help with re-vamped garden(mess)

Saint_Chris

son-in-law moved into a house in winter and the back garden was a mess.

So today we decided to tackle it.

Brief description of it is, medium garden, with a brick shed on the right-hand side, back door is on the right hand said of the wall, so straight out of back door and 2 flags wide you hit the brick wall.

The grass (sorry weeds) were like a hill in the middle of the lawn, and all over the place was broken flags and i mean loads.

1st - mistake the s-i-l made was get a skip to small, as we planned to just take up all of the grass/soil make the land flat and turf it.

After putting as much of the hill into the skip and filling it, we was left with loads of grass/soil and broken flags, i decided to start to move the mound behind the brick shed, with the thought of flattening it, but after taking the top weeds off, i was left with flags, all shapes and sizes about a foot hight, tried to move them, but it was becoming impossible.

So back to my drawing board, and i decided to build a dry wall with the broken flags, running straight along from the shed to the back fence, and then fill the inside with the rest of the flags/soil. But we still had some top grass/weeds to move, and i put this in as well.

When i got to the end, there was still a lot of stuff left so i then continued the wall straight along the back.

It looks not to bad, and it's used up all of the flags, withoug the need to buy another skip.

Now this is where i need help.

Should i now pour weed killer all over the soil that i've put inside the wall, then put that thick black stuff over the top that stops weeds coming through (i know that there can't be any rips or tears in this else weeds could come through)
Then i though of putting some fresh top soil on top, then stones over the top and putting a few pots with flowers on, getting clematis to grow up the back wall, and maybe some of that white/purple rock to grown over the wall.

we then plan to flag a small patio area at the back door/window, and then buy turf to cover the soil with.

It's not what we planned to do, as they wanted the full area flat and just turfed, but with the money they will save from buying another skip, then can get some new flags with.

Plants are not to much of an option as they both work a lot so don't have much time to garden.

I would be making them some pots/hanging baskets to put around the area.

Sorry for it being a bit long, but thank you for reading and for your replies.

Saint_Chris

Anyone Please. x

yumyums

Saint_Chris wrote: »

Now this is where i need help.

Should i now pour weed killer all over the soil that i've put inside the wall, then put that thick black stuff over the top that stops weeds coming through (i know that there can't be any rips or tears in this else weeds could come through)
Then i though of putting some fresh top soil on top, then stones over the top and putting a few pots with flowers on, getting clematis to grow up the back wall, and maybe some of that white/purple rock to grown over the wall.

we then plan to flag a small patio area at the back door/window, and then buy turf to cover the soil with.

It's not what we planned to do, as they wanted the full area flat and just turfed, but with the money they will save from buying another skip, then can get some new flags with.

Plants are not to much of an option as they both work a lot so don't have much time to garden.

Hi saint_chris,
Well done on getting so far, sounds like hard work!

I'm a bit confused about the bed you've made with the flags... not sure why you'd need to put top soil on top of the weed fabric. If you just want to have pots on top of there could you not just put the stones on top of the weed fabric? Also if you did want to plant anything in the bed, you could plant through holes in the weed fabric

If they haven't got time to garden will they remember to feed / water /deadhead the flowers in pots? Especially in weather like this - they'll look quite bad in no time I should think!
Hanging baskets also require quite a lot of maintenance in order to look good.

Would you consider some low maintenance shrubs for the garden? I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure people could recommend you some plants that need hardly any work at all.

A picture would really help people give better suggestions. Did you happen to take one?

pinkcandyflossprincess

I would havestuck the flags,topsoil etc on free cycle as someone always wants them for something or other.
Ive totally gutted my garden myself as was a total mess due mainly due to neighbours dumping stuff. found buried car engines and all sorts:eek:
I advertised on freecycle and all the metal was taken for scrap, etc then did a council collection for large items. i then bought an incinerator and burnt 3 6 foot fences apart from posts which i used to build a raised bed.
Theremaining builders sack of items was then kindly taken to devon to be dumped by my step dad as i had bought a skip bag orininally but thought paying the £40 quid a bit daft when i could have it taken to tip by stepdad;)
now i have a clean and tidy garden and got oh to build a shed and ive been painting up fences etc..all myself.
It is depressing to have a garden full of rubbish and not knowing where to start but when you start to see results it really does spur you on.
Ive never done gardening before and im a tiny 5 foot 2 nothing so not built for manual labour but suprised myself in what ive achieved:j
I think setting a daily task is a good idea and take a before and after pic each time, it will quickly start to change your veiwpoint of your garden and soon it will be a place you want to go out in--not dread...like i used to!
good luck!

Saint_Chris

This was it before

pinkcandyflossprincess

thats not too bad tbh!
I would get to aldi and get the cheap masonry paint to do that back concrete fence then some fence paint. that will really brighten up and cheer up the whole feel of your garden.
definately get those concrete slabs onto freecycle if you dont want them.
your garden isnt that big so it really depends on what you want planting- im graveling and doing a half patio at bottom of mine, mainly as i hate kids dragging in mud and we had a rat problem due to all the dumped rubbish by neighbours using their side alley and my garden as a refuse tip:mad:
thankfully they have got the hint and probably relieved since i cleaned it all up so now im adding lots of paint and patio plants to add colour and a feeling of space!
I think you need to think what you would like from your garden?would you like veg? or do you have a theme?
I ideally want a med type effect in mine, somewhere i feel like im abroad and not the hellish suburb of brum-ok i may be a bit optimistic but i can dream:rotfl:

Saint_Chris

I've used all of the concrete slabs, by making a wall with them, running from the shed, down to the back wall, and inside it, we've put all of the soil, as s-i-l wants the grass to be flat with the flags.

Never thought of painting the back concrete, what colour would you suggest.

As for the fence next doors garden is a mess, there is a broken telly in it, and all sorts of other stuff, so daughter wanted one of those cheap cane fances to put along it, and do it about 5 ft hight, to give them some privacy.

Not doing anything vegetable or plants.

Just a few tubs, that have things like hostas in and maybe 1 or 2 hanging baskets that don't take a lot of hard work. And a trellis up the back and some honeysuckle or clematis.

They just want a flat lawn that the kids can play on.

They also want the patio area extending, so are looking at b and q for some flags to give it a nice finish, as the flags that are down now, are a mess.

thank you

pinkcandyflossprincess

I painted the back of my brick house wall to the sills above door with aldi paint today in the white, impressed it went on very easy and one coat has nearly been done and still only used about 1/5th of tub! they had magnolia ie cream which could look nice, Iwould go with a light shade as darker shades make the garden look smaller. planted up with honeysuckle or similar climbers would soften the look of that wall drastically.
Be carefull with attaching the screening as my mom lost hers last year due to storms as did a fair few people on here. It may be worth investing in better fence panels in the long run unless you just want to brighten it up for now?
I say this as i saw some fencing, ripped down the old rotted ones, burnt them and now have a gap which shows the neighbours wire fence that has been tied with string :rotfl:Im currently skint so may have to have a panel installed at a time:eek:

Saint_Chris

well from the above photo, i do feel that we have made a bit of headway over the past 48 hours.

We managed to build a dry wall, and fill it with the rubbish from the garden, i've put the black cloth down to stop weeds coming through, and i've ordered cheap stones to be delivered on thursday to cover it.
We painted the back wall white, aldi paint, very good, not 100% sure if it was the right colour, but were going to put trellis up and clematis/honeysuckle on it.

We managed to get a small nice lawn down today.
As for fence money was tight so for this year so fingers crossed, we just put the very cheap cane runners along stopping us from seeing next doors rubbish, maybe end of year we can sort something better out.

Got to sort the stones out on thur, do a bit of patio outside of backdoor, and then put a few plants in and around the garden, and clean and paint the back shed.

But for someone who doesn't know a lot about what to do, i am quite pleased with what we have managed.

And thanks for your help pinkcandyflossprincess

LilacPixie

very good. Morrisons selling cheap climbers BTW.

Saint_Chris

thank you for your quick reply will have a look there tomorrow.