Does anyone want to help me jazz up my garden?

[ditavonteesed]

I have taken some photos this morning although I cant work out how to put them on, i love my garedn but it just looks a bit flat and uncared for. we have a lawn with borders, one side has pots and the other shrubs, chicken run is on the shrubs edge, then a patio which is really ugly with chiminea and sitting furnoture on. It just has no sparkle to it. I have finally got the house how I want it and I smile whenever I walk in but the garden just isnt us. I will put photos on as soon as I work it out.

right photos are now up, anyone fancy having a quick look?

What sort of thing did you have in mind? Have you seen any gardens or plants that you like?

enlarge your borders, give them wavy (undulating) edges and put some bigger /taller plants in, with climbers at the back growing over the fences.

edge the borders with bricks for easy mowing/a defined edge.

make an island bed with a shrub/small tree in the middle of the lawn (if you like that sort of thing).

reseed the lawn with hard-wearing grass.

in the short term, loads of pots on the patio with colourful bedding (eg geraniums).

save up to redo the patio with better quality stone.

Do you have much money to spend on it? One thing you can do fairly cheaply is spruce up the lawn. Grass regrows very quickly, you need to give it a good rake to get rid of any dead stuff. Prepare any bare patches by raking the soil until it's a bit loose, sprinkle grass seed on and water. Hey presto!

There are loads of cheap bedding plants you can buy at this time of year for some instant colour in pots or beds. If your budget will stretch to it, edging beds always makes things look instantly smarter. You can even do it with plain bricks. Just dig a trench then lay the bricks at an angle stacked up like this. I haven't even cemented ours in and they're still good after 3 years.

I'm sorry - that sounded bossy didn't it!! Should have been prefaced by "you could" at least!

Everything bramshot has said plus paint the fence and some nice large pots along the edge of the patio to define the patio from the grass.
Paint the wooden bench. Wilko do wooden paint quite cheaply in some lovely colours. i would go for something like a willow green but you might prefer something brighter if your staircase is anything to go by
Maybe a hanging basket on the back wall of the house.
I would replace the washing line with a whirly type you can take down if you have bbq's or friends round.

thanks, loads of good ideas to thik about, I cant do the fececs as neither are mine, but the neighbours usually paint them every year, I was just thinking about painting the bench maybe a purply colour. Would you cut the border in line with the chicken run? the border with the pots is lined with old bricks but they arent very neat.

I'd think of your garden as three separate rooms - the patio, the middle bit, and the far end with trampoline and chicken run. Work on one room at a time, so it's not overwhelming.

On the patio, as cantspel says, paint the bench and the fence, and get a few brightly coloured pots.

On the middle bit, as Bramshott suggests, enlarge the beds, and reduce the amount of grass. How about having a circular or elliptical lawn, with the beds swinging round to create a division between the patio and the garden? Obviously you'll need a gap, as a 'doorway', which could have an archway over it.

The division between the middle and far sections could be similar, with a 'wall' of shrubs, and a 'doorway'.

I've not explained this very well, but it's a similar layout to my garden (see photos).

Hmmm.....needs a lot doing. Which way does it face?
But my quick fix suggestions are

1. put in a whirligig washing line
2. plant up at least 10 lovely pots of different shapes and sizes with long lasting annuals such as dahlia, petunias, fuschias, bizzie lizzie, some herbs. In autumn put in bulbs in the pots for spring.
3. Paint bench. 4)Think about sinking your trampoline:www.capitalplay.co.uk/in-ground-trampolines.html?gclid=CLLv197A2bcCFfMbtAodk0wAnw Monty Don had his garden designed round the trampoline at one point.

You could think about putting up trellis and planting some climbers such as honeysuckle jasmine and clematis and climbing roses. These will have a lovely scent and make the fence look less bare and you will begin to get a microclimate in your garden.

I wouldn't dig a flower bed at this stage as the earth is now too dry. Instead visit garden centres and other people gardens and think about shape and style and colour and whether you want a veg bed or raised veg patch and then dig your beds in the Autumn when you can plant your perennials and bulbs.

Some good suggestions here.

I would screen off the patio a bit by removing a 50cm strip of lawn along the edge for a 150-200 cm, and plant medium-sized evergreen shrubs. Or Roses, actually. Maybe plant some lower shrubs on either side, so you keep a 1 m access in the middle. Such as 2 potentillas.

Trampoline into ground features: best suggestion is to dig a hole with a doughnut surrounding it

www.atlantictrampolines.co.uk/blog/1489/how-to-sink-a-trampoline-in-the-ground
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1159398-sinking-a-trampoline-into-my-garden/AllOnOnePage
www.worldstores.co.uk/p/Berg_In_Ground_Trampoline.htm?utm_source=GMC&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=PLA&Size=11ft&gclid=CO_Iy6rD2bcCFYTItAodTCwASw

*quintessentall what would be the point of screening off the lawn? the garden is small enough as it is.

Which reminds me: in small gardens it is best to choose plants with longest flowering time and best foliage even when out of season:
The RHS 'award of garden merit' plants are those with better characteristics.
Here is their plant finder
www.rhs.org.uk/Plants

To follow on the idea of looking at the garden as three separate rooms.

To create interest and structure. But also, create a more inviting environment around the patio. Medium sized roses are going to grow taller than 1.5 meters, approx, so not a complete screen!

Yes I see- though perhaps a lower hedge like a lavender and rosemary hedge?

Also, if the op has pots both along the wall of the house, and along the edge of the patio, she is going to have to spend a fortune on pots. Large pots are quite pricey. If she has the pots along the wall, and even along the hedge, this can still have gorgeous annuals, but if the edge of the patio has roses, or evergreens, she wont need to buy new plants every year for that side.

it is south facing so in fll sun all day. I try to get plants that are going to spread and fill the beds but they never seem to live. I definatly need to sort the grass out, those phots really show how bad it looks. I am hoping the trampoline is only here for a few more years so wouldnt want to make it permanent. the garden is quite small, I hate the patio but couldnt afford to replace it. Also my washing line gives me great pleasure and I heard whirly gigs arent as good, there are some coloured lights round the fence which look lovely at night. the pots and a few of the plants in the beds are new so hoping they will get bigger.
What I want is a kind of hippy unkempt but really pretty garden (not hellpful description I know) but that doesnt need to much work and is kid friendly as garden is always full of kids.

arent roses hard work?

Lavender would be lovely. Or a mix Lavender - Potentilla - Lavender - Potentilla - I get that OP loves colour!

oh I get it so take the flower bed along the patio edge and creat some sort of gate way into the lawn area?

Unkempt but really pretty is harder than it looks.

Roses aren't too hard work. They do need watering, spraying with bug spray in the spring (or washing up liquid mixed with water, or even just blasting the greenfly off with a high powered hose - cup the bud in your hand and then blast to stop it breaking off). If you want to get really fancy you can top dress with some manure if you've got somewhere you can get it locally. Roses don't particularly like shade but it sounds like you have a sunny garden. Rambling roses are more like the old fashioned wild type rose. I've got one of these in our garden and it's stunning every summer. It smells heavenly too. It is very vigorous though so every spring (early spring, Feb-March) I hack it right back to a foot off the ground. It springs back every year.

Lavender is lovely too. Very drought tolerant if you're not that great at watering.

What's the soil like in your garden? Is it rather dry and powdery? If so it might need some organic matter introducing. It's not that difficult. You can buy compost from any garden centre. You don't need a huge amount, but dig it through the soil and it'll make a huge difference to your plants. It'll help the soil hold water so the plants don't dry out.

When considering planting I would get perennials, especially ones that self seed a bit. I've got loads of Alliums in my garden this year because I didn't dead head them last year and they seed themselves around. They look really pretty and their shape brings in some interest in to the bed. I've also got lots of Lychnis which spread like crazy but are lovely because of the silvery foliage.

things that spread like crazy are very welcome in my garden. I love aliums, do I need seds or plants? of to wilkos for bench paint and grass seed after school run.

They're bulbs. Kind of like onions. Which they are basically :o

A quick way to get grass seed started (as we're a teeny bit late for grass seeding) is to put your grass seed in a black bin liner (very important) add a bag of compost and a sprinkling of water so it's moist and then leave the bag in a warm dark room for a couple of days. That'll get the grass seed germinating so that when you sprinkle it on the lawn it's had a bit of a head start.

Don't forget to water and rake your lawn first. The germinated seeds still need loose ish soil to take root. And water with a sprinkler or your finger over the hose to create a fine spray daily for about a week. Try to keep off the new grass and when you mow it for the first time keep the blades high.

Campanula's are another plant that spreads and spreads. Use it to fill in between gaps of larger shrubs, and at the front of beds. You can buy it very cheaply in large packs at B&Q etc. Comes in white/purple/blue colours. Tough as old boots too :o

HeadFairy, which variety of campanula would you recommend? I absolutely love them. But I thought they were annuals? Or are they self seeding annuals? Or are they actually perennials?