What to do with our garden.

[littleT]

Like a post I've just seen, I too am planning on turning the majority of our front garden into a driveway. Parking on our street is becoming a real problem, and with our house being situated on a bend parking on the road is becoming an increased safety issue.

However we own a reasonably sized back garden that presently consists of a lots of muddy clay soil, with patches of wild grass and weed. It plays host to a variety of frogs, that tend to hide within the piles of rocks that were dug up from under the earth while levelling the majority of the garden last summer. I suspect that they retreet to the pond provided by a neighbouring garden each time I attempt to do anything out there. When I say attempt I mean attempt.

I haven't got the slightest clue what to do with it.

With having three children under the age of 10, we would like to create a safe environment for them to play, aswell as accomidating our 1year old dog that has merrily been digging holes randomly about the levelled area. I would like to keep our little slimy visitors, but it looks like the dog has other ideas.

We are clearly not gardeners and with us having a small budget and limited time we are finding ourselves neglecting what could be a very nice outdoor space. We have a blank canvas that will need a lot of work, but we will probably only be able to do in stages.

Firstly I'd like to know how to clear the lawn area of the garden from weeds and wild grass, in order to lay or seed a good hard wearing lawn for the kids to play on - It looks like I'm gonna have to fill in those holes again. And how to maintain a lawn - Yes I'm that much of an ameture(sp).
Secondly I'd like some ideas for createing a simple, easily maintainable habitat for the frogs and other wildlife at the bottom end of the garden, perhaps a water feature.
Thirdly - I know I'm asking a lot. I'd like some ideas on what sort of plants to use in the borders that will need little maintenance and will hopefully attract the wild life rather than repell it.

I'm all for green spaces but at the moment, ours is brown!!

[Mr Mag00]

i dont want to put you off and this a small reply due to time.
I think if you search this site you will finds lots of info on what to do for a green garden for both wildlife and people.
all i ask is you look at a semi water permeable driveway for the front garden so when it rains the water does not just rush off into the mains drainage and actually soaks away first. there are many ideas available both off the peg or self construct and some can look great.

good luck

mr mag00

[NigelT]

Hi

This time of the year is ideal to consider a new lawn. If you can clear the area of weeds or if you don't feel up to it get a non hazardous weed killer harmless to animals etc. personally I would clear the ground with a spade rather than any chemicals.

Dig over to a shallow depth - not a full spit (spade blade) and rake out till it is both level and fine grained.

Try and sketch out what you want to see on a bit of paper before you decide on the size of grass area and the location of a pond. Check the passage of the sun to make sure of the best aspect for everything. Time spent doing this will be awarded with a well planned garden which you will enjoy and be proud of.

You could either get a hard wearing turf which comes in rolls and roll them out making a bond similar to brickwork so the joints don't line up, or broadcast seed which you can get anywhere including most DIY stores. If you do seed, get a length of bamboo 1 metre long so you can work out where you have sown and how big the area was. GENTLY rake over water and protect with a pea net on bits of stick. Always add more seed than it says on the packet - most for the lawn some for the birds.

The lawn should germinate and come up well before any weeds have time to re-establish.

As you have a dog, why not fence off an area at the bottom of the garden where the dog can run riot without damaging and fouling the lawn? If you get some good quality pond liner you could set up a small pond and an adjacent bog garden so that your amphibean residents can share the garden.

If you look around on the web among the bird and butterfly sites, you can find suggested plants and shrubs that will attract wild life. Ice plant, buddlia, Echinposis among many others will add not only nectar for the visitors but colour and a framework to the garden.

Call in at the local garden centre and they will help with choices I have no doubt. Sometimes you can get cuttings and rooted stock from friends and family where theirs have outgrown their spot in the garden.

I hope the above is of some help and best of luck.

[nightshade]

Mr Magoo is right use airbrick style pierced pavers at the front not concrete,as these droughts seem to be here to stay,these will allow water into the soil thence the subsoil
and could prevent settlement of your dwellings foundations
They will also allow you to grow sedums and grasses so that youcan still have an attractive front garden
Think carefully about the lawn again with the dry weather you are likely to have only scorched grass Water feature if you bring it close to the house you will get a lot more pleasure from it watching birds bathe and all the other perks (especially if you can see it from the kitchen and lounge)plant trees at the further end (dependent on the sunshine hours) birch, rowan, appletrees(trees can be almost any size you need nowdays)check out the gardening forum for further ideas wildlife gardens can teach children many useful lessons that will apply to life
I expect you will recieve much more advice but lay out the pond with a hose,stand your trees in pots where they will dapple the light,plot where the sungoesaround the garden
live with it for a few days before planting look at other gardens exploit the best ideas plant perrennials and natural hedging have fun
my pond is in the Gallery somewhere

[NigelT]

As Mr. MagOO says use permiable paving. Grass reinforcement works to a certain extent as well as open wieve paving.
Personally as an architect, I am not really in favour of frontage parking as it detracts from the street scene but I understand the reasons. I live in Weston-super-Mare and the whole of the stone built main road frontages coming into town have been adapted to overall parking with all the garden walling being taken down which detracts from the street scene.

Try to vary the surface treatments by incorporating brick pavers, flags, setts and perhaps chippings or coloured macadam. break the area up in circles or interwoven patterns of squares if you can as this offers at least some softening of the surface treatment. These things turn a basic parking area into something very attractive. As others have said try and incorporate some planting if only around the sides.

[nightshade]

Nigel IT plants bring life into a garden.the gravels,chippings,macadams are dead
materials
Grass growing through twin tyre trackways(or as many pairs as you need) would leave the front as an attractive garden still. Think plants not architecture

[NigelT]

Replying to Nightshade's comments

Absolutely agree about plants - the more the merrier. As I said before, I am not in favour of frontage parking anyway. Give me green gardens. Urban areas need greening up, particularly the new built estates. The lack of soft landscape amongst dwellings gives such a hard look to the street scene even without our need to help with wildlife and air quality in our towns.

But if someone IS bent on hard landscaping, I believe it is better to change materials than to cover all in concrete or tar. So often I have seen great sheets of tarmac covering front gardens wall to wall and the sterile effect is aweful especially when a whole street carries out the same type of surfacing.

By involving shapes especially interlaced circles, there is greater chance of incorporating planting pockets and edge planting. As you say grasses such as Carex and many ground covering plants and small shrubs add to a garden without much maintenance. Bulbs look good and perenials also give lovely colour to an urban garden and contain many species that bring bees, butterflies and moths.

Front garden parking collectively increases the run off areas for rainfall which many don't consider. This causes problems for the drainage system and can add to local flooding if many cover their gardens with hard surfaces as, instead of the water going to ground as it does in a green garden, it is sent down the drains. This then passes down the sewers and increases the volume of water to be disposed of while reducing the water going into aquifers and therefore reduces the amount of water we all have from our taps. Water authorities are rightly pressing designers to reduce the amount of hard surfaces in urban areas because of this and especially in view of global warming.

Incidently, it is not acceptable for storm water to be put down a foul sewer nor to direct private storm water onto a road which many seem to not know when covering all their gardens over. Also if there is no drop kerb at the road edge, it is necessary to get approval from the highways to form a crossing and they are very particular about who does it and how its done.

I design gardens and general landscaping both privately and as part of my remit as a company architect to a small developer and find as much enjoyment in doing so as in designing homes. The design of the landscape is as important as the structures it accompanies. I would like to 'tree up' townscapes and place housing within a green environment.

It depends of course on the size of ones garden area anyway as to what may be done with it. If it is only the size of ones car there is very little to say except vertical planting or pots but even in such cases it is often possible to incorporate corner planting spots. If it is large then one can limit the parking to a single area.

[nightshade]

Good point about water run-off a proper soak away incorperated into any garden mods is a
must instead of making a stream across the road/footpath
Dig in a big rain water storage tank keep the water for your self!
LittleT,plan the work to avoid double handling of waste dispose of it before the pile becomes a chore keep all your stone it is always useful clear the ground first a level clean area makes planning easier avoid splitting the effort here endeth the waffle
do you have a sketch plan yet?

[littleT]

Nigel T - Thanks for the Lawn advise.

Thanks to all for the driveway advise. I have already mapped this one out on paper. Origionally we couldn't go ahead with doing it yet as drainage was a big issue, and now I think you've all given me some ideas to resolve that problem. As drainage comes from the top of the driveway on a downward slope towards the house we will still have to be careful in order to avoid subsidance. I don't remember if I mentioned that we have clay soil, but it's not great at absorbing the water, so a lot of rain water remains on the surface and takes a few days to dispurse(sp). There will still be a large amount of planting area as the additional drive will only be occupying about 1/3. With the dry stone wall(frogs love hiding in that too.) dividing the top from bottom The bottom will be mostly drive with a large shaded area(under the only tree we have) under the front window for a variety of pot plants and ornaments - I could even put a water feature here as there is enough space. At the top is enough area to park another large car, but we intend to keep some lawn and plant some small trees/hedges, lavender, a variety of rockery style plants and some flowers(the ones I had in my wedding bouquet). I've checked them all out and they're suitable for the soil type and for me as a beginner.

Again thanks for the advise and I'll keep you all posted on how things are going.

When I said large stones - I meant rocks - boulders - some too large for me to actually pick up. I intend to dig some smaller stones into the front though as they will help with some drainage and I'm certainly thinking of finding a way to store and use some of that rain water.

[NigelT]

Hi LittleT

If you have surface water problems running back to the house have a look at Aco drainage which is a slot type surface water system which you can place across areas such as doors etc. They have a web site so you can see the system.
There are alternative makes as well. A cheaper way is to use a gutter length and overlap paving slabs to the edge to create a similar detail but at an eighth of the cost.

Good luck with it all.