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.

I just spent £50 in the garden centre, oops

Can you get 'puppy rocks' to put in your dogs water bowl, will protect your new grass.

just googled them, they sound fantastic, definatly is the dogs that have killed the lawn. will upload a pic of the border when I have done, have decided to work with what is there for now, so first job is to get the border looking good and mend the grass, then I am going to do a lavender border along the patio edge of the lawn with a gap to act as a kind of gate.

I have planted, 4 campula plants spread across the front of the bed, a giant poppy, another big plant that I cant remember its name but it has giant orange daisys in autumn, pansie seeds, lupin seeds, in the mist seeds and another tall pretty seed, all except the in the mist were labelled as hardy perennials that need full sun. did I do good?

Frankly, Diva, I'm a bit disappointed in you. If you'd gone to the DIY store instead of the garden centre, you could have spray painted a psychedelic lawn by now

Oops, sorry - I meant Dita

he he, dont give me ideas I could paint the patiolike a disco floor

You did very good!

Normally I would say its a bit late for seeds but we've had such a cold spring everything is about a month behind schedule. We've still got some apple blossom on one tree!

Try to keep up the watering while the plants establish themselves. That's the key. Every day unless it rains. It's my favourite job once the kids are in bed - watering the garden with a cold beer in hand

I may have just killed something, it was a shrub but completly out of hand and all woddy in the middle, I have cut it right back and there are no leaves on the middle bit, will it come back to life or have I killed it? I think it was a hebe.

I think hebes are quite tough. Keep it well watered and wait and see whether the radical prune promotes new growth.

Was also going to suggest keeping an eye open for church and school fetes, as they often have good, cheap plant stalls to continue the garden revamp.

could I have a cherry tree in the middle of my lawn, or would that be too big and dangerous to the house, or just look a bit daft, I have always wanted a cherry tree and I figure it will make the garden more interesting for the kids to play in and provide a little bit of shade (I hate the sun)

How big is the lawn (I can't get a sense of the dimensions from your pictures)? I can't see any reason why not - I've never seen fruit trees mentioned among those (like willows) whose roots can damage foundations, but it might be trickier if the lawn is very small and the tree is very near the house.

dita someone just told me today that it is best not to plant cherry trees near the house because apparently they have spreading roots. Cherry trees are long lived so can grow (though they are slow growing apparently) but the roots will dry out the lawn, so I was told.
There are edible cherries of course (the best): self fertile ones good for a small garden are Stella, lapins or sunburst make sure they are on a dwarf rootstock. Then there are upright cherries -Amanogawa: ornamental but good for a small garden and not spreading.

lawn is about 25 x 20 and the patio is about another 8ft, I am basing this on the fact that the tramopline is 6ft not on any measurments. also the chicken run is 3m long and 1m wide.

How about a Amanagowa cherry

apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=5318

smaller and more upright than a full cherry tree and ideal for a smaller garden.