Help! Friends bought house overgrown garden

I wonder if using salt and vinegar is safe for my pets? I don't mind smelling like a fish and chip shop haha.

Just to say I wouldn’t use salt on an area of the garden I later planned to plant up with things of my choice, because it stays in the soil, and they won’t do well - they could die, depending on how much build up of salt there is. I use it on paths and patios, and it is effective, but at a cost to the soil.

Thanks for the tip! @Hattietopper12345

OnwardandUpward

Is that known as a weed killer? Much better than nasty chemicals!

Yes it is good for killing weeds and getting rid of ants. I always add a cup of rock salt to 5 litres of water in my spear and jackson sprayer.

Is that known as a weed killer? Much better than nasty chemicals!

I would start by spraying pure white vinegar with rock salt in it all over the garden with a 5 litre sprayer. When everything has died off she can rake all the dead stuff up and bag it for the tip. I would not recommend putting it in the garden waste bin as it has been sprayed with weed killer. Then when all that stuff has gone she can go over it with a lawn mower and a strimmer. Much easier than cutting down live grasses etc.

Exactly and they're cute too! Much more fun than dealing with brambles yourself!

Cadenza123

Your friend should pay someone to clear and dig out the brambles. Clearing is one thing, getting rid of the debris is something else.

I agree. There’s no pleasure or satisfaction in removing brambles. A professional with the right tools can do in one day what it would take a lone gardener months to do. With a new garden it’s really important to mix the pleasure with the hard work, if it were my garden I’d have it all professionally cleared, then mulch and landscape first. I’ve learned my lesson from years of battling to stay on top of the weeds but my gardening has transformed since using weed control fabric and Strulch.

Borrow a goat. They eat anything.

Your friend should pay someone to clear and dig out the brambles. Clearing is one thing, getting rid of the debris is something else.

Do be careful if tempted to leave cut foliage as a mulch as it provides perfect winter cover for vermin.

It’s always better to clear it away before using cardboard or landscape fabric to suppress re growth.

Borrow some goats for a while?

Hire a brush cutter (tackles larger, tougher growth than strimmers) from a local firm. They are motorised so little pushing, chops well so pieces can be raked into the side / along the bottom of a hedge (best)/ piles for making a compost heap (rather lengthy but better than burning and useful later). You can tame a quarter of an acre of brush a day without much trouble.

Good luck and have fun!

She should also be aware that brambles spread underground quite a distance.. She really needs to get rid of the roots..

We had to do this when moving into a house a few years ago. The above tips are great. I’d add that compost bags from garden centres are usually tough and very good weed containers and are not too big to fit into a car boot either. They are even easier to use if you use them to line a pop up fabric/plastic garden bin. The bin provides a nice wide neck for throwing in weeds.

Beware of using root weeds like dandelions to compost down as even a little bit surviving will grow a new plant. Ditto brambles.

My DH has found salt, the sort you sprinkle on paths (you can get it from garden centres), deters persistent weeds like horse tails. He’s put a layer under our gravel and it works quite well.

Don't waste your time cutting up stuff and putting it in bags, unless your dump insists on this.

It is far easier just to load up a trailer with the rubbish and take it down to the dump.

Unless you don't know anyone with a car and trailer!

I'd also suggest that That HeavenLeigh's friend get a gardener to clear it for her. She'd need to dig out all the roots to get rid of the brambles and (depending on what she wants to do with it) dig it over either manually or with a machine.

By the time she buys some of the equipment mentioned above, I feel it might be cheaper in the long run to hire the job out and a whole lot easier.
Good luck to her in any case.

All of the above sound like good advice! Let me add that to do a garden&party week-end can help a lot toget started! Invite some friends to work together in the garden, offer a shower and then drinks + maybe BBQ 😊

Get a man in to clear it

We moved into an old house when we were young, it was almost derelict and although the garden wasn’t too bad, there were a load of brambles in the borders. Cutting them down wasn’t too bad but you need to get the roots out to stop them regrowing. The only way I could do this was to borrow the builder’s pick axe. The brambles never returned and I found it quite therapeutic.

I had four feet deep brambles removed when I started gardening.
Tiny tips from the underground bramble roots pop up now and again. I always went out with a nail scissors and snipped them off as soon as they appeared.

If she is going to use a strimmer, or any mechanical tools, could you please ask her to check for any wildlife living there especially hedgehogs.

Once you have cleared the top the roots need to come out I’d recommend a mattock.

Forgot to say use a really strong weed killer or stump killer to stop them growing back.