Weedkiller

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Can anyone recommend a fast acting, kill everything weedkiller? We want to clear our overgrown garden (about 1-3' high at moment) which is currently a mixture of thorns, grass, weeds, shrubs and sprouting bulbs and create a rubber chip play area for the kids & a bit of new lawn. I used B&Q's fast acting weedkiller 4 days ago but it's hardly done anything, just singed the tops and smaller weeds.
 
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Can't say I have but I know how he feels! Ours is more weeds than garden though, a bit of a wilderness. Not entirely sure how to tackle it really but thought if we could use an industrial strength weedkiller first it would buy some time to clear the rubble & trees we cut down last year before it really gets out of control. (Initially I thought a flamethrower but I'm not sure thats allowed :LOL: ). Or is it best just to strim it all down & use one of those lawn strippers & a skip before rotivating?
 
if you don't intend to plant on it for a good few years, then sodium hyperchlorate ( sp? ) does a good job... kills indiscriminately though..

efectively "salt the earth" so nothing grows...

don't know how fast it all dies though, and you'll be left with the dead thorns and weeds anyway you do it.. still gotta cut it all down after..

the flamethrower might work with a minor adjustment... :LOL:
start several small fires at strategic points and burn it all down.. just have the hose ready for when the fence catches..
 
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Ah well, we don't have a fence because it was our neighbours. It fell down last year but she hasn't replaced it, so fire shouldn't be a problem! :LOL:
I don't want to plant as such, just rubber chippings & gravel mainly but I would like a bit of new lawn in one area. Would I be able to lay it on top? Or maybe if I dug the surface out & replaced with a bit of top soil? Would rotivating it help? It would need rotivating afterwards anyway because its uneven at the moment.
 
see if you can rent a goat or two for a week.. they should have it pretty much back to dirt by the end of it? ;)
 
I'm a bit confused now that I've read other posts about weedkiller so maybe someone can clarify it for me please?

As far as I can gather the only sure fire way to get rid of brambles for good is to use weedkiller. My 'lawn' is interspersed with brambles, moss, weeds and unwanted bulbs. We chopped them all down last year using a hedge trimmer but unsurprisingly they're back. The problem is that I want to relay lawn over part of this area. Now I also gather that once I've used weedkiller I can't plant on it for several years or the replanted lawn will just die. So, can I overcome this problem by rotivating that area after the weeds have died? Or maybe dig it out and put some new topsoil down? Or will I just have to cover it with tarp & wait a few years? I'd really like to get the garden sorted this year if possible so that my kids have somewhere to play. We were flooded and the garden has been an overgrown builders yard for 18 months. The kids have been so patient (their swing/slide etc have been still new in the box in the garage all this time) but I don't want them spending another summer indoors.
 
spray the area with a good quality systemic weedkiller like roundup. It gets into the roots of the weeds and kills them off. it is harmless to the ground. You may have to dig out the brambles as they are quite resitatnt to most chemicals.

after that you can dig over or rotovate the ground. leave it for a few weeks to let any disturbed seeds etc regerminate and apply the weedkiller again. AFter that you can go about getting ready to put the new lawn down. I would always recomend bringing in some decent sandy loam before you lay the lawn, and it sounds like tha garden needs it after the treatment it has had over the past few years! If you are turfing the area, that will also help to suppress any new weeds
 
Thank you Thermo. I vaguely remember using round up before and thinking it was quite effective. Would laying some weed barrier under the turf help or is that a waste of time/money?
 
the only barrier you could lay is plantex, but that needs to go under the loam. If youve got a picture of the garden post it and lets see how bad the weeds are
 

Ok so you'll probably need notes with this :LOL:

The garden comprises of a rectangle which is a concrete patio area next to the house, overgrown L shaped lawn, double eyesore of a garage, old concrete shed base where cherry tree is and overgrown area to rear of garage and other side of garage.

The plan is to run a kids rubber chipped play area behind the garage right across the full width of garden to the tree. Then a lawned area bordered with pavers next to the garage. A decked area where the patio is and extending about 6' further towards the garage. Finally a gravelled area in front of the garage/shed for the washing and gravelled strip to the other side of garage. Ideally we would like to demolish the garage & use the base for a patio but we think it's a major job best left to someone else and probably couldn't afford it. Also, our neighbour isn't doing anything about her fence so it looks like we'll have to pay for that too :rolleyes:
 
look sentirley managable if you do what i recomended above, weve dealt with a lot worse than that. dont buy the ready mixed round up, and make sure you leave it to do its job, dont be impatient. just use a decent weed fabric under all the areas, but i wouldnt bother on the lawn
 
That's great, thanks. It was a lot worse than this but we spent 3 days at the end of last summer cutting down trees, brambles, shrubs & clearing the rubbish the builders left (2 skip loads full which we had to pay for!). we're actually quite pleased with how it looks now :D
 

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