What can I do with my garden please?

[auntypurple]

My garden is an over grown mess. I have just ordered a lawn mower and a small 6x4 shed to keep it in.
The grass is very high atm, has some heavy duty weeds in it inc stinging nettles. Under the grass is very lumpy and bumpy, quite big mounds of what I think is rubbish burried by the previous tenants.
My plan atm is too use my strimer to cut back as much as possible( doing that 2moz), then use the mower on it. When I have done this the garden needs to be made flat. I am planning on using one of this twisty fork things on it, and turn the whole garden over and then rake flat.
After this I am guessing I will need to re turf it( not sure how to do that), but before I do that is there anyway I can stop the weeds coming back. I thought I pulled them and their roots out last year, but they are back bigger and sturdier than before.
I am aiming for a nice flat garden, that I can just use the mower on, and either some flower beds, or nice big planters. The kids wants to grow some veg, and I want to make a memorial garden in one part.
Just want somewhere nice I can sit and the kids can play.
I am a rubbish gardner, and would be very grateful for any suggestion, and tips.
Thanks

Sounds like you have a good plan already. Not sure what else you can do with the weeds but once you have re-turfed, the grass and mowing should keep them at bay.

my top tip.... pay someone to do it

seriously.

we thought we would be able to flatten and seed our front garden. it's only tiny.
it's a nightmare. the ground is rock hard from being walked on a lot, even when we'd managed to dig it around a bit it was impossible to get it flat... and where it has been dug over it has settled down over time, but not evenly!

so, if you want a nice flat lawn I honestly would get someone to do it for you. it's much harder than it looks especially if it's full of lumps and bumps to start with.

chocoholic thanks, just hope my plan works out.

thisisyesterday, would love to be able to pay someone to do it for me, but I just can't afford it. There are so many lumps and bumps, think it's going to be a bit of a nightmare to be honest.

ditto!
i have been sending dp round with a big bucket of soil to fill in dips, and stamp on lumps lol. it isn't working too well.

If you decide to fork it over you have to start completely from scratch. And you'll break up the weed roots and end up with even more weeds mostl likely! There are probably loads of seeds to the ground which are just waiting for a a chance to grow (which forking will also allow)
Returfing the whole thing could be expensive and you'll need to get rid of all the weeds completely first and get it relatively flat. Have you asked for a quote on the turf for the whole area?

Presumably there is some grass in amongst the weeds..?
I suggest you strim and mow it down to a resonable level as you intend. Then sprinkle liberally with feed and weed to encourage the grass and start on the weeds. You will need some leaf for the weeds to be killed by that so after you've mowed to a reasonable level give it a week or so to see what comes up. Really stubborn weeds like docks will need an extra squirt of a weed killer that you can use on grass/lawns. Once the feed and weed has had the required 3 mows you can start sprinkling grass seed in the worst of the patches.

And once you get it looking reasonable you can start working on the mounds and dips. Actually you can be doing that while working on the weeds rather than having to wait on the weeds to go before forking over and turfing.

If all that fails to get you a reasonable lawn then think about turfing then. But you should be able to get it looking ok with some hard work a bit of effort.

Hello gillybean,
Thanks for the reply, I have strimmed and mowed the garden today, and removed as much weeds as possible, there were lots of huge dock, and some really prickly sharp things that stuck in my legs when I strimmed them.

Yes there is grass, but also lots of bare patches. Now I have got it all back down I can see just how bad it is, I forgot how it was.

There is no way I can do this myself, there is rubbish, broken glass ect coming up from under the garden.

When I moved in here 18months ago, the housing people said they would come and clear the garden and make it flat. One thing after another happened, and I never chased it up, and they never came. It was ment to be done the first summer after I moved in.

Anyway I had decided to do it myself to save the hassel, but I can't so will be calling them first thing on Tuesday, and hoping they will still do it.

I am so annoyed I never chased it up, as it stands I can't let the children out there, in case anymore glass pops up.

The docks and other stuff will still be there. It will grow back from the roots. That is why you need some deeproot weed killer such as weedol or roundup.
Get some grass seed for the bare patches. But you will need to give that time to establish before you can use a feed and weed on it.
As long as you keep mowing regularly it should keep the weeds under control though.

Definitely get them to come and sort it for you if they said they would. Do you have it in writing or can you remember who promised? Perhaps say you've waited long enough and you simply can't allow your dc outside with the broken glass out there and want then to come and sort it asap. Point out it's been some 18 months now! Will probably take some nagging but keep at it. They will need to find money in this years budget too, so get in there early with your request.

Your dc will love it out there once it is done. Good luck!

Thank you, yes we know who said they would do it. Didn't get anything in writting, but my mum was here when he said it would get done.

I am getting on to them first thing Tuesday, so is my mum. Plan is for now is just to keep on mowing as best as possible, so I can keep what is there down.

It's a nightmare trying to push the mower round it atm, as it's so bumpy, and there are big dips too, but at least it looks better now.

I entirely agree with GillyBean!

Don't forget that if you returf, you're going to have to water the turf regularly until it's properly established, and that is another hassle of a job to do on top of all the rest.

Hello,
Just thought I would update you all. They are going to do my garden :). Not sure what they are going to do, but a contractor knocked on my door today asking if he could look at my garden, he was told to come and see if they could get a machine in.
Don't know what machine, but he said he needed 3ft to get it in the garden and might have to take the gate down, but he'll put it back after.
He said if he can't get a machine in, he will dig out 1ft with a rotorvator, remove all the crap and chuck in a load of topsoil. I presume he will then re-turf it or something, I don't care as long as it's flat.

I am so happy it's going to be done soon.
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.

Yay! You lucky lucky person - that's hundreds of pounds worth of work there!