This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Rookie Gardener
Whitey Ford
Posts: 1
I've recently come back from working as a gardener in Sicily and I've caught the gardening bug. So I've decided to help a family member out and completely clear their garden so it's at least in maintainable without any real hard work.
I haven't really got any real experience in this kind of work but I have cleared all the weeds from the garden before, leaving it dug over but unfortunately it wasn't maintained so this time I would like to do a proper job.
I've included some photos to show the state of the garden now, I'd just like some advice and how to take it from the stage it is at now to a point where (probably next year) I can start planting into the weedless borders.
Grazie!
0
Posts
In fact you did do a proper job the first time if you got rid of all the weeds and dug it over. What assurancesdo you have this time that it will be maintained? If you have no confirmation that it will be then I would just stop where you are and spend your energy and time on something else.
if you want maintenance to be easy in the future I would check the fencing to see if it need replacing (at least the posts) nothing worse than trying to replace panels when there are plants in front and climbing on them. By the fact that some are being held up by bit of wood makes me think the posts have rotted.
next ask the family member how much work they are willing to actually do in the garden, pruning, weeding, lawn mowing etc. this will give you and idea of how much work will actually be done and how easy maintenance it will need to be (some peoples idea of easy maintenance is different to other peoples)
once the fencing has been checked I'd get climbers like clematis or honeysuckle on them (only need pruning once a year really) - use wires between the posts rather than trellis as its easier to maintain.
I'd make sure there is a defined boundary between lawn and border - you can get plastic edging, this stops the grass invading the border.
then I'd get herbaceous perennials in the beds (they die down to the ground in winter - you can even run a mower over some on a high setting in autumn - do some research!)
and most importantly I would mulch around the plants with something like woodchip to a decent depth (3-4 inches) I would put wet newspaper underneath it as it will rot down over time but stop perennial weeds coming through
I agree with Treehugger.
Also, from the look of things there's a pretty wild wilderness the other side of the fence. I'd put down some sort of vertical root barrier along the base of the fence ... around 18" deep if possible, but at least 12" .... to help slow down the invading hordes.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.