Preparing the Ground

There are mixed opinions as to where to start, whether to dig over the ground first, or to apply your mulch directly, after cutting back all surface growth. Since we are starting will land that has run wild for years, for me the decision was easy.

We have bramble, couch grass, masses of ivy in the shadier sections, a little nettle, a great variety of weeds I don’t recognise, and, over much of the plot, bindweed. Bindweed will regrow from fairly small root remnants, so when I find roots like the one pictured, an inch across and running over several yards, my top priority is to get rid of them before I plant.