How best to tackle this bed?

kiss_me_now9

I have this rather unruly small flower bed in my garden that I have (like most of the garden, unfortunately - due to a small child arriving last summer) neglected far more than I should have. Please see pictures below.

I'd love to get this tidied up and sorted out but I am at a bit of a loss as to where to start. 

There are alliums in there - small ones (flowering now) and taller ones (which will flower end of summer, most of the stems are around 5ft 9 already). There's a few lavenders and a scabious plant that I'd also like to keep. Ideally I'd love to make this a rich wildflower patch but there's so many weeds in it at the moment I'm not sure how to save the plants I want, get rid of what I don't want (everything except what I just listed?) and how to work the ground. We have very heavy clay soil, and the half of this closest to the house bed is also very stony. Like, huge hulking brick style stones that I can't get out and bent my fork on last time I tried stony. 

In the past I've tried to put dahlias in here, they failed miserably. I've also tried sunflowers in here, they hated it. It gets full sun almost constantly during summer so ideally would be great to get my peonies in here (I have three, which you might be able to see in the pots on the patio - none of them have done well this year and I think they'd be happier in the ground) but I think if I can't get a handle on it this year we might pave over it to give us a metre or so more patio space. 

gwynlas

It would be a shame to lose access to soil and you say  you wish to keep some of the plants so it means that you will have to grub up those that you no longer want. This might be a lot easier with a pickaxe like took which you migh be able to find second hand. It will then be a case of  using soil improver spent compost and or adding topsoil to improve what is there. You could teempoarily cover bare areas with pegged dowb cardboard to prevent weeds seeding.

twopenny

I sympathise with the stones, I have the same in clay/sandy soil - yes I know thats not supposed to be a thing but it is what it is.

You love your peonies. So do I though I'm not having much luck with flowering since I moved.

Mix the clay soild with some compost (rubbish now but that's the draw) and pop them in with the Alliums, some other bulbs and a rose may do well there that blooms all summer. Scented is nice but the supermarkets cheap

Irisis do well in baked soil. You can get small ones or large ones.

Lavender, hebe with Peony and your bulbs would give good colour all year round for very little maintenance.

Add bonemeal to the soil.

I think the preparation is the challenge. Planting is easier.

ArbitraryRandom

Hmm... if you decide to make it a patio then you'll need to dig it out so it's level with your current patio - so my advice would be to dig it all out now as if you were putting the patio in (take out everything to about 6 inches below the current patio level).

While you're digging it all out you can save the plants you want to keep, then you can replace the poor soil with decent soil and replant.  

Worst case scenario and you decide to go with the patio anyway then you're going to have an easier job as the new soil will be much easier to remove and you can just put it somewhere else in the garden  

-taff

I'd say hoik the weeds out, and put in some mediterranean herbs for the now. thyme [there are a few options, normal, variegated, creeping etc,], rosemary, maybe some salvias. The herbs will look after themselves and not be bothered by baking in the sun.

Farway

-taff said:

I'd say hoik the weeds out, and put in some mediterranean herbs for the now. thyme [there are a few options, normal, variegated, creeping etc,], rosemary, maybe some salvias. The herbs will look after themselves and not be bothered by baking in the sun.

And to make it easier, you could buy some living herbs for under a quid a pot in a supermarket fruit & veg section, far cheaper than any garden centre for common herbs.

kiss_me_now9

-taff said:

I'd say hoik the weeds out, and put in some mediterranean herbs for the now. thyme [there are a few options, normal, variegated, creeping etc,], rosemary, maybe some salvias. The herbs will look after themselves and not be bothered by baking in the sun.

Ohh I like that idea! 

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will have a good go at getting the weeds up and see where we are then.