Please help I need a couple of garden tips!!!

Right, I will be so grateful of on any help and advice on a couple of things I am gonna do over the next few days please share your knowledge with me and point me in the right direction!!

1) Behind the fence at the bottom of my garden is a river and weeds and other bits and bobs keep growing through my fence, is there some sort of strong weed killer that I can throw/pour over my fence to try and kill everything that is growing continually through my fence??

2) I have a large amount of shaded area's in my garden are there any cheap, easy to grow and nice looking flowers people would recomend for shaded areas??

3) I am about to put grass seeds down on my patchy lawn am I right in thinking I need to cover the seeds up with a few milimetre of a mixture of fresh top soil and compost to try and get the best out of the seeds???

I will really appreciate your knowledge and advice as I am a complete amature when it comes to the garden!!

 

I would be very careful about putting any weedkiller so close to a river, It could pollute the water. So, I'm afraid its a case of just having to keep trimming them back.

not too sure about the other 2 questions, sorry. I'm sure a more experienced gardener will be able to help you soon

 

I have always wanted a river at the bottom of my garden.

Can you not speak to the local council to see if they will come and cut back the weeds every once in a while, or find out who is responsible for the watereway. You never know, they might be pretty helpful.

 

Thanks, for pointing me down the right direction, with the weeds, I will contact the council to see if they can do anything, If not I may have to have a trip over the fence with my strimmer every so often, fair points about the river and weedkiller, wouldn't be fair on the little innocent fish!!!

Any tips on the other two questions would still be great though!!

 

2) Begonias and bizzy lizzies (impatiens) for instant impact. Both look great (in my opinion), are simple to grow, do well in shade, and very cheap - you can get a multi-pack for a couple of quid in most garden centres. They are annuals though - i.e. - will only last until this autumn / winter then die.

3) When I re-sow sparse lawns I mix the grass seed and compost in a bucket first, then sprinkle that in. Firm gently, and water. Also give your lawn a good raking before you start to remove debris and loosen the soil a little. Works for me.

If it's slightly bigger patches you can sow your own turf in seed trays. Just fill with compost, sow grass seed in there, and in a couple of weeks you'll have a full patch of lovely, healthy turf you can transplant neatly into a bare patch.

 

My sister's former home had a river running down one side of the garden. Shobhna's tip about finding out who is responsible for the waterway is sound. In my sister's case the local council eventually did a lot of work to clear out her stretch of water at no charge to her whatsoever. They even put up a temporary barrier between the garden and the river whilst they worked. My sister was somewhat surprised, however, when she came home from work one day to find that the 'temporary barrier' was now in place and consisted of recycled corrugated iron panels which were covered in very rude graffiti! I said she should see it as an urban style statement - maybe she should have entered it for some kind of contemporary garden competition.

If you are clearing weeds near your waterway, use gloves. Where there is water, there are rats and they sometimes carry Vials disease - a very nasty bug which can affect humans. I don't want to scare you - both my sons are keen rowers who have been messing about in grimey waterways for years with no problems, but it's probably best to be aware.

 

Yeah thanks for that tip, have to admit we saw a couple of water rat's within the first few days so i bought a couple of rat traps and they were busy little rat traps for the first few days but then when silent for the next couple of weeks so I havent been using them since but yes I know rats do exist in the river near us!!!

 

There is of course a big difference between rats and water voles, which are a protected species.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Water_Vole

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/22/water-vole-release-devon