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The other morning, whilst lying in bed, my husband and I decided it was time to make a start on the garden. He was very excited to go out and buy some wood to build the veg boxes. After discussing, we realised we would be jumping the gun a little bit. We had a much bigger problem to tackle first… 

When we first moved in, we had a small tidy up of the garden. My husband mowed the lawn and we gathered plant pots left by the previous owners. When I say “we”, I actually mean my husband – I was 36 weeks pregnant at the time! Then our little girl was born in May, which meant we were a little preoccupied over the summer and the garden had to wait. 

It turns out, this was a blessing in disguise. By letting the garden grow free, we were able to discover what plants already existed, and what weeds needed to be dealt with. 

We discovered that bindweed has taken over our garden. According to our neighbour, this is what’s making our lawn bumpy. Plus, because of their deep roots, removing the dandelions that cover our garden is going to be hard work.

Essentially, we need to overturn the grass areas of our garden and start afresh, otherwise any veg boxes or flowerbeds will quickly be overrun by weeds.

Getting the job started 

In order to make the project doable, and a little less overwhelming, we’ve mentally split our garden into four parts: Veg patch, section opposite the veg patch, flower beds, and the rest of the garden. We’re starting with the veg patch – roughly 3m x 5m – with a hope to have boxes ready for planting in spring.

Our immediate aim is to dig up the area by hand and remove as many roots as possible. We’ll be trying to avoid the use of chemicals during this whole process to protect the wildlife in the soil, plus it keeps the garden ecosystem healthier overall.

We are on day five of digging and about a quarter of the way through the patch. Here’s what I’ve learned so far: 

• Dandelion roots go deep! We’ve dug about one foot down and still haven’t gotten to the bottom of some of them. 
• Free medicine. Did you know about the health benefits of dandelion roots? Chucking them all away feels like I’m wasting free medicine – perhaps I’ll make some tea with it in the coming weeks. 
• Bindweeds roots travel far! Not usually as deep as dandelions, but tug one root and there’s movement over a metre away. 
• An irritatingly intelligent plant. I read somewhere that if you leave any part of a bindweed in the ground, it will grow again – you need to be thorough with your digging! 

Any advice is appreciated

So far it’s been enjoyable getting our hands into the dirt and having an excuse to get outside – even though we’re getting less and less daylight in the evenings now!

But it’s also been a bit of an eye opener of just how much work we have to do. We’ve made good progress, but when you compare it to the rest of the garden? We have a very long way to go. 

If you’ve ever battled bindweed, dandelions, or just the chaos of an unkempt garden, I’d love to hear your tips. How did you survive your first digging adventure?

An update on our digging, and some discovered roots:

If you can identify the last two photos, please help!