My overgrown and abandoned garden
dominoman
Posts: 150
I'm new to posting on this site, but have been reading lots of threads over the past few weeks. Learning quickly.
There's some fantastic inspiration and very kind helpful people here so I'm hoping for a few tips for my garden.
We moved in to our first house just over a year ago, after renting and saving for a deposit for 15 years (!). One of the things that attracted me was the large garden - well large by London standards anyway. Its around 100 foot long, although almost 1/2 of that is taken up by the patios and garage.
This is how the garden looked when we moved in.
and taken from the loft room:
The last lady that lived here didn't do much to the garden other than mow the lawn, so it was all very overgrown.
We knew that there were some lovely plants in there (roses, peony etc) but everything was hidden behind a thick layer of bindweed, ground elder, bamboo and ivy. The ivy was growing so far up the walls that it had come in through window frames and was several feet across the dining room ceiling!
The last few weeks we have been progressively cutting back.
1. Bamboo all cut down to ground level and the stumps treated with glyphosate
2. Trees on right have been hacked back so I can see what is left
3. Ivy removed from house and cut off base of the trees, which it was choking.
Next step is to have a big bonfire.
Bamboo is now gone.
Trees cut right back:
And now there is lots more space.
Now my question is what to do next...
I'd really like to have an area of lawn for kids (in future) to play on. And I need to redo the patio as the bamboo has thoroughly destroyed it.
The patio at the back was built badly and 18 inches too high, so water runs straight off it into the garage, which is in pretty poor state.
I'd really welcome any ideas...
Posts
Hi Dominoman, you atr right, you have the makings of a lovely garden! I'm new to gardening myself and did a sweep and clear from scratch start too. I found a program by Alan Titchmarsh very useful, how to be a gardener I think it was called, got the book to go with the a ties also which is very handy. He explains how you need to see where the sun falls at what time of day so you can plan what goes where.
You have enough space for a little of everything
Welcome dominoman, your'e in the right place. Is that bamboo still in place near the patio? If it is, get it out or you'll never be able have a stable patio. Kill off the weeds/bamboo/ground elder with SBK and take your time doing it. Find out which way your garden faces and check out how much sun, where and when. Save the plants you can dig them out and put them in a temporary bed. You may find you'd like a seating area not next to the house, depends where the best sun is. So plan ahead. Draw out a plan and decide what sort of style you'd like, if necessary get a designer to help. If you take your time now it'll save you from costly mistakes. Choosing plants and shrubs and planting them comes later as does the lawn, get the structure right first and hard landscape in first. Make it a joint effort nothing worse than the other half not liking what you think is nice.
My advice is don't be in too much of a hurry to do anything drastic. You need to find out all the sensible things like aspect, soil etc but mostly you need to live with it for a bit and get a feel for it. It's a lovely space, good luck
you will have a lovely garden, my advice is that wherever you decide you want borders and flowerbeds double dig with lots of manure and grit, if you do it before plants go in you are unliky to have to do it again, just top it up
I didn't and ended up only doing it last year, now everything is thriving
Great advice. Thanks!
The bamboo is now all out, and I am killing off the new shoots as they emerge. Actually I am allowing them to grow a few feet high and as soon the leaves start to unfold I'll blast them with some fresh glysphosate. That was the advice from someone on here. Either way I know I will need to be persistent. The bamboo was enormous and it has already lifted half my patio and half of my neighbour's!
Dave - I will do exactly that and lay out a design on paper first before starting any major work. I want to have an idea of where the main elements go. For example the patio is tacked onto the house and always in shade (we are North facing), so if I move it further down the garden it is sunny much of the day.
For the design I need some expert advice. Has anyone tried getting an online garden design done? It is much much cheaper than getting someone in, but I don't know if it is worth it. They won't know enough about the slopes or get a feel for the whole site.
Cathy - Great advice on the manure! Once I decide where the borders and I have cleared the soil of rocks and roots I will start to look for some stables.
Follow the above advice about finding out which way the garden faces, soil type etc, and get to know the existing plants in your garden. There might be some daffodil/ snowdrop/ bluebell/ etc. bulbs in there, or any number of other plants that you'd only notice and appreciate at certain times of the year. Try to find out what all of the trees and shrubs are.
For the next few months you could:
Continue to cut down and get rid of the ivy & bindweed (and try to dig up all of their roots). Get rid of any other obvious weeds.
See what comes into flower, identify and catalogue as many plants as you can.
If possible clear some space and set up a compost heap.
Think about what you want the garden to look like in a years' time, and choose any existing plants that you might want to dig up and relocate, or get rid of, or divide and replant.
Save any hard pruning of deciduous shrubs until Dec, Jan, Feb; but for now you can have a light trim of the shrubs in the hedges and also remove any dead wood (there will likely be some dead branches here and there if the place has been neglected for a few years). Dead-head the roses and other spent flowers.
Generally try to get the place under control and tidy before you start thinking about how you want to change it.
Thanks. Yes, you are right about cataloging things. We keep on spotting beautiful flowers that we didn't know were even there. Spring we had many tulips come up - and now the rose bushes (which had been totally hidden by overgrown evergreens) have come into bloom.
I'm hoping that we can get the design sorted enough that I can at least plant a couple of small trees this autumn, so they start to grow. I'd like an apple tree and a plum, and I've heard they really need to be planted in autumn. We won't have redone the layout by then, but hopefully will have a good idea of where to put them.
I started reclaiming my garden last spring, from 8 years of neglect by previous owners. I've felt overwhelmed by the amount to do at times, however, I started by creating sections using low wire fencing and felt better working on an area at a time. I began with a flower bed of cheap bedding plants so that I had something pretty to look at!
Dominoman, use google images for design idea's, it's free and there are too many to count. Take the bits you like and play with them until you settle on what you want. It can be overwhelming at first , but consider the following, you'll have kids so an area which can be converted for safe play in the future and a place for the parents to sit should be high on the list. On your plan make it into sections and link them with curved highways to each. You can put what you want in each section and in the early years you can experiment, but as children grow differing needs will arise, so be flexible as the garden can not only be an adventure it can also be a death trap to a young child, even then a garden is to be enjoyed by all, so common sense should prevail, overcautious gardens are nearly always devoid of character and beauty. You have a blank canvas, so make it yours and your families.