Clearing an Abertillery Garden With Rear Lane Access

Overgrown terrace gardens are common in Abertillery. A plot that climbs the valley side is hard to keep on top of, and once bramble, ivy and self-sown trees get going, the top half can disappear altogether. Add an old shed, a broken greenhouse and years of odds and ends, and it is hard to know where to start.

The good news is that many of these gardens back onto a lane, and that lane is the key to a tidy clearance. This guide explains how we clear an Abertillery garden from the back, what usually turns up, and how to leave it ready for whatever comes next. Our garden clearance page covers the service across South Wales, and our landscaping in Abertillery page shows what these gardens can become once they are clear.

Start from the gate and work outwards

On a long, narrow plot the order of work matters. We normally begin at the lane gate and clear a working area there first, so there is room to stack, cut and load. From there we work back across the garden, opening a path as we go, so every armful has a clear route out.

Where the lane is at the top of the garden, that means clearing downhill and carrying waste back up. Where it is at the bottom, gravity helps with the carrying, but we have to watch that cut material does not slide into the neighbours' plots. Either way, we avoid dragging brambles and rubble through areas we have already cleared.

What we tend to find in a valley terrace garden

Every garden is different, but some things turn up again and again behind the older terraces:

• Bramble, ivy and bindweed covering the upper levels and climbing the back walls
• Self-seeded trees such as sycamore and ash growing out of banks and wall tops
• Old coal bunkers, outside toilets or lean-tos, some in poor repair
• Rotten timber sheds and greenhouses with broken glass
• Piles of old slabs, bricks and rubble from earlier building work
• Household items that have ended up outside over the years

Some of this we can take and some we cannot. Paint, chemicals, gas bottles and some building materials need to go by other routes. Old corrugated roof sheets on sheds and lean-tos can contain asbestos, which must be dealt with separately under its own rules, so we will point it out rather than break it up. Our guide on what can and cannot go in a garden clearance has the full list.

Loading without blocking the lane

Rear lanes behind terraces are shared, and neighbours still need to get cars, bikes and bins through. We park so the lane stays passable where we can, load as we clear rather than building a pile by the gate, and keep the working area swept at the end of each day.

Bulky green waste is cut down into manageable pieces before it leaves the garden, which makes it easier to carry on steps and quicker to load. Heavy material such as rubble and old slabs goes in smaller loads, because a barrow full of stone on a steep path is not something to rush. If a large skip will not fit in the lane, we load straight into our own vehicle instead.

Old sheds, walls and outbuildings

Taking down a rotten shed or a collapsing lean-to is a normal part of clearing an Abertillery garden. We dismantle it by hand, keep glass and sharp fixings safe, and take it out through the lane with everything else. Our guide to shed and outbuilding clearance explains more.

Be careful with old garden walls. Some that look like rubbish are actually holding the ground up behind them, and taking them away could let the slope slip. We will tell you if a wall is doing a structural job before anything is removed, and if one is failing, read our guide on replacing a collapsing garden wall in Abertillery.

Trees, hedges and nesting season

A clearance often includes cutting back trees and hedges that have grown out of control at the top of the plot. Before any heavy cutting, it is worth checking whether a tree is protected, and between spring and late summer we look for nesting birds before clearing thick cover. There is more in our guide to overgrown tree and hedge work in Abertillery.

Roots are worth a thought too. Grubbing out every stump on a steep bank can loosen the soil, so where a slope is going to be planted rather than built on, we sometimes cut stumps low and leave the roots to hold the ground. Where a patio, wall or lawn is planned, the stumps and major roots usually need to come out.

Leaving the garden ready for the next step

A good clearance is not just about emptying the space. Once the growth is gone, you can finally see the true shape of the slope, the state of the walls and steps, and where the sun falls. That is the best time to plan what comes next, whether that is a simple tidy-up, new turf, a stepped patio or a full redesign.

If you are clearing to sell or let the house, our guide on clearing a garden before selling or letting has some extra pointers. If you are keeping it, doing the clearance and the building work in one go means the lane only gets busy once. Our guide on getting materials into an Abertillery back garden explains how the building side is planned.

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