Cheapest way to fix my ugly garden?

[chilliplant634]

Hi. I live in a Victorian terrace and I would like to tackle the garden this month. My budget is tight. Can anyone give me suggestions on the cheapest/most cost effective way to make the garden look presentable? The emphasis being on making the garden as low maintenance as possible.

Someone suggested putting artifical grass over the crazy paving. I wasn't sure if this would work as the paving seems quite uneven.

I’d lift the stones, get rid, someone on Facebook might want them with a collect for free. Then I’d flatten and turf. You can use seed if money is very tight, Paint the fence

I'd keep the paving, it could look lovely with decent planting around it, don't make more work for yourself!

Get rid of all the loose bricks and crap lying about.

Clean the paving (Jeyes fluid if you have no pets).

Then you'll have a better idea of the space you have.

You could grass seed the area around the shed.

Look for pictures of small Mediterranean courtyard gardens for inspiration.

Please don’t use artificial grass-it’s vile and so environmentally harmful. As others have said, a good clean and tidy, spend some time weeding and paint the shed and fence. Look for local plant sales for cheap plants, amd don’t expect to get it all done this month

Paint the very orange fences a gentle green/blue or lavender, build some large raised beds around the edges (decking wood is probably cheapest and you can usually source free or very cheap topsoil on marketplace, etc.) , clean up the paving and use it as a central dining area. A fountain will really add to it too.

I love your crazy paving! Very on trend!

Look at a book called ‘Brilliant and wild’ by Lucy Bellamy - a great collection of plants you put in a border that shouldn’t need pesticides or fertilisers and look pretty all year round and need cut back once a year. Creates a pretty, low maintenance cottage garden effect that is amazing to sit in.

If you embrace what you have and work with nature not against it you will have a pretty, easy garden for little effort that adds value to your house!

The paving is lovely, and with a good sweep and jet wash it will look fab. Use lots of pots. You can move them around to suit.

Thanks for the great suggestions! I think I will try and pressure wash the crazy paving and see how it looks. Sorry for the silly questions, but after pressure washing do I need some sort of sand to fill in between the paving slabs? What type do I use? I've just found that there are weeds constantly growing between the paving and I struggle to keep up with it.

Yes please don't put down plastic grass; it's an environment disaster.

I think the paving looks lovely. If there are gaps between the slabs you could brush in some compost and plant things like herbs (Marjoram and thyme would be lovely) or something like Erigeron or Mind Your Own Business to soften the look.

It looks like there is a bed along the length of the left hand fence. You could plant a select of climbers like roses, jasmine or honeysuckle along there to hide the fence.

The bit in front of the shed would make the perfect place for some fruit bushes or veg, if you fancy having a go. If not, I'd put down a clover mix which will give you a biodiverse, no maintenance lawn.

Also, any suggestions for the side return area?

Definitely paint the shed and fences so that they are all the same colour, a light shade will look nice. Recruit people to help, this will be a bigger more tiresome job than you expect, but not a difficult one... Just takes bloody forever! I think once you've done that it will look instantly better.

Grass seed to the left of the shed. A raised bed in front of the shed with a mixture of veggies and flowers. Courgettes plants grow big quickly and will fill up that space.

Pots are nice but could get expensive to source lots of big ones. I have a huge old galvanized water butt against one wall with a wisteria growing out of it. If I had a purely patio'd garden I'd look at having a few of these giant sized planters as maintenance is lower all round and you could get some nice big plants in there to add height. Herbaceous stuff that overwinters would be good - chosiya and eunymous and things like that!

I'd leave the paving as is for now as removal and prep for anything else will be a huuuuuge

Love a blank slate, op!

I'd leave the crazy paving (low maintenance, just give it a clean and stick some nice second hand garden furniture on it), put some easy shrubs along any borders and maybe plant some shrubs or do a raised bed in front of the shed with more easy shrubs. If you stick with shrubs that give you decent ground cover weeding is easy, you just rip out everything that isn't a shrub now and then. Maybe a little bit of gravel for the path to the shed. Artificial grass is awful IMO and will cost a lot to get anything that doesn't look cheap. Gardens are less maintenance if you let them be a bit wild, occasional weeding and it looks fine. If you try to make it look pristine and manicured, you could spend a fortune and you'll have more upkeep. Plus plants will keep everything cooler in a heatwave.

Look on tik tok for grouting videos

Also in terms of painting the fence/shed, how much sanding will I need? I want it to paint a nice natural light wood colour. Do I have to sand until I've got rid of all the existing red colour? Or just until smooth?

Also look for pretty shrubs to pot up ... they'll last longer than bedding pants which when replaced every year start to get ££

Look on Facebook marketplace for cheap /free plants and pots.

And Freecycle..

No sanding required! Cuprinol is good and will cover everything in a couple of coats. You can use it on plastic/metal/stone as well so on pots etc.

In the side return, I'd pressure wash the ground and add a few hanging baskets after tidying up the clutter. Maybe paint the wall too.

I'd give the shed a good brushing with a stiff bristle brush, just to remove anything loose, before painting.

I would leave the crazy paving, jet wash it, brush over with a bit of topsoil and plant some ground cover seeds in the cracks.

Paint the shed with cuprinol garden shades, purple would look fantastic.

Dig over a bed at the end and plant up.

Side return, jet wash. Get some pots.

I think you've got a great space.

The sidecreturn just needs jet washing. If you paint the wall you will need to keep painting it, so I wouldn't do that. But as pp said, some baskets or a few pots. Ferns like the shade. You could grow stuff up that side return wall in pots.

Thankyou for this! I've now gone down an Internet rabbit hole looking at different shades and wondering what colour to paint the shed and fence!

I wouldn't paint the fence and the shed the same colour, I think it would look too much.

Personally I would paint the fence a darker brown or a greyish brown.

I wouldn't like that. Each to their own! My neighbours painted their shed a light pastel colour. It became dirty quickly. I'd get some wild flowers to plant in any little gaps. Definitely look on gumtree and fb. I picked up really quality table and chairs for £70.

It just needs clearing of anything that doesn't belong/you don't want.

Jetwash the patio and paint the fences and shed.

Then, it's plants you need. If there were lots of plants, it'd look lovely.

Between the paving cracks, Mind Your Own Business is a lovely little spreader.

Join gardening groups or look on FB marketplace for cheap or recently dug up plants.