Creating a garden boarder for beginners

[ThinksALot]

Hi,

I've unexpectedly got the next few weeks off and I want to do something productive with my time. We live in a new build house with no garden boarders at all - the grass just edges straight up to next door's garage on the left and our garage at the back. I'm thinking of digging a garden boarder all the way along the left and possibly across the back too.

Now, I know it's probably not great timing with the heat as the soil will be hard and I can't really plant right now but I thought I could get the boarder ready to go.

Any advice/recommendations for easy edging and how to improve clay soil. Or just general advice about prep. I'm a complete novice.

Picture is of part of neighbours garage wall that lines my garden. You'll see how cracked and dry the soil is!

Do you have a hose? Use that to create a line, or a slightly wave border that will look pretty nice when planted up. Looks more appealing than a straight line I think 👍🏻

And add a couple of bags of compost/manure into the soil, it will break down the clay a bit more, my garden is all clay but this has really helped

Make it at least twice the width that you originally thought of. I love a straight border. Loose informal planting in a formal border is what I like. But making gardens is my job so either works (straight or wobbly).

You’re right about it going to be hard work! I expect there’s a load of builders rubble underneath. If you must do it now, try to soak the ground first. This is of course a waste of water. Then get a pick axe and break up the ground into lumps

so that you can remove any bits of brick and rubble. When you think the ground is clean enough, add bags of compost, soil improver and manure.
Alternatively you could build a raised bed in front of the wall, leaving a clearance gap.

Sorry if that sounded grim, compared to the other suggestions. I was trying to be helpful in the light of experience.

@Beebumble2 - I think you're right! It's the sort of thing that looks easy ish but is deceptively hard work that I might regret starting...

Maybe I'll dig a small hole and see how I feel after! 🤣

I'm thinking a straight edge as that suits our decor/style. I was thinking of making it deep enough to have larger plants at the back to screen some of the garage and smaller plants at the front.

Large plants don't just go up, they go widthways too, so you need to leave room for growth when planting smaller stuff in front. For something like that, a border will need to be getting on for 2 metres deep. That's going to be out of proportion in your garden.

Digging dry ground in summer is very very hard. As pp said you would need to either soak it or wait. In winter spade will go in with minimal effort.

Don't dig with a spade; break it up with a fork and let nature (i.e. manure/mulch) do the rest.
What beebumble said, basically.

When we did something similar, we concentrated on removing top layer of grass, then just digging large pits for the shrubs and filling them with compost etc. for the rest we put in large boulders interspersed with surface compost for shallow rooted ground cover.
it might not give you the total desired effect, but does look better than plain grass.

Thought I'd post a little update. I took on board everyone's advice and waited until we'd had some rain before digging. Lots more to do but very proud of how much I've dug by myself so far! It's my husband's turn this afternoon and the children will be on stone picking duty...

Unfortunately I can't seen to post a pic! Trying again..