hi everyone. I've joined up to gain some knowledge of looking after my garden. I find I learn best from forums where ideas are shared rather than reading article after article. I have a standard semi-detached house with front and rear gardens. Both are lawn, the south facing front has a border of young trees/shrubs that I'd like to speed up their growth. The north facing rear has always been difficult to get a nice lawn, it floods easily and is where my 3 dogs do their business. I fitted a sump pump last spring which helped massively, so now I know that works I want to get the lawn in a better state this year, there are a couple of bald patches and it's not near level. I'll get some photos up tomorrow.
Hi and welcome. I think it will always be difficult to get a have a nice lawn if you have three dogs. I can't think of any way to speed up the growth of any tree. It took nearly 20 years to grow an effective barrier to the front of our house. We have an azalea and rhododendron "hedge."
@anth85 look forward to your pics and questions then... If your dogs are female and so scorching the grass I can thoroughly recommend Dog rocks in the water bowls. I have 3 dogs two are female and although I was very sceptical Dog Rocks do work and I don’t have horrid yellow patches of grass anymore... Dog Rocks are the natural solution to dog urine burns marks - Podium Pet Products I get mine from my vets but as closer than the shops but pets at home etc all sell them.. See you around the forums..
I know I am fighting an uphill battle with north facing and dogs. I just know I've made mistakes in the past cutting it right down to the mowers shortest setting which nearly killed it. I don't want to make similar mistakes again and anything I can do to improve it is great, even if it's not perfect. I planted the shrubs in the front nearly 2 years ago, they are growing, slowly. But they have a wall to the south of them which is taller than they are so I expect that. I planted them because parking in our street is terrible and we have an inconsiderate neighbour who parks his massive sprinter van in front of our house which I'd rather not constantly look out on. They are like conifers but they have white buds on them in the spring, I've no idea what they are now, the tags have long since gone.
@Marley Farley 2 girls, one boy, no problem with scorching though. We have some gravel areas and they do mostly do their business on there
Welcome to Gardeners Corner anth85. Park your own car outside whenever you get the chance, your neighbour might get the message.
So, this is the back garden, that has had nothing done to it since late summer. It needs a tidy up first and foremost, i know that. The swing chair is old, rusted and ready to go to the skips, we are going to replace it with some rattan chairs, but I need some more plum slate gravel to level it all off before I can do that. There are still 2 big root bundles from trees that were removed from where the chairs currently are, they are very heavy and need chopping down before they can be got rid of, I'm not sure of the best way of doing that. My dogs are agility trained, hence the tunnel, weaves and random jumps dotted around. I do want my back garden to be functional and i know this a tradeoff that it will never be like a bowling green. We have 6 olive trees and my wife would like to keep them in pots, but the wind recently has had my picking them back up every day, I don't know of a good way of holding them down other than huge (expensive) pots. But I'd rather not have bald yellow patches like this. To be honest most of the yellow is sawdust, I haven't long finished fitting a new kitchen and most of the woodwork got done around there. But they are still minus any grass. Front garden looking east. Grass looks like its due it's first long cut, it seems to have sprouted in the last few weeks, but as you can see in these pictures there seems to be weed grass growing in it also. There is also a photo of the rather sparse looking bushes. They are in the shade here and have been for months which is probably why they are the way they are, I'm hoping to help them grow a bit and once they get above the wall height they'll get a lot more sun and grow much quicker. I am just struggling to get them to that point. By the way, that car is not mine. Mine goes on the drive and my motorbike goes in the garage. I don't want to be one of those neighbours who park on the road when I could use the drive, because the road is narrow you can only park on one side and its the unwritten rule that it is my side. I don't mind the odd car parked there now and again, it is when there is a massive van parked there for the whole weekend that i don't like it, there is nothing I can do, its perfectly legal, I just want something better looking to block my view of it!
