Scrub clearance

lunchboxbill

I have a plot of scrub land behind my house that is overgrown and I am doing something about it. I have a chap with a mini digger coming next week to clear it for me. It's currently overgrown with brambles, foxgloves and 8 foot high nettles.

Once cleared I want to kill off anything remaining and then seed with grass.

Whats the best approach?

I have read that a glyphosate is good as after a week I can rotovate and seed, but also that I need the weeds to be actively growing and ideally I don't have to wait a number of weeks for them to start growing through again.

Thanks

treehugger80

once the land is cleared give it a couple of weeks for green sprouts from roots and seedlings to start to show,

spray regrowth with glyphosate (it needs green growth to work) wait two weeks for the roots to be killed and then rotavate.

then wait another two weeks to let anything that has survived (like nettle and dock roots) to start growing and spot treat with glyphosate. wait a week or two to be sure you've got all regrowth killed.

once that done you should be good to seed.

fidgetbones

I think two weeks is optimistic. Four weeks space would be better.  Concentrate on clearing the land this year and sow seed next Spring for your new lawn.

Clarington

I would be tempted to treat the weeds right now (i.e. today so you have a week for it to hit the roots before you have them cut down)

Let the mini digger remove them next week.

Leave it a week to see if there is any regrowth: treat again.

Then depending on what you're doing with the land and how quickly you can act put down anti weed matting or mulch to stop things reappearing.

Hostafan1

I'd spray now when there is maximum leaf cover and put the guy and digger off for a while.

lunchboxbill

What is the latest time of year I can seed?

I'd like to spray now but the growth is that ridiculous I'm not sure I could get at most of it.

Dave Humby

Depends where you are Bill. Even down south I wouldn't want to be sowing much later than early Oct to give the grass a chance before the temperatures drop. I agree with the others in that I don't think this is a job to be rushed. You'll end up regretting it and having a continual battle with weeds in your lawn.

Dovefromabove

Then I'd get someone in with a bushwhacker to take the top off everything but leave about 12" of growth 

give it a few days until you see fresh growth then spray with a brushwood killer containing glyphosate ... leave it for four weeks or until all growth is brown and dead 

then get the mini-digger in to clear the dead stumps away.

As has been said ... not a job to be rushed ... after clearing there'll be weed seeds sprouting ... they'll need spraying off too

I don't think you'll be sowing anything until the spring if you're wise

Last edited: 07 August 2017 10:15:19

Hostafan1

"I'd like to spray now but the growth is that ridiculous I'm not sure I could get at most of it."

I'd suggest you'll get more than you will once the digger has been in. 

I'd use SBK Brushwood killer on brambles. It won't kill grass, but IMHO it's better than glyphosate on woodier type weeds.

As others have said. Don't rush it, otherwise I fear you'll spend all of next year saying " why didn't I just take my time and do it properly?"

lunchboxbill

Thanks all. The mini digger guy can't come until the back end of next week at the earliest so I'm going to spray as much as I can this week. It will be difficult to do but anything that does die off will be an added bonus as to what I was planning this time yesterday.

Thanks for all your advice.

Hostafan1

I'm not sure much will die off in about 10 days or so. You really need to let the stuff do its job.IMHO.