Advice needed for completely starting my garden from scratch

[Cantchoosenickname]

Hi,

My back garden is completely unusable and has been for years I’d like to sort it out this summer so that we can get a bit of use out of it. I’m assuming that it is either a big or expensive job as I’ve posted on various sites asking for someone to quote me just to level garden to start with and have had absolutely no responses!

Does anyone know how I can level the garden myself? (I’m tiny! It’s going to probably kill me off as I imagine a lot of digging will be involved!)

Here are some photos It is a lot worse than it looks in these! Completely unusable. My plan is just to end up with level soil and start it all over again.

It doesn’t look that bad? Can you take pictures from other angles?

I wouldn’t do any work until autumn. It’s too dry now - only thing you can really do is keep the grass low and when things get wetter then you can level it a bit. Get a scarifiyer and in autumn rip out the dead grass and see what you’re left with.

It’s a lot worse than it looks in the photos! I’ll try and get some different photos but it looks like there’s just mounds of earth from years ago that’s been left and grass has grown. We dont go out there because the chances of falling are high!

Ah so quite big bumps? You could then rip up the turf and re level it with a rake. But only in autumn when the ground is workable!

Then reseed the lot.

Is there anything I can do with it over summer so that we can at least use it, which will help when it’s ready to be done properly? No young dc so it’s just be for me to sit in a chair for a bit of fresh air! I can’t use weed killer or anything on the grass as I have pets. Will keeping the grass as short as possible over the summer make it easier to turn over?

Perhaps my best bet is to make it as usable as possible while I’m off work (only work term time). Painting fences? Painting the brick shed bit?

You could keep the grass short yes. Is there a patio area? What kind of soil do you have? If it’s hard clay then after all the dry weather it won’t be workable hence waiting.

You could get some hanging pots with flowers to brighten things up and put these on the fence or hang them from the shed.

I wouldn’t do anything major until you’d actually planned the whole garden. Have a think about where you want a seating area, where do you want lawn, beds etc for flowers.

Do you have much of a budget?

There’s no patio area, just a little concreted area along back of house that you have to ‘step’ off the grass onto (no proper step or anything there, you just have to remember to step up/down ) - less than a metre wide.
I’m not sure on the soil type but it is very, very hard to work with and all of my neighbours have decking/huge patio areas and not much lawn (which may indicate the soil is not good or maybe all of their gardens were like mine and they decided just to get rid of it?)

I know exactly how I want it, seating area along brick shed (we have no access to that), small shed in the far corner by brick shed, a border around the side and back edge for rose bushes and the bit left turfed. Want as little grass as possible but lots of colourful flowers! In my head I also have bunting and lots of butterflies in reality I’d just be happy for a flat surface to work with!

Budget is the equivalent of a week away for us so ... approx. £2000 for everything? We’ve decided to spend that money on garden rather than going away.

Gardeners are v busy at this time of year. If you say you want the work done in autumn/ winter you might get some interest.
Soil probably needs some sand and compost to break it up but if any lawn does not get much use you can maybe get away with levelling and seeding.
Roses love clay soils. Whilst you wait forgardener you could plant climbing roses or trees to cover the bare fence. Amelanchier is a small garden tree, or a crab apple., or hawthorn with coloured flowers Don’t put trees on the south side of the garden though as they will shade it.

As the soil sounds hard it’ll be a mission to sort it out now. You could get quotes for laying some decking (although usual caveats about keeping rats out etc!) and have that done first.

Then autumn = DIY the bumpy lawn and dig the beds out. Plant bulbs so you’ve got flowers for spring.

Now = painting the brick wall and definitely hang up some hanging baskets - you can put the brackets on your fence posts.

Oooo I didn’t know that I could have decking laid first, without it being level! That’s make the grass bit a lot easier because there’d be much less to do. Maybe I should change around how I thought I had to do it? Thank you

They would have to do some of the levelling but as long as that bit is level it should be fine.

It sounds like it would be a right load of hard work to do yourself-are you talking just you or do you have a partner willing to help? I’d have thought you could get a general labourer to do the levelling work rather than using someone who sells themselves on knowledge of plants as well as hard landscaping. Get them to level the whole garden and lay the patio then DIY the planting/turfing bit, much more fun and you can spend the summer researching.

So far I have chopped the whole lot again (hoping to kill off the grass completely, don’t know whether it’ll work or not), have started to paint the fence (quicker job than I expected and quite therapeutic!) and bought some plants (got some that I think may spread) they’re on plant trays in the shade at the moment so they get lots of plant food and water and can be moved when anything major is being done in the garden. It’s not ready for sitting out in but it looks nicer with the fence painted and I feel I’m making baby steps now.

Can anyone recommend any pet friendly weed killer? I’ve found blackberry thorns and nettles in the corner that I want to get rid of.

I’d get some thick gloves, wear a long sleeved fleece and dig them up.
It’s quicker in the long run and safer.