Advice needed - new garden

TheBigGreen

The mounts of topsoil has been spread out around the site, I need to sort it out and get it into decent condition for seeding.

I’m looking for advice how to start it and methods and equipment.

Any links/videos?

Picture attached. (Won’t upload for me, will try tomorrow)

Thanks

macraignil

TheBigGreen wrote: »

The mounts of topsoil has been spread out around the site, I need to sort it out and get it into decent condition for seeding.

I’m looking for advice how to start it and methods and equipment.

Any links/videos?

Picture attached. (Won’t upload for me, will try tomorrow)

Thanks

It is a good idea to make a drawing of your garden area before starting to get an idea how you want to plant things around it and what space you would like to allocate for different uses. You talk about seeding so I am guessing you are intent on planting a lawn which is a good start to keep weeds from getting established and can be changed to other uses over time without much difficulty. I used a rake and a garden fork and a wheelbarrow to get the larger stones out of the lawn surface and used these stones to mark out areas for other uses. If you are not quick off the mark getting your ground prepared and seeded it will start sprouting new growth anyway. In my own garden this turned out to be mostly grass so that was not a problem. You are not in the right season for planting bare root trees but you should consider this in autumn as they definitely will add something to the garden. I'd also recommend planting some shrubs that will provide flowers for pollinators and there is a list of plants good for this in this link.


I posted some videos of getting started with my own garden about five years back and some videos on the development of the westside of the garden where there is the main area in view from the living room is available at this link.


Make sure to post any more specific questions here as well as most sensible questions seem to get a good response form what I have seen so far.
Good luck!

TheBigGreen

Pictures attached

TheBigGreen

macraignil wrote: »

It is a good idea to make a drawing of your garden area before starting to get an idea how you want to plant things around it and what space you would like to allocate for different uses. You talk about seeding so I am guessing you are intent on planting a lawn which is a good start to keep weeds from getting established and can be changed to other uses over time without much difficulty. I used a rake and a garden fork and a wheelbarrow to get the larger stones out of the lawn surface and used these stones to mark out areas for other uses. If you are not quick off the mark getting your ground prepared and seeded it will start sprouting new growth anyway. In my own garden this turned out to be mostly grass so that was not a problem. You are not in the right season for planting bare root trees but you should consider this in autumn as they definitely will add something to the garden. I'd also recommend planting some shrubs that will provide flowers for pollinators and there is a list of plants good for this in this link.


I posted some videos of getting started with my own garden about five years back and some videos on the development of the westside of the garden where there is the main area in view from the living room is available at this link.


Make sure to post any more specific questions here as well as most sensible questions seem to get a good response form what I have seen so far.
Good luck!

Thanks for the reply macraignil.

I have a plan sketched out which I gave to our builder to outline the garden, spread out the mounts of topsoil and where to put the hard core. I know where I want to plant bare root trees and daffodils in October.

It's turning of the topsoil I'm not sure of (never did gardening before). The smaller size stones, do I push them into the ground?

macraignil

TheBigGreen wrote: »

Thanks for the reply macraignil.

I have a plan sketched out which I gave to our builder to outline the garden, spread out the mounts of topsoil and where to put the hard core. I know where I want to plant bare root trees and daffodils in October.

It's turning of the topsoil I'm not sure of (never did gardening before). The smaller size stones, do I push them into the ground?

Looks to be very good topsoil with not much stones. If you do find the odd stone it can be pushed down and you can rake topsoil over the top if you find that easier than picking the stones out.

looksee

Nice plot! put in some nice clumps of trees (not straight lines) as soon as you can, and give it a framework.

TheBigGreen

Going to start to tackle the garden on Thursday. What do I do with the small stones in the pictures below?

IMG-7356

IMG-7355

looksee

Nothing with most of them, the bigger ones should be collected. If you rake the surface (not into the soil) the ones that are small enough to leave will be missed by the rake, only those too big to rake are too big to leave.