Where do i start?
Jollygreenshorty
Posts: 2
I am new to gardening and I am looking for some help with my garden. The current state of the garden is bad! I purchased my house in 2013 and have been renovating it since then, apart from moving the shed to the back of the garden I have not done anything else as I have been working on the interior of the house.
Now that I am nearly finished inside, I would like to spend some time sorting the garden out. Items I would like for the garden are:
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New patio area
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Veg patch to the rear
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Lawn in between patio and veg patch
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Paved or gravelled path to the shed
I need help and advice on:
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how to clear down the existing vegetation
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how best to start growing some veggies
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how to put a lawn in – seed/turf?
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Which order to start things in
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How to do everything in a cost effective way
Any help and advice would be very much appreciated. I am generally quite a handy person and not afraid to get stuck in. Thanks everyone.
Posts
You will get plenty of good advice here I'm sure but one thing I will say is to think of all your needs in the planning stage to save you time, money and trouble, for example, do you need electrics at the end of the garden and a water tap maybe instead of all that can carrying? The choices are your but it's helpful to really think what is practical
Good luck, best time to be starting
Thank you - that is not something I thought of however I do have an outside tap on the side of the house so presumably a hose pipe would be sufficient for my needs
Plan it all out (draw on paper) and tackle one small section at a time and do that small section well, is my advice. That way you can see progress and not become disheartened, which can easily happen when weeds start growing back etc. Personally, I would prepare the veg area first by digging it over and removing every bit of root you find. Then mulch it with a good few inches of well-rotted farmyard manure (you can buy this bagged from garden centres these days, if you can't find any advertised in your local newspaper etc.) As you want that at the far end, doing the hard work and carrying now will save you trampling over areas which you have already renovated. After that I'd get the path in, which will help define the rest of the garden. Curvy paths always work best in my experience in rectangular gardens.
Have a look at my allotment in the forum/garden design /work in progress you might get some ideas off what i did.And before you say ALLOTMENT ha ha it's not your typical run of the mill allotment.
Most of what i did was made from pallets and a lick of quality paint makes it look the part.
Hope this helps
Baz
As Bob says design first. Then hard landscape ie the path to the shed. Whilst your'e doing the hard landscape strim the grass area down then spray with a glyphosate based weedkiller(It's easier than digging). Then the patio needs to go down. By the time that's done, the weed killer will have had time to work(about 2 - 4weeks).
Once the hard landscape is finished you dig or rotovate area and prepare the surface for the lawn. Seed or turf is up to your budget. It should be April by then, perfect for either seed or turf.
If your'e having a veg patch consider a greenhouse for more growing options.
By May you could be sowing your first seed and it should be plant selection time.
Hiring a machine to remove the turf from the areas you want to plant will be a big impact in a short space of time. Definitely plan on paper what you want to have where. Patio and path would be a good place to start first as you can use it as a holding area for any plants you do buy.
start slowly. Don't think you have to do everything at once. Make a plan and go about it bit by bit: as money, time and inclination allow.
you need to prioritise. EG lawns from seed are much cheaper than turf, but there's the time aspect to consider. Turf is pretty much instant, but much pricier.
You've got a great " blank canvas" plot. You're going to have a wonderful time.
Definitely work out which way the garden faces and which parts get sun when. Also what kind of soil? Clay will be harder to work with. How much maintenance do you want? Herbaceous perennials and shrubs would work nicely to disguise the fences either side, and don't take too much looking after.
I'd roughly plan and dig out the veg patch and any borders before seeding a lawn, as you won't be able to walk over it while it gets going. If patio is going to be near the house (again, see where sun is in morning/afternoon) then you could do that while the lawn gets going. Seeded lawns are better in my opinion but they take take a lot of levelling before seeding to look good.
Just a little twist to the plan to consider, I've got my veg patch at the house end, it's much easier for collecting stuff for the kitchen that way
I'm in year two of a complete rework on the garden, it's so much less daunting than year one. 
So for me the left hand side by the house is veg, the right hand patio (planned for this year). I don't do lawns so the end of mine is a wildlife area with a pond, but a lawn up the end could work just as well as one by the house, you could get to it via the longer patio set to one side.
If you go for the three in bands as per original plan, I think it will visually make the garden look very short.
I just rotavated over all the overgrown grass areas after cutting it down with a brush cutter, starting a compost heap with all the cut material. Worked for me but I did need to really keep on top of the weeding to begin with.