Turning over a long-neglected border for planting

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I'm trying to prepare some wide garden borders for planting trees, perennials and so on this autumn. The borders have been long neglected, just brambles and ivy for years... Should I get in a whole load of compost, topsoil and dig it over myself or just the areas where I"m planting? Ivy seems to be embedded in it, so should I be looking to eliminate all of it?

One garden advisor created a defined border for a front flower bed with a metal implant - I can't help thinking this wasn't a great idea. It holds it firm but I'm just not sure about mowing along the top of it and what happens if the blades hit it.

Maybe this is a bit obvious - just turn it over and bung some compost in it but the borders are quite large and it would be a lot of work. On the other hand, I don't want to put all these plants in without due preparation because if they don't take it's a waste of time and money. Any thoughts?

I like a defined border edge because it's easier to maintain and if you set it low enough you just mow right over it with no risk. If the thought of metal sets your teeth on edge then you can get plastic edging (smartedge).

With a border like that I'd be tempted to try and get as much ivy out as possible and accept you might be digging bits and pieces of it out for some time as little bits you missed grow and become visible.

The gold standard would be to dig over the whole thing, incorporating lots of organic material (compost, manure etc). I don't know whether I could be bothered to do that but I would dig extra large holes for new plants and mix in a mix of compost, manure and grit so that I knew each plant was surrounded by good soil with reasonable drainage.

I'd then top dress with compost and manure and/or wood chippings each winter - a good layer that the worms will help take down into the soil. Repeat that for a few years and, in combination of the digging that happens each time you add a new plant, you'll find the soil comes good in time.

I bought an electric tiller (but you could hire a rotovator or get someone to do it) to prepare some new borders. Made the job so much easier to break up the soil, then to mix in the compost, grit and sand.

I’ve got some big roots in my borders so I had to be careful about working in short bursts and clearing the tines. It took a couple of hours to do approx 15m2 compared to 5 hours for 3m2 before I bought the tiller.

We are on a long project in our front garden. Removed an ugly conifer hedge, and the "lawn" and put a low fence in its place. We have now covered the area with cardboard, and next weekend are getting a load of topsoil to spread on top. Then we can start planting!

The idea is the cardboard will stop any weeds coming back. Not sure it would stop ivy though!

Thanks for these responses - though the suggestion it might come good in a few years' time was a tad off-putting! Ah well, I guess if I didn't start a few years ago the best time to start is now.

I don't think ivy is that big a problem, As far as I'm aware it's quite shallow rooting. The problems arise if it is left for years to become established but I would pull it out, pull out the rest over time when you are weeding, or mow it. The thing to do is keep an eye for it because it sneaks behind and up trees, into walls. Just try to remember to keep an eye out for it, snip the stems.

Are you grassing the rest of the bed. You can plant the shrubs and surround with a circle of thick bark chippings then mow up to the bark. It will take ongoing maintenance because the birds peck through and scatter the bark and it disappears into the lawn but that is probably easiest option. I do this otherwise the stems of the shrub get bashed with the mower or damaged with the strimmer.

I'm dealing with a neglected patch of garden that "may come good in a few years' time". I've removed most of the weeds, covered it in cardboard and wood chippings, and will put some pots of winter bedding and bulbs on top to make it look cheerful while I decide whether to suck up the cost of a truckload of topsoil or a few years of soil conditioning.

Yes, I'm looking to bung some grass seed down on the lawn to regrow it. The whole bark issue is iffy because there is a massive great oak tree in the garden and when the leaves descend a) To rake them up I'll just be raking up said bark chips so they'll be wasted and b) I suppose the leaves make for substitute bark chips anyway albeit not very attractive.

Leaving it late to do the grass seed thing I know but got out of sorts with the whole thing, shouldn't there be some sort of sand/grass seed hybrid to put down? The whole 'put topsoil down then grass seed then sort of rake it in' never really worked too well for me.

You can get it perfect in less than 2 weeks.

Water, then a Couple of tonne bags of pro mulch. Wack it on very deep. And water, and water, and water,

Come back in a week do the fork test - hold your arm straight out and drop a hand fork. It should slip straight into the soil perfectly. If it bounces or doesnt reach far into existing soil (ie. just lands in the promulch), then another week of watering.

This is very helpful, thank you! The weather is taking care of the watering part today! I take it the mulch sort of disappears into the soil!

Yes, promulch is reconstituted hay so it comes basically as a light fluffy substance which looks like soil already.

You throw this on the top and because it is very dark the middling worms (cant remember their actual name), will come up to the top, eat a chunk, and go back down into the soil, spit it out and repeat. So the whole soil gets turned over and aerated without you having to lift a finger.

Very similar to when you lift a pot and their are worms and perfect black fluffy soil beneath.

The RHS don't do any border digging now. They just top dress with manure/compost etc and mulch and let the worms do the work. I'd just also add manure/compost/plant food to any planting hole
I would get rid of as much ivy as I could though. It is a nightmare for growing fast and swamping anything else. I'd consider leaving oak leaves on the bed but just removing them from the lawn and from around individual plants. Then shove a load of woodchip on top in the spring.

Good stuff everyone, I will get cracking on it this week!

there is a massive great oak tree in the garden and when the leaves descend a) To rake them up I'll just be raking up said bark chips so they'll be wasted and b) I suppose the leaves make for substitute bark chips anyway albeit not very attractive

You haven't said what you usually do with your raked leaves but these are gardening gold and shouldn't be wasted. If you haven't got a leaf mould composter then black bags will do; puncture the bottom of the bags with a fork and leave them in a quiet corner/behind shed for a couple of years. Worms will get into the bags and break down the leaves into a dark organic matter. This is great for a soil improver or mulch, just stick it on top of your soil and the worms will do the rest.