Brand New Garden!

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on a gardening forum... you all seem friendly and knowledgeable and I hope you guys could help me plan my new garden, as I have absolutely no experience or knowledge! This is my first garden and I'm very excited to make a start.... I've found lots of nice ideas on various blogs and websites, but I think I need a reality check as to what is achievable and how/when I should start things off! The garden is 9.1 m long and 4.85 m wide (excluding the patio), South/South East facing, with clay soil (I have plans to improve soil quality).

I thought I should give you a bit of history first… we bought our house back in October 2013- the whole place needed gutting and renovating and we've only just moved in this month (there's a still few things left to do inside). The garden used to have a massive, overgrown bay tree and a sequoia (yes.... a sequoia semperivens that was about 25 years old and only about 2m away from the house!!), and a whole load of brambles and laurels. If you searched for our house on google earth the whole plot looked like a jungle.... Most of it was removed in October to make room for the builder's yard and a new extension. I was very sad to be cutting down a beautiful sequoia tree but it had to go unfortunately- it should never have been planted so close to a Victorian terraced house (we live in South West London!).

All that is left is a mature apple tree towards the back (heavily pruned but now sprouting nicely), a low camelia bush and what looks like a hibiscus on the east facing border, and an unidentified green bush on the west facing border. There is no grass and I'm concerned what the state of the soil is going to be like… considering the clay has been exposed to the elements for 8 months and would have been constantly trampled on. With the dry weather we’ve been having its set like concrete and I’m sure we’re going to need to get a pick axe and rotavator on there to start off with. The builders have spread out what looks to be about 1 inch of the original top soil but I’m sure I’ll need to buy a few more bulk bags to get the soil back up to scratch.

Our first job is to improve the soil and get some turf on there as quickly as possible- but I want to do it properly. Is the compacted clay going to be a big big problem? How many inches of top soil should we ideally have and what kind of soil mix do I need to buy? Is it worth adding sand in the clay (I’ve heard this can improve drainage?). Is it true that you have to leave the soil to rest/settle before adding the turf?

We’ll leave a gap for the borders to work on after we’ve dealt with the lawn… but I’m hoping I can still plant some things at the end of the summer/early Autumn! I don’t know if I’m allowed to share links to a pinterest page, but there are loads and loads of links to garden schemes and plants that I’d like to have. I love the cottage garden look (I realise this takes years to achieve) but also like the more natural looking gravel gardens (which may not be possible with a clay soil underneath). I love campanula persicofolia, ceanothus, stipa gigantea, Verbena bonariensis, lavender, tanna, tanecetum, rosemary, cornflowers, nigella, poppies, grasses and wildflowers (this is just a very small selection!). I'll also need some climbers on both fences for screening.

Sorry for the long post… but I’m really excited and I want to make the best start in the garden. I know I won’t get instant results but there must be some things that I can prepare/plant now, and then I can put together a gardening calendar to start to build up the rest.

Any advice or ideas are all very welcome! Thank you in advance!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

There's a few threads on improving clay soil you might find useful

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/search/7290736/?q=improving+clay+soil&o=date
I'm sure the rest of us will come up with stuff as well

 

Really useful for the clay issue- thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Here is the garden today:



Hopefully the builders stuff will be gone before the weekend.... Lots to do!!

So... Once I've got the clay soil improved what can I do late summer/early autumn? :-)

Thanks in advance!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hmm rotavate or don't rotavate... That is the question... Some threads are saying the blades can cause compaction issues lower down and cause more drainage probs? Any opinions on that? Maybe I'll ask the other thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

More pictures:



Here is the soil rolled into a ball... It might not be that bad- a pick axe can break it up easily. Maybe years of sequoia needles have helped the clay.



This is what I think is a hibiscus with 2 different flower colours with the camellia behind.



Any ideas what that shrub is?



Here's the apple tree- any tips on how to care for this now it's starting to shoot out (it was pruned in oct)?



Just noticed this fluffy white stuff around the tree... Is this a tree pest of some sort or maybe a spiders nest?



And this used to be an attractive evergreen bush but it died 2 weeks ago... Might have been the builders when they put the fence I'm behind. Do put think it will recover or should I get rid?

Thanks guys :-)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Welcome to GC Claypit. The first thing I would do is to get the lawn laid and the best time to do that is spring or autumn, can you wait? Once that is down you can then plan the rest of the garden, creating borders, planting etc. The fact you are working with clay means it's going to be like rock at this time of year too. It would be best to rotavate, get sand or grit dug in and then level the ground ready for turf or grass seed. Rotavating will also allow air into the soil and help the turf to 'breath' and keep weeds/moss at bay.

A hint for you in the future .....when identifying plants here on GC it is good to have a close up of foliage and/or flowers as it can be difficult to work out what they are.

Your first picture does look like Hibiscus, it looks to me as if two different plants have been twined together, unusual, as Hibiscus is normally grown as a shrub and somebody has taken the time to make it into a standard, like a rose. The second picture is possibly Euonymous. I can't help you with the third as I know absolutely nothing about fruit trees, sorry! Could you provide a close up of the last plant please, if we can identify it then it may be possible to tell you whether it will survive or it can be retrieved, perhaps by pruning. To die so quickly does suggest there has been some sort of damage by the builders, possibly at root level. Either severed roots or perhaps cement dropped around it. Other than that it may be lack of water, but unlikely. Have a scrape with your fingernail on a couple of the branches close to the main stem, if they are showing green underneath it's worth trying to save.

 

Hello and welcome, how exciting a fresh plot to start with.

Best of luck, and I am sure you will have it just right in no time. And don't forget, lots of photo's along the way.

 

Thanks Sheal- I will post more close up pics if I don't figure it out soon enough- although I do enjoy the detective work!

Unfortunately I don't think we can wait as the husband is getting fidgety and wants that turf now- sigh. Will hope for the best!

 

Looks like it could be wooly aphids.

P.S. This is my clay, what I've got only 6"/150mm below the surface in some places, except the areas where I've spent 25 years adding all sorts of organic matter (and very gradually going down into the heavy clay layer), so I don't think rotovating just the topsoil above can cause any problems, as that clay underneath is always a solid, compact mass.

 

Okay, then I suggest for two or three evenings before you rotavate that you give the ground a good soaking to help when rotavating. If you have a hose, or better a sprinkler you can leave it running for a good while.

 

Thanks Scrungee- will try and get rid of these aphids as I can't take losing another plant!!

P.S- I'm now more hopeful of the clay situation if you can make a garden work with yours!

 

Thanks Sheal- husband has been instructed to purchase sprinkler during his lunch break today!

 

Sounds all right - its been exposed to the air, rather than covered. Trampling on clay when it is sodden does a lot of harm to the structure, but other than that it just needs air and organic material adding.

It will be if you don't sort it! Did the builder take ALL their rubbish / rubble away, or did they bury some? (which seems to be the norm, for New Builds at least). If they buried it you will have to get it out, otherwise it will play merry-hell with the drainage.

You need to "dig" the soil, right across the plot. You probably need a cultivator (self propelled wheels) rather than a rotavator (the type where you take the wheels off and the motor then just drives the tines). Rotavator won't "dig" into hard virgin compacted ground. A cultivator might not either [on compacted clay], and it will be like going 12 rounds in the ring with a Gorilla! Only other option is to "dig" it in the conventional sense, but using a small JCB/Mechanical digger. I have a large garden and have no difficulty getting large machinery into it, and a JCB is always my first choice - much quicker and successful in digging hard ground. I would scrape the topsoil (yours might all be mixed in with clay by now though ...) to one side, dig out the next 9" or so, to a separate heap / side, loosen up underneath that just in case there is a "hard pan", then put the lower level soil back, smooth that out and then put the topsoil back (you may be buying that bit in). It will be quite lumpy at that stage, so then running cultivator over it will get it broken down so that you can then work the soil and get a level etc.

For the lawn, assuming the clay is useless (it might not be) then just dig the clay, forget about the topsoil (leave it moved to one side). Once dug get it cultivated (or use the cultivator on its own if you can get it into the ground). It will help a lot if you mix in [with the cultivator] some organic matter at this stage - manure, mushroom compost or spent hops from a brewery. Bulk would be best, its expensive to buy in small bags.

When you have done that then get it firmed and levelled. To firm it you can walk on it in wellies shuffling forward (heel of left foot into instep of right, and then half a foot forward right foot heel into instep of left foot), and once firmed then you can level it. I find the easiest way is to tie a rope around the rungs at each end of a ladder, or a pallet, and tow it left-to-right and then front-to-back. It needs to be dragging an inch or two of soil with it, if it skates over the surface add some blocks / weight to it.

That will get you firm and level. Then put back the topsoil and add more if you need it. I would add sand at that stage, others may have a different view but I reckon if you mix it into the clay below it will just "disappear".

So now you have a smooth seedbed You can sow grass seed or lay turf (preparation up to this point is the same for both). Personally I would wait until end of September and sow grass seed. Lots cheaper, you can choose the blend of grass seed you want (anything from bowling green thought easy-care leisure lawn to robust football pitch; plus you can also buy shady-seed mix for any areas that are heavily shaded and where normal grass won't grow well).

Turf is expensive and hugely environmentally damaging - taking turf with an inch of topsoil off the fens and carting it half way across the country Grass seed sown in early Autumn will establish really well at a time when weed seeds are shutting down for the winter, and will be a mature lawn by next spring. Turf planted now will need watering every day for 30 minutes (all areas, so you will need to move the sprinkler around, so might be a couple of hours elapsed time to do the lot) until it has knitted (two or three weeks) and then every other day for a few weeks tailing off to twice a week etc. as the grass gets stronger. You need to avoid walking on the turf for the first few weeks. It will probably arrive high on fertiliser! and grow vigorously, and it is then a challenge to cut - important never to cut off more than 1/3rd of the length, so it will probably be shaggy for the rest of the season given the fertiliser, heat and all the water you are going to give it! and by the time you have done the prep etc. it will probably be not far short of when you could sow grass seed. Make sure your mower blades are really sharp for new turf / seeded lawns.

Note that if you are on water rates that you are probably prohibited from using an unattended sprinkler. I think there is dispensation for new lawns, but worth checking. If you are on a meter and no hosepipe ban that doesn't apply.

If you are watering the soil to try to soften it for the cultivator the top inch will turn to mud ... you will need to leave it a couple of days to soak in and then tackle it, otherwise you'll make the situation worse. And then you may find that the water has only soaked in a bit hence why I choose to dig with a JCB! as none of those problems apply!

Autumn is a great time to plant things, particularly trees, hedges and shrubs. Buying bareroot will often establish more quickly than container grown, and is cheaper - especially for things like hedges. Very small plants (the sort of things that come as "plugs" or "9cm pots") are too small to plant straight out in the Autumn, but anything in a 2L pot (6" / 15cm diameter or larger) will be fine unless the details say otherwise (things that are not fully hardy, particularly when young, are best planted in Spring)

Yup, that's fine, but with very few posts you may not be able to post any links at all (to stop spammers). Just tell us the nickname of the Pinterest account and we'll work it out from there.

I would have said that Cottage Garden was one of the quicker styles to establish. The plants are mostly herbaceous so will put on a display in Year 1, and thicken up in Year 2, and be fully-formed in Year 3. Whether you will like your initial design and plant layout, and companion planting combinations, is a different matter! and as you move things around they will go back to Year 1 mode and take a year or so to thicken up again.

Only other thought is to consider putting some land drains in. They always help on clay soil, particularly along the front edge of any flower beds. You won't, yet, know if you have areas that get waterlogged in winter - so it might be easier to consider that as a retro fit after the first winter's downpours - anywhere that doesn't drain in 20 minutes or so is worth considering for drains. But I would do the flower beds / borders anyway.