Hello from West Sussex

Hi There,

I'm Katie. I moved into a new house last July, and have finally got around to the stage of trying to get the garden sorted. Only problem is that I'm utterly clueless!

I live in West Sussex, right on the coast (lucky me!). I have a decent canvas to start with. Front garden is our main garden, and is south facing, mostly lawned, with a border at the front which needs some attention. A large overgrown plant right in the middle (my novice googling leads me to think it's a Jerusalem Sage), dwarfing the other plants around it, and a conifer in the corner.

The back garden is teeny, and north facing, so only gets very limited direct sunlight. There are a couple of Clematis' that I know need attention once they have finished flowering, and some overgrown Hellebores that also need attention. Along with some other unkowns both front and back.

I used to have the "if it's pretty it can stay" philosophy, but sadly in my last house (rented) my dog ate Aconite, and it killed her within half an hour. So one of the first jobs on my list is to make sure that I know everything that is in the garden, and remove any weeds/undesirables (I still have one other dog, and a toddler).

Then, I need to go about getting it into shape. Taking control of the out of control/overgrown plans that are there, filling gaps with other things, making it feel a bit more "beechy", and hopefully growing a few edible things too!

Bare with me, I'm sure to ask lots of questions!

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

Sorry to hear about your Dog.

We've got a thread about poisonous plants Here

I'm going to make it a sticky again as we've had a lot of new members recently.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Parcheesy. It's always good to have new members on board.

Sorry to hear about the sad loss of your dog, it is a rare occurrence that domestic animals eat something deadly to them and they usually have a built in sense of what to avoid.

Pictures of your gardens would be welcome when you have the time please.

 

Happy to oblige! :-)









This is the front garden and is the focus for now. The plastic us going, to be replaced with something smaller and less damaging to the lawn. Long term, we want to put a patio under the window, but will need to save for that!

 

Hello and welcome Katie. Sorry to hear about your dog.

just picking up on a couple of points.

Re poisonous plants and toddlers, yes this is a worry. My son went through a phase of taste testing everything when he was between about 18 months and about 3. Strong flavoured edibles are a good think, tasting yuk to young taste buds, but completely harmless (in moderation). My favourite for this purpose (and lots of other purposes) is nasturtium. Its all round brilliant. Your kid and dog can safely taste test it to their hearts content and apart from twisting their noses up from the strong pepper flavour, nothing at all will happen to them.

You said you want it more 'beachy', and that you want a patio under the window but you need to save up first. Here's an idea. Why not take up the crazy paved straight path and keep the stones. Put in a nice winding path made of either crushed dolomite (I think that's right, the sandy coloured stuff used for many countryside paths, Zigs is our resident stone expert so he'll probably know), or a 50/50 mix of sand and small pebbles, which is dirt cheap from the builder's yard.

Replacing the straight path with a winding one serves several purposes. First up, it will make your garden seem bigger, because straight lines draw the eye directly to the end of the garden. Also its the fastest route across covering the least ground, so it seems smaller. Also, kids love to follow winding paths. They like straight paths too, and it wont take a toddler very long at all to traverse that straight path straight from the house to the gate and out into the street, whereas if its a curvy one, you get a little bit more time to see where they're heading. The other think is you don't see straight edges in nature, including down the beach. With careful choice of planting you might be able to give some illusion of waves washing over your curvy sand coloured new path.

Remember I suggested save the stones, well there'd be enough there to make a nice patio. I used smashed up boring 3x2 flag stones to make my patio and it looks pretty good. Certainly better than you might expect. That way you already have the top of your patio there, and you only need to buy in sand and cement (you'll be able to get some hardcore for a foundation from anywhere).

Total cost I reckon for all of the above would be around £150 max, which is for the sand and cement for the patio plus about £40 for a tonne of 50/50 sand/pebbles mix for the path.

Just an idea

 

Thanks for the pics Parcheesy. The sun is a bonus for you (when it shines) it will help your future plants grow well.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome :-)

Clueless1, thanks for the great ideas. Unfortunately hubby says no to the crazy paving. He hates it! We're going to try freecycle and we also have a local salvage yard, so will see what we can lay our hands on. Love the path idea!

 

Hi Katie - always good to welcome new members - a mad team but very friendly and knowledgeable! Enjoy!

 

Welcome to GC Katie .....I too am so sorry about the dog.....
Have a good look around the forum and you'll have your 'Beachy' garden before you know it you'll get loads of great ideas and advice....Enjoy.....

 

Hello there and Welcome.