My little garden is wrecked, please tell me what to do.

[foolonthehill]

I have little city garden with 2 sides garden wall and one side a substantial fence. There are conventional beds on each side with some nice shrubs (that have recovered) and before my ex DH took a strimmer to the lot there were some nice ground cover plants. The centre is grass (in theory) and we have large lime trees outside the garden giving shade and a small cherry tree in the garden. One side is very shady. the rest gets some sun.

It used to look lovely. now a combination of ex's rage and the massive tree that fell into and through the garden that has taken me 6 months to gradually chop and remove mean that there is barely any grass between the weeds on the lawn and the beds are destroyed.

I have a dog and 4 children and no time but I need to do something.

please help me....I am no expert and feeling a bit desperate.
Give me a job list/plant that I can fit into moments of time

thank you

Anything strimmed is likely to grow again.
When looking at your garden the main thing is see the garden, not your ex's rage.

Have you tried feeding and watering what's left in the beds, to see what comes back?

I would leave the lawn be during this hot weather, and then once it's a bit cooler either treat in with summer/autumn weed and feed and then reseed it or (although this would be more costly) returf it.

Try your local freecycle group or similar to see if anyone has plants to donate.

Thank you for this: the main thing is see the garden, not your ex's rage: it is true that it gets in the way!

I will look around...have a feeling that the state of the garden is too near the state of my mind!!!!! I must be careful not to replant poisonous and spikey plants....because X no longer has a key that works, and the garden is for us!

I like the idea of seeing the garden not the rage.

Also the whole thing beomes a metaphor - new beginnings, you're in control over what to do and when, growth etc etc...

My sis has got LOADS of plants from freecycle over the past year, also once she started to chat about garden in the office (similar new beginnings...) people came forth with cuttings and plants etc!

not much of a gardener myself but in your situation(I have 1 dc less) I would go for plants/flowers that are hardy and very self sufficient. I have little time to water/tend to plants but I do like a bit of colour.

I mostly have fushias, they are really hardy, don't seem to require extra watering and flower practically all yr round (usually till about nov!)
I also have a lot of lobelia, I have some ugly looking railway sleeper walls and I planted it in the beds as well as in the cracks and crevices of the wall, it covers really well, spreads quickly and looks amazing hanging over the wall when in flower.
you can get both in various colours and there are loads of different types/sizes of fushias.

Love both of those flowers SFH!
Time is my problem and both of those sound like thy will survive benign neglect.

Depending on the aspect, soil and drainage, there are lots of low maintenance plants: Beth Chatto is the guru of low maintenance planting, you could visit her garden and any local gardens to you which may be open under the ngs garden scheme to see what grows best near you and ask advice!
I remain very impressed by a neighbour's south facing dry garden planted with lavenders, grasses, olive trees and other delights which I don't know the names of, which was designed for him as a low maintenance garden.

Look at heucheras and hardy geraniums. They are very low maintenance and excellent ground cover.

If the strummed areas are bare a good weed and mulch with bark clippings will quickly tidy it up and decrease the weeding in future.

Then some cheap bedding plants that are colourful and bright may help you look at the garden in a different light. The DC could perhaps help with planting them and watering them as an activity during the hols?

Then look at treatments for the grass and some of the suggestions on here or google ground cover plants.

By getting rid of the tree you have done the hard work and can now look at the fun bits and soon you will be able to sit in your garden and enjoy. Also if you post pictures some of the better gardeners on here could help with ideas re design etc if you wanted

Lots of good ideas here and I like the idea of new beginnings. Would the children be up for a little garden project ? If so maybe you could get them to plant some some soft fruits like Rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries etc which don't take very much effort and will make it a productive garden, maybe along with some rosemary, sage, thyme on the sunny side .

Yes, I agree with sugarplum it is lovely to have a fruitful garden. In the winter you could also plant a fruit tree such as a little apple or pear or plum, though now I recollect you already have a cherry! You will then have spring blossom as well as Autumn fruit.
Dahlias, asters, echinaceas, grasses and fuschias are good plants which flower now for your sunny border and will come up again next year. Its a bit late to plant roses but in the Autumn you can plant bare root roses so it is nice to think about which ones you might like to plant in the future.
Also in September you will want to be planting some bulbs for spring so now you can order the free spring catalogues from companies such as Thomspon and Morgan or Spalding bulbs or Sarah Raven and don't be afraid to shop around on ebay and Aldi and Lidl and Poundland the like once you have decided what you want to plant because prices vary a lot for the same thing!
You could have a little raised bed for each child made of an old sink or whatever for them to plant up and make into a dinosaur or fairy garden.

My xH chopped down all the bushes in my garden and left it all very bare! I was really upset, but they have actually mostly grown back, albeit in slightly odd shapes, so I need to read up on pruning.

I am slowly re-doing the whole garden, and like you, don't have time for lots of gardening. But I am finding it really relaxing and quite exciting to plan something new, even though I can only achieve it bit by bit.

I am a novice, so my advice if you are buying plants is to pay attention to the soil you have, and which plants will thrive there. More experienced gardeners will know this, of course, but I made a couple of errors there.