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Boarders
darren09
Posts: 7
Recently moved into a new house and in the back garden I want to reshape the turf and the soil boarders as the the previous owners have made a mess of it. They have made the shape of the lawn look like its really small with large areas of soil around it So I'm looking for advice on how to reshape my garden and red the soil boarders any help would be much appreciate.
0
Posts
Do you mean redo the soil borders as in put it back to grass?
Yes I would like to put it back to grass if not try and do something with the large boarders to make it look nice
Hi
Can you show us some photos so we can get an idea of the proportions and style of garden and the options available to you.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
First thing is to decide how you want your garden to look when it's finished. Will the kids play in it? Do you want friends round on summer evenings? Do you have large dogs or lots of cats? Most of all, do you LIKE gardening or just want to get it done? It looks like the last owners planted bedding in those borders because I can't see much growing now. The grass is in a poor state, too. Then you have several options: you could take up the grass and lay a complete new lawn, covering as much ground as you want. Lawns look simple but they are hard work. You could put paving or decking in part for a table and chairs and lots of containers. You could improve the grass and plant up the borders for year round interest. You need to make some choices before you take up your spade!
Thanks for the advice I'm new to gardening but I'm keen to have a nice garden for me and the kids and to enjoy. I've no pets so that's a plus. I would like an area tor the kids to grow there own things. Would also like to add some colour to my garden. How would I go about laying a new lawn would i need to dig my old up? I've heard you can add plenty of top soil and lay over the top but I've not read great things about doing it that way.
I don't know how big or what shape it is overall but it looks like it may be sort of 'L' shaped and quite narrow? It's easier to manage both flowers and lawns in a small garden if you have a fairly clear distinction between them. So rather than the borders all round the edge and a very small patch of grass all in the middle as now, if it was me, I'd make one part lawn, say this square bit nearer the camera. If you can afford it, take up the grass that's there in that part, do some good lawn 'prep' (improve the soil, maybe add sand, level it - there are lots of threads on how to lay a lawn) then buy some turf or seed that square, take the time to look after it until it's established. If money is tight, take strips of grass from the other part of the garden and use them to infill the border strip in this part, so your 'lawn' runs edge to edge. And again, take some time to establish it, water it, feed it, all that jazz.
Then make a nice clear line along the edge - log roll, gravel board, brick paviors, whatever you fancy to make a sharp clear edge that you can mow over or strim up to. Then in the rest of the garden, dig it all over, make some paths - bark chips on landscape fabric is cheap (and kid friendly, being soft), paving is more durable, gravel on landscape fabric can look great but needs looking after to stop it wandering off - and plant shrubs, flowers, veg, fruit, make a childrens' garden spot, in the spaces either side of the paths.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I'm going to look into re turfing the whole thing and make it the shape I want. As I only want small boarders and I'm going to put decking to replace some of the flags that are down. I cant decide the best location in the garden for area for the kids to grow vegetables and things any suggestion?
The sunnier it is the better for most veg
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Ok thanks for the advice. The more ive been reading into it and talking to people be worth paying a landscaper to do the groundwork and the lawn and I will do the boards and planting. As it's quite costly and a inconvenience of getting rid of all the old grass and soil