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Help!?

Samantha-amyxxSamantha-amyxx Posts: 5
in Problem solving
Hey guys.. 
I need some help/advice on where to start in my garden?
its kind of been neglected over the few years. (Although I generally don’t know why I have a little fence near a big fence)
and I’m not too sure what to do with it when I’ve sorted it. 
Here’s a photo off what It looks like 
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Posts

  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Hello, welcome to the forum  :)
    That's a weird arrangement with the fence cutting off that narrow bit of land, l hope there wasn't some kind of boundary dispute in the past. It's possible that your next door neighbour on the right sold the land perhaps.  Is the land higher on that side ? It might be worth having a word with them to see if they know anything about it, and check your deeds.
    If you're sure it's yours, the first thing l would do is take it down, then take some measurements and draw a plan. It doesn't have to be fancy. Work out which direction is North (l'm pretty sure there's an app somewhere !)
    Next thing, have a think about you want to use your garden for. Do you want to grow veg, and/or flowers? Do you want a lawn? Where's the best place for the washing line and the bins? What about a patio or some kind of seating area (bearing in mind that it doesn't have to be right outside the house, and you may want two, one that catches the morning sun and one the evening sun, if you're lucky).
    That should do for starters,  you've come to the right place for advice ! 
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    It's helpful to know a bit about your soil, because some plants are picky! and no-one want to waste time and money on plants that are never going to like your conditions.  Is it clay (tiny particles), sandy (big particles) or the ideal loam (inbetween, or a mixture)?  It's easy to tell, take a handful of your soil, moisten it, and try to mould it into a ball.  If you can't, your soil is sandy.  If you can, it's clay.  If you can mould it into a ball, but it falls apart at a touch, lucky you, you've got loam.  Clay soil retains water in winter, and bakes hard in summer.  Sandy soil is free-draining so in dry weather you spend a lot of time watering.

    Soils can be acid, alkaline or neutral, and the only way to find out is to test it.  You can buy a testing kit for about £10 but first ask around your neighbours.  Ask the ones with well-kept gardens, they are most likely to know!  
  • Samantha-amyxxSamantha-amyxx Posts: 5
    Thank you for the reply guys! 
    As far as I know.. the big fence is my side.. and the previous tenants wanted to make a vegetable patch of some sort.. 
    I was thinking in removing the whole thing.. I think there’s like concrete underneath the leafs and everything else.. so I’m thinking in removing it..
    and then put raised wooden flower beds along there? Including lavender and roses..
    in the corner at the far back on the right side I was thinking in making that as a chilled/dining? I don’t know if that seems like a good idea? 
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    Things like lavender and roses like sunshine , so it depends on whether that's a suitable location  :).
    Start with the plan and which way's North, sketch out what you'd like (don't worry, it doesn't have to be a work of art), post it on here and we'll go from there  :)
  • Samantha-amyxxSamantha-amyxx Posts: 5
    Lovely thank you! Is there an app!? For me to tell where’s north? 
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    Look for your house on google maps they are orientated so the top of the image
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • Samantha-amyxxSamantha-amyxx Posts: 5
    Butterfly66 said:
    Look for your house on google maps they are orientated so the top of the image
    It doesn’t say!? Just two arrows either side? 
  • Mrs-B3-Southampton,-HantsMrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants Posts: 732
    Do you happen to know where the sun rises and sets? It may not be dead accurate but that will give you East and West and therefore North and South.
    Southampton 
  • FlyDragonFlyDragon Posts: 834
    There is a compass app, I used it when I was viewing houses a few years ago!  Just put compass as a search term on your App Store. 
  • Samantha-amyxxSamantha-amyxx Posts: 5
    edited May 2020
    This is in my kitchen facing towards me garden? Does that help? 
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