My lodger dug up my lawn !!!

[doinmummy]

Please help....my lodger offered to dig my garden over . I came home and he'd dug up everything including the lawn !!!
Anyway one summer and winter later I have a wilderness of wild grass and weeds.
I have just spent all day digging a border around the edges (nearly killed me )
and I need ideas as to what to do now.
I would like a low maintenance garden.
Any ideas?

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I'll repeat the interrogation I did on another thread.

1. What do you want to get out of this - calming space for drinking wine relaxing? Multi-purpose family space? Veg plot? Somewhere to dry the washing?
   

1. How much time are you able/willing to devote to this initial work?
   

1. What's your preference - spend money to save time or spend time to save money?
   

1. How soon do you want to see results?
   

1. What kind of style do you prefer - trad or modern?
   

1. Are these borders in sunny or shady parts of the garden?
   

1. How big is the garden and do you want a lawn?

[doinmummy]

1. A space for sitting/relaxing
   
2. Dont mind initial hard work and time taken to do it
   

3.Limited budget
4.Quite soon as fed up looking at wilderness
5.Quite like mediterranean style-rocks,shingle,leafy type plants

1. Garden faces South
   
2. Garden only about 20ft x 30ft
   

Dont mind not having a lawn as they seem to take alot of work to keep them nice and have no outside tap so watering is a problem.

I have dug borders round the edge only because as I was digging I was slinging all the weeds/earth into the middle of the garden.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Well, in that case how about a mainly gravel garden with large planting areas all around? Depending on where you live, a trip to the Beth Chatto gravel garden might provide some inspiration. The Mediterranean garden at East Ruston is also worth a visit. The RHS website has advice on gravel gardens and drought gardening.

If you don't put planting membrane under the gravel, things will self-seed into it quite easily. The drawback of big expanses of gravel can be that they attract pooing cats - and it can be hard to balance furniture - so it might be better to use widely-spaced slabs for the sitting area, with gravel in between.

To get plants cheaply, look for bargains in Lidl and Poundland and check whether your local gardening society has a spring plant sale - many do.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Don't use pea shingle gravel. You need 20mm gravel or larger (20mm is the cheapest) to stop cats pooing.

They also dont like that chopped up slate stuff.

[doinmummy]

ooh great ideas.Thankyou. I've got a large decking area so can put chairs on that.
Love the Beth Chatto garden

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Another thing to think about is the crunchy noise of walking on gravel. Even if you don't need the slabs to stand furniture on, if you think the noise of the gravel will be irritating it may still be worth using slabs (or slate or whatever) to break up the expanse.

Post some pictures when you've finished!

[doinmummy]

I dont plan on walking about on it too much...just for maintenance..but good point I dont much like the noise of gravel.
I will take some pics and bore you with my progress. It will give me an incentive to keep going.

[UnrequitedSkink]

I love the noise of gravel! I must be weird. Raised beds might be a good idea, to increase the low-maintenance aspect. You can get cool galvanised steel troughs on ebay.

[teanosugar]

Poundland definately - loads of bulbs, shrubs, seeds, and the bestest, sharpest knife cum mini-saw I have ever had.

My spring garden is coming along a treat and its all due to Poundland !

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

We don't have a Poundland nearby but I've found some real bargains in the 99p Store. Wilkos is also said to be good for gardening stuff.

[doinmummy]

I thought about raised beds , I like the idea of using railway sleepers but think they're a bit expensive.
Is anyone in Essex?

[MadMonkeys]

Gravel is great. BUt i'd put slabs in as stepping stones so you can go outside in bare feet. Bare feet and gravel is not a happ combination!

[Debeez]

comeinto Your Questions are amazing. Set me right off on my gardening path. :o

Freecycle may be able to help if you have a limited budget OP. Mismatched paving stones can be cute.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Thank you, Debeez!

Railway sleepers have become quite expensive - railway companies no longer sell them for a few quid - but it may be possible to get other heavy timber. Be careful that anything you buy ti make a raised bed hasn't been treated with tar or toxic preservative - this can be a problem with genuine railway sleepers.