garden noob nightmare

 
hi me and girlfriend recently bought our first house, and it has a
garden that is shaired with down stairs but are not bothered with
gardening (and it shows), we have a 5ft fence all the way round the
garden which is roughly 20ft x 40ft? to start me had a 30ft elderberry
tree that has just been chopped to the stomp as was growing out of
concrete and close to man hole cover so had to go, along the left side
we have ivy covering the fence and its well esablished and need ideas of
how to get rid it, as its about a foot deep by 5x40? so there is alot to
go on the back fence we have a vine not sure wich one but has herat
shape leaves with white flowers, the main prob with this as its been
allowed to grow for about 6 years so its now got a total height of about
7ft by 2ft by 20ft and dont even think it starts in our garden as have
been chopping like crazy but its so dence its like trying to cut through
100 birds nests as its quite twiggy, a neighbour lent me hedge trimmers
and they jammed it was that thick!! finally problem number 3/1 as tree
is gone appart from roots, the lawn was quite long so used a hover mower
and left about 3in long, was ok but very yellow and storky left for a
week and cut again looking better but this time was also lots of bald
patches every ware and moss patches towards the back so racked up moss
and remaining dead grass, then a few days later after a heavey rain i
airated the soil as it was quite compacked and it is clay based, now
there is quite large patches of dead or no grass and other places its
still patchey neighbour said just keep watering as it will re grow, but
currently seeing no groths as of yet any and all addvice would be great



thanks ant & katy




--
shailer

 On 17/08/2011 03:46, shailer wrote:

OK. drill a few holes in the tree stump and add some glyphosate and then
later either copper sulphate, ammonium sulphamate (aka rootout) or
potassium nitrate (much slower) to encourage fungi and finish off the
tree. Otherwise it will sucker like crazy from the roots and break
through any weak concrete paths in the process.


I wouldn't do too much with the ivy or the climber just yet. They are
nice and green and probably look a lot better than the decrepit fence
underneath and it is good habitat for wildlife especially in winter.


Bag of compost, bag of sand and some cheap grass seed (now being
remaindered in some garden centres) there is still just about time to
reseed any bare patches and have the grass establish before winter.

Mix the sand and compost into the top couple of inches of bare patches
smooth down and add some grass seed and a sprinkling of sand on top. Try
not to walk on it or cut it for a couple of months.

One other piece of advice do the bit nearest your door first and get
that part looking nice rather than trying to smash the whole lot into
submission. Nothing beats fresh herbs from a kitchen garden.

Since it is your house decide if you want a fruit garden and where to
put it and a compost heap (as far from the house as possible). Get some
bare root raspberry canes and an apple/pear tree in autumn and enjoy
fresh cane fruit next year and grow spuds in the ground that will be
your future veg patch.

I am sure others will have different suggestions for how to proceed.
Best advice is do it a bit at a time!

Regards,
Martin Brown

 |||newspam|||@nezumi.demon.co.uk says...


  I agree. If the fence is old and decrepit the ivy and climber are
probably all that's holding it up. They will also  make a nice background
to whatever
else you plant. The fast climber with white flowers is probably russian
vine , aka mile a minute, Fallopia baldschuanica (check it out in google
images) which will take any amount of hacking back.

   What Martin said, re the lawn.

   Janet.

 
Janet;933281 Wrote:

yep thats the one as for the fence its old wire fence, and tho the ivy
will look better we want decent sized borders for mini hedge type plants
preferably evergreens and at the back a fig tree will be getting put
there as its got all day light from 10am till it sets




--
shailer

 wrote:

If youre interested you could reestablish an elder or 2 for fruit
elsewhere, from seed or cuttings.



Ivy is easy: just cut through the stems near the ground. Job done.



if it needs to go, glyphosate, repeated applications. Or keep cutting
it all away - but dont give it a chance to grow. But first thing is to
cut it all off at ground level, then you've only got a small amount of
new growth to deal with.



grass will result if you just keep mowing. If you're in no rush it'll
restablish itself, the only thing you need do is mow as usual. If
youre in more of a hurry you could add food & seed, and rake it in so
the birds dont take it all.


NT