Novice Gardener Needs Advice Please (Merged)

maria08k

Hello:hello:


Im new to this part of MSE and was wondering if you greenfingered lovelys could help me?!

Im 22 years old and have moved into my second rented home. The first we lived in was a little cottage with only a courtyard gadren which was all paved apart from 2 flower beds either side of the path. We had it looking lovely. But problems with the house urged us to leave.
We have been at the new house for 3 months which is modern with a 40 ft garden! The garden slopes upwards slightly and is all grass apart from 2 slabs width of patio as you walk out of the back door.So we are kinda limited to a small patio table and 2 seats on the patio area and the rest of the garden is too angled to have garden furniture on.
We have no flower beds and dont want to really be digging up any holes due to the house being rented (having to ask permission etc)
Can anyone suggest any thing i can do to make it abit more of a garden and not just a grassey area? I was thinking maybe terrecotta pots with plants/low maintanence shrubs in? I really dont have a clue, but want something thats low maintanence and coloufull as we do abot of entertaining.

Many Thanks

Maria

System

I would suggest you consider asking on your local freecycle website, is anyone can offer any kind of plant pots or anything suitable as a container. By using any form of container, you will be free to remove them if and when you move again. If you want to purchase any, keep it cheap. Plastic from £1 shops or Wilkinsons. Knowing Wilko's it wouldn't surprise me if they start reducing theirs soon to get the Christmas decorations in!.

Next, consider your recycling centre where folk take their rubbish, as there is always a section where they make a few bob. I bought an old fish tank stand, metal coated in black plastic, which supports a solid window box of shrubs. Just keep an open mind on anything that would be suitable or quirky. You may need to give whatever a quick coat of paint to freshen them up.

Your next step will be what the plants grow in, ie compost. I'd suggest if you don't know a great deal about gardening, you get a mulit-purpose compost. Garden centre's tend to do specials ie 3/4 for £10. If you know anyone over 60, get them to collect them for you for pensioners discount.

Ensure everything you use as a container, has drainage.

Now we move on to plants. Before you spend anything, as each of those people that you "entertain", if they would by way of a welcome gift, bring a plant or two instead of wine. Ask for cuttings, large or small clumps etc, antyhing, but get them as soon as you can, you may need to leave overnight in water, but then get them planted. If you don't know what anything is called or how they are likely to grow, ASK when you receive and make a note. You can always come back here for our opinion. Oh, once you have a selection of these pots, you can stagger them about to your hearts content. I have nothing planted in the garden as the soil is clay. But I have over 100 pots/tubs of palms/conifers, indeed anything which retains it's leaf, that way I have interest thoughout the year.

Whilst garden centre things are invariably good quality, you pay for them. I'd suggest you target car boot/garage sales. Often the latter are clearing out before a house move. Markets may be you next best move.

We too have a garden on a slope, but it IS possible to have timber furniture on it without too much of a wobble, you just need to experiment. If the angle is still there, raise one side up by using a brick.

If you have anything tall that you can attach bird feeders to, this will create interest.

What I will do, is scour these posts as somewhere I have photographs of my garden before and after, if I can find them I'll show you. Best of luck, please keep us posted on how this develops.

maria08k

Thankyou so so much islandman! Thats been a HUGE help Really liking the idea of asking for pants/cut offs instead of bottles of wine when people come over!
You've been a great help

System

I've found my before and after post, but the pics have gone. I'll put the post up and see if anyone can explain, if not I'll do it again, so watch this space.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=482341&highlight=islandman%27s+pics

WestonDave

One word of warning - while islandman's post is very informative - if you stick a pot on the grass for any length of time you will very quickly kill the grass underneath. It will recover but at the time you move all the pots to leave, you will have a lot of bare patches on the lawn which may impact on your deposit!

If you can have planters raised up on small feet (rather than a big flat bottom) then you may get away with it provided there is enough light and air getting to the grass underneath. There are fairly inventive ways of doing this - an old bench could be doctored as a plant stand etc.

System

I may have mucked you about a bit, but eventually I have the size I wanted.




















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System

APOLOGY TIME. Yes that is very true. In actual fact we had area's of grass, or rather where grass should be, but for whatever reason grass would not grow, despite throwing down seed and covering with mesh.

As for the pics, transferring is not something I do frequently. Photobucket has changed it's procedure, and this confused me and in consequence I failed to ensure a better size transfer. This now means for many people they will require to scroll back and forth. I can do nothing about this now, short of deleting my post and starting again. If you want me to do this, then you will have to explain how to reduce the size.

Poppycat

islandman that's a lovely garden. Thanks for sharing it gives us all ideas

System

As it is a large picture, you may notice an area behind the swing etc. That is where we kept out two pet Aylesbury ducks overnight. During the day they came out but oh the mess and destruction. After 8 months of using my metered water as well, they had to go. Presumably into someone's tummy. JOKE!, no we donated them to a children's farm.

maria08k

Wow!!! What a fab garden you have!You must have put so much hard work & effort into it. It looks fantastic,well done!