Advice from gardener please - inherited a jungle from previous householder..it is massive and on a slope -?

Question

it is all over grown and a mix of poor grass, nettles etc - a real mess - what would be the cheapest and easiest way to both tidy this up and keep it in future? Was considering chips or bark..the incline is about 45degress and uneven making using a lawn mower (and planting grass) I think an unlikely option.. also how much is gardening fees these days.. how much would it cost for someone to do this?

Many thanks in advance - have no clue in this area..

Answer 1

It depends what you want the garden for? Kids, bbq, clothes line?Take your time to decide. Look at other gardens to see anything you like.
You say the lawn is massive... trees may be the answer then or shrubs like buddleja or eucryphia which grow to the size of small trees but have lots of colour.
Bark is a bad option. It'll blow around with a breeze and will have to be renewed every 2 yrs,as it breaks down.
Great things can be done if you want and at not too much cost.Do it stage by stage, chopping and changing to suit your desires

If it was my plot i'd have trees/big shrubs taking up most of the area with smaller plants at the front and lots of creeping ivy dotted around, which would eventually take over all weeds.
I don't see that it would be too exp. to get the gardeners in, but i don't know english rates. It would be near-instant results and they'd have ideas too.

First things first: strim the garden and spray weedkiller on it. That alone will tidy it up to a great degree.
Good Luck and enjoy it.

Answer 2

You don't say how big the garden is but getting the professionals in will be expensive.

My niece has a 45 degree sloped garden and has it all grassed. They cut it with a flymo on a rope (standing at the top and holding the rope).

It is probably too steep for wood chippings. The most effective solution would be to create a number of terraces the garden but this will be expensive and more difficult to maintain.

Answer 3

I have a brother with a similar garden. We terraced the garden from the top down using heavy duty decking boards fitted vertically.
This let us tame the garden in bits. We used weed suppressent sheet and varied sizes of gravel on some layers and as we moved down we left some with the better soil as shrubberies. Plenty of steps and a couple of trees here and there and it has grown up beautifully and the boards are still intact after 5 years. Make sure you ask for tantelised (I think that's the term) or pressure treated wood for both the boards and 2 inch support posts to hold them up or they'll rot.

Answer 4

Anything like bark is a waste of time, it will end up at the bottom.
Clear anything you don't want with a systemic weedkiller like Roundup, you may need two doses but do it soon before the growing season ends.
Then plant low growing plant cover like heathers or lavenders, get some advice from a garden centre to suit your type of soil and which way the slope faces.

Answer 5

same thing happened at my house. On the side yard near our stone paved driveway its all grow up ivy on the trees and ground cover BUT in one area it has 5 different plants or grass, 3 azaleas that wont grow, I finally got sick of it. It rained for like 3 days here 2 weeks ago, the day after the last rain I went out with my pick axe and dug up the azealeas, tore all the ivy ground cover by root and plants. Its empty now we are gonna put chips down
I did it all myself, I just have to pay for the chips and or pinestraw

good luck!

Answer 6

wood chippings and bark are fine but you have to remember to lay a thick polythene sheeting down first or the weeds will just come through again. You can buy it from any good DIY store such as B&Q.

You will probably have to pay anywhere between 200-500 quid for someone to do it. The advantage of this is they will take it all away for you when they have cleared it wheras if you clear it, you will have to remove it

Answer 7

Once you've cleared it (hard work if you do it yourself but it feels really good afterwards) you could make it into a rockery or scree garden. It depends which direction it's facing. I wouldn't recommend chippings etc as someone said because they would all end up at the bottom.

Answer 8

Sounds like you might need to use a weedeater. The ones that run on gas are much more powerful than the electric ones and will do the job faster. You just have to be more careful to not hurt yourself.