Help with concrete garden

Lennylegs

Hi,
My husband and I live in a ground floor flat, we have our own patio to the side of our house that we manage fairly well (pots/wall troughs etc). However directly outside our front room is the 'car park' however it never gets used for cars as the road to it is long, private and too difficult to drive a car down. It would be nice to brighten it up as it's right outside our window. So far we painted the far wall white, painted the fencing, bought a couple of plants and started trailing a clematis. Does anyone have any ideas for this area, we don't have a lot of money but don't mind spending the time. My Dad is prepared to make a raised border at the end toward the garages, my Mum reckons some sort of Ivy could be planted and trained up over the ugly garage roofs, the final thing would be the floor (not sure if this is concrete or tarmac?!) and have no idea what to do with this.... I appreciate that this has been a long post and would be so grateful for any suggestions.....

Thanks
Leonie :beer:
[IMG]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/Flat/ST830743.JPG[/IMG]
[IMG]file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/Flat/ST830743.JPG[/IMG]
http://s730.photobucket.com/albums/ww307/Lennylegs/

Yategirl

there is a house round the corner from us - front room faces on to their front garden which they use for parking and then a busy main road.. they have put trellis up about 1-2m from their front window and are training a climber up it. This doesn't seem to block light but provides something a bit nicer to look at! Might be an idea to consider.

I would be tempted to grow a climber such as ivy (which is cheap) or even an evergreen clematis up the garage wall and onto the roof and then dot pots with shrubs etc around as much of the sides as I could - so that the space is still there for cars as and when needed.... I don't think there is much you can do to the tarmac as that will be expensive but softenin the edges would help.

nimbo

Yategirl wrote: »

I would be tempted to grow a climber such as ivy (which is cheap) or even an evergreen clematis up the garage wall and onto the roof and then dot pots with shrubs etc around as much of the sides as I could - so that the space is still there for cars as and when needed.... I don't think there is much you can do to the tarmac as that will be expensive but softenin the edges would help.

it might look nicer then what is there now, but when it comes time to remove this it may well ahve caused LOADS of damage, my BIL/DS have recently had to remove the ivy from their garage as it was taking over inside, and it has left horrid 'suckers' all over the outside...

it may be harder work, and less attractive in the winter, but honeysuckle may do better as it should leaveless of a mess...

Lennylegs

Thankyou so much for taking the time to reply!

I think i will go for an evergreen Ivy, we don't own the garages, they are owned by the freeholder and he simply refuses to maintain them even though it's affects our view. Any thoughts on which evergreen ivy to go for? We have homebase/b&q/wyevale near us so ideally something that I can freely get from there.....or the internet maybe?
The idea for the trellis would be fab but we have to maintain the access even though it isn't used....

Thank you !

Suzy_M

Lennylegs wrote: »

we don't own the garages

Sorry - if you don't own the garages you shouldn't be growing anything on them.

And if they are already in a state of disrepair any climbers would accelerate the process and could mean the owner presenting you with the repair bill.

border_collie

Are all those weeds still there? I would have a real good weed and sweep.

And who does all that junk belong to? Shove it out of sight.


Agree with Suzy M, you can't really grow stuff on the garages if they aren't yours.

Lotus-eater

Not sure by what you mean a state of disrepair, they look all right to me.
You certainly shouldn't grow ivy over the roof, even if you did own the garage. You knew what the view was going to be when you moved in, if you don't like it I'm afraid you should think about moving.

You say you've started a clematis, if I was you, I would get written permission from the freeholder to grow climbers up the garage (trellis) and then grow more clematis and some honeysuckle as nimbo advised. Make sure you specify the type of plants when writing to the freeholder.

tim_n

Hokey dokey!

Concrete planting can be quite good fun. This is my recommendation.

Get old scaffolding boards (can be quite cheap) or similar wood - pallets aren't recommended as they're a pain to be pulled appart, but they are an option.

Make a 2ft high box - as big as you like, but I'd keep the width no longer than 2/3rds the span of your arms (ie so you can reach to the middle of the box with no problems).

Put box down on concrete, and layer the bottom of the box with two layers of cardboard.

Next, get enough well rotted manure to fill the box about 1ft to 1.5ft. Cover the rest in straw upto the 2ft level. For the first year you can grow veg like potatoes, fruit like raspberries, dwarf rootstock trees etc and the straw will keep the moisture in and the weeds out. It's a no-dig bed which can be used virtually anywhere. You'll also have less bending down.

You could alternatively put prettier flowers in as well etc, but that's not exactly moneysaving ;-)

We painted our boxes with a plantsafe blue stain, they look quite pretty amongst the more boring boxes everyone else has got!

One disadvantage is it will require quite a bit of watering - buy you'll be able to have all sorts of fruit and veg throughout the year!