Front garden suggestions

Roen

Right.
I have two parts to my front garden. 1000sqm and 450sqm.
The front garden fronts on to a rural road. It sees moderate traffic so the 2 year old isn't allowed to play in the front.
The ride on is bolloxed. It's too much work to hook the robot mower up to look after the front large part. It's doable for the smaller piece.

So I'm done cutting an area that's f all use to anyone.

Soil type is heavy clay that's been compacted by years of the ride on cutting the lawn.
It doesn't drain well at all.

What grows well there is clover, thistle, plantain, creeping buttercup, dandelions and if I leave it get out of hand, bog cotton.

Been reading the wild flowers thread and am thinking of going with that idea. Maybe keeping a meter wide grass border around so I can wander about it.

Anyone any suggestions other than that? Sick of maintaining a lawn that gets walked on twice a year.

Cheers,
R.

Day Lewin

The thistles and dandelions are very inclined to spread, so remove their flower heads before they seed. Just pull off as you pass by, and bin them. Clover is grand, though.

If you have damp land, you have the option of many beautiful wild flowers: ragged-robin, spotted orchid, cuckooflower, meadowsweet...you may even have the seed stock in the soil already, given a chance.

Any chance you could borrow a few sheep to graze it from time to time?

How about installing a few bits of sculpture or large rocks, for added visual interest and that wild-Celtic look?

magicbastarder

if you've a 2 year old i suspect you're not inclined to dig a pond?

Roen

Cheers lads,

I think the wildflower thing might be the way to go. Be a fair bit of wasted effort if it looks like a dogs dinner, but it's relatively inexpensive to try.

I normally shy way from sculpture/features in a garden. Especially a front garden. Love the idea of having a personal bouldering gym though

RE: The pond, I had never thought of that to be honest. But as you say probably be a few years before I could safely attempt it.


Thanks again! All welcome suggestions.

Hedgelayer

It's easy enough, plant the likes of hebes, hypericum hidcotes, and rock rose's...

Few phormiums, dot dogwood's along the back of these....

You'll see a lot of these planted around factories etc because usually the soil is very clay and not much good for agriculture.
But as forementioned above, these shouldn't let you down, that's if you're looking for shrub's..

Also Malus golden hornets love clay soil and the red sentinel....

The golden hornets Will give you colour right up until Christmas, I like them...

Hence why developer's usually build factories and other industries on land where the farmers won't use much....or enhance with good soil etc

macraignil

I like a garden area to be productive so for me the best option for the area described would be trees and shrubs that produce fruit. Pear and apple trees have great flowers as well as nice fruit and many fruit shrubs are not that difficult to look after and if you are growing something you like to eat you save money as well as getting some pleasant exercise in picking the fruit. If you don't harvest some of the fruit it will often be utilised by wildlife and some of the hardier fruit trees that produce fruit you might not use yourself are ideal for providing food for birds and shelter. I would plant some cherry, elderflower, hawthorn and amelanchier for the flowers and berries for the birds, some pear for flowers and fruit for myself, apples for the flowers and fruit for myself, gooseberry, raspberry and red currants mostly for the fruit I'd use myself and some other shrubs just for their flowers such as Viburnum tinus, snowball shrub, ceanothus and hebe. I think wild flowers are a nice idea as well so would allow many of them grow away as well. The clover is really doing well in my own garden at the moment as is vetch and fox gloves and birds foot trefoil and evening primrose are just starting to flower. I'd be reluctant to rely on just wild flowers as I think it could be a lot of work to control the likes of brambles, thistles, nettles and doc leaves without some perennial plants to occupy some of the ground.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

macraignil wrote: »

I like a garden area to be productive so for me the best option for the area described would be trees and shrubs that produce fruit. Pear and apple trees have great flowers as well as nice fruit and many fruit shrubs are not that difficult to look after and if you are growing something you like to eat you save money as well as getting some pleasant exercise in picking the fruit. If you don't harvest some of the fruit it will often be utilised by wildlife and some of the hardier fruit trees that produce fruit you might not use yourself are ideal for providing food for birds and shelter. I would plant some cherry, elderflower, hawthorn and amelanchier for the flowers and berries for the birds, some pear for flowers and fruit for myself, apples for the flowers and fruit for myself, gooseberry, raspberry and red currants mostly for the fruit I'd use myself and some other shrubs just for their flowers such as Viburnum tinus, snowball shrub, ceanothus and hebe. I think wild flowers are a nice idea as well so would allow many of them grow away as well. The clover is really doing well in my own garden at the moment as is vetch and fox gloves and birds foot trefoil and evening primrose are just starting to flower. I'd be reluctant to rely on just wild flowers as I think it could be a lot of work to control the likes of brambles, thistles, nettles and doc leaves without some perennial plants to occupy some of the ground.

I have done similar with my orchard area. The wildflowers blanket the area. I leave much of the fruit as winter feed for the wildlife. Of the 8 blackcurrant bushes, for instance, I crop 4 and leave the blackbirds and others to feast on the rest,