Newbie from Prescot, Merseyside

hello everybody - I'm a complete novice when it comes to all things that require 'green-fngers'.

I've taken the tenancy of a Housing Association flat with a small front garden and medium sized rear garden.

When I moved in, I noticed how badly overgrown the garden had become during the previous tenancy - to the extent that I couldn't even enter it or use the side portion where the washing line was situated. After 6 months of arguing, begging, pleading 'they' have had a local firm come to clear the garden which has left me with a much bigger area that I first realised ...................... beginning to wonder why on earth I bothered .

I am now embarking on a 'gardening journey' without a map of where it will lead me ........................ and I'm sure that I'll be back to ask for opinions and ideas of what to do with the things that I'm left with - badly behaved beech hedging / straggly privets / lilac tree stumps / lots of 'lurking brambles' in the hedging / shady patch below a very tall evergreen tree / hidden ivy runners that spring up from everywhere .

I am slowly acquiring gardening tools but I don't have much money, so unwilling to spend on anything that's unnecessary - this evening I've collected a chipper/shredder from a guy on Ebay for £25! I thought that was the best way of reducing the mountain of 'stuff' that I've taken off the privet and beech hedges - the 'garden waste guys' are gonna love me next time they collect!

What I hate about my garden - the ivy runners / prickly brambles / the pigeons that are stealing my lawn seed . Anybody for pigeon pie
What I love about my garden - the row of bluebells that I discovered hiding below the privet hedge . speak again soon - olliebeak

 

Wow, what a challenge. Pictures required, of course! I, too, got a shredder off eBay. I used my shreddings to make a path through a wide bed of shrubs. Looked great and saved filling my bin And saved on money for bark. Best kept away from lawns though. Maybe you can make a compost heap or two for the soft annual weeds, waste not, want not! Using old pallets is traditional, I believe....

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

Hi there and welcome to GC.

 

Welcome

 

As long as it leads you back to us Olliebeak I am sure you will get lots of advice and tips from the GC members.

 

Hello there and Welcome.

 

for all your welcomes. It's been soooooo hot this week, that I've hardly touched the garden at all - apart from trying to 'tame' an overgrown Privet Hedge into submission. Next door flats are both empty, so I've had to temporarily commandeer their Garden Waste Bin as mine were all full to overflowing .

I'm trying to work out how to post pics on here, and will put up some before/afters as soon as I've fathomed it out .

Hehehe - think I've 'cracked it'.

I'm not sure that this is the right place in the forum for the rest of this post. I'm editing it to start another thread ............................

 

that looks a really nice space, plenty of potential.

 

Hard work!
Is the Hope and Anchor still going in Prescot?

 

Thank you pamsdish and Palustris - yes it IS quite a good size space, though irregular shape - could be 'interesting' to plan a layout .

I want to make it so that it can 'almost look after itself' as I don't have good access to a power point OR water source - upstairs flat, no downstairs tap, no water butt .

Palustris - yes, the Hope and Anchor is still going strong - though quite a few local pubs have closed down. That's where I had my 21st (May 1972) - when my mum worked there.

 

lol at Fred Barker - I used to have a b/f whose nickname was 'Fred'. As for those darn pigeons, I'm considering ............... - not really, but a well-aimed 'water pistol' would perhaps do the job .

 

Hello and welcome.

With no access to a power point from the garden, how will you mow your new grass once it grows?

You can get very compact, lightweight push along mowers. This is the first page I found when googling 'hand powered lawn mower': http://www.mowermagic.co.uk/acatalog/Hand_Mowers.html

I have no idea how good they are or how easy/hard they are to use because I've never used one, but its something to think about.

As for seeding the lawn in the first place, I can't see the pigeons taking enough to really cause a problem, but if they are, maybe stick a few kid's windmills in the ground. It wont entirely stop them but birds get wary of the constant movement and flickering they create.

 

Mind I am going back 45 years to when I was living in Prescot, well just up the road at the College which is no longer there.