Do you often think your garden is scruffy compared to friends and family

[Thismoment]

I often get disheartened after visiting the gardens of family and friends. Mine just seems so scruffy and cobbled together Doesn’t help as my mother has a gardener and I have friends that are good gardeners with newish gardens but I just come back and notice all the issues. Does anybody else?

My garden is quite widely admired, even though it's not planned out or conventionally laid out. But. That's because I put a lot of work into maintaining it whilst most of the gardens round where I live are either shocking weedy neglected wildernesses or barren chippings. They have the effect of making my garden look good.

However when I go into other areas of the town and see some of the beautiful gardens - i think quite often planned and maintained by professional gardeners - I agree with you OP it can be very disheartening.

I do take comfort though in the knowledge my garden is all my own hard work and I haven't spent inordinate amounts of money on it. But like you I tend to notice all the work that needs to be done!

No , my garden is lovely and all built by my husband including all the hard landscaping although at the moment it’s not looking its best as we’ve had no rain since the end of June and have a hosepipe ban so there is only so many watering cans you can do .

Mine is scruffy. The people who owned the house before us were great gardeners so the bones of the garden are there but it's a big garden (despite the house being a standard mid century semi) and I just don't have the time to keep up with it sadly.

Yes, but I also think it looks bloody good for the amount of work I put into it - which is vastly less than the work people with 'perfect' gardens put into theirs.

Sometimes I think mine is a hot mess and I wish I could just dig the lot up and start again.

Other times I think it’s ok and that I have improved things a lot since taking up gardening a few years ago.

My neighbours all have perfect gardens - I live in the Netherlands so you'll know what I mean.
However, I have all the birds, bees, and five different types of butterflies. and mice, but don't tell DH
I plant mainly native species, which are surviving the drought and are fine with minimal watering from the waterbutt, don't mow the lawn in May, hand pull the weeds (no chemicals, not even vinegar) and have water for wildlife in both the front and back gardens.
Sometimes I look at my neighbours' gardens and feel envious but then I look at the birds and realise that I definitely prefer my own, despite all the extra work.

I love my garden. It could be tidier, but I like the rambling plants and I get so many bees and insects.
I live on a new build estate so I started from scratch, but very few people have done anything to their garden and those that have have gone for shiny tiles and plastic grass which makes me sad.

Yes, so is my house. I hate it. Wish I had the money to rectify it.

I work full time which limits things but if I’m honest I think even if I was retired and had all day to garden it wouldn’t have the same design and perfection feel. It’s a cobbled together type of garden.

My garden is probably nicer than my neighbours. It is small (7m square) but I have lots of Japanese acers, a raised bed with grasses, fennel and bamboo and a little lawn with apple tree, fig, ginkgo and mimosa in pots.

However right now it's scruffy cos it's been hot for over a month so not pruning anything or cutting grass to be as gentle as possible.

Most of my neighbours gardens are paved over and some fake grass. I also have a few neighbours who have big front gardens completely covered in junk.

One neighbour has 7 derelict cars piled up. Others have piles of detritus wood, old tiles, bits of kitchen cupboards. They aren't renovating they just are happy to leave it there permanently.

What irrationally annoys me is my house is the absolute cheapest in this area and the dump garden neighbour's houses are worth almost double my house. I would love to have a big garden like theirs :(

Okay maybe not garden but very large balcony that wraps around the flat.
No matter what I spend /do it looks horrible compared to the other flats. Any tree or plant i buy will eventually die. I got some hanging baskets this year already with plants. They died. Even my furniture looks manky now.

My back garden is horrible, it was set up.as low maintenance by last owners lots of stones and paths and we don't really have the knowledge or inclination to change it thank God for high fences, my neighbours gardens are much nicer one neighbour.worked in horticulture so their gardens are immaculate , we have a drive out front.

No as I love gardening. My house on the other hand....scruffy compared to one of my friends. The rest are as scruffy as me

Yes, I get garden envy all the time! I don't have much of a clue about what to plant. And the neighbour's fence looks bloody awful and they won't replace it which doesn't help. Also it's expensive to buy plants, etc.

This is me too. Garden is huge and bought from a retired lady who was an amazing gardener, I moved in with small kids and have never managed to keep up. People all told me ‘a mature garden will take care of itself’. Fake news!! 5yr in I’ve learned a lot but it’s always scruffy. Growing veg is what I’m really keen on though, not tidiness, so I try to measure success by that! And this year has been my best year yet, I even have a tiny aubergine growing. In Scotland!

I dislike manicured gardens so was quite liberal with the wild flower seeds. They have spread everywhere though and seem to manage without much water . I do have bees and butterflies too . I just need a nice little space to sit out with a coffee/drink !

Ours was very scruffy indeed for about eight years after we moved in. We had no interest whatsoever in gardening beyond mowing the lawn, which was unfortunate as we thought the house from keen gardeners and it needed some upkeep.

My parents would prune and weed from time to time, and every couple of years I’d have hedges cut, but that was it. I don’t think we went in it for a whole year, I found it too overwhelming to go out and look at how overgrown the beds were and how out of control it all was. It seemed like a monumental and overwhelming task to get close to being on top of it so I just ignored it. Which was a shame, as the DC liked playing in it.

Sp then, about eight years ago, we decided to have a regular gardener to get it under control. She has come for two hours a week ever since. I think she spent the first year to 18months weeding and cutting back holly, it was so overgrown.

Once she got it under control, I developed way more of an interest in it, and spend time researching plants and learning how to recognise them. DS mows the grass. DH spends time tidying eg raking leaves, collecting twigs, cutting back hedge type shrubs etc. I think gardening comes to us all at different stages in life, but I know I definitely had had enough of feeling like our garden was embarrassingly overgrown. It didn’t help at that stage that the neighbours on both sides are very keen gardeners!

Our garden is a mess. We bought the house from a widow with dogs so very much hardscaped and easy to maintain. The Indian sandstone patio is in bits, the wooden shed is about to collapse and there's drainage issues. it's gonna be a big project to get it done up. Thankfully our neighbours' gardens are a bit boring too so I don't feel too bad.

Our front is fabulous though and we get lots of compliments about it. Lots of Mediterranean plants, ornamental grasses, an olive tree and also a not too tall plum tree that is fruiting like crazy now. A couple of small hydrangeas in pots too. We get so many butterflies and big, chunky honey bees and the neighbourhood cats love to watch and playfully chase them. Lots of ladybirds and other friendly bugs too. The walls were kinda light grey, I painted them in Stone V from Paint and Paper Library and now all the purples and pinks and sagey greens just pop against that sandy background.

After having done up the front, I certainly now know what I don't want to do with the back garden.

Always leave room for nature. It is the Great Outdoors, and that is where they live.

A untidy slightly scruffy garden with weeds and unkempt corners etc has far more in the way of available wildlife habitat than a neatly manicured outdoor room.