How to turf recently highly brambled, uneven Garden. What order...

kagardner79

Our large garden had been left for 20 years. There were 8ft brambles. We have done our very best to kill these with various success. The garden was also full of weeds. We started 2 years ago. Please advice us what to do now to prepare to turf. It needs leveling also. 
We were thinking to level out with a digger, put weedkiller down and then a weed membrane until September time and then turf. Is this sensible or would you do something different or in a different order? 

AnniD

Hello @kagardner79 welcome to the forum 
You've certainly put in the hard work there, it looks like a lovely garden. With regards to the membrane , personally l wouldn't bother, the secret to a good lawn is all in the preparation as you know. We have several lawn experts on here, l am sure they will be along during the day. 

cornelly

We were lucky we have a large garden where we had large glasshouses when these were removed we gave the area a good clear out and rotavated the ground a few times left it until the spring and the grass appeared as if by magic, no turf or seed required, must admit not a lot of brambles.

AnniD

@glasgowdan ? (Apologies to any other lawn experts)

glasgowdan

Hi there,

No need for membrane at any point here. 

I'd suggest if it's a job that needs a digger to level, that you do so any time now once you've cleared away as much material as you can. Weeds will be growing more vigorously from March, so maybe end March use weedkiller, then 2 weeks later lay your turf. 

Turfing in spring DOES need a lot of watering for 6 weeks or so, sprinkler on for half an hr every morning. 

You'll be able to have a usable lawn this summer.

Plan for 2 lawn weed treatments this year

kagardner79

glasgowdan said:

Hi there,

No need for membrane at any point here. 

I'd suggest if it's a job that needs a digger to level, that you do so any time now once you've cleared away as much material as you can. Weeds will be growing more vigorously from March, so maybe end March use weedkiller, then 2 weeks later lay your turf. 

Turfing in spring DOES need a lot of watering for 6 weeks or so, sprinkler on for half an hr every morning. 

You'll be able to have a usable lawn this summer.

Plan for 2 lawn weed treatments this year

Which weedkiller would you recommend? 

glasgowdan

The domestic brand is Verdone. Apply it carefully as described on the label.  

It would be relatively economical to get a lawn firm in to do a spray and guaranteed not to overdose the grass that way (if they're half decent)

Jennie17

My husband and I recently moved into a 15th century cottage and the previous owner who had lived here for the last 19 years has not touched the garden. The lawns are pure moss and the brambles are unbelievable.  There is also a Wisteria which I am told was once very beautiful but it looks in a poor state now and I feel needs some pruning but I do not know where to start - please can you help?  Where the lawns are concerned should we rotovate them, put a weed killer down and then top soil and either seed or turf and when would be a good time to do this please?  

JennyJ

Here's the RHS advice on pruning wisteria - scroll down to the section on renovation, it sounds as if that's what yours needs. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=242

Brambles - if you don't have the time/energy to dig them out and don't object to using weedkiller, cut back to ground level and get rid of what you cut off, then when they start to regrow, treat the new growth with a brushwood killer, being careful not to get any on plants that you want to keep. It'll probably need to be repeated a few times.

Lawns - I'm not an expert there but if you really have just moss, it should be easy enough to skim it off with a spade (no need for weedkiller if there aren't any weeds).

Liriodendron

If you could post some photos, that would be a help, Jennie.  Your lawns might be mossy because of the brambles and shading from other plants, or because of poor drainage.  If it's a drainage problem you'd need to sort that out before seeding or turfing a new lawn.  And we could advise better on the wisteria if we could see what it looks like now...
The only encouragement I can offer is that my son moved into a house 4 years ago, with a garden which had once been beautiful, but had had everything cut to the ground and cleared away in preparation for the sale.  This included a wisteria, literally cut off at ground level.  It's now growing again beautifully, and had a good number of flowers last year.     So all may not be lost... though I wouldn't recommend cutting it down to the ground!