I hate my front garden... help please

Morning all,

I am fed up with my front garden. I have attenpted to start a few times, I get 70% complete then do nothing for a few months.

I find myself at a cross roads. I am either going to sell my house and as such I need to tidy up the front. Or stay where I am and redo the whole drive way, it is in need of some repair.

The area used to be grassed and I removed this a few years ago, put down some membrane, bark and some nice plants. However it is now in a state of repair.

The first thing that I need to do is clear the weeds and grass around the edges

A couple of challenges:
- I dont have any weeds growing through the membrane, but they do appear to grow in the bark. Is there anything I can do to prevent this.
- My drive is on a slope so the bark appears to move towards the path over time.
- Fence needs replacing.
- Edging needs replacing. In the first picture, you can see that there is a row of bricks between and the drive and garden area with extends 3-4" into the garden under the layer of the soil. This means that putting the edging in is difficult. I encountered a similar problem around the drain cover.

If I sell I need this to be an easy (due to my disability) and cost effective solution.

My preference would be to work with what I have, clear the weeds and put in a nice edge.

I would also like to do something under the front window, my ideas was a few biggish pots the same colour as my front door, and to paint the electric cabinets the same.

Open to ideas....

 

Those rolls of wooden edging are never much use - something a bit stronger beefier is needed there long-term, especially given the slope.

Would your budget stretch to getting someone in to replace the fence, if you need to (doesn't look too bad in the photos), and put in the edging? Railway sleepers or a dwarf wall would look good and retain the earth better.

If you need to DIY there are other kinds of stronger edging it would be easier to install yourself, e.g. concrete or recycled rubber.

Once you have got the bed stable, I would add in some nice flowering shrubs, and ground-cover plants. Less trouble to maintain and as they spread there will be less space for weeds to infiltrate.

I like your idea of the big pots near the house and painting the cabinets to match - should look good .

 

How about :

- replace the log edging with timber - it should be easy to frame the whole garden as it is square. I've used 150 x 22 timber and it looks good;

- get rid of the weed membrane and bark - the bark rots down - eventually looks tatty and weeds can grow in it. Replace with 10mm limestone gravel - no weed membrane - so add a good thick layer. Any weeds that do come through (there won't be many) can be hit with a weedkiller. Gravel is cheap and is simply barrowed on. You can level it off easily even if the ground is not level. It is heavy enough not to creep down a slope and in any case a timber frame will keep it neatly in place. You can still plant into it and it acts as a mulch;

- I'd be tempted to go for some tall evergreens against the fence to screen off the road/cars;

- for the front door - some terracotta pots with colourful annuals - you can grow the annuals from seed and change the colour scheme each year. Terracotta is more expensive but it look better than plastic and plants grow better in terracotta.

 

@Clare G has a good point, it might be worth considering to hire someone to do the boring and heavy bits and focus on the delights of designing and planting. It's a good investment and will support local economy- and to get it properly done will increase the house value and save a lot of fixing afterwards.

What's the light and moisture situation like @kiehugh ? Flowering, evergreen shrubs would make a nice base planting and any seasonal or favourite perennials could be tucked in between plus in the containers.

Gravel mulch is practical and looks stylish. Bark mulch rots in a couple of years and annual weeds root in it happily. Another possibility is dense evergreen groundcover planting, such as Vinca (Minor variegata is a delightful plant ) or creeping thyme. If the spot doesn't get much sun, evergreen ferns look graceful most of the year.

It's a nice blank canvas, I'm sure you will enjoy doing it up!