Gardening?

[Catt Queen]

Are there any keen gardeners on here who may be able to help me with advice?

[Gulliver]

Ask a question, and we'll do our best!

I only really grow veggies, though.

[skoptic]

I got an allotment today... I know nothing! Will be watching the thread

[Catt Queen]

OK, here goes...

Our back garden is a mess... the ex covered it in nasty chemicals and half covered it in liner then never did anything else. A couple of years ago I cleared the liner and dug over the whole garden in the hope that the grass would regrow... but all I got was loads of weeds - it seems the chemicals he used killed all the grass but left the weeds.

I want to make it nice but have very little money to spend on it and am short of time... could I get away with digging it over and throwing some of this stuff down in the hope that it takes over the weeds (they died out over winder but will be back... )? The grass that was there before obviously kept them under control as they weren't an issue until the grass was gone... I don't want to use any chemicals due to the cats / dog...

Don't know where to start...

[Gulliver]

Digging it over would be a good start. Can't hurt. Take a bin bag with you and pull out any of the weeds, taking as much of the root out as you can. Some of the really crafty ones can grow from a fairly small piece of root. Weeding is pretty much an on-going thing, so if you miss something, pull it up later.

For flowers:
Sow your seeds and hope for the best. It might be worth investing in some potted ones from the garden centre and planting those out, just to make the whole thing look less empty. I tried one of those meadow-mixes but got nothing out of it, but yours might work better (mine was cheap).

Clover is a good plant to put down as it improves the soil conditions for other plants and looks nice. Try sowing clover seeds with your flower mix? (Mustard is another option, but clover is probably a but nicer)

For veg:
Now is a good time to get seedlings going. Buy some tomato and courgette seeds and put them in compost in takeaway containers on the windowsill and they will sprout in the next few weeks. March is the time when you plant most summer things, so go to the garden centre and get overexcited. Onions and garlic can be started off soon.

You have to be trying fairly hard to actually kill anything. Plants basically want to grow; that's what they do. Weed and water and water and weed and occasionally throw down some plant-feed or compost tea and you'll be fine.

[Hiking Fox]

Do as little digging as you possibly can, because all that does is bring weed seeds to the surface and break up the soil structure.

Instead, just dig up any really tough, woody-stemmed and deep-rooted plants like brambles* thistles and dock. Then lay compost on the ground, then cover that with either a thick layer of bark mulch, membrane (available from gardening centres and the most durable and visually-pleasing option), overlapping bits of old carpet, or cardboard (the economy option). There should be no exposed soil, as it will just get covered in weeds come the spring. The existing weeds that are now under your compost and mulch layers will die off.

Make holes in the mulch layer and plant through it.

If you want a lawn, the best (but most expensive) way is to buy turf. Alternatively just do the composting and then put down a layer of topsoil. Level it off. Scatter grass seed liberally and wait a couple of months.

(* Brambles are really good for wildlife, though, and repel intruders, so you may want to leave some at the edge of your garden.)

[Catt Queen]

Do as little digging as you possibly can, because all that does is bring weed seeds to the surface and break up the soil structure.

This is exactly what happened - within a day there were millions of little green shoots that ALL turned into weeds. Nothing horrific - mostly chickweed, fat-hen, goosegrass and some thing with really pretty purple flowers that I can't remember the name of.

Thank u for the tips