Help well and truely needed

Hello me and my family have not long moved into our new home and the garden is a mess.
I am wanting to tidy it up on my days off work but honestly have no idea where to start, my son is 2 years old so must be child friendly so not to much going on.

Here is a pic that might help






Any help with design ideas how to de-weed the grass so to have a nice lawn anything will help as I will admit am clueless with this.

Thanks

 

I too agree with ARMANDII.

Looking at your pic., I think it's what Estate Agents would call 'a blank canvass'!

 

Hello and welcome Keith.
Firstly, don't panic. That looks like a small garden and will be perfectly manageable for you.
I would begin by clearing up the rubbish and getting rid of those trees. In a garden that size there is no room for trees.
While you're doing it think about what you want your garden for. With a young child you might want a safe play area, a place to dry washing outdoors and a place to sit and relax.
Things to think about :
Where does the sun come from and is the garden in sun or shade
What time of day are you most likely to use the garden and where is the sun then
Do you want or need to have grass
How much do you want to spend
Do you need a place to store tools etc
Do you want plants in the ground or would you prefer pots.

You could draw a plan of your garden and start working out where things would go.
When you start on the project don't be daunted by everything expecting it to all happen at once. Decide on a plan and pick the jobs off one by one. It will all come together.
Come back with some more pics, your ideas on what you want and some more information and I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice.
With a little bit of work and inspiration it will all come good.

 

I agree with all of the above, get shot of everything, back to the bare soil. Sit down with the wife and decide what you BOTH want from the garden. Then come back on here and tell us what you want, and we shall tell you how to do it properly, and as cheaply, as possible.

 

I agree too with all that's been said.

I'd start by brutally clearing the area, grass and all. Then I'd dig it over. If you take the tree out, then I'd dig as much of the roots out as possible too, although I wouldn't be too obsessed about that, maybe just take out any roots within one spade depth of the surface. There'll be plenty there for a bonfire (if you can safely do so far enough away from the fence), which apart from burning off the rubbish will also burn off a lot of weed seeds and roots in the top inch or so of soil under the fire.

Having tidied it and dug it over, I'd seize the opportunity to improve the soil (if it needs it) by digging in some compost or manure. Someone on here recommended spent mushroom compost to me when I was tackling mine, and it was a sound investment and remarkably cheap.

I think I'd paint the fence a pale colour, to maximise the light. One of the things I'm thinking about doing with mine is to have a go and being creative with old CDs and DVDs. In a little experiment I found them to be very effective at reflecting the evening sun back into the garden, and they cast rainbow colours as they do it. I don't know if it will work when I attach loads to the fence, but its cheap enough to experiment. Trouble is, if you do anything like that, you'll need to get down to 2 year old height to make sure the reflected light isn't going to go straight into the lad's eyes.

I'm in the process of making a play area for my 2 year old lad, and I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm just making it up as I go along, but I'm happy to share ideas and results with you, and maybe you could post up your ideas too

 

Ok been in the garden today and got a little done in the way of clearing all the stones away and hopefully have some usefull info for you all.

Again here are some more pics that might help.

Firstly the width of the garden is 15ft 7 and length is 18ft 4, the soil that I can see looks very clay like but that may be because it is wet so I will update on that when its dry.

The purpose of the garden will mostly be to relax in and watch my son play with his toys and also the o casional summer bbq.







Hope some of this helps, also I was thinking of growing some chillis, onions and garlic if there would be room.

 

Are you planning on chopping any of the clematis back thats growing on the fence??
Im assumeing its growing in from over your fence and not in your garden??
i would tidy it up alittle and leave plenty of growth around the top half of the fence when it flowers it will brighten things up and if its something you dont like keep it in trim then.
I would look at removeing all the grass & the tree, remove the paving path (stepping stones and gravel will work well in a small space. Id have some small beds around the sides of the fence, if you are wanting a lawn i think it would work best in the middle of the garden , Dont forget you can grow upwards and add hanging baskets, pots & window boxes .
If your inclined to do so you could grow herbs/salads and small veggies in containers .