Garden Project

[Stevenj214]

I'm moving in to house share with my aunt. As well as paying rent, I have agreed to sort out her garden. This could be as simple as cutting the grass every week (which I can do and would be appreciated) or completely sorting the garden out (which I have no experience of and very little money to work with).

Now, I'd like to go for option number 2, and this is where the green-fingered PHers come in - I would very much appreciate your help!

I'll get some pictures up of the garden as soon as I can, but just to kick things off - would people be interested in helping/advising/instructing?

[B17NNS]

Sounds like an interesting project.

Anyone can create something amazing with a massive budget. Much more fun to come up with something cool using alternative (cheaper) materials.

Perhaps do a sketch of what you have at the moment, what kind of boundries there are, any decent sized specimen trees/shrubs (always worth trying to keep as they cost a fortune).

Where does the sun come up/set? Access to the garden from the house, that kind of thing.

Create a wish list, presumably you want some kind of terrace/patio area, do you want low maintenance?

[Shaolin]

"Stuff" is expensive and so is saving time. If you are doing it, then your effort and things that take time are cheap.

First of all depends on what state it is in. Trim grass, cut the edges of borders, go all round and weed properly - this could take a long time if there are many perennial weeds to be dug out (ask Aunty what she considers a weed and what she doesn't first!). Cut out beds for planting if there aren't any, trim back trees and shrubs as appropriate.

Go to garden centre and buy seeds. For this time of year buy Delphinium, Foxglove, Hollyhocks, Lupins and sow in seed trays asap. These will be potted on, then into the garden to give impressive results next year for minimal cost. Can you take any cuttings or split and get some plants from your parents garden for eg? With garden centre plants at about £4 upwards, you can save an awful lot of money if you are prepared to wait for things to flowerby growing from seed or cuttings.

More suggestions will follow more detail

[CedGTV]

I might have someone for under the patio, you have just got to have someone under the patio.

Hang on a minute, you haven't recently been photographed on the bonnet of a Bentley with said Auntie ?

Edited by CedGTV on Wednesday 5th August 22:59

[HiRich]

B17NNS said:

Sounds like an interesting project.

Anyone can create something amazing with a massive budget. Much more fun to come up with something cool using alternative (cheaper) materials.

Perhaps do a sketch of what you have at the moment, what kind of boundries there are, any decent sized specimen trees/shrubs (always worth trying to keep as they cost a fortune).

Where does the sun come up/set? Access to the garden from the house, that kind of thing.

Create a wish list, presumably you want some kind of terrace/patio area, do you want low maintenance?

This is good advice - a garden project is as long as you want to make it, so set some rules, e.g.:

• Want a vegetable patch?
• Do you want to retain all the lawn?
• How easy do you want maintenance (e.g. if your aunt is getting frail)

You should take a look at least at a book by Alan Titchmarsh - "How to be a Gardener" IIRC - based on his TB series from a few years back. It explains in more detail the ideas of planning that B17NNS is describing and should have some pics for inspiration. Pop into your municipal or WH Smith library for a browse, and buy it if it works for you.

One area you can get going quickly is the lawn - a good tidy lawn can rather override the other tricky bits. Think of:

• A good cut, every week at the moment. Finish with lawn edging shears
• Nuke the weeds. Dig them out, and try Verdone Extra weedkiller (kills the weeds, not the grass)
• A half-moon cutter to shape the edge/get it straight.
• Check for compaction (particularly areas not growing well) - Stick a fork in, and wiggle it slightly (but not so much as to lift the surface or you'll be introducing bumps). If you have to jump on the fork, it's compacted, stopping water and nutrients getting low down.
• Start levelling it and reseeding bald patches.
• You might have time to apply a bag of lawn fertiliser, and water it if the weather's a bit dry. If there's a moss proble, get a combined mosskiller & lawn feed.
• Come Sept/Oct, apply an Autumn Feed, and keep fallen leaves off. That'll give it a good start for next year.

All the tools & materials above are at even a basic garden centre/DIY, and not pretty cheap.

[Chrisgr31]

Good spades and forks are availably locally to us at about £15 each!

[vtecstu]

Be really interested to see updates on what you do, how you get on etc. Trying to do similar to my own house on a very small budget, so this is (sadly) a lot more relevant to me than the 'spent several grand on decking and landscaping' threads!

[eightseventhree]

I have been undertaking a garden project over the past couple of months.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

so far on it i have spent

£400 on stone (gravel and block paving
£120 on Skip hire
£30 on Cement mixer hire
£30 on various tools etc

All the work was done by myself

so £580 to go from



to this




The expensive part now is to fill it with plants, lights and a greenhouse which im guessing will cost in excess of the total spent so far

[HiRich]

HiRich said:

All the tools & materials above are at even a basic garden centre/DIY, and not pretty cheap.

Not sure what happened there - was supposed to just say "pretty cheap", as in about a tenner for fertiliser, £10-20 for economy model tools.

[vtecstu]

eightseventhree said:

I have been undertaking a garden project over the past couple of months.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

so far on it i have spent

£400 on stone (gravel and block paving
£120 on Skip hire
£30 on Cement mixer hire
£30 on various tools etc

All the work was done by myself

so £580 to go from

Have to admit that I'd seen your thread and pictures etc and just lumped you into the 'few grand on garden work' bracket! Really impressed with what you've done for so little cash.

[Mojooo]

How big is the garden

I am going through a big project msyelf, i am currently workign on the patio

I have com across so many little niggles here and there.

weeding is a PITA but just get suitable protective equipment and some tolls and its all good.

I have spend 320 on removal of rubbish though. 170 on a skip and 150 on a grab truck. i ahve also amde about 10 visits to the local coucnil tip in my car as well as chucking lots of crap in the normal bin!

[Stevenj214]

Ok, to answer some of the questions so far:

My Aunt has given me carte blanch to do whatever I like - the only rule being if I start it, I finish it.

The finished article should be puppy proof and low-ish maintenance.

There are some tools in the shed: lawnmower, spade, forks etc.

eightseventhree - very nice little project, you seem to have had a nice starting point.

Pictures to follow...

[Stevenj214]

1. The back garden from the back door



2. To the left of the back door



3. To the right of the back door



4. Further up the back garden



5. Side garden towards the front of the house



6. Side garden towards the rear of the house



7. Front garden from the road



8. Lower level (left)



9. Lower level (right)



10. Upper level (left)



11. Upper level (right)

Edited by Stevenj214 on Friday 7th August 16:32

[Stevenj214]

As I said, I have zero experience with gardens and gardening, so I'm literally looking for you guys to tell me what to do.

If you say cut the grass, i'll cut the grass (it needs to be done anyway!)
If you say use industrial strength plant killer to kill everything and start again, it will be done.

So over to you...

[onemorelap]

Right i'll have a go:

Obvious statement but from recent 1st hand experience i hope that dogs obedient!! Give it a few weeks and it will easily clear the neighbours fence and the front wall with the gate on it (especially if it is the collie looking dog in the pictures)

Secondly i'm not sure what you are looking to do, maintain it, improve it or both?

Assuming you are looking to maintain it and improve it as much as possible given the small budget you are working to i think its more a case of tidying up what is there (no offence intended) than doing any major re-modelling? So on this basis my 2 penneth of suggestions would be:

1. Trim back all of the greenery to the right of the rear garden. This will open up the width of the garden. Once trimmed back form a border to the remaining greenery to any shape you desire. This will make the border easy to maintain and give a clear divide between the lawn and the border. You may find on doing this that some of the grass will have died but just get some cheap grass seed, scatter it over and give it a water.
Cutting the lawn usually needs to be done once a week this time of year to keep it in good order. If you use a flymo then rake up the cut grass to avoid moss.
2. On the left handside i would suggest just forming some sort of edge to the lawn to make it easier for mowing. This is easily done by forming borders around the plants that exist, that sort of thing.
3. Patio / patio wall etc. Doesn't look to bad but if you want to tidy it up borrow a jet washer from someone and blast the patio / side path / steps. You can also buy attachments to fit jet washers specifically for patios. Either way it works a treat, i wouldn't even bother with patio cleaner just blast it!! Only thing to note is it may blast loose mortar out from between the slabs but you may want to re-point the slabs anyway to prevent more weeds coming through.
4. Front area. Repeat of the back in a similar vein but maybe extend it to re-setting coping stones / slabs and maybe re-paint the steps to the wall a different colour?
5. Give the summer house and the shed a lick of paint?

In short if you haven't got the money work with what you have got. Don't be scared to have a go removing plants from one part and moving them elsewhere. Most are hardy and will re-settle if you dig the roots out as well and water them back in properly.