[cutter12]

Hi,

This is my first post, so hello all.

I am in the process of planning out a new 'garden' for a new build house. The site is currently and overgrown fiels with thistles, dock, wilfdflowers and grasses (it actually looks quite nice ) The site is just of an acre I think.

Over the years I would like to divide the grden up into areas that compirse roughly of of veg, fruit bushes, small trees (inc Hazel and fruit), widlflower meadow and some shorter grass. Also a hard paved area.

This autumn we plan to start putting in perimeter hedging mainly comprising of Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Beech (still resaearching this).

The first task however is to get the site level off (some areas were quite compacted during house build and there are quite a few tyre ruts). I have never done anything like this before and although I am reading about all this online I thought it might be a good idea to ask for advice on this forum.

We are gong to get someone with a tractor to landscape the areas but I am not so sure about the order of things or the process.

What we would like to achieve is:

- Remove the weeds
- Level the ground and spread out a couple of big piles of soil.
- Sow some areas as Wildflower Meadow
- Sow some areas with an easy to maintain but shortish grass
- Prepare some areas for Veg crops
- Sow some areas with green manure (winter Tares, Winter Rye?) (thus buying us some time too)
- Plant out the hedges

My questions are:

- What would be the best way to remove the current weeds from the field before sowing new grass etc?
- Do I cultivate and roll the earth?
- Do I leave the ground to fallow for a few weeks before sowing?
- Any suggestions on grass types?
- What weather conditiopns are best suited to cultivation of the ground?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Sue Deacon]

Hello there and welcome!

Boy you've set yourself a task! How exciting. So many questions - where to start?

I must admit alarm bells rang with your comment about 'someone with a tractor' to landscape the area.

A friend, a farmer's wife asked us to help her turn a small field in front of her house into a garden. It was very wet and badly drained. A retaining wall built on 2 sides did not help as it trapped any water. I said it needed draining before she could consider a garden. Her OH said to save money he would do the job and use 'top-soil' from the farm. To cut a very long story short, he ran land drains across the field then broke them all with the weight of his tractor when he brought in the 'top-soil' (dock, rush and horsetail fern laden clay.)

By all means get the ground turned with with a tractor. But just be aware big machines get the job done quickly but sometimes the damage and mess they create takes AGES to put right. Perhaps it's just me - MY OH says I 'fanny about too much'.

I'm sure you will get loads of advice and ideas from the folks on here. My main advice is - don't rush things. Get to know your land, the wet bits/dry bits/frost pockets/wind tunnels, the best views and also the views you would like to hide. Sketch ideas, collect pictures of things you like. Before long a picture will form of what you want and what will work. Oh, and take photo's from the start!

I look forward to hearing of your plans (and seeing the photo's)

[cutter12]

Hi Sue,

Yep it is quite a task

The experience with a tractor does sound a bit of a mess...definate food for thought.....I will exercise caution.....Thanks

I agree with you on not rusing things. I think maybe the best apporach would be to just get the tractor to just do the things that would be unrealistic to do by hand?

[Sue Deacon]

Yes, and take time to cultivate a friendship with someone who can drive a digger or mini digger! Not as brutish as a tractor but really handy for lots of landscaping jobs. When I was doing a garden around a new-build (at the same time as as the house was being built - NOT to be recommended), the guy who did the prep. work for the foundations was a Godsend. He helped with wall foundations, moving soil, rock, stone and one time when we had started planting trees and came across a 'large' stone in the planting hole, he said 'let me 'give it a prod' with the digger'. He hauled out a stone the size of a large Dining Table! We could never have managed that by hand. It became a feature in front of the house!

[kindredspirit]

Someone's got style. That is picture of the year!

[Sue Deacon]

Wow, KS, that's praise indeed, thank you!

Mind you, a more recent photo would show a carpet of sycamore seedlings - the bane of my life! I understand she wanted to keep the mature trees, but WHY did they have to be sycamore??

[tagwex]

Any updates on progress Cutter 12, we would love to know?