From Sarah’s garden to yours

It just takes one of those beautiful blue-sky days in spring to bring on a desire to get outside and make a garden. If you have never gardened before, let your once well-manicured garden become a little neglected, or have just taken on a new property with a wilderness for a garden, the work ahead can seem a little daunting. But with a healthy dose of enthusiasm, determination, and an action plan, an unruly garden can be restored to order and become something to be proud of.

The first thing to do is make an assessment of the situation. Pop on some protective clothing and attempt to have a walk around to see what you can find. Look out for possible paths, structures and desirable but overgrown plants. There may be treasures lurking beneath the undergrowth.

Make sure to watch out for hazards and obstacles such as stinging nettles, sharp brambles, or unruly rose canes. You may even encounter dilapidated structures, broken glass, and exposed rusty nails so be cautious. If you are unfamiliar with the area, holes, dips or changes in levels can cause serious injuries for the unsuspecting so take a walking stick to prod the ground before you take a step.

If it is possible, try to view the garden from above, from a ladder, an upstairs window, or even from the roof, if you can get there safely. Taking advantage of modern technology, a drone is a safe way to examine the garden without scrambling through it or climbing up high. Google Earth or online satellite maps can also give an idea of the layout of the garden depending on how recently the imagery was updated. You can even time warp back to a time before the garden became overgrown.

Once you know what you are working with, the hard work can begin and to be honest, it will be a bit of a slog. Having the right tools will help so have on hand secateurs, loppers, telescopic pruners and garden saws. You will also need a good quality trimmer to tame overgrown grass and digging tools such as a garden spade and garden fork to remove unwanted plants. A rake is a fabulous tool for removing plant material that has been cut down. Don’t forget safety gear including googles and good quality gloves. Long sleeved shirts and pants will protect your arms and legs from scrapes and scratches.

Have a plan to remove the excess foliage and rubbish, as you will be surprised how much debris will come out of the garden. Consider ordering a skip if you think there is a lot of rubbish and organise with your local green waste collectors to take away plant material to be turned into compost to avoid adding it to landfill.

On the subject of safety, take regular breaks, you don’t need to do it all in one go, especially if you aren’t used to sustained garden work. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water, as well as protecting yourself from the sun with sunscreen and a hat.

Before getting stuck in with power tools, take the time to go slowly across the garden in a methodical manner to make sure all rubbish and debris has been removed. It will be hard enough work for your trimmer to clear the overgrowth without running into non-plant material.

Look for an easy place to start. It is most likely there was once a lawn. Trimming back thickets of grass should be easy enough without any surprises and give a good sense of achievement as you reveal open spaces. Clean up as you go to avoid leaving an even bigger job of hauling mountains of green waste from the garden.

Once you have rough cleared the lawn, check for sticks, branches and stumps of opportunistic saplings or invasive roots and clear them away or dig them out. If you think the areas is free of obstacles, go over it with a lawn mower to neaten it up, although it may take some time before it looks like a luscious lawn again. Find the edges and clear them with a spade or edging tool. Stand back and admire your achievements.

From there, what is probably left are areas that were once gardens, pick an area to clear. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Even if you settle on a small patch of one metre square, you are still making progress and, at the same time,  not being overwhelmed. Take a moment to examine the plants to determine what is weed and what is plant. Remove all trace of the weed, even if you have to dig for miles chasing down a tap root. A slow and thorough approach will give the garden a better chance of staying manageable once you have finished.

Assess the plants you have left once the weeds are gone. They may not all be to your liking therefore you may not want to keep them, but someone else might so consider saving them for the time being to sell or giveaway on another day. Some garden plants can be a little invasive and spread throughout the garden so if they aren’t something you like or want to deal with, then treat them as weeds and get rid of all trace of them.

When you have the garden plants under control, look at the trees and shrubs and give them a good prune to reduce their size, making sure to remove dead, diseased and dying branches. If it isn’t a tree or shrub you want then chop it down. Tree roots can easily be removed by hiring a professional with a stump grinder. If you are wanting to heavily prune or remove trees in the spring, make sure there are no birds nesting in them. If necessary, leave this part of the project until the birds have fledged the nest in the summer.

Chip away at the project in a little and often approach, clearing rubbish and unruly growth and saving and rejuvenating desirable plants. Eventually you will have brought the garden vaguely back to how it once was. From this point you can love it as it is and enhance it with your own additions or decide to keep going and strip it back further to create an entirely new garden that suits your personal style. Either way, you should be pleased with all that you have achieved. Clearing an overgrown garden is a mammoth task.