ideas?

I've got a section of my garden as per pic which is 16'x16' with a paving patio circle thing (not my cuppa) with chippings around it (very messy!!!). This is surrounded by paths to other parts of the garden. I've never liked it, and as a temporary measure have had lots of pots of flowers scattered about which looked okish.

I'm thinking of putting turf where the chipping stuff is and having the centre as is with some nice big terracotta pots of plants on the central paving bit.

Any other ideas I might consider before turfing ?

Solution has to be low cost (otherwise I'd dig the whole lot out and start again)

 

£100 gets you a venetian style fountain



2-Tier Zuvan Water Fountain £99.95

then, if there is a lot of shade in that area, use astro turf ....(it's a small area so will not be too expensive)

or, if shady, forget about grass/turf and plant evergreen ferns, hostas etc

 

Difficult fens, chipping /gravel are a spinoff from those stupid ground force programmes.
Messy and awful to look at after a while.

Turf would be the cheapest option I'm guessing, but I'd rather have concrete than those chippings.

 

If it were me, I'd remove all those chippings then plant up around the 'circle' with whatever takes your fancy (even some annual seeds if money is tight, add some compost).

And in the centre I'd have a big pot (again, can be plastic if money is tight) with some specimen shrub or small tree, maybe an Acer ? (though I'm starting to think Acers in pots is a bit old hat) Or even a large hoster in a big pot.

Can you remove one "layer" of bricks round the outside ? (or are they not individual stones ?)

 

dim I should have said my gardening tastes are to keep things as green and wildish and natural as possible, so Astroturf? but thanks for the suggestion. Do people put astroturf in their gardens?

Pete I agree the chippings idea is vile and just wrong (the blackbirds love messing it up!) and yes telly gardening has much to blame for such horrors and lots of others (one of my old neighbours has a nasty huge mirror thing plonked in their garden).

Len I was thinking at one point of clearing the chipcrap and planting some nice mature shrubs (it needs to look nice year-round as it can be seen from the house), but getting some nice established evergreens might be a bit pricey and I'd need some sort of groundcover. I think putting the turf down as the first phase and then perhaps planting a few shrubs for interest once things are settled down will give most options. I like the Acer idea, they look grand in a nice big old terracota pot.

Cheers everyone.

 

I think it would look nice if it had lawn where the chippings are. Or if lawn doesn't take your fancy, how about some other evergreen ground cover. Ivy perhaps? Not to my taste but I've seen it done and it can look good in the right setting. Or cyclamen? Cyclamen is brilliant I think. Looks after itself, and then in winter when most stuff is not in bloom, along comes Cyclamen's bold blooms in white, bright red, bold pinks etc depending on which ones you choose.

 

Sorry to disagree, but I see plenty enough light for grass to do well, provided the ground it grows in is right for the job.

In my back garden, which is north facing, I have a patch of ground that never, ever receives direct sunlight. Grass grows there, even though I don't want it to. Granted I don't expect I'd ever get good lawn conditions in that spot, but the grass grows, and it is full and permanent shade.

In my experience, the biggest threat to lawns is not the light level, as long as the area gets some sunshine then most lawns can thrive. It is the ground. Severely compacted ground that doesn't allow the roots to breath, and that allows standing water on the surface for moss to colonise. If the ground drains ok, and is not so compacted that grass roots struggle to get into it, and as long as a regular maintenance regime prevents lots of thatch building up and keeps the moss under control, then grass will thrive.

 

The topmost part of the photo where you can just see a bit of trellis is east facing. This section of the garden gets a fair bit of sun as the house is detached with no tall buildings near but the trellis end is a bit shady as the trellis has a clematis covering it. But I have shadier parts of the garden where grass does well, so lawn isn't going to be a problem I don't think. As you mention clueless, the ground will need a fair bit of prep work as its clay here and that section is probably well compacted. Ooooh me back, I can feel it already!

I'd never put Astroturf anywhere near my garden, why bother having a garden if it has plastic stuff in it. No offence meant to those who like plastic grass. Is the Astroturf a telly garden programme horror as well?

There is a natural arbour in the garden at the farthest end so I think I want to keep this section simple yet green and attractive all year.

Thanks for all the input.

 

You could always plant a small box hedge surround then a large pot in the middle - if you grass it I think it could be a bit difficult to mow. Best of luck anyway...........

 

Harpur Garden Images :: hrbprt11 Herb formal bed border garden central focal point sundial chives standard Wisteria lawn golden marjoram ornament Wyken Hall Suffolk Marcus Harpur Herb, formal, bed, border, garden, central, focal, point, sundial, chiv

Harpur Garden Images :: schr30c Gravel garden with low wall seperating from lawn area. house flowers flowering blooms stones urn containers pots planters focal point circular Dennis Schrader and Bill Smith, L.I, USA. Gravel Lawns Borders Gateways Con

 

I've decided to remove the chippings and lay turf. Whatever the result it has to be a vast improvement over these nasty messy cheap looking chipping crap - did someone say this was a fancy idea off one of those groundforce programmes? Aaargh.

I am pondering the options as I have just started bagging up the chippings from one quadrant which is hard on the back to say the least LOL. The chippings themselves seem to be of the cheapest inferior sort and have a lot of sandy gritty rubbly rubbish underneath. Underneath that is one of those weed suppresant membranes and a quick look under that is my old familiar Fens clay.

I'm trying to make this as light work as possible - I've already half filled 10 rubble sacks and I've just done one part of one quarter! I was thinking both as a way of cutting down the number of chippings-tree-gravelly-sand stuff I have to bag up and cart off and to provide a good base for the turf, do you think it would be a reasonable idea to leave some of the grittier sandy stuff behind and dig it into the clay before turfing. I thought this might aerate the soil as well a bit.

Thoughts?

 

Yes :thumb:

 

probably not relevant, but I've put a fountain in a paved circle in my lawn. I've only got photo from when I was constructing it, not a "all done and finished" photo I'm afraid: