beds on this and other websites.

Roundup sounds like the ways to go once i have them down to knee length. 3 weeks is an awful long time though so maybe if the roots aren't too bad is there any sort of weedkiller that can kill in a shorter period so i begin ploughing up the soil and getting it ready for planting in a shorter period.

Belfast wrote: »

Do you want it to be an organic Garden ?

also Depends on what kind of weeds you have there.

weeds like Japanese knotweed or Horsetails are very hard to get rid of and Giant hogweed can cause burns to the skin.

do you have Japanese knotweed? I have been try to get rid of them for 5 years.
http://www.noticenature.ie/Japanese_KnotweedFallopia_japonica.html

or
Horsetails/mares tail

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/horsetail.htm
http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/info/weeds/horsetail.asp

if you are near water

Giant hogweed

http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/schoolwatch/hogweed.html
http://www.noticenature.ie/Giant_Hogweed.html
these are dangerous

useful links
Weeds and What to do
http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Weeds_and_What_to_do.php
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Don't think i have any of these guys. just a lot of briars, nettles and ferns.

fodda wrote: »

I had a garden like this and luckily i had a bush cutter (2stroke strimmer with a metal blade) but you can hire them for a day.

I then hired a rotivator from the hire shop but it was useless stupid thing just bounced over the ground so took it back, because the ground has to be dug first........so i dug it......and dug it.....and dug it:(......then i re-hired the rotivator which was then great and chopped up all the dug soil clumps into fine stuff:)

Recently i found out about these and bought a couple www.chillingtonhoes.com I wish i knew about them before i dug that bloody garden, life would have been so much easier.

If you use weed killer all you do is kill the weeds and you still have to dig them in afterwards and if you have briars they need chopping up, so use a bush cutter then one of those chillington hoes probably the heavy duty hoe or digging hoe and then you wont break your back.

Come back next week and tell us about your blisters:D

Yeah, i'm thinking briars will be the worst. They are horrible feckers. Thanks for the tip. I will try loosening the ground up as much as possible before using a rotivator but i'm wondering if the weedkiller should be used to allow roots to die before i start digging or not

fodda

jaffa20 wrote: »

Yeah, i'm thinking briars will be the worst. They are horrible feckers. Thanks for the tip. I will try loosening the ground up as much as possible before using a rotivator but i'm wondering if the weedkiller should be used to allow roots to die before i start digging or not

It will take about 7 days for the weedkiller to work and then you will be into the 2nd week of May........by the time you have got this place ready you wont be growing much this year......plant your seeds in containers now then use mechanical means to get this place ready....you aint got time for weedkiller for growing this year.

You could bushcut that place one day and dig it the next or over 2 days, then rotivate it the 3rd or 4th and then you could plant seeds or better veg plants from garden center and all that chopped up weeds will just rot and add nourishment to your veg.......get one of the hoes you wont be sorry...great things.

VL

Would you think about hiring a small mini digger for the day, stripping the whole garden as that would be much cheaper and more effective than weedkiller etc? That would only take a day to do.

Rather than digging up the garden to plant vegetables, you could also think about putting in raised vegetable beds with a small stone path for easy access- easier to maintain and better drainage!

jaffa20

Hi all just a quick update on how i got on. i will keep adding photos as i go along to show my progess.

Hired a hedge trimmer today and i have to say it did a good job. I cleared all the weeds. Didn't get much after photos but anyway have a look below.

I'm going to rake it all up tomorrow and hopefully it stays sunny, spray it all.

Have to say, i got great enjoyment out of clearing it all and found a few suprises underneath the jungle including, drainpipes, chairs, teddy bears, footballs and hundreds of dead snails :eek:

Aeneas

Roundup (or its equivalent) is about the only weedkiller that will do the job you want. (Other weedkillers that are recommended for example for driveways remain in the soil and are not suitable for areas in which you intend to grow vegetables). But Roundup does takes time to work and it's best to be patient to enable it to kill the plant from the root. If you start digging or rotavating too early you may simply break up the roots before they die and each piece (eg bindweed, nettle, creeping grasses) will regrow and start a new colony. Given time it usually does a good job but sometimes a second spraying is necessary if plants regrow or new seeds sprout. Which brings me to another point. The millions of seeds in the ground will germinate when you disturb the ground and you may well have a flush of new weeds a few weeks after digging. You can spray these again or, as another poster suggests, you can use a hoe. It's a neglected weapon in gardening. A good hoe can clear dug ground very fast, and regular use will control most weeds even difficult ones like horsetail. I use a Wolf push/pull hoe and I am constantly amazed at how quickly I can get through quite a lot of ground.
I agree with VL above about raised beds. However I am not so sure about the mini digger approach. It will clear the land but it will also take away valuable top soil. And there is the risk of compaction.

Currahee01

Jaffa, how is progress going?
We had a similar problem and went with the mini digger approach, it helped to grade the ground as well as getting rid of the big stuff! We use Roundup/Rambo to control the weeds now, its working but we have a long way to go, my heart goes out to anyone with Japanese Knotweed!

sorella

IS THAT what those plants are?

Japanese knotweed?

Not sure even now; the house is rented and when we moved in last October, these pretty white flowers. I was going to make a hedge with some of them:)

Thought they were a garden escapee but was puzzled as there is nothing else planted here.

Oh dear.. If I knew how to upload photos i would take one; they are not in flower yet. We used them as cut flowers too.

They were new to me and I know most plants..

JuliusCaesar

I'm at this too. Luckily for me, just a small inner city garden. Put RoundUp on the front - took about 4 weeks to work. It kills off the roots, so the idea is to dig everything back in. I've forked over about half of it, but the problem is the grass roots which mean that the top layer is just a mat. I'm not sure if I'm up to digging it endlessly to break it down.

The back garden I dug up and planted potatoes, which are coming along nicely. As I hadn't put any RoundUp there, I'm out every day waging war on dandelions. I left some of the plants to find out what they are and one is a lovely tall foxglove.

Again, i'd attach photos for identification but don't know how....

sorella

We will not use any chemicals; if you put a thick mulch eg black plascti, or even old carpets, the roots come to the surface seeking light.... nettle roots pull up then like spaghetti; nb they will still sting.

I cannot dig so find ways around it now; a version of no-dig gardening.

Where we are had not seen cultivation for many years and there are foxgloves everywhere ready to make a great show soon.

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

I'm at this too. Luckily for me, just a small inner city garden. Put RoundUp on the front - took about 4 weeks to work. It kills off the roots, so the idea is to dig everything back in. I've forked over about half of it, but the problem is the grass roots which mean that the top layer is just a mat. I'm not sure if I'm up to digging it endlessly to break it down.

The back garden I dug up and planted potatoes, which are coming along nicely. As I hadn't put any RoundUp there, I'm out every day waging war on dandelions. I left some of the plants to find out what they are and one is a lovely tall foxglove.

Again, i'd attach photos for identification but don't know how....

Degsy

Remember,when the weeds are gone and the soil is broken up,shovel a whole heap of horse manure in there before you plant any veg.