Sad looking garden

bricksmasherqfCvX0El · May 2022

Hi all,

Would love some ideas to help fix my rather sad looking garden

Basically when we bought the house the garden was full of weeds and bushes, apart from the lawn pictured everything else was bushes or seeds. I pulled everything out as we wanted a blank canvas really.

So, we are on a budget and have longer terms plans for the garden one day, but anything you'd recommend for fixing the lawn, which is patchy, and has weeds either side of it, and the back which I weed constantly and its mostly. Soil and weeds. Would love to be able to control the weeds somehow

Thanks for any suggestions!

Fairygirl · May 2022

The best way to control weeds is to have lots of groundcover plants.
Grass can also be amended - if it's got dips and bumps, you can add some topsoil to level it and re seed. Possibly not the best time of year if you live in a very dry area. Fine in wetter ones, as it saves watering manually. If it's shady, it might be better not to bother with grass at all.

A photo or two would help though.

bricksmasherqfCvX0El · May 2022

Thanks I meant to upload a photo but forgot 😄

Will try and add some more soon

Fairygirl · May 2022

Ah - your pic wasn't there when I posted

The main thing is to decide where you want any planting - if you want that at all just now.
If not, clearing it and reseeding grass will at least give you a useable space until you know what you'd like to do. If you give it a cut, and when it regrows enough, you can then use a weed and feed type product to get rid of any weeds if there's too many to spot weed or remove by digging out. If there's some shrubby plants in there [it looks like there are] you'd need to dig those out. If you take some close ups you'll get an ID of those and whether they could be worth keeping.
If you do that first option [weed and feed] you'd need to wait around 4 to 6 weeks before looking at re sowing, but you can do the levelling out etc at that point.

punkdoc · May 2022

I've seen a lot worse.
If you filled up those planters, it would make a big difference.

Fire · May 2022

Put in some trees, shrubs and climbers, fill the planters, put in a good sized pond, get some large pots and you would have yourself a transformation.

GardenerSuze · May 2022

@bricksmasherqfCvX0El The very best gardens evolve over time. I wouldn't be in a hurry just have a long term idea of what you want over time and do things as an when you can. If you look around you may find some open gardens such as the NGS a good place to look for some bargain plants.

Fairygirl · May 2022

I think the planters have herbs in them @punkdoc. @bricksmasherqfCvX0El was asking recently about filling and planting them etc

Bit at a time - that's the best way. Enjoy getting your grass sorted, and do some planning over winter. It's also a good idea to have a look around your neighbourhood and see if anything takes your fancy. Most people are happy to answer any questions you might have too

bricksmasherqfCvX0El · May 2022

Thanks all, Yes the planters are waiting to be filled. I understimated the size of them so need some more compost (1 planter is done, 3 to go) and they will contrain mostly herbs and maybe small evergreen perennieals (any suggestions welcomed for 150x30x30 planters)

We'd like get the lawn sorted as a priority, and the soil area we'd like to have made into a little playb area for our daughter for when shes abit bigger.

I will have to look into the weed and feed, as ive not used products like that before, but if its easy enough, I will give it a go

Eventually we will get bit of decking down too, to cover the old crazy paving (cant see in photo)

Fairygirl · May 2022

What direction do the planters face? That will help with suggestions for your planter with perennials.

If you're planning on keeping plants permanently in any container, compost won't be hearty enough. You'll need a soil based medium. If you look in GCs or even just DIY stores, or whatever is easiest for you, you'll see composts which are John Innes mixes. They have a heartier mix which will sustain perennials better. Or, you can just buy some topsoil and mix some compost with it, and that will be fine for most plants.
For plants which like really sharp drainage though -many of the sun lovers do- it's worth adding some grit to the mix too.

Balgay.Hill · May 2022

You don't have a sad looking garden.
You have an enjoyable journey, as you take your time and transform it to the way you want it to be.
Make a general plan for the finished look, but only tackle one small area at a rime. Think about where you would like statement trees and shrubs, and work around that.

Sad looking garden

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