My Garden Progress Thread

Hello, new to these forums. Recently brought anew house with a garden! I say with a garden as previously we were in rented and not allowed to touch the garden and before that in a flat, its quite nice to be able to do something with this space.

Anyway, I am looking for ideas and inspiration really. This is what I currently have: (behind the picture is about two rows of paving slabs across the back of the house)

Back


Front


The soil in the back is full of clay so so far I have tried to make it better draining by sticking a fork in and pushing a sandy lawn dressing into the wholes, also overseeding the bare bits!

List is:

Back
1. A thicker hedge at the bottom
2. Decking out of the double french doors
3. Flower bed down the right hand side

Front:
Aim is for easy maintenance.
1. Dig it up and lay a weed proof membrane
2. Gravel or bark chippings.

I have no idea on choice of plants so this is hopefully where you people can help!

Any ideas or suggestions on what can be done with my garden would appreciated! Sorry for the long post.

 

Hi Muddy welcome to the forums!

One idea for your little front patch would be to plant some Alpines unlike some other plants alpines stay 'green' all year round as long as they are not the tender ones and they will spread amongst your gravel lovely!

Good luck with your garden I bet you are very excited and more than ready to getting 'dug-in'
Helen.xxx.

 

Welcome muddy.

I'd be bit careful of treating your clay with sand though, it can concrete if you do that when its wet

The best way to sort out clay (first hand experience) is to turn in loads of mulch soil improver. You get organic bags which is just full of partially rotted wood. Its helps because it holds water when its dry and helps drain when its wet.

Good luck with your garden though, and dont fall for the mistake i made in my first year, where i only bought annuals :( Looked great for about 6 months, until they all died. Go for getting some perreinial backing in your garden so you dont dont have to pay for a new garden every year :D :D

 

Welcome Muddy, you're already off to a good start cos' you've got a "shed".

 

Hello Muddy, have a wander down to your library and look in their gardening section, they should have one or two design books to inspire you. My children bought me the Ultimate Garden Designer by Tim Newbury last Christams and I found that a good book for ideas.

 

Thanks for the advice. I went abit mad and cleared out the front today ripping out things i didnt like! I plan to start seriously next year when we have a bit more spare cash. I have a lot of spring flowering bulbs so thought I might plant these out front ready for next year.

This weekends progress;

 

excellent muddy looking good, i think your lawn in the back garden would look great if it was a circle, you would then have four corners for planting, just a thought. if you plant tall plants in the top left corner you will hide the shed which sometimes can be an eye sore, s happy gardening muddy have fun. Dee

 

Nice work Muddy your front little patch is looking much better with that tidy up and in spring it will look stunning.

I can so relate to the penny problems I have spent a small fortune this year on our gardens and there's still so much more to be done!

Keep us posted on how you're getting on with some more of those great pictures.
Helen.xxx.

 

This weekend all I did was turn the compost over to let some air in! Nothin to interesting due to a very wet weekend!

All though I came up with this small plan of what I hope the garden to look like, any thoughts are appreciated! Sorry about the poor skills on photoshop!

 

More progress this weekend, cleared out the old plants that were in the small flowering bed, I am looking to extend this bed down to the end. Once the decking is sorted really.

And gave the lawn a good mow on a longer setting. I must say the grass is much greener already since getting some air underneath the clay soil and overseeding it.

 

Looking good!

I'm working with my own garden at the moment and went for easy maintenance in the front. For green, I have planted some Lonicera as they will stay green and once established I can begin to topiary them

I like your plan for the back You're lucky that it is quite a blank canvas.

I look forward to seeing your progress and hopefully sharing ideas

 

Muddy just mowing the grass makes you feel like a proper gardener doesn't it? and all the more better knowing its all yours and you can do what you want with it....enjoy!
Helen.xxx.

 

Looking good Muddy your grass has really greened up

 

You're lucky to have such a clean sheet to work from and you've substantially improved the lawn!

All I can say is don't be afraid of wide borders. In my opinion, unless you've got children, a lawn is wasted planting space. My borders average about 6ft. It looks huge at first, but a few large shrubs will soon fill it and give all year round interest and height.

Maybe you could organise the borders to give more of a definite shape to the garden, you've got a figure of 8 shape in the plan at the moment, maybe you could make it more obviously an 8 so it looks like you have two lawns.

I would also consider an island bed or a bulge in a side bed to enclose that grate so it's less of a feature.