oh hell - someone tell me what to do.

[prettyfly1]

moved into new house one month ago and garden is a BLOODY MESS [SHOCK]. Iwant to enjoy it but just dont knwo where to start - fences falling down grass dying, weeds everywhere on the patio, random bits of concrete, crap soil and no plants. Single mum so not a lot of money to spend or i would just have it ripped up - WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST.

ripping it up

its the only way

you can hiare a mini digger cheaplyl and get a mate to do it

me too...i moved in 2/3 months ago and totally tranformed the front garden...but the back...have stuck a shed up amongst the weeds and really cant deal with it. Will watch this thread for inspiration!

I would start by diving the garden into managable sections and tackling them one at a time.

I'd start with the lawn - give it a cut with a mower on the highest setting. Once the lawn is cut you've got somewhere for your tiddler to play while you faff around gardening - get one of those pop-up tents. If possible get a hose and you can then fill up a paddling pool and water the lawn.

Then sort out say, two square metres at a time. Make it managable. If you manage to sort out any borders then buy some colourful and cheap plants from B&Q and just shove them in for a splash of colour while you make some more detailed plans for next year.

Find out if your local Council has special rubbish sacks that you can put garden rubbish into - they are about 20p each usually and you put them on the pavement for collection on a specified day. It's great for getting rid of rubbish.

Also find out if you can get a Compost bin from the Council - put it in the corner of your garden and you can start putting some weeds and veg scraps into this.

Good luck!

spray patio with weedkiller and/or pull them up
fix fencing (even a lovely garden looks crp with crp fencing )
mow lawn

How big are the bits of concrete?

see what that leaves you with.

One project at a time.

If you have small kids/animals - fences first.

Cheap weed/feed for the lawn works wonders. We tested a patch on part of our lawn & it looks like we painted it!

Leave any planting till last. If you have a bit of lawn you can sit on you can start to plan what you want with a glass of wine in hand

Or..better still, a BBQ where mates clear / paint / dig / weed in return for a burger & beer . If it is a new house you should have lots of nosey mates who will come & help so they can see what you've got.

How big is it, Prettyfly? If it's not too large I'd be inclined to gather up all the debris and dispose of it or put it all in one corner to make a rockery. Then I'd blitz it with weedkiller. I don't really like to use chemicals but sometimes I think they can give you a kick start and enable you to make a start on replanting etc.

If you could get some manure, that would help nourish the soil. Then I think I'd decide how much I wanted as grass and put seed down (not sure if you can do that at this time of year?) You can sow annual flower seeds in the beds and hopefully, they'll give you some colour this year. For cheap plants, look at small shops and also supermarkets - our Co-op does packs of plants much cheaper than the garden centre! Woolworth's has a very reasonable range of plants and summer fetes or garden shows are good for cheap plants, as well. Good luck!

Personally I'd advise against the lawn-weed-and-feed and weedkillers at this time of year especially if you've got a small child - leave it until the autumn when there's more rain and you aren't likely to spend so much time out there. Soe of them stink and are pretty vile.

Plenty of rain where I am, MP. Shall I send you some - you're very welcome!