To ask how to make an ugly garden pretty

[Irina2817]

We live in a small terraced house and have a front garden only. It’s hard to describe so picture attached but is about 20sqm and is just old patio slabs at the moment!

get some pots to add some colour

Watch your garden made perfect for inspiration - some small gardens on there which will be perfect for inspiration

Put them on top of the shingle you have: will make it much brighter

The simplest thing would be to get rid of the slates/pebbles and reinstate the flower beds around the edge and plant them up. You could have a decorative pot in the middle with a small tree or shrub.

Thank you! Good advice so far! I’m up for spending about 500 to make it look nicer. We’ve added some pots to one bit already

Jet wash the slabs, paint the wall white and add a trellis. Then put soil where you have the stones next to the wall and grow something on the trellis.

I'd probably put a nice step in up to the patio bit and again put soil instead of stones and put little shrubs either side of the new steps.

Thank you @bilbodog that looks so nice! When I Google small gardens ideas it seems to show American gardens which are huge in comparison

Depends what your budget is?

Ideally you'd want to take up the slabs and at least put in proper beds.

If keeping the slabs, give them a clean, and when putting in pots make sure you have 3 height levels (tall middle low). Go for a simple colour palette for statement, and choose a plant which looks it's best for each month of the year.

You can get bin stores for your wheelies, or you could just hide them with some willow screening.

Add a bistro set of 2 person table and chairs, a bird feeder and some solar lights.

Have a look at the distinctive gardener on Instagram for inspiration too.

@bilbodog beautiful suggestion!

Pinterest has lots of "city front garden" images which are very similar, op. Your windowsill is crying out for a beautiful window box too.

It might be small but it has so much potential.

The first thing I'd do is jet wash the slabs. That would improve the look a lot by looking cleaner and newer.

The next thing I'd do is add plants. Lots of different sized pots or perhaps a raised bed along one side.

A water feature would be nice and perhaps a decorative metal archway with a climbing clematis growing up it would add height.

I'd also add a bird table and a nesting box and a bug hotel.

I would agree with previous posters, jet wash slabs, pots with bright summer bedding plants, solar fairy lights, garden mirrors to make the most of the light & give an illusion of space.

We don’t have a power washer but used a deck scrub brush and patio cleaner and cleaned our slabs, what a difference. I’d get rid of the dark slate stones and go for a brighter colour of stone around the slabs. Wooden planters pained a bright colour with plants would also brighten up the small space you have.

we have just refreshed our back garden with defence pain, pots and cleaned the slabs. It’s amazing the difference.

As others have said, lots of potential there. I would definitely remove the stones and redo them as flowerbeds for loads of colour. It will look amazing!

I have been known to paint slabs. You have to renew it every so often, but it brightens the place up. You could take up a few of the slabs and plant shrubs or flowers in the gaps. Pots of plants painted the same or toning colours also look nice. I spray the garden furniture, too.
I have in the past put the dreaded astroturf on top of old slabs for the summer, then put my garden furniture out with pots of flowers and herbs.

Following as my garden is a similar size and similarly plain

Jetwash the slabs and maybe stencil them?

Pull up a few slabs, dig underneath, line them (could be with an old washing up bowll) add sand to fill gaps and then have a little micropond that you stock with some tall plants etc to add visual interest. A brilliant focal point and really supports insect life that the birds need etc and will attract birds to your garden.

Thank you everyone for your help! This is a daft question but can you just take the gravel/slate chippings up and replace them with soil? Think I probably need to replace the ‘borders’ too?

Get the slabs/walls properly cleaned. Dig out all the pebbles, put a step in to get to the patio then plant shrubs and flowers everywhere. Try to get some shrubs with some height at the back.

Maybe fence or planters with trelis attached with climbers to screen off bins.

I would go for the cottage garden vibe.
Lots of potted plants, hydrangeas, climbing roses, hollyhocks, lavender etc, in blue/purple/ white shade.

Also thank you again to this community, I was thinking people might just say ‘you can’t polish a turd 😂’ so appreciate it. Our neighbours gardens look really nice but are well established with lovely plants and beyond my gardening skills!

I will move the bins by the way as we have a communal bin area

You can dig up and use what’s underneath but soil may be poor and very compacted- if necessary you can buy new topsoil.

@RoseWindow thank you! Will do that

I’ve name changed to protect the innocent but bar the ivy, ceanothus, rose (at the back) and conifer, everything in my garden is in a pot.

(she’s being painted next week)