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Help & advice needed for newbies!
Sam Smith4
Posts: 4
Hi all, me & my girlfriend have been in our house a little over a year and we're wanting to liven up our drab back garden. At the moment, it's something of a scrubby little swamp, and ideally, we're looking at taking up the turf and replacing it with gravel/stones for a more contemporary feel. Any advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance!
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Hello Sam, me and my OH did our front garden and I do remember that we first dug up all the grass and then laid a permeable membrane down before the gravel went down. We then made a hole in the membrane for each shrub we planted. I think some people kill the grass off with a weed killer before putting down the membrane. You could just put pots on top of the gravel. Weeds still manage to come through the gravel and you still have to keep up a little weeding to keep it looking tidy. I would work out a design before you begin the work.
More thoughts about your garden Sam, if it were my garden I would think about screening your bins with some trellis and perhaps growing a small climber around it. I would then think about putting a small shrub or two at the bottom or perhaps some pots of flowers so that you have something nice to look out on. A small seating area could be placed perhaps at the top of the garden. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Welcome Sam,
I have to say I wish everyone with a garden your size would do away with grass. You'll create a lovely garden and you'll never have to worry about buying/ storing / using a lawn mower.
Keep us posted with progress.
The best piece of advice I would give is to buy a single bag. Spread it on the grass and leave it for a week or so. Check it to see if Cats make use of it. If they do, don't gravel. I put bark down and a pesky cat keeps making use of it. We don't have many cats where we live so its not a problem but if you live somewhere where there are lots of cats its going to be bad news.
We have lots of cats around here Kieran and I never get a problem with them on my gravel garden. They love my cat mint in the back garden though and have nearly finished it off rolling in it in ecstasy! I love cats so It doesn't bother me.I do hope they don't get the baby birds though, that would upset me.
Hi Sam. Good idea to get rid of the grass on such a small plot.. Lack of grass doesn't mean you can have a great space
First of all see where you get most of your sun and plan to place your sitting space there. If its where your current deck is, give it a good scrub before coating it. Don't use paint as it peels. Something like liberon decking oil is excellent, goes on really easily and weathers nicely.
If you go for gravel, do put down a membrane and fill it to anything between 2 to 4 inches deep. To shallow and you'll see the membrane. Too much and itll just move around to much.
If your ground is really soggy, you may need to put down a hardcore layer first or else the membrane and stones will sink in.
Look to paint the wall and fence in one colour for uniformity. B&Q do a range ofmasonry paint which is reasonably priced and is decent quality. Greys or greens seem to be the in vogue colour, I've just painted ours grey. If you want a Mediterranean look, then hot colours like yellow or orange or bright blue would work.
If you don't want to plant into the ground, a few select pots stuffed with plants would still look good.
The thing about gravel is, if you want to avoid cats using it as a toilet, then it mustn't be too fine.
If you are flush, the they make nice wheeliebin covers.
I have just converted my garden to gravel (20m sea gravel) and larger North Sea pebbles along with a few different sized slabs not these horrid old grey things a lovely very pale green dotted here and there I have introduced planting by using only pots terracotta and ceramic I have a lovely new metal garden seat in dark brown not too ornate.I have a cat and two visiting cats they are quite wary of walking on the gravel so no problem with mess.If you use a good quality membrane weeds should not be much of a problem.If you do get the odd weed zap it with a shot of vinegar.I changed my garden to make it easier to manage I just have to remember to water the pots.I am so glad I did it.I have had many compliments so go ahead see what you can accomplish.Try and draw up a plan first that helped me enormously.Good luck!
I remember when my daughter and her husband bought their first very small home and even smaller garden. I took one look and said 'get rid of the grass, the dogs will turn the grass into mush in no time'. They looked at me in amazement and said they had no intention of getting rid of it as the dogs loved lying out in the sun there. Didn't take many wet days to prove me correct! She also planted not one but two Russian vines to cover the fence, again against advice
. It was a long time ago and she has since learned I'm not just a dozy old woman (I think)