What can I do with my tiny garden

[SmellyBeard]

Please can you help me revamp my tiny garden on the cheap.

It's currently all paved, but badly so weeds pop up between the slabs. Some of the gaps are quite big.

It faces north so in winter the part nearest the house doesn't get any sun at all. In summer it gets it in the morning. It does get nice sun towards the back and is pretty sheltered.

The flower beds are crap and a weird shape. Pretty sure there is lots of cat poo in them too. I would like to get rid of them and get some large raised beds or large planters.

The walls are painted concrete blocks which look flakey.

I have a baby and I'd love her to be able to play out there safely in the summer when she can crawl and walk. Currently I don't feel keen. I was wondering about putting some fake grass down, but is it very expensive?

Any advice or tips would be really appreciated.

Does anyone know - once a hebe in a pot goes leggy is that the end for it? Or should I try planting to see if it can recover? It's never flowered either.

It looks great 😁. I'd dump the hebe. There are much nicer things to have in a pot

Ah I can't see pics!!

@SmellyBeard it helps with weeds but I guess smaller ones! It does clean the stones too but once a year I have to scrub them too ... keep thinking of a pressure tool but I don't have much storage room! The pics are great, the new stones look fantastic!

I can't see the pictures!

Yay, that looks Brill!

Sorry for the erroneous capital letter, stupid phone

Laying grass is not expensive if you do it all from seed but quite honestly a garden that size I'd go for fake grass, you can get really nice stuff now, you don't need it over the entire surface and it can be hosed down to clean.
The beds look fine to me, they could do with some decent planting.

Oh that’s lovely, OP. Would you consider growing some vegetables. You actually have loads of room and it’s a lovely experience to produce your own lettuce, tomatoes, etc. With all those walks, you have lots of space to grow peas and other runners.

That looks amazing. I'm in Ireland too. Can I ask if it was expensive to get the slabs re laid? They look like new. You've done a brill job looks a million dollars.

@oliveroseswe were told not to use a power washer as apparently the garden would flood too quickly. Don't know how accurate that is. They used something with a bleachy smell to clean them.

@Lipz It cost over €1200 - Dublin rates. To be honest I do feel slightly ripped off but I was quoted that by 3 companies so perhaps that's the going rate. They also laid membrane in the front flowerbed and removed a lot of additional earth which has been sitting in a heap at one end of the front flowerbed for years.

My DP did offer to do it at one point but he's not really handy at all and I knew it would end up taking years and involve lots of arguments...

@T0tallyFuckedUpFamily Yes i would be happy to try and grow vegetables. That's a good idea. Do they need a lot of sun? The side with the trellis is mostly a shady border so that might made a difference.

@rockingaroundthemulberrybush I don't know why you can't see the pics I'm on the app does that make a difference?

Oh that should have been to @FuckYouCovid

There are some brilliant Facebook groups for vegetable growing, where there really is no such thing as a daft question. They love helping newbies. I’m on a few and can send you details later if you’d like.

You can grow loads from the scraps you normally throw out, such as tomatoes that are going off, pepper and chilli seeds, onions and scallions from onions. I’m currently sprouting an onion on my window sill. That one onion will grow at least two more. There’s also a gardening section on Mumsnet.

Op that looks fantastic, what a transformation

The bleach stuff was likely patio xtreme clean. You can buy it on amazon, it’s bloody marvellous.

So next year or the year after just get some of that stuff. It will bring it up like new.

Don’t use wet and forget it’s shite.

Wow. That looks great now. The paving slabs are actually really nice colours.

Well done. What a lovely space for you and your family.

That looks so much better.

Weirdly, I can see the pictures now. Great job OP, I really like it and you have given me the humph to do something with mine !

What a fulfilling thread! And what a wonderful result - looks a lovely garden OP

Thanks @Bluntness100 for the name of the patio cleaner. I never want to go back to those horrible slimy ones!

And thanks to everyone else on here who gave me the initial suggestions because it got me thinking about what we really wanted/need. I wouldn't have thought of using the same slabs before posting here. I also had another thread asking for plants recommendations for a shady border and that was so helpful too.

If you can get your hands on some wooden pallets, you can make really easy vertical planters, for your walls. You can grow lettuce, herbs, trailing tomatoes, etc in them.

It’s made a massive difference! I’d get some planter boxes along the other wall. I got some of these for my garden, I live in US but they’re from Australia, you could get something similar for veg. Will look more streamlined and tidy than the various pots

That's come up really well! Mine is currently half soil and half grass due to puppy dogs digging. I am not furloughed so can't wait for summer holidays to revamp it. Going out now to take pictures as I always forget. Good luck with the veggies!