"popticle" wrote in message
news

hey, i joined today because our task for the year is to fix our garden,
now i know you all know what you're talking about and i just dont, first
i will tell you a bit about me my name is Chelsea, im 22 and have a 2
year old daughter and 1 year old dog, we live in a rented house in
cambridgeshire. the dog is our main offender, he (pretty much) destroyed
the garden last year, dug holes everywhere, destroyed the veg plot at
the edge of the garden and generally just pulled alot of it up (though
it's our fault for not supervising him) we semi-sorted out the grass,
put grass seed down but i think we put it down too late in the year so
it didnt all grow, so we have bald patches that need fixing (any tips on
that greatly appreciated!) we neglegted the garden and didnt weed it
often enough so we have got to go out and pull i all up, unless there is
a better way? and we need some durable shrubs/trees/flowers etc to fill
in the gaps, i did a terrible picture on ms paint of our garden lay out
so you can see what the garden layout is
[image: http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...le/garden.jpg]
we were going to get logroll/picket fencing to edge all the borders and
seperate the borders from the lawn. how, if there is a way, do we stop
the weeds growing in the stones? i know itse a case of maintenance but
they are growing so fast, i was out there 2 weeks ago and pulled loads
up at the back plot and about 50% of what i pulled up is growing back!
we dont have a tonne of money to sort the garden and i don't want to
spend loads because we dont own the house. but it needs doing and i want
to enjoy having the outdoor space with my daughter this year, she loves
being outside but at the moment i hate being out there.

any help on how to keep i simple but look nice greatly appreciated, i
dont know all the technical words or latin names for plants so links and
pictures will be useful!

thanks in advance! chelsea




--
popticle

Some gardening advice I was given over the garden wall when I started was "
Garden by encroachment" i.e. only weed or turn over the amount you can
immediately cover in new plants or mulch, if you work hard all weekend
clearing ground and don't cover it, by the time you next get out there it
will look as bad as before and that's a bit demoralizing.

Dog, you should have trained to start with (but you know that already!) but
persistence pays, better to buy robust hardy plants and protect to start
with and just wait until the dog and children grow up, or perhaps there is
scope for some dog defenses and divide the garden so some of it is out of
bounds, our garden now the football paddling pool and climbing frame have
gone is much different to its beginnings, life is to short to be shouting at
children for playing in the garden.

Children and dogs are perhaps why we became so interested in climbing plants
as it was only the stuff around the edge that stood a chance!!


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk