Never had a garden before!

WEEDS! I see your ground elder's crept back, as it always does.! Try painting it with glyphosate, diluted according to instructions on the concentrate container. You won't need as much as with a sprayer, and using a big paintbrush kept for the purpose means you'll not accidentally kill your lawn or the plants you want to keep. Make certain NO RAIN is forecast for at least 6 hours after application, otherwise it'll dilute the glyphosate and you'll have wasted both time and money.

I usually put a capful - 25ml - of the concentrate in half a litre of water and it's enough to paint on any perennials such as those appearing round the edges of your paths and fences. Ignore it at your peril!

 

The gardener came and turned over all the soil with a paper scraper and they have only just started to come back 5 days later - I bought one and can see this is the answer. Hoeing them did not work. They came back in 2 days! I just hate the look of them.

Thank you on water advice! It's been hot, so the grass (which he cut for the first time since planting) is a little brown in places. It rained yesterday so this has been good.

 

I have put water! But I didn't realise that birds disappear? I really do know nothing about migratory patterns.

 

I didn't think of this - I just filled the feeder with a combo of seed and sunflower hearts and nothing happened. But my best mate tells me you need different food for different birds, like some want worms, some want hearts etc. So I will just put out hearts to start with and get some fatballs as well I think. I'm looking to plant more in September, like bulbs and euphorbia!

 

This is great advice. I have a natural impatience which I need to overcome. I need to up my bird feed game bc that cheap stuff from Sainsburys is doing nothing.

 

My gardener is very very anti weed killer, so I'm taking his advice. He said it's bad for the soil overall!

 

This is the garden as it is now. Grass is a bit brown in places, bc it's been so hot. Also! I planted a wonderful thing that is growing well but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called! Can you guys tell me?

Also, top right, the tree on the other side, does anyone know what it is? It's got these very red pine cone looking things that are so lovely!

 

They don't go far. In the summer there is plenty of natural food in the countryside and they don't need our feeders so much. The young birds that hatched this year will often form up into large flocks that roam together, foraging and seeking out new territories.

And there is also the issue of moulting. At the end of the breeding season, birds shed all their feathers and grow a new set. They feel vulnerable whilst doing this (probably a bit embarrassed too!) and tend to stay under cover. So even the birds that stay in the gardens are less likely to be seen.

I am still seeing young tits coming to my feeders, but I know that any day now it's going to go very, very quiet.

 

Sorry -but that grass looks dreadful. I don't think I'd be asking that 'gardener' back! Either they haven't sharpened the blades on the mower, or they've got the setting far too low. Hopefully, once you get some rain it'll look better. Little and often for grass, especially when it's newly laid.
What plant have you forgotten the name of? Did you mean the one below the grass pic?

 

Yes, the one below the grass pic.

And as for the lawn, it looks bad and I don't know what to do. It was perfectly laid by the gardener and grew gorgeously. Then he cut it and it was brown in patches but not bad. It was fine and then I cut it and now it looks terrible. I have no idea what to do. We are getting neither sun nor rain. I am watering daily in the evening, but maybe I'm not doing it for long enough? I'm doing like 10 mins with the hose. Help!

 

Oh and re the lawn, my mower is brand new so the blades cannot be anything but sharp. He set the level of cutting and said it wasn't going to be low but it looks like it is. I can look at the mower and raise the level, sure, but the issue here really is how brown it is, not the length. The absence of sun I cannot fix - we live in England. LOL.

But am I not watering enough? I'm doing it every day! The entire garden was dug up and this turf was planted and looked stunning. When he cut it for the first time it was great, with a few small brown patches, which anyone would expect given the sun we had in July. But now, it's shite. I'm so disappointed with how brown it is in these huge places. There's some green ofc as you can see, but I'm not happy at all. What can I do? I am doing exacly what you said above - little and often! And it's still terrible.

 

Give your lawn a light raking to dethatch. When do you water? Do the watering in the evening. Maybe some lawn fertiliser might help. Then spike the lawn to airiate it with a garden fork. Use your search engine and key in - How to improve brown lawn. Very helpful hints on this site.

 

I think it's not little and often - it's LOTS. 10 mins is not long. Try digging a hole in the border next to the lawn and see whether the soil is dry at root level.

 

I don't think anyone's answered this yet, and there's not much of it on view in your photo, but it could be a Staghorn Sumac. They are very pretty and have amazing autumn colour, but you might find suckers coming up in your lawn.

 

New turf will not have had much chance to get it's roots down into the soil yet. I would not rake it yet as you might just pull it up! I wouldn't feed it either as we often say don't feed a struggling plant as you just put it under more stress. Water it very well 30 mins to an hour to begin with if no rain comes. Once it starts to pick up give it some liquid seaweed TONIC not feed. If you get rain in September feed with an Autumn formula lawn feed, this will help strengthen the roots.