On 28/1/08 16:25, in article
,
" wrote:

On 28 Jan, 16:05, Des Higgins wrote:
Having moved between 8 houses in 3 countries over past 15 years, this
is all good advice. *If you design something, it is almost guaranteed
that people will not like it anyway. *Just make it look like it is
easy to maintain. *If you already have beds with perennials, mulch
them (bark or cocoa shells or something that looks nice) about a month
before hand and keep it tidy. * If you have so little experience and
so little time, it is almost guaranteed that whatever you do will look
shite.

splutter Well you don't mince your words! And if the poster's only
got a back yard full of rubbles? I think envisaging a path, leading to
existing areas with different planting would be a start. From the post
one feels that he/she knows about gardening, also wants to put his/her
hands on a project, and it doesn't have to be anything resembling a
transformation a la Tichmarsh and Dimmock. Some thoughts on what the
poster has, on what he/she can build with is good. Then adding extras
- which doesn't necesarrily means building a pond and decking the
whole area, but identifying herbaceous and structural plants which
could lift the garden's profile and add money onto the sale of the
house. Hence my suggestion with help at setting up a process rather
than adding some bark mulch and a couple of petunia pots.

The OP said he has no experience in garden design which does not argue a
knowledge of plants and planting or how to use them. He said he didn't want
to spend much money and hopes to sell the house in July, which does not
argue money to spare for any design fees or hard landscaping, such as paths
or 'different planting' that these paths lead to. Paving stones or bricks
cost and laying them takes time.
*Nothing* is more ugly than some hastily thrown together bits of tat which
try to establish a 'garden'. You propose to make a mature, attractive,
established, weed-smothering garden in 7 months, starting in January, on a
low budget? Sorry, no.
Clean and tidy and some spots of colour via tubs is the only way to go for
someone who is selling a house and has no money to spare to 'lift the
garden's profile'. He's spending his own money.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'