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
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...cle/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