How best to deal with my garden?

BB1984

Hi greenfingered people, I really hope you can give me some advice and ideas for how to sort out my garden

Background:
We bought our house on a large corner plot 2.5 years ago. Did the house up, and started on the garden. We've loosely split the garden into 4 areas - low-maintenance front garden, vegetable plot, lawn, and "the problem area" (wildlife garden?! )

The problem area is in the front corner of the plot, but as the garden wraps itself right around our house, it's not exactly a front garden as such (hope that makes sense) - it's also part of the side garden, next to the lawn.

When we moved in, there were 2 very large leylandii, which we have cut down because they were blimmin' awful. The rest of the area was various shrubs which were all virtually unrecognisable as they were so overgrown. Anyway, we pretty much hacked it all back so it's within the bounds of the original "shrub bed" as opposed to encroaching all over the lawn. In the process of hacking it back I discovered quite a few nice-looking shrubs, and I think that once upon a time it must have been a lovely garden.

I'm no expert, but I think we've got white and purple lilacs (lots of), a few buddleia, a variegated holly, various types of berberis, a large fuschia, a rhodedenron, and various flowering evergreens that I can't identify.

However, it's a large area and over time the space that we cleared has been completely swamped by ivy, ferns, and grasses. It's a nightmare - looks a complete mess, really wild and out of control. The wildlife loves it, which is great, and something I'd like to preserve, but as it's at the front of the house it's a bit of an embarrassment.

What I'd really like is to just have loads of different shrubs with very little bare ground between, as this is where all the weeds take hold. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, though, as I don't have enough time to keep on top of it - every time I start clearing it or pruning stuff back, by the time I get back out there to continue, the first lot has overgrown again

I don't want to dig out the whole lot and start again, as I think it would be a waste of the nice shrubs that are hiding in there. Also, the layout of the plot means that I need some screening along the front, else people can see right down the side into our main garden (I'd like more screening than there is at the moment, really).

I just don't know where to start, so any advice would be gratefully received - tactics for clearing the ivy/ferns/weeds without killing the good stuff, how to tidy up the nice shrubs that look bad because they're so overgrown, and how to reduce the maintenance requirements of the area in the longer term.

Thanks very much, and sorry this post has been so long...!

BB

oldtractor

Could you post photos,would be a great help.

pinkcandyflossprincess

I think when you look at a huge area it can be overwhelming and you just dont know where to start-i know my garden was a huge disaster before i gutted it to start again.
you sound like you do have some great plants allready in your garden so it really would be a shame to have to remove them.
Id just decide which side you are going to start from and get rid of the weeds from there. maybe after you have cleared it you can decide if you need to put down some weed control fabric and maybe stick bark or pebbles over it to control the weed growth maybe?
im no expert on plants myself but the best way to keep weeds at bay from personal experience is to cut out the areas in which they can grow and keeping the area tidier after will be a lot easier.
after a good weeding you may find the shrubs you have are actually planted well, its hard to tell when they are surrounded by weeds isnt it!

good luck xx

a1cat

BB1984 wrote: »

Hi
I'm no expert, but I think we've got white and purple lilacs (lots of), a few buddleia, a variegated holly, various types of berberis, a large fuschia, a rhodedenron, and various flowering evergreens that I can't identify.
BB

The lilacs and berberis are easily tamed. You can cut out one third of the oldest growth in each of the next 3 years and completely rejuvenate the plants, making them more compact - they are naturally vigorous but feeding helps.

The buddleia could in any case be cut right back every spring, this is the traditional way to tame them and get a better display. Cut back to (say) 20-30cm from the ground in early spring.

The holly shouldn't be an issue but can be pruned into any size you need.

Similarly depending on type the rhodo, fuchsia can be sheared back if you need to - as can many evergreens but take it easy as with some of the latter you won't get new growth if you go in too hard.

J_J_Carter

Yep, piccies would help.

However, I'd suggest you look into 'crown lifting' as a way of keeping the screening of shrubs while tidying them up. The fact is that shrubs will grow, so keeping them close packed will mean you'll really be doing topiary

Once you've lifted the crowns, you could control the ground weeds with a contact weedkiller based on glyphosate, then mulch heavily. Chances are you'll need to dig out the ivy roots. With some light reaching the ground, you could consiser under planting with vinca, primrose etc. and daff bulbs in the autumn.

BB1984

Thank you so much for replying and for your good advice.

As requested, I have taken some photos, but couldn't work out how to compress them sufficiently so you should be able to see them here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101364826837478543999/GardenJune2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCP-R1ou5zKHpuQE&feat=directlink
I hope that the photos illustrate what this area of my garden is like.

I have considered putting down weed membrane and covering with bark, and I suspect that's what I will end up doing, but am reluctant to as I would prefer a more "natural" look, really.

Am going to go and look up crown lifting now!

I considered planting some willow along the very edge of my boundary, to provide some quick-growing screening, but obviously I'll need to clear some space first. As you can see from the photo that I took standing on the "lawn", my garden really would benefit from some sort of screen.

Thanks again for all your help, advice and ideas- much appreciated!

BB

a1cat

That's an excellent open position with full sunshine - you can do anything you set your heart on!

J_J_Carter

Yep, you need a good few days out there with the border fork I'd be thinking it didn't get that way in a couple of months...

TBH that bit of grass isn't doing you any favour and overall it's a dull layout.

Once you've cleared the weeds from the existing beds with the shrubs and mulched, you could put a simple DIY quadrant pergola in the corner where the ferns are and train climbers like clematis and wisteria over that to limit being overlooked from across the street.

I'd do away with the lawn and make an 'middle' bed about 1m wide in a semicircle for perennials and tall plans like giant oat grass, verbena, hollyhock, to increase privacy.

Then an 'inner' semicircle of gravel, maybe planted through with lavenders etc and have a large feature terracotta pot.