The long game
The Doctor
Posts: 177
Hello,
My name is Dan, I'm 28 and I am new to gardening. 
Eight months ago I moved into a gorgeous cottage on the Caerhays Estate near St Austell, after a month of cleaning and redecoration. But that's a story for another forum/website.
The garden is quite big (I'll see if i can upload a pic)
The grass hadn't been cut in two years and its a blank canvas.
It was left over the winter and in march i attacked it with a strimmer as it was way too long for a mower. I left it to recover for a month and then attempted to tame it with my other halves, cousins, lawn mower. After 3 long hours (the mower is a tad old) we have a semi-respectable lawn
For those studying these pictures you will notice that i found a shed (former outside toilet) underneath the ivy. 
I have more images and things that i have done in front of the house but i thought i would show you my lawn first and introduce you to my "Long Game".
Hope you enjoy and i will no doubt call on you expertise soon.
Dan x
Posts
I'm impressed .... it seems you've tackled the lawn very sensibly .... you say you're new to gardening, but you appear to have a gardener's intuition - and what a lovely part of the world you're living in - we visit when we can, for holidays and meet up with friends originally made on other fora.
I'll look forward to watching the progress of your plot - good luck and may the weather be with you
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Really exciting a blank canvas..
It looks like alot of hard work ahead but how exciting to have such a large open space to work with and do as you please.
Happy gardening.
Thank you Dove, Weejen and zoom.
In May I decided to look at one of the two (due to cash) areas in front of the house
These were very densely over grown
This one is infested with mint and has a couple squeeky residents.
I strimmed my way through them like a man posessed and took them all the way down to the top soil. The area on the right had only about an inch of soil and then hardcore and the left one has dark loose soil.
I nipped to B&Q and brought a week barrier and then to Wicks for 250kg of pea gravel for £14!.
We have a bench facing out to the garden and i will be sorting the other side out this weekend.
Dan x
Last weekend was a fun weekend.
1, I now have my own mower
2, Lovely new mower needs a house and i have no cash so for some reason i decided to build one out of pallets.
Total cost £30.
A lot of sweat and swearing went into the construction and i am happy with the way it turned out.
Dan x
See what I mean - a born gardener! Geoff Hamilton would be proud of you
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Was it a derelict house when you bought it Dan, or just neglected by previous owner?
Becks.
The previous tenant (We rent through the Caerheys Estate) was wheelchair bound, had dementia, alcoholic and smoked 100 a day. The cottage hadn't been cleaned of decorated for 10 years and the neighbours stopped helping with the garden about 2-3 years ago as it was just getting too wild.
I am going to keep mowing the grass once a week (mainly because i am in love with my mower) until i can see slowing in the growth. During the winter i am going to look into getting it rolled, there are about 10 years of mole holes that have grown over so it's very lumpy bumpy.
Dan x
Oh my! So you have a huge job both outside and inside to do then? Wow. Keep us posted with everything!
What a lovely place you live in. Its looks as if it going to be like Homes Under the Hammer with before and after pictures. We have stayed in St Austell many times and other parts of Cornwall, beautiful place. It must be lovely to have blank canvas, I am very impress with what you have done so far. Do keep us updated on your progress.
Good Luck