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Need help, first time gardener

Danwiseman383Danwiseman383 Posts: 1
in Garden design
I have this garden that we have recently moved into and the garden is horrible, I've removed most of the rocks, bricks and rubbish that was in there over the last week filled a whole skip so you can imagine how bad it was before, but it's very bumpy and uneven which is dangerous for the kids, also it's extremely patchy and looks very ugly. I have a low budget and all I want to do is rip out the weeds, level it with top soil and add grass seeds and make a niceish garden for the kids to play in. Will that be possible or will I need to rip up the garden first? I've included some pictures showing the front and back of the garden. Thanks for any help or advice I can get of you.

Posts

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    The usual answer if you want an easy to mow lawn, is to dig it all up, let it settle for several months, grade it so it slopes away from the house, sort any drainage issues etc etc. 

    It may not be the only answer though. 

    Have you been at the house long enough to see how the lawn drains? Are the patchy areas only because of foot traffic or signs of other issues?

    If it seems to drain OK, you could go for an easier approach of sheeting areas at a time with black plastic sheeting to kill weeds. It takes a while but I find it very effective, then rake it heavily and add top soil and level, then seed with a tough utility grass seed. The kids will have to stay off for a while for it to establish.


  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Difficult to do if you have kids who want to play out, especially in lockdown, it doesn't look a bad garden to me. I would only sink that big slab on the left hand side so the kids don't trip over it, remove and stack all the others right at the back into a corner and dig out the weeds there, then just keep mowing the lawn once a week. It will soon look a lot more presentable. If the bare patches remain because the kids are playing on it, sink more paving slabs there. If that doesn't appeal, you could just oversow the bare patches with grass seed but you would have to rope them off to keep the kids off until it grows - think 6 weeks. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I suppose you could do it in two stages. Do the back first and keep the children off it. When that's established, move all their stuff to the back and then do the front half. Youd need some sort of path to the back so they wouldn't trample the front in the second stage.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Putting a path down the garden might be sensible, unless you can arrange things so that people don't just walk up and down the same strip of grass, or it will always get worn out no matter what you do.
    If you don't want to dig up the lot and prepare from scratch:
    1. Cut down the long grass and weeds.
    2. Spike the bare areas and anywhere else where it's compacted with a garden fork (stick it in deep and wiggle backwards and forwards, repeat every few inches).
    3. See if the weeds grow back (some won't stand repeated cutting) and if so, dig out or treat with weedkiller (or use a lawn feed & weed) and give time to work (keeping the grass trimmed little and often to encourage it to thicken up).
    4. Loosen the surface on the bare/thin areas (fork lightly or rake hard to scuff it up).
    5. Put down some topsoil or compost on the bare/thin areas and seed. You can lightly overseed the rest as well, to help blend in the new areas as it's very unlikely that the new seed mix will be an exact match for the old.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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