We have a bit of unused garden space. We've no idea what to do with it because there's too much soil to allow lawn mowers to work. We have a few ideas: A. put down some planks/bricks to make a sort of raised flower bed? But how do I secure the planks so the weight of wet soil will not move it? What plants to plant? low maintenance is number 1 concern. B. remove the soil to do grass. How to remove soil without a wheel barrow or even access to the garden? I don't want to carry dirt through the house. (only way to access garden) My wife and I have zero gardening experience, I only know how to do lawn mowing any help are much appreciated.
Herbs. They're low maintenance and useful for cooking. Everything tastes better with fresh herbs. Start with rosemary, mint, chives and thyme. All easy growing, nice and useful. And parsley is always good to have in abundance. Basil is a bit more of a challenge in this climate, but also good. Put them in WIDE pots, so they have plenty of room to grow, and bury those pots in the soil. Scatter between them with small gravel or wood chips --slugs hate them. Easy-peasy.
Heavy duty refuse sacks to shift excess mud through the house. It's what I did with no spillage.... Fork it all over, get that stump out best you can (maybe worth asking a pro to do that), remove the excess, level it out, rake it over daily for a week, apply grass seed. I have no skills in gardening either but turning it over and laying grass is (surprisingly) easy. Edit: herbs are a damn fine idea for a space like that. You'll still have excess mud to shift but bags work like a charm.
Dare I say... brocolli? if you've got an excess of soil, could always go for a rock garden, and plant alpine plants or succulents/cacti?
I'm doing quotations for cutting down the tree next to the house and separately how much to grind down tree stumps. But budget is tight this year, so we may just live with the stumps. Good idea! I'll propose it to the "boss". We've already removed about 5 flower-pot sized soil to the local recycling centre, the level doesn't seem to go down. To me, it feels easier to add than remove? Rock garden never occurred to me, I'll have a read up on this.
Removing soil? Madness! Another vote for herbs here, you could even just turn it into a mixed bed of thymes, there're so many beautiful varieties, coriander's another easy to grow one. Broccoli, great! And asparagus, and potato, those are pretty much two fire and forget crops. For your stump, drill a load of holes, and bash it with a mallet and chisel, and like magic you have a mini raised bed, if you make it deep enough throw in some ericaceous compost and an azalea! Other low, non invasive, flowering plants are available. Either runner beans for a crop, or sweet peas for pretty flowers up your trellises? Rock garden's, properly done are gorgeous. However, I got a bit of stick in a crit once for proposing one in a city plot - instant cat toilet.
I thought this is a type of rock garden (random rocks piled together to make "art"): A zen garden like that would drive me crazy! Fallen leaves or any dirt from the patio will be really obvious. To me, the whole purpose of not doing 100% paving is to have area where I can sweep/jetwash the dirt on my paving to the grass. Slightly new idea: grass everywhere else, and put raised flowerbed here, dump excess soil in it:
I would consider removing excess soil and do some decking for a nice barbecue area. Maybe rig up a hammock for some serious garden lounging
Grass in a small area is a real pain in the butt to cut which is why i don't have any grass in my garden. If you want to plant it up without removing soil gently slope the soil to the wall & plant some herbaceous ground cover plants along the front.After a short time the soil will firm up & not slip onto you paving. Perennial geraniums(geraniun Johnson's blue or wargrave's pink are two very good varieties) can cover the ground quickly & are very free flowering,though they they don't give much to look at in the winter.Try some Hellebore's for early colour (helleborus nigra) and they are evergreen.For some late summer colour try some rudbeckia Goldstrum. Just a few things for you to look at.If you have any idea of the sort of plants you want it would help If the site gets a good bit of sun you could have a nice display of colour with herbaceous plants and small shrubs.With a bit of care you can have plants of interest all year round. yours wecrookie edit: most herbaceous plants need cleaning up in the winter, by this i mean just cuting back the dead parts which could be just the flowers and/or foliage.Herbaceous plants will regrow every year in case your wondering
I'd second the "no grass" idea - too much hassle for a small space. Evergreen ground cover plants are your best bet - things like London Pride, thyme and the like. If the bed is damp, perhaps something like Gunnera magellanica is also an option - it's small, evergreen and spreads well. Intersperse your ground cover plants with something larger - a couple of small shrubs or a succession of bulbs - something to stop the space looking too boring. If you want to build a raised bed, drive posts into the corners of the plot and fasten your boards to that. Use pressure treated boards and you might want to put some kind of waterproof barrier on the bottom of the boards to stop them rotting too quickly.
A wee herb garden would be most suitable. Mint can grow like a weed though, so make sure it's potted. Sam
Thank you both very much for your tips. First, we are going to get the tree next to the house removed, and remove the tree stump if they can get the grinding machine in the garden. We'll then order evergeen groundcover plants and some herbs in the middle. Any good places to order those long lasting groundcover plants? BnQ, Homebase are mostly one season flowers.
Palms as you look like you have a garden that would suit it. But I'm quite bias; I like gardens to be like some kind of sanctuary that make you feel like you are on holiday.
You have spare space in a garden in Central London? **** you. Jokes aside, i'd say rock/herb garden - I particularly like the cinder-block versions... you can add in lights/candle holders or whatever.
If you are going to grow herbs you must take steps to make sure the mint is confined and can't escape, otherwise it will spread and take over, swamping other plants.
