Please help - advice required (pic in post)

icecreamdogpark

I agree that price for railings is steep ,we have to pay 3k for dropped kerbs here in surrey for a driveway really how much of that is profit? i wonder, i`d paint the wooden fencing to match i think that would look nice but still keeping your house individual, sadly the rest all look the same, shame the council didn`t give them a few choices of designs would have looked so much nicer. I like yours the best and agree with other a little cutting back and taming with a few shrubs,(i get mine in the bargin corner of the garden center £3 some of them for big plants) It will look lovely

Optimisticpair

If you like the idea of an easy but very attractive little plant up against the house wall consider Cotoneaster horizontalis.

Arching fan shaped sprays of twigs in a herringbone pattern, little white flowers followed by little red berries. The neat little glossy green leaves turn to red/gold/ autumn shades before dropping off in late autumn and regrow on the branches again in Spring.

Fairly cheap to buy, grows almost anywhere, takes up little room front to back and won't threaten your house foundations or the wall. You place it a foot away from the wall with the tallest stems towards the wall and it grows upwards 3ft and sideways to 5ft and only needs a trim when it is as tall and wide as you want it. The only care it needs is a hole dug and backfilled 50/50 soil and moist compost, if you have some fertiliser a little sprinkled in helps, and don't let it get really dry in the first year. Better fruit if it is in a sunny spot.

theatretony

Thanks for all the extra replies, I will be trying some of these ideas out when it gets sunny again. I think I have been convinced not to do the gravel and keep it as green as possible. Maybe I may get a hand in this gardening lark.....

theatretony

For those interested, this is my back garden and a couple of weeks ago this was overgrown and covered in weeds, the paving area was not visible because of weeds. got all those pulled out and applied patio weedkiller and I INTEND to keep up with this.. I was just never a gardening person lol.. give me a computer and I will fix it or build a new one from scratch, but manual hard labour is not my thing lol....

knithryn

OK, back garden.
What do you want to do in it?
First remove any miscellaneous 'stuff'
Nothing? .....just cut the lawn once every two weeks
Sit out occasionally......cut the lawn and strim the edges once every two weeks
Sit out regularly....feed the lawn, cut it and strim the edges once a week
Have a barbeque/friends round...but a cheap patio set for the patio area, apply weedkiller on it every 6 weeks or so...slosh some fresh wood preservative on the shed, or paint it.
Have it child-friendly - keep a largish section of lawn for playing ball on, perhaps a sand-pit affair on the patio bit, grow sunflowers around the edges.
Make a 'thing' of it... you'd need to create some beds, buy plants etc. I personally would create a bigish rectangular bed between the near path and the patio, and grow herbs etc in it for the barbeques, kitchen use etc, then maybe put in a mini-arbour over the top of the patio section, with clematis etc on it. This would also give a feeling of privacy.

LuckyBiscuit

Personally i'd paint the fence white, that's the romantic in me i think................

theatretony

Thanks for the replies, the back garden I can easily keep up with and I was planning on a herb garden to help the daughter learn about growing things. Eventually, I would like to buy a new shed as that one is really old and has HUGE spiders in it lol...
It is usually kept very neat the back garden, but the bad weather today stopped me going out to finish things off.