HELP - I have a challenge for you ... Can you help me spruce up my garden for the Summer?

[disarano]

I need some advice, help from you passionate Mumsnet Gardeners out there. Firstly, I am not a gardener, I dont really have any interest or knowledge about plants, shrubs etc.. and have very limited ideas on what I want to do.

Here's the "problem/challenge" -

• Our garden runs the width of our house
  
• Outside the back door there is a small narrow patio area that goes the width of the house
  
• Looking up (Slight slant to the garden not much though) there is a square of grass
  
• No borders, no plants no nothing!
  
• The sun is on the garden from 7am-7pm
  
  We need to do "something" with it. I dont have any ideas someone suggested going online and finding a website style tool that you can put in your dimensions and it will design it for you and give you suggestions. I need something that is FOC though.
  
  Can anyone help please?!

[disarano]

bump

[glacierchick]

There's lots of things you can do with a garden, I guess that's part of the problem, but first of a few more questions:

1. How much work do you want to do? Are you prepared to dig up some lawn to make a border, or even a patio or do you just want some suggestions for some pots on the patio?

1. How much money do you want to spend. This is sort of related to the first one as you could just spend a lot on plants/help in the garden and end up with a very nice piece of work, but if you don't want to spend so much, then you'll need to put a bit more effort in yourself.

1. Do you want to grow flowers or fruit and veg?

1. Do you have any bare earth at all or is it really just paving and grass?

1. How good are you (or anyone else in your family) at remembering to water?

While you think about these, here are a couple of suggestions for quick improvements you can do now:

1. Buy some large tubs and peat-free compost (B&Q do a cheap range of plastic pots- lasts better in the winter and reduces water loss through evaporation than terracotta, but terracotta looks nicer imo) and plant up with some cheap plants on your patio. You could try geraniums, osteospermums, alyssum, lobelia, petunia for a traditional look, should all be available as plug plants, also things like nicotiana, busy lizzies and stocks for scent.

2.Get some quick sprouting seeds for planting now (it's a bit late, but shouldn't matter too much) I suggest nasturtium, calendula, cosmos as reliable and easy growers. You can either put these in pots, or direct in the soil around any existing plants you may have. They are good space fillers and will flower until the first frost.

1. If you have a fence or wall that would look nice with a climber try a summer flowering clematis. I also love honeysuckle, but it doesn't take everywhere. You may need to remove a piece of turf, make sure to dig in some compost and water the pot well before planting and the plant well after planting. If you have the space, try a clematis montana for spring flowers next year as well.

1. If you want to try some simple fruit and veg, buy some tomato and courgette plants and put in pots in a sunny position on your patio (use the soil out of a growbag in the pot, the growbags themselves tend to be too shallow for the roots). Easy to grow and should give fruit fairly quickly depending on where you live (and how good the weather is). Remember you will need to feed these at least once a week and keep the watering consistent. The tomatoes will need staking and you will also need to pinch out side shoots as they develop. My grandmother grows a cherry variety called tumbling toms in hanging baskets, they also look lovely and are very easy to grow, and easy to obtain from most garden centres.

1. You could also try a salad "bed", either in a grow bag (but not necessarily nice to look at), or use the soil from a grow bag to fill a raised bed. I have several raised beds made from old suitcases with the lids cut off. Looks kind of cute actually, or you could knock one up with a few nails and planks and just put directly onto the lawn.

1. Get a compost bin. All your garden and kitchen waste (uncooked and not meat or fish) can go in it, reducing massively the amount you put in your normal bins, the compost you make will be the best thing you can put in pots, on plants or on any beds you make to keep soil fertility up in the future. There is a very good thead here about making compost with lots of helpful advice.

Hope this helps as a starter...

GC

[disarano]

Many thanks for your thoughts...here's my answers

1. How much work do you want to do? Are you prepared to dig up some lawn to make a border, or even a patio or do you just want some suggestions for some pots on the patio? DONT WANT TO DIG UP PATIO AS TOO MUCH WORK INVOLVED BUT HAPPY TO RE-EDGE AND DO BORDERS

1. How much money do you want to spend. This is sort of related to the first one as you could just spend a lot on plants/help in the garden and end up with a very nice piece of work, but if you don't want to spend so much, then you'll need to put a bit more effort in yourself. AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE AT THIS STAGE,JUST WANT TO START OFF THE PROJECT SO TO SPEAK AND ADD AS WE ARE GOING ALONG

1. Do you want to grow flowers or fruit and veg? I WANT MANAGEABLE AND LOW MAINTENCE - SHRUBS PERHAPS AND NO VEG - WE ARE DOING THIS IN POTS WITH DS FOR FUN. WE ALSO HAVE A CAT!

1. Do you have any bare earth at all or is it really just paving and grass? NO EARTH ONLY A SMALL AREA AT BOTTOM OF GARDEN WHICH THE CAR ERR USES!

1. How good are you (or anyone else in your family) at remembering to water? NOT HAD THE NEED TO BEFORE BUT IF WE HAVE A NICE GARDEN I WILL TAKE ON THIS TASK!

While you think about these, here are a couple of suggestions for quick improvements you can do now:

1. Buy some large tubs and peat-free compost (B&Q do a cheap range of plastic pots- lasts better in the winter and reduces water loss through evaporation than terracotta, but terracotta looks nicer imo) and plant up with some cheap plants on your patio. You could try geraniums, osteospermums, alyssum, lobelia, petunia for a traditional look, should all be available as plug plants, also things like nicotiana, busy lizzies and stocks for scent. THIS SOUNDS NICE

2.Get some quick sprouting seeds for planting now (it's a bit late, but shouldn't matter too much) I suggest nasturtium, calendula, cosmos as reliable and easy growers. You can either put these in pots, or direct in the soil around any existing plants you may have. They are good space fillers and will flower until the first frost. GOSH ALL TOO MUSH FOR ME ALSO DONT HAVE ANY SPACE TO GROW OR TO PUT WHEN FROST KICKS IN WOULD RATHER BUY ESTABLISHED SHRUBS/BUSHES

[racingheart]

First thing i'd do is plant a couple of fruit trees if there's space. They are low maintenance, you can hang swings, trapeze, hammocks from them. They look gorgeous in spring full of blossom, and there's something so lovely about picking apples or pears off a tree to put in the kids' packed lunch. Also if you hang bird feeders from them you get fantastic wildlife in the garden all year round.

They create height, give shape to the garden and tbh you can leave the rest pretty much to lawn then if you want to because fruit trees make a garden look loved. So I'd get the most mature ones you can afford, make sure they cross pollinate, read up on how to plant them so they'll establish, and that's the biggest job done.

But I'd also get some lovely climbers. Abutilon loves a sunny wall and some varieties flower for months on end. Honeysuckle smells nice, so does jasmine. These, with roses and clematis can scramble up fences and make a garden look more lived in.

Depending on your taste, some evergreen shrubs or shrubs that give winter colour can help make the garden look pretty all year round. Personal taste but I love dogwood for its bright coloured stems, blue spruce and anything with heavy winter berries, like pyracanthus and cotoneaster. Then any annuals, herbs, tomatoes etc you can grow in pots.

And if you have a sheltered spot, the most beautiful small trees or shrubs that give interest all year round with their gorgeous leaves and branches changing colour are acers. Just look up Acer or japanese maple (same thing) on a website and choose one that's the right size. I'd grow a whole forest of them if there was space.

[disarano]

my garden is very, very small so not sure that a tree would fester well but like I said I dont have any knowledge.

Shrubs yes I like the sound of.

I think this weekend I will draw out the layout i t literally is a square

[Lauriefairycake]

get a hammock and sit in it with some Pimms, it sounds fine

[disarano]

ha ha .. have been doing this for many years I now wants some greenery and colour around me!