Help with new garden please!

Hi all.

I bought this house a year ago. And with dealing with the house and working as a teacher, I’ve had very little time to look after the garden barring cutting the grass and taking down an ivy covered shed.

I have recently dug over the bed at the back and planted it up with shrubs and flowers from my mother in law, but this was quite easy as the bed had been covered in broken paving slabs so very few weeds. I’ve done this in the time since the lockdown began.

I don’t have a clue though where to start on the back corner under the massive, and fast growing ivy (main trunk is in chocolate land behind me, I can’t get in), and the bed to the right. I am wanting a patio area possibly at the back, but no clue how to start.

I’m a geography teacher and what I want is an eco garden, any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m a very new gardener so don’t have many skills.

Thanks,

James

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Send them a note that you'd like it removed, and that you are happy to do it yourself with their permission?

Unlike owners for whom A <spit> Leylandii Hedge is their Pride and Joy, by the looks of that photo its just an overlooked weed from their perspective.

Perhaps choose the aspect you want? South facing, which can be hot middle of the day, or West facing to get the evening sun and sunset maybe? If you aren't going to do that until, say, the Autumn i would drag the table and chairs into different parts of the garden and do a Trial Run to find the spot you like best.

Food / Veg maybe? Additional benefits of Good Exercise, and better for your Table (provenance known, so easy to do "no chemicals" rather than "certified organic" which often isn't "none"), and flavour far better than Shop-bought ('coz it is Fresh and hasn't been travelling for two days and spent the week between shopping trips sat in your fridge ) ... and kinder to your wallet too.

If it needs to look good, rather than "rows of veg", a French-style Potager can achieve that.

 

Thanks for that. I will send a letter to the school about the ivy. It is continuous and every time I trim it, it is back in a week!

I like the veg idea, any idea of the best way to overhaul that bed on the right? It is full of grass and is overgrown, the hoe is going in easily and it is just a pain. Not sure of the best way to overhaul it?

I think the bare earth part is where I will put the patio. I get sun at the patio you can’t see in photos next to the back door in the evenings. So it would be nice for the morning sun. It’s is very uneven. Would I best to build up a container wall and back fill it?

sorry for all the questions, I have no clue on this haha!

 

Can you cover it? Plastic sheet would keep the light out (kill weeds, over time, and keep moisture in, you could plant through the plastic, in year one at least, if you are going to do that woven weed suppressing membrane, such as Mypex, would be best), Cardboard (old boxes) would do, but would need some covering - ideally Compost of some sort. That would be the basis of a No Dig strategy. I think Charles Dowding talks more than necessary for instruction, but that apart he is the expert :

I think you would be best off putting down hardcore for a patio and compacting that (e.g. hiring a wacker plate for the weekend). Decking would avoid that - i.e. mounted on a frame clear of any uneven surface

We had one of those at my parent's home. "Breakfast on the patio". Always way too cold to sit out that early ... or so i thought as a kid. We did it for doing it's sake But YMMV