Clearing Garden, Advice Needed...

Hi all, I decided today I was going to start clearing up the overgrown "garden" (it's too small to be classed as a garden, really) and took to the mess with a set of sharp shears. Now I've cut it all down, I'm unsure what to do with the remainder.

I have a plan to possibly put down a mixture of small patio and some gravel, so I know I will have to dig up and kill the roots of the remaining grass and plant life. I've attached some photos so you know what I'm up against.

Any advice on how I can clear the rest (or how I should, to make my life easier) will be well appreciated.

This is how it started...



This is how it looks currently...

 

Ok, well begun is half done..... next thing you need to do is decide where you want to sit out and enjoy your hard work, then plan your beds/ borders around this. When I was re-shaping my garden I found a really good (and free!) online garden planner (here's the link http://www.smallblueprinter.com/garden/planner.html ) that is great for setting your dimensions out and giving you a base to work from. Look at how much sun it gets to decide whether its best for shade lovers or sun lovers. After that just remember the triangle rule in that borders usually look best with highest flowers at the back and in the centre and tapering down from there to the smallest at the front edges. Perhaps you could look at fixing some climbing wires to the walls to break up the brick background a little by climbing something (tame) up them - runner beans could work and you get to eat the results of your labours.
Be a little weary of rushing out to your local garden centre and busting the buget on plants because in recent years they've mostly adopted the habbit of displaying what's in flower now and little else - great for immediate impact, and this time next year but nothing in between so spend a little time deciding on what should happen when. Keeping it simple you could go for daffs and crocusses and hyacinths for your spring display (very traditional but none the less beautiful), giving way to a small magnolia and tulips for late spring allowing whatever you fancy to kick in in the high summer.... but most of all, just enjoy it, it's your patch

 

Hi there Raye,
welcome to Gardeners Corner. Glad you've found us. Lucky you - a blank canvas and a spell of decent weather no less. Andrew's post is a good one, take your time and there's plenty of help here if you want it. Other's will be along a bit later - probably watering stuff at the moment,
Jenny Namaste

 

with the state it was before you chopped it all down. personally I would cover the whole patch with black plastic and wait until next year, that will kill everything off and leave you with a complete blank slate to do with what you like. id keep it minimalistic so that its easy to keep looking its best. id probably patio the whole thing and put some nice looking decent sized pots around and make myself a brick bbq.

 

Welcome to GC, Raye

If my eyes are not deceiving me, against the wall, and progressing forward, you have nettles? You will need to eradicate every trace of root (they are shallow, so not *hard* work, but tedious work!); great for wildlife (bees etc) but a real bind to keep on top of at times. Pull, pull, pull! Even the tiniest piece left will come back. But, it's not so horrendous as it sounds because each time one pops up, pop it in a bucket of water: this will have two effects 1) it will kill it by reducing it to a mushy mess, and 2) straining off that water after a couple or three weeks will give you some free fertilizer for your patch

I would 2nd AndrewBarratt 's advice. I would add to do a search of the forums and look at other members garden photo's. Agreed, you don't have a "garden" garden, as such, but you do have a lovely patch there where you can indulge yourself and even have climbers growing up the brickwork. When looking at member's photos, you will see a whole variety of themes and sizes. If you see something you like, but it is in a larger than you have patch, don't despair, simply scale it down. Pick and choose the elements you are most drawn to.

 

Well Raye, Do you want a garden or a Patio ?

If you want a Patio, then a good dose of round up then chips or slabs

However if you want fun, then round up, and plants
Feed the ground after you have cleared it of weeds,with manure and decide what you want to grow Following "M" and Andrews suggestions

Obviously as a Gardening Forum plants is the way to go
Though on the left you could have a small flower garden and on the right a Patio of sorts
to sit out and enjoy the fragrances of your Garden

Your choice but you have to clear it first

Jack McHammocklashing

 

It makes me tired just looking at the amount of work you put into cutting that lot down with shears!

Is it the camera angle or do I detect what could be quite a steep(ish) slope? I'm thinking 'patio area + slope = levelling'.

From the pictures, to me at least, your garden screams 'Japanese-type theme' ... I see measurements on squared paper, small areas (perhaps flower beds?) - either to work with the sharp internal angles, or (how can I describe this?) 'pie slice' shaped beds to soften the internal angles: I see maybe black basalt and white limestone chippings alongside one another - again either in straight lines to accentuate/work in harmony with the angles of the building or in a gentle curve/s, to soften the area: I see, perhaps across one of the internal angles, a small triangular 'patio' painted jet black and maybe some 'interesting' containers (even black ones) with plants of various heights, clustered together somewhere; I see the digging over of the area: a good dose of weedkiller: a bit more digging: some levelling and raking: working out how much aggregate you need: a trip to Wickes or somewhere similar to check out how much it would cost: weed suppressing membrane maybe (opinion on the use of this is divided): a bit of gravel spreading and raking and twice a year a walk around with a can of weedkiller to take care of annual weeds.

Just as a BTW - how come when we see a couple of photos someone else's garden we instantly know what we'd do and yet we stare at our own day in and day out and have absolutely no idea?