Following my little rant yesterday, I got to thinking about the poor people who buy a house from one of these ignorant fools and thus inherit one of the neglected, overgrown gardens I talked about in yesterday’s article.

I inherited something along these lines a few years ago and it’s a daunting task even deciding where to start, so here’s a list of priorities to help:

Things you’ll need

• A thick pair of gloves
• A petrol strimmer / mechanical sythe
• MP3 player (this is going to take some time)

When to start

The best time is probably autumn or winter because the foliage is weak at this time, although the roots are still growing.  Failing that, just get stuck in now

What to use

If it’s very dense, use a mechanical sythe.  You won’t be able to get a lawnmower through it so use a petrol strimmer.  Once all the overgrowth has come away, you’ll find the grass is all yellow and half dead underneath.  Depending on the time of year, give it a boost with some evergreen or something similar.  Then tackle the hedges if there are any, again you’ll need a strong strimmer

Flowerbeds

Next pull out all the weeds and cut back the bushes.  You probably won’t be able to tell weeds from plants so it may all need to come out.  Then you’ll probably need to get some topsoil and recover all the beds.  You can get it cheaper if you buy it in bulk

You’d be amazed what you’ll discover under all that growth, you could find kids toys, piles of bricks, old pet houses - even a garage!  So be careful with that strimmer.