What to plant in front garden?

[AluckyEllie]

We moved into our house about 5 years ago and the brambles were so high we could pick blackberries from our (first floor) bedroom window. We hacked in down to ground and have basically kept doing that as time/money went into doing up the inside. But this year is the year I sort it out!

The soil is poor and full of roots from the trees and previous brambles. Should I get some topsoil or mulch to help out? Could I put bark chippings on top straight away to keep weeds down/moisture in? Will bulbs grow up through bark chipping? I would like it to be low maintenance as we mainly spend time in the back garden, so shrubs and more self sufficient plants. Nothing needy! I see a lot of hydrangeas in neighbouring gardens so I wonder if that would work- are they fast growers? The tree and large bush are staying as they block us from the road a bit, everything else will be gone.

Lazy option (which is what I would do) is to go down the "no dig" route.

So you chop the weeds down to ground level and dig out any bit of the bramble that is just under the surface if you can, then cover the whole lot in a layer or two of cardboard and then add a thick mulch on the top. Wood chippings are fine. This will block the light out to the weeds which should kill them if you leave it for about a year. as the card and mulch rots down It will also improve the soil and encourage lots of good insects to make the soil even better.

Then I would leave it till next spring and start planting nice things you like then. In the meantime, you could stick some things in pots on top of the mulch to add a bit of instant colour in.

Shrubs like hydrangeas are very low maintenance once they are established. They just need watering for the first year and then a prune about once a year after that.

Thank you! Really stupid question, will the cardboard rot by next spring? Or so I need to make sure it’s all gone before planting? We’ve started using HelloFresh so luckily I can get lots of cardboard. I’m definitely going to do this, thanks so much. No dig is great, I was really put off by the idea of digging it over as so many roots- it’s tough.

Cardboard should be gone by spring. It’ll certainly be soft enough to plant through it.