Any flowers in the lawn will either be lawn weeds and will happily survive being cut anyway, or the grass has encroached on the borders, in which case the grass will swamp and get them eventually. I wouldnt worry too much about tiptoeing around things if its pretty out of control. Nettles will keep coming back, keep pulling them, try to get as much root as you can, and dont let them flower. They'll give up eventually. The bluebells will be deep bulb and not bothered but it, not bark clippings. A pair of shears, a pair of loppers, and dont be too tentative and its suprising how quickly you can feel youve made progress, especially at this time of year when things are growing like crazy. Plants are often more resilient than you think and will benefit from it. You may lose a few, but you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette
I think 90% of them are weeds, but the bees seem to like them. The bluebells were all over so they've all been dug up and re-planted, or just had the leaves taken off it they came away, I just went around the rhododendron I wanted to keep and pulled up everything else. I decided I'm going to put some low-level winter things in there too as the jasmines, rhododendron and the pampas grass are all quite tall.
I would focus on mapping and clearing up a bit, rather than planting. A garden, esp if it inspires enthusiasm and/or panic can rapidly become a money pit (and I should know). The best laid plans etc means the future can take odd turns. Pots sounds like a good idea for beloved new plants and there sounds like there are loads of beautiful plants already there. Fencing, walls, decking etc costs a bloomin' fortune. I'd say hold off doing anything expensive until next year at least.
It took ages to find, but this is a really good thread, covering many of the same issues. I would say the same things about neighbours, research and patience.
I think I've been watching too many of those makeover shows where they transform houses/gardens in less than a week!
I've told myself I'm not allowed to buy anything else until I've got the whole area I'm doing ready to plant, which will probably save a lot of money! I'm a sucker for a reduced price plant, especially towards the end of the year when you can pick stuff up for less than 20p.
That's a brilliant thread, thanks. Our neighbour has the most amazing massive cherry blossom tree that I adore, their garden is so perfectly manicured, it's just a pity they're not at all interested in socialising with us.
It sounds like you already have some lovely plants. I'd start by identifying exactly what you have and learning how to prune them and tidy them up. Then I'd focus on keeping on top of weeding and tidying up lawn edges - this makes a big difference to how tidy the garden looks.
This will give you chance to put a nice thick mulch on the borders at the end of summer before you've planted too much and you should have nice soil to plant in next year. This is one thing I did wrong - I was too eager to plant when I should have spent more time on soil prep.
If you like cottage style plants a lot of them are easy to get hold of cheaply from people you know, either from seed or division. Do you have any family that could help? I've got a few plants from my nans garden so it's saved me money and it's nice because it makes me think of her.
Any advice on making the lawn edges neat? I did contemplate using old roof tiles as I've found quite a lot of them in the soil, but I suspect they'd probably damage the lawn mower.
My grandparents had an amazing garden that I suspect I can probably scavenge a lot of things from, it's quite overgrown at the moment so I imagine taking some of it away would be appreciated.
Inviting them for tea is a nice idea, but they won't even acknowledge me when I say hi. Not sure an invitation is going to be appreciated.
We just edge ours with a half moon edge cutter and trim the grass with edging shears. The only thing with this way is you gradually lose bits of lawn as the edges start to need neatening up.
If you have any bits where the edges have collapsed you can cut that part out and turn it around so that the new fresh edge is on the outside and the collapsed bit is in the lawn. Then you can just fill the gap with compost and seed it.
I didn't want to use anything that sticks up above the mower, my mum has done this and it's more difficult to keep the grass neat by the edging.
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I've told myself I'm not allowed to buy anything else until I've got the whole area I'm doing ready to plant, which will probably save a lot of money! I'm a sucker for a reduced price plant, especially towards the end of the year when you can pick stuff up for less than 20p.
That's a brilliant thread, thanks. Our neighbour has the most amazing massive cherry blossom tree that I adore, their garden is so perfectly manicured, it's just a pity they're not at all interested in socialising with us.
This will give you chance to put a nice thick mulch on the borders at the end of summer before you've planted too much and you should have nice soil to plant in next year. This is one thing I did wrong - I was too eager to plant when I should have spent more time on soil prep.
If you like cottage style plants a lot of them are easy to get hold of cheaply from people you know, either from seed or division. Do you have any family that could help? I've got a few plants from my nans garden so it's saved me money and it's nice because it makes me think of her.
My grandparents had an amazing garden that I suspect I can probably scavenge a lot of things from, it's quite overgrown at the moment so I imagine taking some of it away would be appreciated.
Inviting them for tea is a nice idea, but they won't even acknowledge me when I say hi. Not sure an invitation is going to be appreciated.
If you have any bits where the edges have collapsed you can cut that part out and turn it around so that the new fresh edge is on the outside and the collapsed bit is in the lawn. Then you can just fill the gap with compost and seed it.
I didn't want to use anything that sticks up above the mower, my mum has done this and it's more difficult to keep the grass neat by the edging.