Manual Labourer to Dig (Rotovate) a Garden?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

We bought a house in Balbriggan a few months back. I attempted to dig the garden but it's like concrete so I figured I needed to get it dug-up. Not knowing much about these things I was thinking I'd need a landscape gardener but it seems I just need someone to rotovate the feck out of it.

It's not a huge garden, maybe 10 square metres by 10 square metres (including front and back). How would I go about finding someone to do this and how much would I need to pay them? I'm guessing as it's a relatively small garden it could be done in one day.

Eoineo

I'd ask in the Arro to see if there is someone they could recommend. There are always notices up on the board at SuperValu either that might help.

Kintarō Hattori

Eoineo wrote: »

I'd ask in the Arro to see if there is someone they could recommend. There are always notices up on the board at SuperValu either that might help.

Thanks Eoineo, I might pop in there tonight and have a look. What's the Arro?

the bolt

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Thanks Eoineo, I might pop in there tonight and have a look. What's the Arro?

there is not a hope in hell of digging that back garden in 1 day unless you bring in a football team.is there side access to your house?

Kintarō Hattori

the bolt wrote: »

there is not a hope in hell of digging that back garden in 1 day unless you bring in a football team.is there side access to your house?

Well that just shows you how much I know about these things. When I say 'dig' I did mean with a machine. I thought a machine would easily do that in a day.

There is indeed side access.

Corsendonk

Your backfence needs a coat of paint or wood preserver. Easy to do it now before you dig the garden up.

If you can get a wheelie bin into the back garden a rotavator should fit if they have the side blades off. Might need to use weedkiller to burn the grass and weeds first or remove by spade if you want an organic crop of veg then start to rotavate do that manhole cover will be a pest.

P.S I wouldn't be surprised at the amount of builders rubbish found in the garden when he starts to dig.

the bolt

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Well that just shows you how much I know about these things. When I say 'dig' I did mean with a machine. I thought a machine would easily do that in a day.

There is indeed side access.

sorry my mistake,easyly doable with a digger,that was why i asked about access.i done mine a few years ago in moylaragh and a lot of bits of blocks and general rubish in it,everything apart from drainage.

Nodster

Nearly sure Harry Hire opposite the little Spar hires (and delivers) rotovators, clear out as much of the builders rubble as possible and get a couple ton of top soil from Corrs Hardware - sorted

fergal.b

I would Pay the extra money and get a professional to do the job, you have a lot of plumbing, sewers, gas and electric running through your garden and if damaged could cost you a few €€€'s to fix.
Give Mick sweetman a call for a quote before you get a labourer and a digger:eek: he is a good guy.
http://www.goldenpages.ie/country-gardens-garden-ctr-landscape-lusk/

Corsendonk

I dont think you need a digger, your garden seems to turning into a major civil engineering project, you might as well bring the Metro to Balbriggan while your at it:D. A digger will only impact the ground more and you run more of a risk of damaging those manhole covers in your garden

You just need someone to double dig it and taking out the rubbish that builders usually bury in the back garden. I did a friends backgarden a couple of years ago with him that looked in worse condition than yours and we didnt need a rotavator in the end, just dig it with spades and forks. If I am correct with were you are living in Balbriggan that was pretty good farm land before they decided to plant houses there so I can't understand why you need topsoil. Better digging in manure as you turn over the soil.

Eoineo

No i don't think you need a digger either. If you're planning on growing fruit/veg just cut the turf off the top, then cover with matting. Install a few raised beds with soil and a bit of washed sand (so no salt from the sea) and grow directly from there.

The amount of builders rubble in the area is crazy and you'd be mad to go disturbing it too much unless you have drainage problems in your garden.

The Arro is the hardware store off the ringroad up beside Tierney's Kitchens - behind Tesco, sort of. Accessed easiest from the roundabout on the Naul Road at the Balscadden turn or at the roundabout for the Church in South Balbriggan. Ask at the trade counter and they should have somebody reputable they can recommend if you want to hire someone to do it for you.

drBill

A rotavator would do that in a couple of hours, as long as you don't get the smallest sized one. Be very careful near those gas pipes though!

colmcy1

Hey, I did up my garden, similar size two weeks ago with my brother and sister. It was half paving slab, half weeds and shrubs. You are right, it is a day job. All you need is a pix-axe and shovel and small skip. Your biggest problem will be if you dont get rid of the top layer in the back garden (it looks like you have lots of weeds) otherwise you will only get more weeds growing. What we did is to get a small skip (Corseendonk is right - youll be amazed the amount of crap you will find) for the crap you will find and the top layer of weeds and grass. Make sure you have about 6 inches of clean fine top soil - no clumps bigger than a golf ball and no weed roots. I got Hortons compost (you get 3 120litre bags for €17 in woodies at the moment) - fertilizer and grass seed (again very cheap from woodies). Id probably get 9-12 bags of compost depending on the quality of the top soil, one box of fertilizer and one box of grass seed. In two weeks you should have about 1-2 inches of grass. Give me a shout if need anymore details. Best of luck with it - nothing like putting in the hard work yourself and seeing the reward after

Morpheus

I have a back garden in chieftains way which looks like that at the minute.

I have a similar situation too. need a couple of days of good dry weather to get stuck into it.

this double digging sounds like - not fun.

im going to bring a few mates over for a beers and spades day.

will have to get a small skip and load everything into it

tons of builders rubble in the poxy ground doesnt help.

killed the weeds off only last month in preparation but the crazy beasts are sprouting again before ive had a chance to dig it!

any advice?!?

fergal.b

Try something like roundup http://www.roundup-garden.com/ it will kill the roots too, a lot of weeds like doc's will sprout again, if you chop up 1 plant you could end up with 10 plants :eek:

colmcy1

Ye the trouble with using weed killers is you will have to stay away from planting grass for a few weeks at least. The handiest way is the old pix-axe, its sounds bad but its not. The top layer of grass/weeds and roots will stay together in clumps. Its easy to pick up then an throw in skip, you have to give the ground a good going over with the pix-axe anyway so its no extra work. A few mates, some loud music and a few beers and you'll fly through it

Brian?

If the garden is resonably level and the drainage is ok, woul you not be better off horsing down a load of "feed and weed" and some grass seed.

The "feed and weed" will kill the weeds and fertilise the grass that is there, the empty patches created by the dead weeds can be filled in with grass seed.

Corsendonk

Morphéus wrote: »

I have a back garden in chieftains way which looks like that at the minute.

I have a similar situation too. need a couple of days of good dry weather to get stuck into it.

this double digging sounds like - not fun.

im going to bring a few mates over for a beers and spades day.

will have to get a small skip and load everything into it

tons of builders rubble in the poxy ground doesnt help.

killed the weeds off only last month in preparation but the crazy beasts are sprouting again before ive had a chance to dig it!

any advice?!?

As said by Fergal, use Roundup, works better on a sunny day. Then rake and fork the worst of the dead weeds from the garden.

Double digging is something you only prob do once in a normal garden, in a veg garden they say every 5-10 years. I have one old garden book that calls it "bsatard digging":pac: But its one of the best exercises.

Borrow a decent wheelbarrow, dig a trench on one side of the garden two spades in depth and wheelbarrow the earth to the other side of the garden. Thats usually the slowest part. Then dig a trench in front of your first trench throwing the earth forward into the first trench. Some garden books recommend puting in a layer of manure at the bottom of each trench. As you dig remove the builders rubble and any weeds with taproots. Dispose of the tap roots in the brown bin and not the compost heap. When your finished your soil should be clean of builders rubble and uncompacted so drainage should be much improved as well as soil aeration. Best just to have two diggers at anyone time, accidents do happen. Get the two diggers to work from each end of the trench towards each other so it gets competitive and you can see who is slacking. Make sure when they throw the soil forward they turn the soil upside down and whack any clumps with the shovel, spade or fork to break up the clump. By the time your finished you should be able to sink up to your ankles when standing on the dug garden. The soil should settle down after a day or two. Your best then to start planting or laying your sod then before the weeds comeback.

Corsendonk

briankeating wrote: »

If the garden is resonably level and the drainage is ok, woul you not be better off horsing down a load of "feed and weed" and some grass seed.

The "feed and weed" will kill the weeds and fertilise the grass that is there, the empty patches created by the dead weeds can be filled in with grass seed.

Where is the exercise in that?

Brian?

Corsendonk wrote: »

Where is the exercise in that?

None, which is perfect as it gives you more time to go to the gym and squat .

colmcy1

Thats good advice from Corsendonk, best to do a job right and only once (albeit the hard work way). Nothing worse than putting the effort in and having to have to redo it later. BrainKeating - I am not aware of any weed killer that is strong enough to kill weeds and not grass seed (I may be wrong) - I would stay away from any weed killer for 1 month before seeding and 6 months after personally. Also if you're lawn has weeds in it and builders left overs its probably best to use some compost and fertilizer, youll need to work the compost and fertilizer into the ground to mix with the top soil. This all sounds like hard work but once you have given the ground the once over with the pix-axe it'll be like playing with sand, mixing the fertilizer and compost and leveling off with a rake.

Kintarō Hattori

I advertised the job on www.tradesman.ie and got back several quotes. The cheapest was for €600 while to do it 'right' would cost €1200. So we decided we'd give it a go ourselves. We bought an electric strimmer and now all the weeds are gone and we are down to pretty much having some close cut grass.

We've hired something similar to the item below for the weekend.... which might be a little overkill but which I imagine will have the job of digging up the garden done in no time.



If folk don't mind I will have one or two questions after it's been dug up as my gardening skills are pretty much nonexistent.

I don't plan on going down very deep, merely scratching the surface as such to get at the roots of the weeds. Once the weeds have been cleared do I lay down any weedkiller or should I just go ahead and plop down some topsoil/compost as Nodster mentioned.

the bolt

all i would say is if your not used to driving a digger ,dont go to deep espesicaly around any services.the gas is easy enough to trace but there could be more including esb,phone,water,dont assume that the are down the depth the should be.good luck.

Dizzyblonde

Once you've cleared it you just need to put in some topsoil and rake it to level it. You can buy soil conditioner/soil improver to mix with the topsoil to make it richer if you like. We used it in the raised veg bed and it's great stuff.
Topsoil alone would be fine for under the grass though. We got our soil conditioner from Tully's in Ballyboughal, it comes in huge bags like topsoil.

Kintarō Hattori

I'm using the machine now and it's working away brilliantly. However I can see some wild grass/weeds have rather deep roots and haven't come out. Would I need to use weed killer before putting down topsoil/sowing grass?

Dizzyblonde

If you can't dig the weeds out or if there are lots you might need to, but I'm no expert. If you do use weedkiller you might have to wait a week or so before putting grass down. It'll say on the packaging.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks Dizzy. I don't mind putting down some weedkiller and then waiting a week until putting down grass seed. That'll give me time to find/buy/bring back topsoil.

Jimdagym

Digger looks like great craic!

Corsendonk

Boys toy!! Could do a great job or alot of damage to the house and garden. Does your insurance cover it???:D

Kintarō Hattori

Jimdagym wrote: »

Digger looks like great craic!

Corsendonk wrote: »

Boys toy!! Could do a great job or alot of damage to the house and garden. Does your insurance cover it???:D

It is great craic. You should have seen me at the beginning though. Totally uncoordinated and didn't have a clue. Thought I'd never get it done and the missus would nag me to death for having wasted money hiring it. Finished doing the first patch badly, got down and cleaned up using the spade.

Getting on it the second time round and I was flying. Queue more tidying up with the spade and hopping on for the third time it was almost instinctive.

You could indeed do a lot of damage quite easily. I was ultra cautious and was worried I'd run out of diesel before getting the job done. It was a case of slow and steady. I'm sure any male neighbour that might have seen me was wondering what the feck I was doing being so slow.

I now have to consider whether to bring it out and do the front........... where I'd be on display for everyone to snigger at!

Kintarō Hattori

Well folks, garden is dug-up (yeah I know, I'm very slow about this), weed killer is laid so I'm going to get part of the garden organised for a shed. A poster recommended topsoil in Tully's in Ballyboughal, so I'll do that. Where abouts in and around the Balbriggan area can I order the concrete slabs as a base for the wooden shed?

netopia

I got my shed from this crowd and they supplied the blocks

http://www.redsettergardensheds.com/

The Hill Billy

You don't need to slab the entire footprint of the shed. Cavity blocks or a couple of solid blocks for each corner should suffice. Be sure to have a few off-cuts of timber if you need to levela corner or two.

sgarvan

I got my shed from EEC HArdware in Balbriggan. Was the cheapest around at the time for the Galvanised roof shed that I wanted.

I laid a concreate slap in the corner of my garden to put the shed on as the area of the garden was quite swampy

Kintarō Hattori

sgarvan wrote: »

I got my shed from EEC HArdware in Balbriggan. Was the cheapest around at the time for the Galvanised roof shed that I wanted.

I laid a concreate slap in the corner of my garden to put the shed on as the area of the garden was quite swampy

Where did you get the slab(s) from?

The Hill Billy

EEC Hardware up in the Stephenstown Industrial Park will have them. They'll probably deliver too if you ask nicely.

sgarvan

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Where did you get the slab(s) from?

I mixed the concrete myself and laid it.

I did the back garden up about 2 years ago and it has been great to have it done. Here is a picture of what we did