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Small garden where only weeds grow
lisap93
Posts: 3
Hi. I live in a 2 bedroom terraced house with a smallish garden. I'm a single mum to a 2 year old boy and would like to prepare my garden ready for next year. At the moment the whole garden is basically just mud, nothing seems to grow there but weeds. I thought of slabbing or having grass laid down but seems very costly when all I really want is a space for my son to play. What would be the best way to sort the problem and also is their a reason why grass dosnt grow there that I'm not figuring out? We've lived here for nearly 3 years and it did turn into one big jungle at one point until I paid someone to get rid of it and the weeds have started coming back but I'm fairly sure I can manage getting rid of that myself
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If weed grow to be a "big jungle" then you can get plants to grow there.
You need to plan what you want. With a little one, you'll probably want a bit of lawn to sit / play on,but it's your garden, it's up to you.
Once you've decided what you want, work on one bit at a time, be it having a patio done, or a lawn , then move onto another bit.
Few of us create our dream garden overnight. so don't beat yourself up about it not being perfect immediately.
Yes - definitely a few pix will help us with suggestions Lisa
With a small child, having somewhere for him to run about is probably the most important thing, but as Philippa says, if the ground is generally wet and muddy, it may be tricky to successfully have grass. Shade and heavy, badly drained soil are often the main reasons for grass failing to thrive. It can often be sorted, but more info will help.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi hi sorry I should have been more specific (you can tell I'm new to this gardening business haha). So this is what my garden was when it was all completely cleared of weeds etc. It's all just soil and from what I can tell no grass seems to grow the only thing that comes through is weeds. All I really want is a flat lawn just to put a slide and some garden toys out for my son to play when theirs nice weather. Slabbing/laying grass down seems quite pricey from what I've gathered. I have thought about laying grass seeds down and seeing what will happen with that but not sure where I would begin? Just looking for some tips on what I can do to make it a low maintenance garden but somewhere to enjoy watching my son play. I have thought about just continuing to remove the weeds each time they grow threw and keeping it how it is with some potted plants around the sides just to add some colour but not sure what to do as I have no idea when it comes to gardening. My last house was all decking and before that I was in an apartment
Last edited: 03 November 2017 16:20:51
Hi Lisa, does it get any sun? If so, is it sunny down the bottom of the garden where the wall is, or which bit?
Something tells me looking at those trees over the wall and to the right of your bottom photo that it's quite a shady place.
Last edited: 03 November 2017 16:32:53
Hi Lisa,
From those pics it seems you have a high wall at the end of the garden with tall shrubs trees beyond, to the left you have a large tree in the nieghbouring property, to the right a conifer(s) and then the house. From that I would think that the garden being in the shade is the biggest challenge. The soil doesn't look too wet, just devoid of grass. How are the gardens of your neighbours? Do they have grass? What is the aspect / direction your garden faces?
If it is shade then I think grass is going to be a real challenge. Might be a case for some hard landscaping or artificial turf.
No worries Lisa - we all had to start somewhere!
The problem is - if you don't maintain grass, eventually weeds take over, so that's probably what's happened. I'd garee with the others that there's probably a fair old bit of shade with the trees/shrubs down the far end, and that conifer. I'd be inclined to get that out too - it'll give you more scope, whether it's for a seating area near the house, or planting.
If grass is going to be difficult, and bearing in mind the little 'un, artificial grass might be the best option. Paving gets slippy in shade, and gravel isn't ideal for playing on.
Alternatively, you could do a barked area for him - slide/swing etc, and have gravel/paving near the house for sitting/dining. That would be fairly inexpensive, and you could do most of that yourself fairly easily. A small area of paving would also be good for toys like building blocks, cars and so on. Sand pits always go down well too, and you could incorporate something like that nearby. That can be converted to a planting area when he's older.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
That could be a nice space in time, without having to spend too much if you are prepared to do some of it yourself.
It looks reasonably level, as far as one can judge from a photo, so could be made into a lawn fairly easily next spring. Wrong time of year to start now using seed, which is the cheapest way, so best to leave it for now, as not much will grow over winter, but make some plans and get ready to start when the weather warms up a little.You might want a bit of a patio and/or a path so your little boy can use a trike or toy cars and so on more easily, and so you can hang the washing out without getting muddy feet when it's wet
A couple of other things - the bit at the bottom right hand side of the garden needs the soil moving away from the fence to leave a gap, or the wood will rot very quickly, and you probably don't need the expense of replacing it, if it is yours, or getting the neighbour annoyed if it is not!
And the conifer tree could potentially be a problem - can't see how big it is, but it will get bigger quite fast and block a lot more light and cost more to deal with the bigger it gets. It might be a bit too near the house for comfort too.
You will get plenty of helpful advice on here and no-one minds answering questions!
Thank to you guys. I do actually have quite a few Slavs and can get some more cheaply as my sons dad is a groundsworker (it's just getting him to actually do it after a long week at work) and after reading your replies was thinking maybe the bottom half of the garden could be slabbed to a point and the rest where we get quite a bit of light i could lay some grass seeds and kind of see what happens. From what I've researched laying seeds has to be done around march time, also what toold would be handy to get to lay the seeds down?
Grass seed needs soil temps of 9C+ typically to germinate so I would leave it till the end of March depending on what part of the country you are in. We often get some nice warm days in March but night time temps drop and this stop-start cycle doesn't help the process. Ideally you want a spell of settled temperatures. You can buy seed which is somewhat shade-tolerant so I would definitely use this.
As for tools, you could do with a spring rake to break-up the surface and give the seeds somewhere to bed-in. You might want to take the opportunity to level any high or low spots with some topsoil. If you have pigeons in the area you might need to take some prevention measures for them eating your newly sown seed.
I think if you lay some topsoil on the top, the grass seed would take better. The seed will take a while to germinate and grow in but it's not that hard to establish if you are patient. If in the spring you go out with a hoe or rake and get rid of the weeds that are there, spread out some topsoil from bags and then sow seed (you can buy seed to be hard-wearing and to be OK in shade) and then you just have to be patient, it should be fine.