Never had a garden before!

Hello!

Well, this is not something I ever thought I'd be lucky enough to say: I have a garden! I've recently moved out of a bad landlord situation and fallen into something wonderful. My own little flat with a garden (I have never had one before). The idea of being able to look out onto a garden fills me with happiness. I don't think I'll be able to garden myself because of back issues, so I am going to hire a gardener, but I need to know where to start and what on earth is wrong with the current space - it has clearly been neglected. I think it's full of weeds, and I can make a start by trimming (bought a mower from Toolstation, it's on the way apparently), but I wonder if I could get some general advice on whether I can get rid of these weeds before I hire anyone. Or, if, as I suspect, it needs new turf, is there any point in bothering with weed killer? To say I'm a newbie would be a *dramatic* understatement!

I'd love to have some plants and bushes (I prefer plants to flowers) and spend a reasonable amount doing it. Should those things be planted? Or put in big pots? Should I choose perennials only? How much should I be looking to spend, in the hundreds I know, but hoping about £2-300 for the new turf and another couple hundred for the plants etc? Am I way off base with the cost?

I feel like I need to design a little garden somehow, or at least give the gardener ideas on what I want, but I have NO clue where to start. It seems like an enormous job to get it from the ugly, weed-filled, neglected state it's in now to something that'll make me happy every day when I look at it! I'll attach a few pix so you can see the scale of the job. It is not a big space as you can see.


Any advice - including where to get well-priced plants etc in north London (I'm in Finchley) would be wonderful. Thanks so much Liz

 

Hello LizT, Welcome to the world of gardening.

Could you give us a rough idea of which way your window faces? (N,S,E,W?) and how tall the fences are?

 

Welcome!
I wouldn't bother with grass in that small space. Paths and raised beds would be better and you might be able to do a little planting and weeding, then.

 

Welcome @LizT , exciting times ahead for you! I agree with @BB3 about raised beds, they will look great in that space

 

Welcome Liz, as you are in N London, do you have a car, or access to one.? There's an area called Crews Hill in Enfield, where there is a whole row of different garden centres. A little further round there is a place called the garden club, you have to join but it's easy and cheap. That place is Huge you will get lots of very reasonably priced plants there, maybe not the more unusual or rare cultivars but all very good prices. You will save your membership fee on the first visit. If you hire a gardener he/ she should know about it, go with them and a list of what you want.

 

It may also pay you to consider how much maintenamce you are able to do and whether you want a "sitting out" area. Only you know how much you can afford to pay to make your garden from scratch and to pay for regular help if needed.
Do you fancy a "perfumed" garden and if you introduce flowering shrubs/climbers do you have any preference on shape or colour ? Do you plan to encourage any birds ? Would you enjoy having a small pond ?
Try and take a look at any similar neighbouring properties as you may be able to get some ideas for your own patch.
Once you've decided how to lay it out, you'll always get advice on here. Good luck

 

Welcome @LizT and congratulations on your new house and garden. What a lovely opportunity you have and your enthusiasm will carry you far in the garden. It can be overwhelming at first to know what to do , where and when and then think about the maintenance in the longer term.
For now, I would settle in to your surroundings and get to know your patch of garden. Where does the sun rise and go down? You will then have an idea concerning plants that like the shade and those that like a bit of sun.( you can find basic information on a plant label of any plants you are looking at or invest in a basic gardening book or look things up on the internet…as well as asking for advise here)
For me, I would then think about if I wanted somewhere to sit?How would you get to that place from your back door? A windy path maybe? Or a straight path? Maybe draw out a little design on some paper.
I would have to tackle getting rid of the weeds in the garden. A weedkiller is my suggestion. Once the weeds have died off a good gardener could then turn all the soil over to aerate it and soften it up and to enrich it with organic material ( compost and a little manure). Thereafter, your decisions regarding what plants you wanted would come into play.
Others may do things differently but this is how we tackled our new garden six years ago and faced much of what you have although the lawn was in a little better condition than yours.( if it is a lawn at all). We had a border of what looked like fish tank gravel.
Main thing is to enjoy what you have, take your time and do research and then enlist the help if needed. Half the fun with a garden is not rushing into things, planning lots, if you make any mistakes they can always be rectified, don’t get overwhelmed and take on step at a time. No rush. Good luck.

 

Welcome to the forum .

I don't think you've said just how big it is (apologies if I'm wrong, I've not been awake very long !). If you could give the measurements in feet as well as metres I'd appreciate it .
Unless you really want a lawn, I would consider going down the courtyard style route as @Loofah mentioned.
You can attract wildlife and have lots of colour without the stress of trying to maintain a small patch of grass.

 

Congratulations on your new plot and welcome to the forum.
As you will see from the above postings, there are lots of people on here happy to give advice, all reasonable but very different.
The main thing is to take things slowly, it is easy to waste money on plants and equipment and plants dying is very disheartening.
I notice you say you prefer plants to flowers. I am guessing you mean you prefer shrubs to annual flowers that need replacing each year. If so, go for a walk around your local area and look in front gardens to see what is growing well. Your plot looks very new so the first thing you may need to tackle is builder's rubble hidden under the topsoil, the weeds look a bit puny to me. You could try digging a hole, at least a couple of feet deep, and looking at what is lower down. Removing stones, bricks and metal "things" will be a first job.
I would go to the local Gardeners Club, find an official ask them to point me in the direction of one of their experienced members who would be prepared to come and look at my new plot and advise me on soil type and what grows well locally.
The biggest thing to learn for any new gardener is PATIENCE! PATIENCE! PATIENCE!
It can be overwhelming to be faced with names and plants you know nothing about and you will make mistakes, but we all do that, even those of us who have been gardening all their lives and there is always more than one way to solve a problem so go for it and enjoy.

 

Hello! The sun is on that side in the afternoon, if that helps? The fences are pretty tall, I don't think the garden gets a massive amount of sun.

Actually, I downloaded a compass! So here's a pic of the garden rn and the compass screenshot.

 

I don't like the way raised beds would look, the space is already small and I reckon they'd make it look smaller? But a path, I like that idea a lot! I could reduce the amount of grass and have planted bushes and things on either side?

 

Do you reckon? I thought they might look too big for the space but more so, I do want to minimise the amount of cost at both the outlay and going forward and wouldn't raised beds require a lot of maintenance? In an ideal world I'd like to plant things that just grow and I can leave alone! Is that even possible?