Please help me make my garden pretty!

[Tisfortired]

We have just moved into a new rented property, and this is the state of the garden!

It's really quite big, but all paved save for a a sizeable chuck in the bottom left hand corner.

The garden in our last house was all decking so I never had anything to do to it, and I have never done any gardening in my life.

Today I have been out and bought some weed killer, a trowel and spade and some seeds and plant pots (for when/if I can get a grip on the current state of things!) I'd love for that over grown wild part to be just lawn!

So where would you begin? We don't have a lawn mower though I suspect we'd need a strimmer or similar? We do have garden shears though.

HELP

To add, I've spent about 3 hours out there today clearing rubbish to take to the tip! This is an improvement!

Looking at your pictures I would save your money and not bother with a strimmer. Just get weeding and put plants in. If it was mine I would buy a mattock to get the weeds out and break up the soil. Take them out including the roots. Dig in compost and then plant away.

You could do a pottager Vege plot or put shrubs in if you want low maintenance.

On the the patio section weed out the pavers and spend your strimmer money on patio furniture and planters.

If that were mine:

I'd cover it with cardboard or black weed fabric and leave it until the weather gives us rain.

Then dig out the weeds once the ground isn't like concrete.

Then you can sow some grass seed in the autumn which will be established by spring.

In the meantime, esp if you are going to be there a fair while or going to get your own house afterwards, invest in some pots and grow plants in those on top of the weed fabric.

I agree planters are the way to go. Buy as large as you can afford, plastic is fine especially in grey or black. You have a lot of vertical opportunities for climbing, roses, honeysuckle and clematis.
Things like Fatsia Japonica and Mexican Orange blossom are happy in pots and will give you structure. Hydrangeas are also good plants for planters. And they can be pruned down should you have to move them.
Soon garden centres will be selling off plants cheaply because they don’t want to overwinter them.

I would buy plants too if I were you, it’s a bit late for seeds. With plants you get instant colour too. I would clean the patio and buy some nice pots to go on there first and deal with the other areas when you’ve done that bit

Some really good tips here thank you everybody.

The seeds we bought today were sweet pea and sun flowers, mainly as something fun to do with DS and the packet said 'hardy annually' ! But off I pop to the garden centre tomorrow to pick up some planters.

I will also pick up a strong garden sweeping brush while I'm out and see if I know anybody with a jet wash to clean the paving.

Check with landlord/letting agent if you haven't already. Nine times out of ten you're not allowed to touch the garden besides weed removal and grass cutting

It’s a bit late for sunflowers and sweet peas. Have a look in the packet and see when to sow them
Sweet peas should be sown in the autumn or early spring to flower in the summer. Sunflowers should be sown early April to May and will then flowers from August onwards,

Lots of pots of lavender, strawberries and herbs.

In the winter out in a couple of little evergreens and put light on them at Christmas time.

Just lots of pots and lights.

Are you on Pinterest?

Poundstretcher and Wilko have cheap large pots .Really do get as big as you can and all the same colour .

As said black and grey work well .

Filling them with "soil" can be expensive . I don't know what the experts on here would suggest and I guess it depends what you want to grow . I tend to use a cheapish potting compost ( Lidls is good ) with something for drainage at the bottom .People recommend polystrene ..
I always mix perlite and/or vermiculite ( never quite sure which to use ! ) into the compost and I also tend to line the sides of the container with bubble wrap for protection from heat and frost .

I found this advice interesting regarding a mix for containers
equal parts loam (ie regular garden soil), grit, sand and composted bark
. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/may/13/a-masterclass-in-soil-from-the-experts-at-kew