Advice on digging, rotating and making my garden beutiful!

nellocono

Hi,

I am currently desperate to completely re-hall my garden because at the moment it is over grown. I am looking for advice as to what I need to do.

My garden is about 100 feet long and about 15 feet wide, all over grown with weeds. Halfway up the garden there has been a fairly big concrete shed built.

My plan is as follows:
1. Knock the shed to the ground and dig up any concrete foundations. For this i will require a fairly large skip to dump the concrete. Also, I will need to rake as much stones and rubble off the soil as possible. I am thinking to just dig up the top layer of soil and replace with some top soil.

2. Cut up and level the weeds all over the rest of the garden. There may be some small rocks about the garden as well, so should I remove the top layer of soil all over also. What tools do you recommend for this (links would be great!) - Im thinking a strimmers to cut down the weeds to ground level and then something to rotate the soil maybe?

3. Once the whole garden is blank and only the soil remains I will look at planting my own grass seeds. First, I will put down fertiliser and anything else to help the soil - Any recommendations on products here?

4. Decking - Will also be doing a 15 x 15 feet decking area right outside the backdoor. Rockerys and furnishings will come later

Any advice on the steps above are greatly appreciated as the only thing putting me off doing all of the above is the fact, I don't know what I could be letting myself in for. Does it sound straightforward to you?

Thanks

magicbastarder

is there access to the garden from the rear? if not, is there a laneway up the side of the house?

nellocono

No, Unfortunately not. All renovation work will be carried out through the house i.e all rubble and material carried through house and dumped in the skip outside the front.

magicbastarder

that'll be your biggest problem there - i don't know how you like the idea of bringing a wheelbarrow full of concrete chunks through the house repeatedly, taking chunks out of your doorframes.

Goodne

Does the shed absolutely have to go? Do you have another one to store your garden tools in? Maybe you could turn it into a garden feature? Don't know if you looked a Super Garden on RTE; one of the designers wanted to put a water feature on the front wall of the shed which was in the middle of the garden. You could turn it into a summer house if you could take off the roof & front wall. Post some pics maybe someone has more ideas.

magicbastarder

a 'fairly big concrete shed' will have a lot of rubble to dispose of - not least the foundations, if they're anyway substantial.
you wouldn't have the option of laying planks through a neighbouring garden which might allow for access to a skip?
i can imagine how a big concrete shed may completely impose itself on your garden; it's possible you could grow something up it and hide it.

Sonnenblumen

You should at least start the job with some kind of layout in mind. Its a reasonably large site which will offer much potential for a range of design ideas. Plan carefully and then you can proceed with the hard work at least with confidence and assurance of an end result.

Chances are you will regret positioning a deck immediately at the back of the house.

You could build raised screed beds which would help you to utilise some of the rubble from shed. Blocks can be cleaned and re-used for Raised Beds/Compost units etc etc or broken and used as hardcore base for footpaths/patio areas.

Alternatively dig a large pit and bury some of the rubble and top dress as a pebble garden.

Its a tedious job to take waste through house, but put down some dust covers and plywood sheeting to allow you at leastr protect floors from foot or wheelbarrow traffic.

Good Luck.

HardyEustace

With regard to the decking right outside the house, I can think of three friends who sustained injury through slipping on decking that was just outside the back door.

smallBiscuit

Just came across this thread. Decking can be lethal, esp outside a back door. A few years I had a B&B as a next door neighbour, he put down a big deck outside the back door.
He found that between about Oct and April he had to keep the back door locked because of people going on their ear, and it was a 'non-slip' one.
I went on it one year in about November and went flying, broke one of his deck chairs with a big kung fo style kick/fall and damn near broke my own arm