garden in new housing estate

N

newhouse07

Guest
I have a samll garden with fencing on one side and a wall on the other. I woudl lke to put some plants in the garden. can anyone recommend any? It is only a new house and the grass has just grown, but the ground is so hard I cnat get a small spade into it.. cna anyone recommend if I should treat the soil first? Or what I can do to improve my garden..?
Thanks
 
Hi Newhouse07,
I moved into my house on Nov06. I still haven't figured out how I really want my garden to look so as a temp measure I have window boxes and a hanging basket full of petunas. Also on either side of the door I have 2 mimic half barrels full of pansys and various other 'bits' I found in the garden centre. It really brightens up the front of the house and for the novice gardener is ideal.
 
Last edited:
Hi newhouse

Congrats and hope you'll be v. happy in your new home.

If the ground is as hard as you say then I'm afraid the first thing you need to do is address that. It's probably severely compacted after the build and may be lacking in humus/quality top soil - giving you decent garden soil is not ususally a priority of builders and all sorts of build crap could be buried there - If you don't improve the soil structure, you'll find it very difficult if not impossible to grow anything successfully.
For this summer, you could concentrate on summer bedding in containers as per the previous poster and leave the soil improvement until the autumn. A good hard frost helps with breaking down turned over earth. I'd go on the gardening sites or get a couple of good books to help you with this. Best of luck.
 
I recently got a 'Red Robin' plant. Its very small now but with a bit of care & pruning they turn out fantastic
 
Good Luck with your new home and garden.
Eventually you will hire, buy, or borrow a rotavator ( or someone who can use one ) You will rip up all that soil and mix compost or Brown Gold in through it and reseed it.
In the meantime, paint the wall white, and if you have pillars in the fencing, paint them too. This will really brighten up the place, those grey walls are so awful considering that we have so many grey days. All plants do well against a white wall, esp. helpful if it is a north facing wall.
The painting will break your heart, but will be worth it. Slap that paint on any way you can, good and thick. You will be told to 'Seal it first" I didn't bother and five years later the walls are still fine.
If you want, get a few cavity blocks and build a ' wall ', one block high where you want to plant stuff for this summer, paint them, get a bit of cheap timber board somewhere, paint it, and put it on top of your little wall. Back fill this with compost, and start planting. It is not ideal but is the cheapest, quickest way to start enjoying your garden.
 
Wow, thanks for all the help. I wil definitely take these tips on baord. I think as the soil is so hard, I will have to rotavate it. But, in the meantime I cna look at doing at doign the other things mentioned.Thanks again.
 
I think you should use a primer on the walls first too. My sister did not and the walls soaked up her paint. It cost a fortune in paint and still it needs to be done again.
 
If you are close to Dublin, you could visit http://www.bloominthepark.com/ at the Phoenix Park. There are lots of plants, floral displays and show gardens. I'm sure that you would get plenty of help and information, as well that you might get some cheap plants as it is the last day of the show on Monday.
 
Maybe you should use the primer first, as it is a new wall. My walls were two years old when I did them. I didn't use any primer, I just lashed the paint on and they are still ok. I noticed my neighbours walls though and they always looked half painted. I used 4 x 10 litre buckets of paint, but it was a very big garden with 3 very long walls and 7 pillars. Maybe try a small bit first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top