On 15/03/2012 19:34, zoebee87 wrote:
Hi there!

I really need some help as ive literally no idea what im doing or
looking at for that matter, but this garden needs sos!!!!

we moved in our first home together in november 2010..the garden was not
really up to much at that time but it was obvious that the previous
owners had devoted alot of time to it over the years etc. i was pregnant
with our first at the time we moved in and our son was born in
march...now summer is coming back around and hes toddling i want a nice
garden for all his memories. Slap bang in the middle was a greenhouse,
filled with what i can only imagine to be rotten tomatoes...anyways we
gave it away as to be honest i thought the thing was ghastly and found
myself picturing a nice table and chairs sipping sangria summer
moments!

Please will someone do me a favour and look at my sorry state of a
garden...what is going on here? so far i have identified Ivy, the common
weed and daffodils. yay for me.

i have no idea what any of the other stuff is, some blinking rhubarb
type plant and this rather crooked looking tree on the right (which
actually was kinda pretty last summer since it flowered) but these
bushes...in the corners? what the hell are they? what do i do with them?


if im perfectly honest i would love nothing more than to get rid of
everything except the crooked tree. i would get rid of that ivy and
replace it with something...well...else. ha. i would like flowers
everywhere...i mean around the edges im assuming that those piled bricks
are raised beds? am i cottoning on a bit more? well i have a
vision...and that vision is...poppies. not the remembrance ones...ive
actually been looking at Angels Choir type.

what would be great is for someone to kindly tell me what ive got
growing in my garden and whats best to do with what ive got i suppose,
unless it wouldnt that difficult to pull everything except my tree out
and re do it.

thanks in advance

Zoe


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It's very difficult to id what you've got from that image. What can be
seen is a lovely small garden, requiring moderate maintenance.

You really need to tackle that lawn first. Give it a rough mow and see
what state its really in. In your position, I would lift the
ex-greenhouse slabs and relay them patio-style in one corner of your
lawn, so your son can ride a scooter around later. It will also make
the lawn easier to mow. You may wish to patch the lawn where it is
bare. If you can afford it, turf would be quicker and more useful with
a crawling child around. There is likely to be a hosepipe ban very
soon, so you will need to (safely!) collect water so that you can keep
the turf alive until it knits in to the surrounding turf and ground.
Then concentrate on keeping the lawn mowed and the raised beds weeded.

Keep your camera handy so you can post pics of individual plants
(including weeds) that you needs to identify. Most of us enjoy doing
this, but we need a bit more to go on than your initial pic. Flowers
and close-up shots of leaves are helpful, but we need to see the entire
plant, too, as growth form is often a useful indicator.

I'm not going to tell you to get rid of anything (except, perhaps, the
ivy) until you know what you've got and if you want it. Good mature
shrubs can be very expensive to buy, so it's worth waiting to see how
yours perform and if you like them.

If you want plant suggestions or relevant gardening advice, it would
help us to know where you are, what your soil is like (sandy, loamy,
clayey, also neutral, acid or alkaline (chalky)). You may need a soil
testing kit to determine the latter. These can be bought cheaply in
most garden centres or hardware stores. Just follow the instructions.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay