Clearing a wilderness

[Astarael]

I have a bit of a huge problem in my garden. It is a wilderness. I'm talking huge brambles etc. It's entirely my (and DH's) fault but now I want it sorted.

I am not a gardener obviously so have no idea what I'm doing. Will be hard to sort myself as have 6 month old and nowhere to plonk her while I hack through the plants so my first question is are there people who offer this service and what sort of cost are we talking?

Second question: if I am to attempt personally what implements will I need? Any other guidance also gratefully received.

I've not idea but very interested to hear responses as your garden problem sounds exactly like mine and I have similar problem with what to do with ds if we tackle it ourselves.

It would be around £1000 mark depending on size of course

I cleared a really bad patch of ours myself with small children. I had to do it in very short bursts whilst they were occupied doing something else. I just used whatever garden tools we had around and a lot of hard work (honestly if you do do it yourself then make sure you stretch etc before hand because you will ache like you have NEVER ached before and I was pretty fit) If you get someone in to do it then it would be worth asking them to quote for taking away all the stuff they clear too as otherwise you will end up with a lot of stuff to clear. In the warmer months your council probably does green waste collections if you can put your name down for the bin for that but you will create so much with clearing an area like you describe that you will need lots of trips to the tip.

this is going to be really, really hard work.....even without young kids. if you can only do it in short spurts and its a large garden i'm not convinced you will ever get on top of it.....ie things will be growing back whilst you sort other areas. you must get the roots out. you could think about weedkiller.

if you can afford it i would pay someone. get a couple of quotes. i'd also think about what you want at the end and potentially include this in the quote - there's no point putting in loads of effort/work and then letting it slip back once its done. you sound like you need something low maintenance ....maybe a big lawn of hardwearing grass, so it will need to be turfed or seeded (the latter takes quite a while to establish so you won't be able to use it immediately). with young kids we went for the turf, which can be surpisingly expensive

neighbours had their garden cleared last summer.
don't know about the costs, but 2 guys were working 10 hours + each day for 3 days. countless of pick up vans full of brambles and young trees.
in the and they put a plack membrane on (I think to 'cook' the remaining roots).
neighbours put down turf a couple of months later themselves.
not a huge garden (terrace).

if you live in the south, but not a particularly expensive area, i think you would be looking at around 15 per hour...... maybe a little less if its not a real gardener.

don't rotivate as it will chop the roots into little pieces, from which lots of plants will grow from.

Hi Astarael,
I have become quite a keen Gardener in the last couple of years. Miles away from expert but have enjoyed making both ours and my Mum & Dad's gardens look reasonably respectable recently.
If you can get one then get a small scythe as this is fantastic for hacking brambles back a bit. Tough gloves that the thorns won't pierce through. Then shears for getting them down to a low height. Once you get them down you'll be able to see where they are coming from and dig out where they actually are. Not as bad as it sounds. Get one or two clear-away sheets that you can put cuttings on and chop the brambles that you have cut to about a foot long, then when the pile is a reasonable size wrap the sheet over them and empty the sheet into your garden waste bin. You can then just keep doing this. I like to do a section at a time (say a couple of metres squared) and you can really see the difference then - and also you'll gradually get quicker too (smile) . This way it won't cost the earth and you get the benefit of the fresh air. Plus it might make your hubby feel bad and you could suggest a nice meal out on him (wink).

One thing you do need to think about is how you will get rid of all the stuff you remove. When we did something similar, we bought a shredder, so we could reduce the volume and compost everything we could. Bigger branches, roots and so on won't go through a garden shredder, so you would either need to hire something bigger, burn them or have suitable transport to take to the tip. Garden waste bins are great in principle, but don't hold much for this sort of project, although again a shredder will help get the volume down. Last time we hired a skip, it specifically excluded green waste (fortunately we wanted it for other reasons).

Also, I don't put any persistent weeds onto my own compost heap, because I don't think my (admittedly slapdash) heap will get hot enough to kill seeds and roots, so I would just be recycling the problem. So they all go in the brown bin - council composting is industrial scale and will deal with practically anything.

Good luck - it is incredibly satisfying when you see the progress!