Some more photos of the 'garden' (I say that very loosely)

Well done to you and Beattie. It does look like a hawthorn tree. Is it in your garden or next door. The fence which needs to go appears to conceal a lot of the problems which seem to have escaped in to your garden. I would use brushkiller. It is a contact weedkiller so will get right down in to the roots. The bramble on the concrete side seems to be manageable if you kill it off now. The ivy growing throughyour hawthorn will eventually kill the tree because it excludes light from it. I would cut the ivy to ground level and treat new growth with the ivy killer.

Well done with th pics, you`ve certainly got plenty to do, but take it easy and with the advice from Scotsgran all can be overcome.

Thanks Scotgran....I didn't realize there was a separate ivy killer....I know the ivy chokes everything in it's path. We had it growing on the old fence (before the concrete one was put up in replacement and it used to get huge flower/seed heads on it and moved at a great clip across all that side of the garden. I've had brushkiller recommended by many of you so will make a trip to the garden centre to see about it. At the moment we have only used roundup but it is a tedious job with the kind of applicator we have...wondered if a watering can with a rose on it would be easier (but maybe too much concentrated weedkiller would be used?).

The ivy is currently holding up the back end of the fence on the concrete side and my plan was to let it continue to crawl but cut it back quite severely so it will cover just that old fencing (less expense).

Thanks for your tips and your message too Stroller.

LOL Whistonlass, what are you like! You need to rotate portrait format photos!! :-) Or we'll get neck-ache.
Careful how (if) you get rid of that corrugated stuff - it looks like asbestos cement to me. It'll need to go in a special skip at the tip. You'll need to look up how to handle it on t'internet - best handled wet I believe.

Sorry about the neck-ache, Beattie...I'll try not to do that again! You are right that the corrugated stuff is asbestos so needs to be wrapped up completely and then we need to arrange an appointment to take it to the special tip near to us. I'll check about handling it wet as I hadn't heard that before.

SG...you mention about that hawthorn bush and that it may belong to next door's property. Looking at it now I think you are right....I'll investigate the roots and see what I can see! lol

I am annoyed that the garden is not cleared satisfactorily as we had a gardener in during May and it was a costly exercise to have the garden cleared. I was not satisfied with his finished job and would never have him back again. He did take away the cuttings (and there were a lot as the garden was very overgrown but it needed more severe digging out and stronger weedkiller. Live and learn!

I think we could do with winning the lottery...lol....my imagination runs away with me!

LOL Remember us if you do win the lottery won't you. We all find problems from time to time but as Stroller says all can be overcome. As soon as you see a bit of foliage whichis unwelcome either use a spray or use a paintbrush to touch the foliage. There should be no need to waste it because any that runs off will be wasted. It needs to be absorbed and the plants may need several applications because if the roots supported large amounts of foliage they will be pretyy extensive under the ground. I have pm'd you

At least it shows what a truly neglected garden looks like. I shudder to think what it was like before it was 'cleared'. I hope you can follow up with some happy progress pictures and a lovely garden to show after all the hard work. It gave us great pleasure, in the past, to clear what was virtually an overgrown rubbish dump and make a lovely productive garden out of it. 8 old mattresses ,a couple of old fireplaces and loads of kitchen cabinets was a bit much!!!!!!

I wish I had taken photos of the garden in its worst state....it was terribly overgrown. The trouble is the gardener didn't take the growth back far enough. I have elderberry tree which he did prune down quite a bit (I wanted it completely out but hubby vetoed that!) and there is a second elderberry tree further down the garden on the same side as the dilapidated fence and the gardener has left quite a bit of the tree still there (suggesting that I let trailing plants and ivy 'cover' it). The trouble with the elderberry is that it sprouts up everywhere...ugh!

Dorjac...you discovered a lot under your weed patch it would seem...were you able to use the old fireplaces? They are quite in demand if cast iron....I bet they would look nice even placed somewhere in the garden as a feature.

Not those kind of fireplaces Whiston lass. Those with brick firebacks and tile surrounds......vile things. We found old chimney pots, a couple of old shallow stone sinks and two cart wheels, which his young son came and asked for. He was told that when they moved all the broken glass,brake cables, spark plugs, old tyres and car door handles scattered about.....he might get them back. We found old paths buried about a foot down under the turf. We had several clearance parties and some humungous bonfires. It was a big plot of land. There were 5 huge pear trees and an enormous cherry. We were younger then and enjoyed the challenge.

Hope you got to plant up the old chimney pots and stone sinks...good find :) Too bad the fireplaces weren't the 'good' kind...sounds fun....clearance parties and humungous bonfires. Hope you got to roast potatoes, marshmallows and frankfurters on at least one bonfire...lol

I put some photos up out of the album for you. Still have the chimney pots and sinks but left the cartwheels when we moved. We have very fond memories of that garden. Gruesome new neighbours and an offer we couldn't refuse levered us reluctantly out of our lovely garden. Too old now for all that big plot of land, plus original garden. At least when we moved we payed people to sort things out and stood and watched THEM do all the hard work.