[macgro7]

I have a large rockery area which is in the most sunny part of the garden. People who used to live here before us haven't done anything to it so it's overgrown - thick grass, brambles, three massive rose bushes.
I have roses under control now but have no idea what to do about the grass. Sprayed it with roundup last year and this spring but it still looks the same. You can't really now it because of the rocks, tried with strimmer but it's not really working in long term.
Digging it over is very difficult as it's very hard compacted Leicestershire clay.
I planted some wild artichokes which have covered all the grass around them but we would like some more flowers and things which are smaller than artichokes (2 metres tall and covering the bedroom window!)
I'm thinking of planting some rhubarb and other plants with large leaves

What do you suggest?

[doganjo]

I had a similar problem - spoil heap from building a conservatory.  weeds galore and subsoil.  I spot sprayed nettles, grass, clover etc with weedkiller and vinegar alternately for a week, then when withering covered with bags of compost and planted groundcover in large clumps.(creeping jenny, Bugle), scattered poppy seeds, aquilegia seeds.   Every time I spotted another nettle popping through I sprayed again.  Then I planted bulbs, corms etc and a couple of shrubs - at last it's looking resonable but it's taken concentrated effort.

[Fleecewife]

Is it a proper landscaped rockery, or just a pile of rocks dumped higgledy-piggledy, plum pudding style?
Do you want to keep it as a rockery, or would you be happy to eliminate it and use it as, perhaps, a shrubbery, or for veg?  Have a good think about how you want it to look in the end, without being ruled by what was somebody else's vision many moons ago.


I'm going to say what I think you probably don't want to hear.  You can never get rid of couch and brambles from a pile of stones, or a properly designed rock garden either.  It becomes a never-ending war, the garden never looks right, and you will never be satisfied with it.


My suggestion is that this winter you dig out any plants you want to keep, make sure there are no perennial roots tangled with theirs, and plant them out somewhere else, or pot them up in buckets to put back once the work is done.   Then, dismantle the whole pile, remove it, dump it on the furthest bit of your land, or use it to reinforce a path, or whatever.
Then you have a flat piece of land, in the sunniest part of the garden, which is a blank canvas.


How about making an area where you can sit out for a coffee, lunch or to entertain friends?   Surround it with a couple of large beds filled with low maintenance perennials and ground cover, lovely scented flowers and so on, maybe climbers up an arch.  Suddenly your eyesore has become a lovely feature.
If you can use machinery to help you clear away what was there before, then it could be done in just a few days of hard work, but it would absolutely be worth the effort. 

[cloddopper]

Unfortunately for me most of the rockery's I've been involved with they were dogs graves under all manner of household rubbish & broken up concrete paths .

The worst was an old stonemason's yard .........  lovely rockery with huge stone & concrete blocks & iron work under a few inches of landscaped soil .

So take care when digging in the rockery , there  could be anything in there including lots of broken milk , beer & wine bottles

[Steph Hen]

Oh no! Quite negative replies - I'm afraid mines similar: mine was full of couch grass, ground elder, nettles, etc. I sprayed and pulled and dug for five years, but in the end dug it out. It hammered it in the first year and every spring, one year I ketp on wth roundup sprays, but always came back.  In theory repete sprays, then dig out roots of or spot spot treat any regrowth, but I spent SO many hours battling it and lost :-(