Help with 'garden' of brambles and nettles.

[Jagley]

I recently moved home and am now starting to sort the garden. It isn't a particularly big garden, but its enough for us, I think its NW facing so not a massive amount of sun. The house was empty for about 9 months, and due to illness the garden was pretty neglected prior to that so isn't in a good state. The 'lawn' has barely any grass, and is mainly weeds, nettles and brambles, with the brambles sprouting up throughout. I did try to dig one bramble out, and I am not joking found a layer of thin sponge/foam, like you'd find in sun-lounger cushion padding or something. Beyond plants in pots I am not very garden experienced so have no clue on how to approach this. Googling led me too brushwood killer? As I said there is no real grass to speak of so guessing I need to near enough kill the garden off and start again.

Any ideas/pointers would be very much appreciated! I'd love to bring a bit more life back into it. I've attached some photos so hopefully you can see what I'm dealing with.

P.S the random pot in the middle is where I tried to dig the bramble out and covered it back up, the pot was to stop the dogs digging at the disturbed bit 😀

It really doesn’t look that bad. I’d say don’t use weed killer or if you must just a spot on one on targeted plants. Think about where you want to sit out first, usually where the sun hits and make a seating area. do you want space for kids to play, a bbq space?

I have a chair for morning cup of tea, the first spot that gets sun 8n the morning and put pots in it.

then dig some beds, add some well rotted manure from the garden centre and plant some things you like that like shade….google plants for shade. Or a good garden centre will have a plants for shade section.

go for height for impact, spend a bit on a couple of larger plants….b@q is good for that.

plants in the ground are easier than plants in pots to look after….www.rhs.org.uk/advice/beginners-guide.

but it’s not rocket science, plant them at the right depth, water plants once a week, a watering can full for big plants, till established….( ie you see new shoots and they look happy) or when it hasn’t rained in a bit and feed once a year with fish blood and bone…or gro more.

Oh, that’s not at all bad! I was expecting something horrendous from your description.

Nettles means a fertile soil, high phosphate and nitrogen.

for the time being I would simply strim or mow the grass, keep it looking tidier, and it will deter the brambles and nettles a bit - they’ll keep putting energy into new shoots only to have them chopped off before they’ve replenished stocks by photosynthesising. Meanwhile, think about what you want to use the garden for. You’ve got a blank slate, so a wonderful opportunity to arrange it to your needs.