Post Your Garden!

[TNA]

After the storms in Feb we finally got round to ripping out the stupid wall on the right side of our garden along with the broken fencing and replacing it all.

It hasn't been cheap since we're starting from scratch, moving ~7 tons of bricks by hand through the house for a grab lorry to collect and buying 18 panels, posts, gravel boards etc but much nicer now





Ripped the other brick wall out and crappy concrete after the new fencing was put up.






Planted some grass seed and scarified the lawn twice over (pic taken about 3 weeks later)


And some fencing to cover the veggie patch/man cave a bit


Next step is to do the other sides fencing, then get some sleepers in for raised flower beds, then demolish the smaller mancave and clad the bigger man cave so it looks nicer

Nice

How much did the panels, posts and gravel boards cost?

 

[Funky-Melon]

Nice

How much did the panels, posts and gravel boards cost?

It was around ~£2k for all the panels, posts, gravel boards and 2 bags of post crete per post. The garden is slightly higher by the man caves so had to double up on gravel boards there.

About to spend the same again for the other side

 

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It was around ~£2k for all the panels, posts, gravel boards and 2 bags of post crete per post. The garden is slightly higher by the man caves so had to double up on gravel boards there.

About to spend the same again for the other side

Great job, that's a lot of work

My advice would be to paint the fences with black paint. Once you have the beds in, the plants will really pop against the black hole fence colour.

It'll also detrect from the colour differences and also the new concrete structural parts on the right hand side.

 

[Andybtsn]

Anyone having a issue with white clover? I wish I’d took a before pic of the whole garden before I started cutting, but you can see the amount on the left, after just a week was ridiculous. I’m hearing it’s a waste of money and time trying to kill it off. Thoughts?

 

[Siliconslave]

embrace it - its great for pollinators and helps pull nitrogen into the soil, your mown lawn looks great so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If you must remove it the RHS has some good suggestions for weed killers (as I imagine removing it by hand is out of the question now) - https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/clover-in-lawns

 

[CaptainRAVE]

I’ve not had much time to garden this year, but it’s not too bad considering. Needs a bit of TLC this summer/autumn.

These all look/smell great though.



image upload

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Anyone having a issue with white clover? I wish I’d took a before pic of the whole garden before I started cutting, but you can see the amount on the left, after just a week was ridiculous. I’m hearing it’s a waste of money and time trying to kill it off. Thoughts?

It will gradually take over lawn weedkillers like verdone will deal with it but its better if incorporated in a general weed 'n' feed as impoverished grass is much more likely to be invaded than healthy grass

 

[ddoubleep]

I had some patio work done with Sandstone and left some space for the new lawn to go. I have turned over the soil and removed any debris from the building work, weeds, stones etc and ready to put down some final topsoil. Should this new layer be level with the patio?

I want to plant the lawn with some seeds rather than lay some turf in the hope it gives a good finish around the edges and the slight slope.

I know the soil may drop a bit once the final topsoil is compact and seeds rolled over but wasn't sure how far to take the topsoil and if the grass is to grow above the patio level to make cutting easier?

Just grab topsoil from builders merchant or local garden centre?

 

[Siliconslave]

its work trying to work out how much you'll need as its probably going to be more than you think. We've bought the large, 750L top soil bags from a local builders merchants a few times before, tend to be easier & cheaper than loading up at the garden center (even including delivery). If you've got access to a truck/trailer you can sometimes find places shifting topsoil on facebook/gum tree if your willing to dig it out.

 

[dlockers]

I had some patio work done with Sandstone and left some space for the new lawn to go. I have turned over the soil and removed any debris from the building work, weeds, stones etc and ready to put down some final topsoil. Should this new layer be level with the patio?

I want to plant the lawn with some seeds rather than lay some turf in the hope it gives a good finish around the edges and the slight slope.

I know the soil may drop a bit once the final topsoil is compact and seeds rolled over but wasn't sure how far to take the topsoil and if the grass is to grow above the patio level to make cutting easier?

Just grab topsoil from builders merchant or local garden centre?

Look up Gosforth Handyman on YouTube. He recently levelled and seeded a bomb site of a lawn and his technique is amazing (time consuming but amazing).

 

[ddoubleep]

Look up Gosforth Handyman on YouTube. He recently levelled and seeded a bomb site of a lawn and his technique is amazing (time consuming but amazing).

Thanks for this. Good watch. The tool to rip through the compacted soil would have come in handy. The technique to level the ground is something will look to do.

 

[Richie]

Didn't take long for the new Kilmarnock Willow to take to its new home.

Mid-April:

Ignore that it's still in its pot above. This was temporary until I sorted this section out as I needed to move it out the way to strip the vegetation and level off (see wider angle pic 3rd down from here)

End of April:

Now:

It's going to form part of the wildflower area I set aside for wildlife in my garden... Not huge but every little helps:

The bare area will be sown with wildflowers in Sept for over-Wintering and get a mini wildflower meadow for next Spring (used black sheeting in top 2 pics to kill off the vegetation and I will weed as I go now)... 2 bird boxes installed around April time.

The birdbox at the back has been used within a few weeks of putting it up as seen above so pretty pleased with that.

Looking forward to next Spring when/if the wildflowers all work

 

[Dis86]

Anyone having a issue with white clover? I wish I’d took a before pic of the whole garden before I started cutting, but you can see the amount on the left, after just a week was ridiculous. I’m hearing it’s a waste of money and time trying to kill it off. Thoughts?

Very difficult to get rid of. However it's a very good plant to have on your garden. Great for insects and soil conditioning. Just needs more regular mowing.

 

[JonRGV250]

Veg garden kinda doing well, but not had any rain for weeks and none is forecast either

 

[Duke]

Veg garden kinda doing well, but not had any rain for weeks and none is forecast either

Get the hose out?!

 

[JonRGV250]

Get the hose out?!

Oh, I do, but it gets soaked up pretty quick..
Garden sprinkler at full pelt..



Got a decent haul of french beans today, with plenty more to come..



Straight into the freezer for them.
Just waiting on the runner beans and mangetout to come on song
The onions and shallots are pretty much ready, but I kinda want to grow an onion to the size of a football, not sure why, but why not.

 

[bJN]

Finally got round to sorting out the side of house into something that isn't a complete mess. It was originally left as just dirt when we moved in this time last year, and then I loosely covered the entire area with those slabs to stop the dog (puppy at the time) digging massive craters round there...

Much better than the eyesore it was before. Still not 100% sure on what to do with it; original plan was a shed / potting shed type area, it's just over 4m long and about 1.6m wide. Will probably do for just storing BBQ and such for now.



Did have plenty of other garden plans for this year, but with money getting ever tighter we've put it off for now... But will eventually end up with a raised decking area in one corner of the garden and build in some raised beds down one side of the boundary. I only did this as I had the slabs and shingle already so it cost me nothing but time and sweat!

 

[dlockers]

My fish are somewhat surprisingly happy with the heat.

 

[Freefaller]

I've decided I'm going to take some radical action this year in the garden and get rid of a lot of bushes.

As you can see from the aerial shot - we have a few....



From the above, the evergreen shrub to the right of the garage will be significantly chopped/reduced. The acer to the front right of the garage is staying as it is beautiful. The dome-like bush in the middle of the garden is going, as are the round bushes at the back of the garden. The camelia and other bushes on the right are staying.

I want to reduce the paving and get more grass in. The paving needs a refresh anyway.



And from this shot, everything in front is going - including that rockery (I hate rockeries), and the bushes to the right, plus that large sprawling evergreen shrub is going to be reduced significantly which is to the "right" of the garage in the aerial shot.



I already got rid of the rockery around that tree in the middle of the lawn - that will stay as it is rather nice.

I also moved an acer, from a pot, the front garden and it is starting to thrive.

I have A LOT of work to do... but it keeps me busy, and is a good bit of exercise too! The space behind the garage needs attention, but I might just add an extension to the garage and make that the gym and use the garage... as a garage!!

I realise I never updated this - a fair bit of progress has been made since I originally posted this.

Mainly getting rid of rockeries, slabs, laying more turf down, getting rid of bushes... and yes a council-class trampoline for the kids. I haven't got round to extending the garage or adding side access to it, but that'll have to wait!

It's a very mature garden which whilst lovely is a little too much work for a family man and 2 working adults, I mean it's over 420 sqm which whilst not massive, it's big enough. That said I've been enjoying growing chillies, tomatoes, raspberries and strawberries as well as tonnes of herbs. I do want to build a raised bed at some point, but need to do some consolidating of the garden. I want to level it off and get more turf down - but that will have to wait until we decide to do the extension.

The kids love the garden and spend a lot of time in it - which is one of the main reasons for living here in the countryside.

these photos span several years - it's been a slow burn as I just don't have the time to commit to massive bits of work in the garden, I have other commitments which outweigh it.

So here are all the bushes at the back. The garage wall was inaccessible.

More bushes eating up into garden space.

And yet more - the acer is lovely, but it just felt too crowded for me here.

The garden hacking has started - managed to find some concrete posts randomly within some of the bushes!

Time for the baby excavator - having used a 120T excavator before, this was actually surprisingly fun, and cheap to hire.

Got some turf delivered - not as good quality as I had hoped but it did the job.

Looks a lot better now - it's taken pretty well. Of course it's a little worse for wear with this weather - but it'll bounce back. At least the thatch and moss has been dealt with!

Here's a quick overview of what it looks like now.

I also moved one of the acers to the front of the house just to add some nice elements to the front.

Some of the crops:

 

[Yaayuh!]

Great to see so many gardens bustling with with trees, plants and bushes