help with re-vamped garden(mess)

mrbadexample

Saint_Chris wrote: »

We managed to build a dry wall, and fill it with the rubbish from the garden,

I'm liking the wall, but what do you mean by rubbish? What exactly have you put in there?

Because when I look at it I just see food crop space!

Saint_Chris

Lol

you see all of those pieces of broken flags that made the wall, well there's twice as many inside the wall, and then, the lawn had a big bump in the middle, so we flattened it out, and the grass/soil is chucked in as well.

We felt we had to do this, cause they just couldn't afford a massive skip, we'd already filled a 3 ton one with flags/soil

i personally would have done a veg patch, but they are both full time working parents with 2 small children, and they just don't have the time to tend a veg garden, and they felt that it would be wrong to start something that they couldn't or didn't want to spend time on.

Maybe once this bit of space is transformed it may change their minds.

My plan now it to fill it with as much colour as i can, that doesn't need a lot of care.

thanks

Patchwork_Quilt

That's an amazing amount of work in such a short time. Well done.

I would suggest hardy geraniums. They spread and they flower for a long time. They don't mind shade. However, I would also stick some rhubarb in. It's fairly forgiving and you can eat it. Likewise a dwarf apple and plum. Once they are established, you can ignore them. Things like aubretia are pretty and will just hang over the wall, coming back every year. How about a few strawberry plants? They also spread themselves. In the medium height range, an azalea is pretty in the spring and evergreen over winter.

I filled my last garden by finding a reasonable garden centre and just going down every couple of months and buying something that was in flower, so I knew what it looked like. That way, there was always something of interest in every season. Having a colour scheme would also help in a small garden. Mine was purple/blue and white.

Good luck

Amarillo

Flipping heck, you have done well ! I'd go for a three prong planting scheme . Climbers for the fence and wall, roses, clematis, honeysuckle etc. Then some evergreen shrubs which flower at different times of year, then some smaller perennials and ground cover. Actually, forgot bulbs, spring ones planted this autumn but think you'd be in time to do some summer ones.

I'd include some herbs, Rosemary (gets quite big plus is evergreen), sage, thyme, oregano and chives all get on with it and are pretty hardy. Definitely some strawberries as they are a doddle. If you are happy for it to take a bit of time to get planted it can be done quite cheaply. Ask around friends to see if they have something spare, I keep finding little vibernum and cotoneasters dotted around. Herbs are easy to split clumps and Rosemary easy to take cuttings. Honeysuckle is another one which I keep finding round the garden. Clumps of hardy geraniums are easy to split, primroses too. Car boot sales are a good source of cheap plants plus maybe put a request on Freecycle for perennials. Wilkos have climbing roses for £3 I think, just be careful you look in the box. Our local nursery does a plant sale every so often with mega bargains

Getting it planted up like that will mean no faffing around with watering once things are established unlike hanging baskets, pots etc.

LilacPixie

now see as a parent of 3 kids and we also both work full time (when i'm not on mat leave) i'd also be using soe of the space for veg/fruit. Poundland for some half moon wall baskets, strawbs and maybe a few tumbling tom plugs for a car boot sale and the kids would love it, well mine do at 4 and 2.

Chives are very easy and have pretty purple flowers

pinkcandyflossprincess

OMG!:j
you have done an amazing job- its already transformed !
you wouldnt believe its the same garden at all!:eek:
cant wait to see when you have plants growing too:T

the white wall looks good against the brick, nice and fresh, I think you have done amazingly- I hope your SIL made you a cup of tea at least with all that hard graft you have been doing:)

Mrs_Huggett

Have a think about what you put into the wall space before you start planting, did you put all the flags in first, then the turf, then the loose top soil/ if not you may find it difficult to establish some of the bigger plants well, you may have to re jig the stuff in there a bit lol! don't forget that it will all settle a bit once the turf starts to die off and the earth dry out, but what a good effort you have made!! Personally I would make sure the planting area is sound first, then buy a decent couple of specimen plants such as zephrine drouhin a super climbing rose with no thorns, it is a lovely bright pink, very free flowering and disease resistant, you can get it by mail order from good nurseries and online from a company like crocus. you can decent clematis from shops like wilkinsons if you buy them as soon as they come in, they are small but soon catch up, remember they like their heads in the sun and their feet in the shade! Get some decent sized chippings to cover the weed fabric, don't get pea gravel or the local cats will have a nice new loo to use!! And get along to one of the big diy stores and get some alpines to pop in, things like saxifrage, bugle, sometimes they do deals like 4 for 3 or a special price. you can then pop in a couple of little sof daff bulbs later in the year, or hyacinths etc. then there will be something there for the spring too!

Saint_Chris

thank your for your kind replies.

can i just say the kids (daughter and son in law) both 26 are really happy with it.

I've done a plan and we or i are going to flag an area, and to avoid the dreaded cutting of flags, i've done it so we get a border of stones, so no cutting of flags.

not sure about plants, as they are expensive, did look at morissons today, but nothing took my eye.

I think we'll take that as it comes, rang grandson before and he just love the face he had a fence..............god love him he's only 4...............kids eh

Lotus-eater

I hope that nice new tall fence doesn't stop too much sun getting to the neighbour, because I'd be annoyed if it did and it was me.

aliasojo

I would think all those large trees/bushes on the neighbour's side would block out plenty sun all on their own, lotus-eater. I'm not sure the screening would make too much difference? If anything, going by the pic, it looks like the brick building casts the biggest shadows, the screening isn't blocking too much more.

I think you've made a huge improvement OP.