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Preparing ground for new Garden
cbdesign56UTyNIXbs
Posts: 2
My wife and I have just tore out a garden that was about 60 years old, no food, just plants/bushes. We are currently now working on getting rid of the root systems before winter. To my surprise the roots go down deeper than I imagined. I've dug down 3' and still cant find the end of the roots. Am I out of my mind to dig down that far and be anal in removing the roots in their entirety? Our future plan is to grow a vegetable and fruit garden. The old "demo'd" garden's footprint is quite large, so some of it will be garden, the rest will be grass. My wife and I are very new to growing so any help is appreciated. Any articles or books to recommend are also welcome. Thanks. Also FYI, the soil type is here is dense and moist.
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Do you know what the old shrubs were? I suspect the soil will be pretty poor so will need lots of manure/compost digging in.
Is it sunny or shady ? Some photos might be of help.
Whereabouts are you ? (just a general location will do if you don't want to be too specific).
Finally, welcome to the forum
As @AnniD says, further info and photos would help
Adding lots of organic matter is the best way of improving the soil though, and this is a good time to do it, as it will work in over the winter, ready for organising in spring.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
1960 to 2020 is a long time.
Welcome
@Fairygirl & @Dovefromabove - As you can see in the photos, I tore out the plants above ground and started digging around their bases. So I'm 100% positive the roots I'm talking about are of the old garden. They are not the 2 pine trees you can see to the left in the picture. Those are going to be dropped soon although. What kind of organic material would you recommend? That's what I'm trying to do is prep the ground now for this coming spring.
@NewBoy2 - My house used to be a sawmill in the early 1800's. Converted to a house in the late 1800's. My wife's father grew up in this house. So it has a lot of history and character. We've been renovating it room by room over the past 6 years. Now its time for some love on the outside. The perimeter of the old garden was surrounded by large stones. You can see some of them in the picture if you zoom in. Those were the largest ones. I removed the rest of them, and let me tell you, there was A LOT of stones.
@edhelka - You are correct, that was not done before the project began. I started the chainsaw and started hacking. You can see the old plants in the picture. Not sure if that helps, as I have no idea what any of them were. Can you tell me if I'm crazy on the following 2 ideas I've pondered? Again, I'm a novice and have very uneducated ideas; but ideas none the less:
1. What about putting weed killer in the ground to make sure the roots die off.
2. Even thought about renting a backhoe and digging them all up. Figure it would help till the land, remove the roots, and I have another project for the backhoe as well.
To all - Just going to say your responses have been awesome, thanks for the support, this seems like I chose a good site w/ good people to ask these questions. Thanks again.
OP, I think you need to step back and draw some plans. It seems like a big plot with plenty of room to grow flowers, fruit, vegetables and have seating areas as well.
Anyway, you have cleared those shrubs but haven’t said why. What do you intend to grow there now? Ideally you should cover the soil over winter with a layer of compost or manure about 4” deep and let the worms incorporate it into the top soil. The covering will also suppress the germination of weed seeds that will inevitably start to grow when soil is disturbed. Ones that do sprout should be cleared with a simple hand hoe as soon as they grow.
Between now and the planting season around April/May draw up plans for what you want to grow and where. What do you intend to do with all the stones you removed? It sounds like it took a great deal of effort so I assume there was an equal amount of effort in putting them there in the first place. Why were they put there to begin with, and why do you not want them there now? If they were demarcating the boundary of the property do you intend to replace them with a fence or hedge?
When you have sketched out your plan it might be beneficial to photograph it and put it on this forum for comments. A scale and a compass orientation are critical. Also add lots of annotations and footnotes. I would want to know where the trees are, what is beyond your garden’s boundaries, what is the pH of your soil, where you are thinking of planting flower and shrub borders, where the vegetable garden is, the location of sheds and greenhouses, where you might create paths, the state and extent of your lawn, the location of existing or intended outside seating and dining areas, the positioning of the compost bins and finally where is your house in relation to the entire plot?
You have been in the house for six years, you say. My advice for working on the garden is simple: slow down and give more clarity to what you are trying to achieve.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm not an expert vegetable grower, but l think if you were thinking of growing veg under the tree canopy it's not really a suitable location. I'm also not a weather expert when it comes to upstate New York, but l think there might be some extremes of weather?
@BenCotto is right, among the many good points that he makes, the best thing to do is make a plan. As you've lived there for quite a while, you'll have a good idea of how the garden "works", if you know what l mean. It looks like a massive plot which gives you so many options.
It said quite a lot on this forum, the best thing to do is take your time and work things out. The garden has been there a long time, a few more months won't do any harm