Steve North wrote:

My house is going up for sale in six weeks and to improve its
sellability I need to do a makeover of the totally neglected and bare
back garden. Needless to say it must be as low budget as possible. I
have tall brick walls to the rear and one side of the garden and the
garden is just turfed with no flowers, trees etc. So, I would be
grateful for any ideas for pretty, budget plants or flowers that will
look nice. They only have to last for this summer but will obviously
have to grow quick or be bought half grown for me to get it finished
in six weeks. I particularly would like to hide the brick walls, so
ideas for this would be good..

You are probably better off buying relatively fast growing, colourful
annuals or half hardy plants. It is almost the season for buying them at
the moment and with good choices you can have 2-3' of growth by
midsummer. No point in going for expensive herbaceous stuff that won't
get established quickly enough to be useful.

Don't try and hide the walls you won't be able to do it convincingly -
put things at the bottom that look good there. And maybe a few annual
climbers like morning glory, sweet peas to break it up a bit. Your
biggest problem is making it look established - best chance is fast
growing annuals and a couple of bigger plants in pots.

A standard datura in the sunniest corner would work well in perfuming a
walled garden.

Regards,
Martin Brown