Gardening for busy/lazy people...

[PPP]

I hate gardening, even more than cleaning the car or tidying the garage, however our garden is a real mess as we didn’t really touch it last year.

Is there any easy way of clearing all the weeds and grass from the borders? We are  bordered on three sides by arable farms and a wild flower meadow so we end up with all sorts of weird stuff in the borders, including a decent crop of OSR one year..

Also, any suggestions of low maintenance plants?

Thanks!

[Flyboy1950]

If you cant beat em join em. Plant wild meadow flowers in your borders, they grow easily enough from seeds. The best tip I can give you is strim your lawn borders both top and sides before mowing your lawns, then your lawn mower picks up the strimmings as you mow. I have used this tip for years as I hate it all to. Failing that use industrial strength Roundup from your local friendly farmer and put that on your boarders, next to nothing will grow, its far stronger than the stuff you get in the Diy stores. Am seriously thinking of getting Astro turf down as it is so good these days. Just treat once a year with weed killer, sorted.

Good luck

FB

Edited April 14, 2018 by Flyboy1950

[Walker570]

Glyphosate is pretty good. Start again with a clean sheet.

 

Alternatively after the glypho, grass every inch and invest in one of those little auto mowers. Sit back with a beer.

Edited April 14, 2018 by Walker570

[Winston72]

get  a goat

[PPP]

10 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Glyphosate is pretty good. Start again with a clean sheet.

 

Alternatively after the glypho, grass every inch and invest in one of those little auto mowers. Sit back with a beer.

I wondered about that, presumably if then mixed with fertiliser, top soil, etc the glypho will be diluted enough to Not be an issue

[Bigbob]

slab it or spray it put weed fabric down then chips 

[Medic1281]

8 minutes ago, PPP said:

I wondered about that, presumably if then mixed with fertiliser, top soil, etc the glypho will be diluted enough to Not be an issue

Glyphosate works on contact and isn’t residual in the soil so shouldn’t be an issue. 

[Dougy]

Glyphosate based weedkillers are virtually inert on contact of soil so not to worry. If it were me I would dose over a 2 month or 3 month period if there were allot of nettle or thistle. Then look into some shrubs good for ground covering and medium-sized. 

 

Get one of your farmer friends to get some, don't get it from a garden centres, it's like water. 

Edited April 14, 2018 by Dougy

[Walker570]

Once the glypho hits the ground it is neutral anyway.  You see the rape fields on farms suddenly go brown. That is because they have sprayed them off so easier to harvest.  Doesn't effect the seed at all.  If you were then to grass it all over you could simply cut it and if you don't like cutting grass then let one of those little machines do it for you. Not cheap but they are brilliant working day and night come rain come shine, even charge themselves.

Yes, as Dougy says get ome through your farmer friends.... mind he has to record the use of most if not all sprays these days.  The garden centre stuff is a) very expensive and b) no where near as effective.  If you have nightshade , bramble and even a heavy infestation of nettles you might need two or three applications to get it killed, but apart from a few dandelions and daisies the lawn should stay clear of weeds if kept mown.

WARNING!!!!   Spray on a dead calm day and watch for drift or overspray because glypho will also kill your neighbours favorite flowers if it as much as touches them and it doesn't take a lot believe me.

Edited April 14, 2018 by Walker570

[PPP]

Brill, thanks guys... I’d like to have borders amd don’t mind SOME ongoing work, just not the current ball ache!

[Dave at kelton]

Once you have got rid of the **** plant with perennials that come back each year and cover the ground. Things like perrennial geraniums are great like that. That way you just leave them to do what they do. This can produce a great looking cottage garden. Doesn't have to be expensive if you buy them cheap at places like homebase who clear out once they have flowered. All you need do then is cut the grass.

[Dougy]

1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

 

WARNING!!!!   Spray on a dead calm day and watch for drift or overspray because glypho will also kill your neighbours favorite flowers if it as much as touches them and it doesn't take a lot believe me.

Does a nice job on laylandii, I made a mistake of spraying a strong solution on a windy day and accidentally over sprayed my neighbours tree. 

[Jason_ox]

I use some roundup industrial strength (dads a farmer) on my drive to kill off the weeds etc. Well the neighbour had a habit of using my dropped kerb and edge of my drive to get onto his patch of front garden to clean his car etc. Needless to say his tyres picked up the roundup from my spraying and killed a lovely patch of his grass. I make a habit of doing it every few months, now he doesn’t use my dropped kerb any more  

[Muddy Funker]

Kill everything, returf everywhere. 

Then just have potted flowers and plants for interest, no beds to worry about.

We had railway sleepers as borders and put pots on these, dead easy to maintain.

[Ricko]

I used to be able to get 5 litres of Clinic Ace concentrated glyphosate weed killer from my local agricultural merchants. From what I remember, the weeds needs to be in a state of growing as the solution is absorbed through the leaves.