Stoping weeds/what to do with an old bit of land

[Weatherforducks]

This is an old chicken run that is just full of weeds. I’ve already cleared it of all the 3 foot nettles (there were loads of them that grow so fast). It has a shed on one side and a hedge on the other, the whole area is enclosed with (very old) chicken wire, that even the rabbits can get through.

The original plan was to reinstate it eventually as a chicken run, but there’s too many stoats/foxes for it too be safe - and it’s too far away from the house.

Depending on what we do with the shed, it may join other land and may become grazing (not until at least next year). In the mean time what do I do with it? Weed it and lay grass seed? How do I stop/control the weeds and nettles? Should I take the top layer off? Is there an easy way to do this for a lazy person?

Lots of wildlife - so don’t want to use chemicals or cover the whole area with polythene. Sorry for the bad picture! Any ideas welcome as it is, it is such a waste of space.

I had a similar sized area and was contemplating putting down weed membrane (over the low weeds) then having a couple of raised beds for veg and herbs. In the end I decided to put my back into and dug over the whole area first, removed all weeds and raked it. It’s taken a whole day but I hope this way the weed membrane will work for many years...

...and I’ll put wood chippings around the veg beds

I picked up an interesting method for weed control from an American website. It uses cardboard, covered with wood chipping to kill off the weeds. It’s a very effective method, but I guess you’d need a fair bit of cardboard to cover an area that size.

The advantage of using cardboard over weed control fabric is that it breaks down over time and will feed the soil. The wood chippings are kind of optional. They help to keep the cardboard down and make the area look nicer, but you could really use whatever you have to hand to weigh the cardboard down

Thanks @jenthehen and @Crazzzycat, I think I will have to pick up the fork and dig out what weeds I can; there's not much light in there to grow so not sure what would be suitable. I do like the cardboard and wood chipping idea and think I will give it a go...I do have a tonne of cardboard left over from the house move! I think that method of reducing the weed may help it to look at least cared for until I decide what to do with the area. Thanks both!

I did try the cardboard and wood chipping method first, it was ok for about 3 months but the weeds came through as soon as the cardboard started to deteriorate. What might work is to cover the area in cardboard to weaken the strength of the weeds and then dig them out and use a weed membrane (or even use weed killer, depending how you plan to use the area afterwards) but sadly the cardboard woodchip method didn’t work for me.

If it's been a chicken run for a long while, the soil will be stacked full of nitrogen and phosphate which nettles will love. You'll have a big job getting rid of them and then trying to get wildflowers, or even grass, through in time to compete with rapid growing weeds.
I would plant a few fruit trees, then let the weeds grow this summer. Great for wildlife, and if at the end of summer you mow and remove the stalks etc, you'll take away a lot of the nutrients with it.

We bought a little bit of land recently and some of it I've turned into a meadow. I dug it all over after the winter and put some top soil on, raked it and used meadow grass seed mix plus loads of other seeds - poppies, etc . It's all growing up nicely now and will only need mowing twice a year. The opposite side we kept as ordinary grass but planted a couple of rows of fruit trees. You could combine the two ideas in one? If you don't want to dig it over you could put breathable membrane down with a layer of topsoil on top?

We had a similar problem and bought an electric tiller from Screwfix for £49.99. Can't believe how easy it was to blitz through everything, cuts through turf and literally eats through the ground. Job was totally done in an afternoon, absolutely amazing!

Thank you all, you are all very knowledgable, lots to mull over there. @Ihaventgottimeforthis I didn't even think about the composition of the soil due to the chickens! As well as the insects, the rabbits do like the cover of the weeds as they make their way through. Love the idea of mixing meadow grass and poppy seeds.

There are two apple trees and also a plum tree in the hedge. The plum and one apple do ok, but the apple tree further back doesn't get much light. I could create more light by pruning a Holly that's at the back (and if I took the shed down - although I think the DH has his eye on that). I think I will just tidy a little for now and then try to clear it further in Autumn and create some more light ready to do something with it next year. I am armed with more knowledge now!

tippii that sounds like a very impressive result, let us hope that your patch was not full of perennial weeds whose roots are now cut into hundreds of small pieces, all of which will re-grow.

Don't forget if you want to see flowers like poppies, cornflowers etc, they need bare soil to germinate, they're not meadow flowers. They might appear in the first year you sow a meadow, but unless there is lots of bare patches in future springs (which will also mean lots of other plants like dock and nettles) you are unlikely to see them again.
They're arable plants, not grassland ones.
I would work with what you've got - trim the hedge to get more light into the existing fruit trees, prune those fruit trees into a good shape, cut and remove the grass & nettles at the end of the summer.
If you want a bit more flower diversity under the trees, look for seeds of typical woodland flowers like this one thegrasspeople.com/shaded-areas-wildflowers?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwr32BRD4ARIsAAJNf_18joV7HjyCEotaqpVvtTD2F9PwZJGoZANlTJRafBjS0tOAOBC6hEoaAgNQEALw_wcB#138=16
(Although I think corn marigold is an odd choice, as it's name suggests its another arable plant!)