Getting rid of tough weeds and roots...

Umbongo uk

Hope Im in the right part of the forum.
Recently bought a house with a rather large, overgrown, garden. Ive sprayed it with glyphosate, with some success, and burned back the dead stuff, but there are still surviving weeds, thorns and mosses.
The worst thing seems to be that, wherever I dig, the soil is absolutely full of long, tough roots.
Ive got some ammonium sulphamate on the way (which, of course, in light of the law I will be careful to use only to degrade compost and try my best not to accidentally spill over every leafy weed in my garden...) but this still leaves the root problem.

What can I do to get rid of them? Ideas please boys and girls...

looksee

Is your garden surrounded by large trees? Its just possible you are digging up tree roots.

Umbongo uk

Though there are trees, I don't think all these roots are tree roots. Some are fine and appear to link several plants together, some are like little onion-like bulbs connected along a chain of roots, some are tough and super l.ong whereas the remainder are very fine but absolutely pack the soil.

Should I go the serious chemical route or just hire a digger?

dubscottie

What do you want to do with the ground?

If you want to grow anything then its a garden fork or a digger..

I know from experience thats the only way to get rid of roots even after the plant is dead..

Markcheese

Umbongo uk wrote: »

Though there are trees, I don't think all these roots are tree roots. Some are fine and appear to link several plants together, some are like little onion-like bulbs connected along a chain of roots, some are tough and super l.ong whereas the remainder are very fine but absolutely pack the soil.

Should I go the serious chemical route or just hire a digger?

How deep are you digging - how big is the area - what are you putting down there and are you doing it one go ?
You could hire a rotavator ( mightn't be a great idea if there's lots of tubers and bulbs to be spread - )

Umbongo uk

Markcheese wrote: »

How deep are you digging - how big is the area - what are you putting down there and are you doing it one go ?
You could hire a rotavator ( mightn't be a great idea if there's lots of tubers and bulbs to be spread - )

So far Ive dug to a depth of around a foot - a little deeper in a couple of places to experiment.

I intend to turn the area Im concentrating on now into a lawn for my lad to play on - so it doesn't have to be like a bowling green - but I do want it to look like a lawn - not a meadow.

Umbongo uk

dubscottie wrote: »

What do you want to do with the ground?

If you want to grow anything then its a garden fork or a digger..

I know from experience thats the only way to get rid of roots even after the plant is dead..

Just a lawn on this quarter of the garden.

Pete M.

Don't just nuke them!
They will still be there afterwards.
And it's your own garden so don't poison it.
Rotavate it and add some good compost.

Be grand

Markcheese

Rotovate the hell out of it , level it and firm it up ( roller or just boots ) grass seed and let lawn take care of it - very little can compete with grass once you start mowing - ( don't put anything toxic down - not much point -)

Umbongo uk

Markcheese wrote: »

Rotovate the hell out of it , level it and firm it up ( roller or just boots ) grass seed and let lawn take care of it - very little can compete with grass once you start mowing - ( don't put anything toxic down - not much point -)

Thank you - Ive heard this before - that grass is, in itself a very competitive plant.

I'll remove as much unwanted vegetation as my will (and back!) permits and then try as soon as poss to get lawn going. Its not like Im trying to make a bowling green.

Markcheese

If you have black plastic or old carpet , cut everything back - leave it on ground and cover the lot with plastic or carpet - then let the worms do the work . Will take a wee while but easier on the back -

Audioslaven

Not sure of your size of the garden but if it is a big area, get a guy with a power harrow/ rotovator on a tractor and he will make dust of all that crap. Spray it off first to kill all the crap and leave it a few weeks before you power harrow it and sow a new garden

magicbastarder

Markcheese wrote: »

If you have black plastic or old carpet , cut everything back - leave it on ground and cover the lot with plastic or carpet - then let the worms do the work . Will take a wee while but easier on the back -

or else use clear plastic ans solarise the garden. takes a bit of time, but does a better job of killing seeds in the soil.