Advice needed - large border - best way to tackle it!!

Hi all

I am new here - but need your expert advice - so here goes!!

We have bought a house with a large garden - have been renovating the house and now that it is done - we are turning to the garden!! When we moved in the garden was mostly grass - which 3 old lady sheep kept under control. We are attempting to try to make this into a garden but understand that it is going to take some time. Plans - include an allotment area, fruit tree cordens (?) a large lawn and low maintenance borders. We have a large border that forms one of the edges of the drive. It has had building materials dumped on it for the last 12 mths and has now been cleared. We have lots of weeds and a cherry tree there at the moment. It measures approx 40ft by 25ft. Initial thoughts are that we clear it and then either membrane it and put gravel on it and plant through it with some shrubs to break it up. Or the other option is no membrane but with bark and again shrubs.

What are your thoughts? i know that membrane is not ideal but we need to keep things as low maintenance as possible as we know that we are going to be very busy with the rest!! Thank you in advance!! The spring weather in the last couple of days has really lifted our spirits and we want to get on with things asap.

 

Also - it is a good idea to use round up to clear the weeds? and if so how long do i need to leave before planting or covering it?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Deb. It sounds like you have a fair bit to do in the garden, good luck! Please can we have pictures?.......It doesn't matter whether your garden is a tip or not, you have a tatty shrub or something else that's your pride and joy, we do like to have pictures and if I don't ask, somebody else will. Seriously though, it does make a difference for members trying to help out, we can then see what has to be dealt with.

 

Roundup is perfect for killing weeds but I will point out that it kills just about everything it touches, so be careful to use it on a windless day and if there is something close by you want to keep, it would be best to cover it while you spray.

 

We got a low maintenance border at mums we bought weed control fabric and the pins to fix it. If you type in low maintenance border or easy care border i am sure you will get loads of suggestions. and

 

good idea about the photos - got some on here of the back garden but none of the front border that we are talking about - will take some tomorrow! so excited about the garden now the house is done - but am a complete beginner so dont know where to start really - think that i will just have to tackle an area at a time! but need an overall plan of what it could look like!!

 

Hi deb, Weed-control fabric with some low-maintenance shrubs sounds an excellent idea while you get the rest of the garden how you want it. If you've got perennial weeds there at the moment, then Roundup will kill most of them off completely after six weeks, especially if they're buried under membrane. Glyphosate, the active ingredient, doesn't persist in the soil, so you can plant as soon as you like afterwards, although bear in mind that if you chop up the roots of dandelions, bindweed or couch grass before it's completey dead, it'll come back with a vengeance! Might be worth opting for drought-resistant plants in a fairly wide area around the cherry tree, if you're keeping it. They have greedy roots..
Looking forward to seeing your photos

 

we have mainly one type of weed in this area but am not sure what it is - it was there when we moved in last year - will see if i can identify it myself or post a close up piccie of it. am sure someone will ow what it is!

 

as promised this is the photo of the border that i am talking about - the weed is lesser calendine i believe - took it into work and a fellow gardener identified it for me!! As you can see it the area is on the left as you enter the drive and borders onto our neighbours drive. It would be great to have a really nice selection of plants here as it could make an impact as people drive in. The other photo is of the front of the house which is north facing. This is also on the list of projects but not quite yet - we have created another front entrance at the side of the house which fronts onto the drive so although this is rarely used it would be nice to have it looking good - but north facing may a a problem area.

any ideas for either would be appreciated - just take a look and suggest what YOU think would look good or what YOU would do if it was yours!!!

cheers all

 

I'm not a person that cares much for membrane, but it's each to their own. You say you want a temporary fix. Wait for the bulbs to die back and then spray it with Round-up to clear the weeds. I would then dig it all over, plant more bulbs for next spring and re-seed with grass seed or meadow flower seed. Any shrubs can be planted later.

 

I'm not quite sure how much garden you have. The area by the driveway is quite tricky to get shrubs established in as you have 2 very mature trees and what looks like a Leylandii hedge on the other side of the fence? All these will have and will continue to take up huge amounts of moisture/nutriants from the surrounding soil and bear in mind the roots of the trees will be out as far as the branches if not further. If you have plenty of other places to create a shrub bed I'd personally grass this area and maybe plant Snowdrops and other spring flowering bulbs which wouldn't be too labour intensive. You look as though you live in a fairly rural area. Again only my opinion but large areas of gravel to me would look out of place. Re opposite the house. Is it the house or the bed which is North facing? It's a little difficult to tell what the shrubs are Mahonia? Rhododendons? Perhaps if you can identify the shrubs then depending on what they are they could be pruned back to give a less "jungle effect"...I have plenty of jungle effect in my garden too!!!! From looking at the photo it could be a case of getting the chain saw out and taking down some of the trees so you can admire the really mature specimens. It might also be an idea to try and get rid of the ivy which isn't really adding to the picture. It looks as though there has been a rockery at the far end. This could be nice but again looks very shaded by trees. In my experience rockeries are VERY labour intensive, so perhaps think about whether you want the bother of it. It is quite difficult from photos to be able to give good advice, all I will say is that the garden is now your garden and just as you will have changed the house don't be afraid to create new beds and take away things you don't like. So many people fall into the trap of tending someone elses garden as they had it rather than altering it to how they would like it.

 

What an excellent idea !! not really sure why i had not considered sowing a lawn there - makes sense - and it can be mowed at the same time as i do the other front lawn. Will grass grow ok under the tree? The shrubby thing in the background is a buddlea i think - would it be ok to prune it hard back as it is really spindley - or shall i just leave it! how hard can i prune it if so!!

Just as a matter of interest - as you do not care for membrane - is your preference bark? just from a low maintenance point of view!! just curious as i have seen that there is a camp that do not like the membrane stuff. thanks for your advice - looks like a big dig over is due!!.

We have a farmer coming today to power hoe one side of the back garden (that was used as a dumping ground for fencing materials and scrap metal) unfortunately the previous owners weighed in all of the metal and left us the worthless rubbish to clear our selves. it has been a long and hard job and we have had so many skips!! The farmer is going to seed the ground for us - but i think that this border will be too small for his machine - damn it!!

 

Again great advice - you are right on so many points here! The front of the house is north facing and not much really grows here - it does get some sun from one side but minimal at the far end. You are right it is a mahonia in the middle of the right border is this prunable and by how much? a good point about the rockery - we can use the rocks in another area in the garden - and strip it right down and either seed and chop down the large holly tree to open up the end (at the other side of the house we have an area for drying washing and it has a great through wind ) this would make it even better!

The back garden is south facing so we have lots of ares that we can recycle the rocks as would like feature out at the back maybe near the patio!!.. mmm - will post some ones of my back garden later so you can see.

We had 40 fence panels put in last week to tidy up one side of the garden as it is the side that backs onto a few houses - most had used the back of their gardens as storage areas so was not a pretty site!! looks so much better,

We still have the problem of keeping it private - esp in the winter. I am not a fan of conifers but we have resorted to some to plug large gaps that have nothing there - the rest is either poplars (about 60 ft tall - we know they will probably have to come down at some point but they are our only screening) and some silver birch trees. In the middle of the garden is a strip of mature trees that are pine trees, some cherry trees and what look like hazel, and leylandi - this offers the most screening but cuts the garden right down the middle and would love to clear them and open the garden right up but hubby is not keen on doing this until we have screening down the other side!! rock and hard place come to mind! such a shame as can only see half the garden!!

sorry to warble on!! it is a big job!!

 

Again great advice - you are right on so many points here! The front of the house is north facing and not much really grows here - it does get some sun from one side but minimal at the far end. You are right it is a mahonia in the middle of the right border is this prunable and by how much? a good point about the rockery - we can use the rocks in another area in the garden - and strip it right down and either seed and chop down the large holly tree to open up the end (at the other side of the house we have an area for drying washing and it has a great through wind ) this would make it even better!

The back garden is south facing so we have lots of ares that we can recycle the rocks as would like feature out at the back maybe near the patio!!.. mmm - will post some ones of my back garden later so you can see.

We had 40 fence panels put in last week to tidy up one side of the garden as it is the side that backs onto a few houses - most had used the back of their gardens as storage areas so was not a pretty site!! looks so much better,

We still have the problem of keeping it private - esp in the winter. I am not a fan of conifers but we have resorted to some to plug large gaps that have nothing there - the rest is either poplars (about 60 ft tall - we know they will probably have to come down at some point but they are our only screening) and some silver birch trees. In the middle of the garden is a strip of mature trees that are pine trees, some cherry trees and what look like hazel, and leylandi - this offers the most screening but cuts the garden right down the middle and would love to clear them and open the garden right up but hubby is not keen on doing this until we have screening down the other side!! rock and hard place come to mind! such a shame as can only see half the garden!!

sorry to warble on!! it is a big job!!

 

I'm not a very experienced gardener but my little bit of advice would be to:

1. scarify lawn
2. mow lawn
3. spot-weed lawn
4. finally edge lawn

This is a quick fix to make the garden look neater pretty quickly. I've done this my new garden and looked better straight after.

Also, attack the ivy now. Just saw through the biggest branches you can find and wait for it to die, this can take a while though but makes it a lot easier to clear away. Ivy branches are very easy to saw through.