Garden Railway Construction
I got permission from the boss to build a garden railway in our backyard largely because I am going to put it in the previously uncivilized portion of the yard. So, step one is to civilize the wild parts.
A couple of years ago, I began an ivy eradication project. There must have been 1,000 square feet of ivy, which made that area useless for anything. So, repeated applications of Bayer Advanced Brush Killer has wiped out most of the ivy and some other brush from our yard. (I’m on my 3rd container of Brush Killer.)
Now, I could tackle the wild iris, pyracantha, hawthorn and blackberry canes. Here’s a couple of before photos:
You can see the wild iris on the left, and the massive tangle of brush that I had to contend with. Note also the remnants of (very sickly) ivy. After about a month, here is my progress: 
I still have quite a bit of brush, but it is no longer attached to the ground. And I’ve beaten the iris back to less than half what it was. In a few weeks, the sticks and iris will all be gone.
Note the progress on the wild iris (before and after, above), and the elimination of some holly sticks that were left after the brush killer. As a bonus, friends are taking the dug-up iris away to plant on their property.
Update: Here is the garden area, almost bare ground where there was all that ivy and brush. This represents two to three months of hacking and raking.
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