Landscaping and planting advice please!

menuisier

Hi,

This will be my second second year trying my hand at gardening. Started a bit late into the summer last year as i was fixing up the garden and putting in raised beds but still had great fun.

I'm still putting the finished touches to the back of my garden and i was hoping to get some advice.

at the end of my garden i have a patch that is just bare earth and i want to put something down on it to make it a bit nicer.

I was thinking about using bark chippings but after reading about it they sound messy and attached bugs.

Next i though about putting down a membrane and gravel or flag stones with grass around them or gravel like this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grass+and+stone&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIE783IE783&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVy-KOsdrgAhVAVBUIHR15B-UQ_AUIDigB&biw=1194&bih=644

https://www.google.com/search?q=flagstone+and+gravel&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIE783IE783&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTh8DIt9rgAhWpQxUIHTF7BxMQ_AUIDigB&biw=1194&bih=644

this is the current state of affairs
https://imageshack.us/i/pn3AjEOEj
https://imageshack.us/i/poXXiASxj

it kind of flat but still a bit of a slope.

also i was hopping of growing tomatoes ideally plum to make pizza sauce (i would be interested in hearing about anything else that climbs and grows well)

if i put tomato grow bag on the shelves of the wall and something for them to grow onto should i expect them to do alright? That wall gets the most sun of anywhere in the garden BTW.
https://imageshack.us/i/plGMbnSHj

these are my raised beds i put down last year.
https://imageshack.us/i/pmVmWAXVj

i was thinking of putting mostly salads in them as i have a few other spots for herbs. I was also thinking about putting a trellis on the right hand side of the the bed on the right and grow more tomato or something similar.


any advice or other options i'm not thinking of for either questions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

macraignil

menuisier wrote: »

Hi,

This will be my second second year trying my hand at gardening. Started a bit late into the summer last year as i was fixing up the garden and putting in raised beds but still had great fun.

I'm still putting the finished touches to the back of my garden and i was hoping to get some advice.

at the end of my garden i have a patch that is just bare earth and i want to put something down on it to make it a bit nicer.

I was thinking about using bark chippings but after reading about it they sound messy and attached bugs.

Next i though about putting down a membrane and gravel or flag stones with grass around them or gravel like this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grass+and+stone&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIE783IE783&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVy-KOsdrgAhVAVBUIHR15B-UQ_AUIDigB&biw=1194&bih=644

https://www.google.com/search?q=flagstone+and+gravel&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIE783IE783&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTh8DIt9rgAhWpQxUIHTF7BxMQ_AUIDigB&biw=1194&bih=644

this is the current state of affairs
https://imageshack.us/i/pn3AjEOEj
https://imageshack.us/i/poXXiASxj

it kind of flat but still a bit of a slope.

also i was hopping of growing tomatoes ideally plum to make pizza sauce (i would be interested in hearing about anything else that climbs and grows well)

if i put tomato grow bag on the shelves of the wall and something for them to grow onto should i expect them to do alright? That wall gets the most sun of anywhere in the garden BTW.
https://imageshack.us/i/plGMbnSHj

these are my raised beds i put down last year.
https://imageshack.us/i/pmVmWAXVj

i was thinking of putting mostly salads in them as i have a few other spots for herbs. I was also thinking about putting a trellis on the right hand side of the the bed on the right and grow more tomato or something similar.


any advice or other options i'm not thinking of for either questions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Bark mulch can be messy but combining gravel and grass might be worse. Gravel and mower blades do not react well when you are mowing the lawn so if you are going to use gravel think how you will control the length of the grass and keep the gravel where it is supposed to stay. It depends to some extent what traffic might be going through the area but running children or pets may spread the gravel into grass where it may get in the way of your mower. The flag stones with the gravel in the links look nice but remember that you will need to remove weeds that start to grow in the gravel. It would be great if you could get thyme or chamomile growing in the gravel between the flag stones but I have no experience of trying this so not sure how much work would be involved. The plants already in the gravel in theory should leave less space for weeds to start sprouting. There are low growing types of campanula that might also be useful in this situation.


The tomato plants on the shelf might be inclined to dry out which is not good for tomatoes so some sort of drip feed irrigation system might be needed. I'd also paint the wall white to reflect light and brighten the place up before getting any climber growing there. Most climbers need access to the ground to do well as their roots do not appreciate drying out. If the wind is coming from the wrong direction they may not even get much water from the rain when so close to a wall.


Peas and beans are good strong climbing vegetable crops and runner beans are particularly vigorous if you like eating them (as they crop best when picked regularly) and don't mind them getting fairly tall and shading other crops.


Looks like you did a nice job with those raised beds.

menuisier

Thanks for your message. Painting the wall to make the area brighter is a great idea never crossed my mind, I'll look into that. just a coat or two or white outdoor paint?

The real driver behind the putting in a floor would be stop dirt and muck and unsightly weeds. I really like the idea of Thype growing in the stones as i love the smell but I might look into that a bit more down the road. If i put down a weed proof membrane i wouldnt have an issue with weeds coming through would it? The ground isnt perfectly flat so i might have an issue with the flagstones cracking.

That is disappointing to hear about growing the tomatoes on the shelve. i was planning on setting up an irrigation system this year but i've no experience in making one.

I have read or was told that tomatoes didnt need a lot of soil and thats why i thought grow bags on the shelve would work well. I've also been reading that tomatoes give off a smell and some people love it and some hate it, is the smell very noticeable?
I'm not mad on pea's and beans but it might be good to have one or two different plants but tomatoes would be preferable.

thanks about the bed. got a good price on 8 foot sleeps in woodies so just had to cut a couple in half and we had a couple of 4 foot by 8 foot beds.

macraignil

menuisier wrote: »

Thanks for your message. Painting the wall to make the area brighter is a great idea never crossed my mind, I'll look into that. just a coat or two or white outdoor paint?

The real driver behind the putting in a floor would be stop dirt and muck and unsightly weeds. I really like the idea of Thype growing in the stones as i love the smell but I might look into that a bit more down the road. If i put down a weed proof membrane i wouldnt have an issue with weeds coming through would it? The ground isnt perfectly flat so i might have an issue with the flagstones cracking.

That is disappointing to hear about growing the tomatoes on the shelve. i was planning on setting up an irrigation system this year but i've no experience in making one.

I have read or was told that tomatoes didnt need a lot of soil and thats why i thought grow bags on the shelve would work well. I've also been reading that tomatoes give off a smell and some people love it and some hate it, is the smell very noticeable?
I'm not mad on pea's and beans but it might be good to have one or two different plants but tomatoes would be preferable.

thanks about the bed. got a good price on 8 foot sleeps in woodies so just had to cut a couple in half and we had a couple of 4 foot by 8 foot beds.

The weeds probably would not grow through the membrane but if there is gravel on top some will be able to just grow in that. They should still be easy enough to deal with as the membrane will restrict the roots and they would often be slower growing because of the lower level of nutrients in the gravel compared to normal soil. The ground under flags or paving slabs should be evened out so there are no dips or hollows but an even gentle slope is often advised to help avoid water settling on the paving. The slope should not be towards your house in case heavy rain would be channeled in to your house.

Tomatoes will grow fine in grow bags but they can't be allowed dry out. I would notice the smell of tomatoes alright but don't find it objectionable and kind of like the smell as I associate it with getting nice tomatoes to eat. Here is a link to the amazon search for drip irrigation systems you can buy as I would reckon they could be complicated to make yourself. Only really seen them working in professional tomato growing and no experience with them myself.

If you don't like peas and beans why bother growing them. There are a number of different varieties of tomatoes to try with the smaller ones being a bit easier to get a crop from in Irish summers which are too short for the really big types. If you want a healthy climber for a more long term crop maybe a grape vine might be worth trying but they only start cropping well when they get older and probably would do better in soil. I just posted a video clip of one I got growing about 5 years ago and I have been getting harvests of over 10kg each autumn of grapes for the last few years.

menuisier

So I'm in the process of putting these down they are used for carparks and high traffic area's. I got them in Goodwins. I'm going to cover the whole area in the picture with them. I'm kind of wing it but I like the way they will give my BBQ area a solid feel.
I can put gravel or grass seed into them but I was thinking of doing a checkerboard or at least a few different panels. I might do a mix of gravel, grass and or creeping herbs. Does anyone have any experience in growing creeping herbs on the ground like that?

I should say I would like the creeping herbs to be low maintenance and perennial I wouldn't want any dead squares...



https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/1910/TNfW7d.jpg