Please! Help!
So, I am a complete newbie when it comes to gardening so please be kind
We recently moved to a LOVELY house with a lovely garden. Unfortunatley a mixture of two big dogs and the terrible weather, the garden is.... Well... A lost cause.
We have children too, and they can't play outside because of the state the garden is in. My office window looks right out to the garden, so I have to close my blinds all day because it makes me sick to look at!
I just need some advice on where to start? The whole thing was grass when we moved in, but we are not opposed to having some gravel or something, but would definitely want some grass for the children to play on.
With it coming to winter now, I'm not sure wether I'm to leave it and wait till the weather is better or start now?? Also, as you can probably tell, our house is CONSTANTLY covered in mud from when the dogs come in. I wipe their paws as best I can, but I worry about them being out there... It's not good for them either.
Please be kind, and reserve judgement. It's not like I went out there and ruined it myself! Just needing some help to fix this god awful mess.
LM
Posts
Also. the mess you see is from when the winds knocked the bins over
If you really want somewhere for the children to play and the dogs to run around perhaps a new lawn made up of a tough type of grass is the way forward. I would get advice about proper drainage for the lawn too.Hard landscaping could be incorporated into your design so you have somewhere to put a garden seat. Plants in pots are less likely to be dug up by dogs or trampled on by children. I will be interested in ideas from others and hope you get many replies. Good luck!
Oh bless you LittleMiki - that's a real mixture of dogs and wet weather but it's not a lost cause. We'll put our thinking caps on. I think one thing we need to think of is the need to keep the dogs to one area of the garden when they're out there on their own otherwise they'll wreak havoc. What sort of dogs are they?
And how old are your children and what sort of things do they like (or would they like) to do in the garden?
And have you got a figure that you can spend on this, or is it a case of 'as little as possible'?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I do agree with Dove you need to address the dog boundary first.
As a child growing up we always had a dog and my father used to put it on a dog run which is just a wire running from one area to another staked at each end.
Littlemiki I have four dogs and I have built a fence with a gate so I can control when the dogs run around the garden the area where they have now is patio slabs in fact I have just washed the dog area down. My grass looked very similar to yours when we had six dogs but old age has claimed the other two. As money was tight I used for the first year or two a simple chicken wire and tree stakes for my boundary which could be removed in the summer so my dogs could run around, I even had a step so I could still get into the garden to work on it
James
On Beachgrove this year they had a matting that you lay down and sow your grass seeds on the top this is for wheelchairs so their wheels don't get stuck may be you could use that by the way how big are your dogs. By looking at your lawn I would say the are about cow size LOL
James
since I've put the fence up my kitchen floor only needs washing once a week NOT twice a day
What is 'Beachgrove'? Several people have mentioned it on this forum.
Hi Forester2 - 'Beechgrove' is the Scottish equivalent of 'Gardeners' World' on TV - which has (only very recently) been made available to those of us living south of the border.
Have a look here: http://www.thebeechgrovegarden.com/the-program
It's off air until the New Year now, I believe.
hi
before you start you need to decide on what you want from your garden, play area ,dog pound, line drying for clothes,patio. I would suggest you contact your local college and see if they do a garden design course and ask if they can help if not they may be able to steer you to someone who can,By the way can i make this plea dog dodoos and children dont mix.
Thanks Constant Gardener - Beechgrove - looks like it will be BBC2 so I will look out for that in the New Year.