Restore my front garden

jenny.spoor

Hi all, I don’t have a huge amount of gardening experience so please be gentle!

I bought a house last year that was effectively a building site for 6 months. The builders used the front garden as an extension of the site, with rubble over it for most of the time.

They’ve taken that away but needless to say it’s just bare earth now.

does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can save this? It was just a lawn with borders before which I’d like to reinstate. But I’m sure it’s not as easy as creating the borders and sprinkling grass seed?! 

Any thoughts, tips or suggestions would be really helpful!

Jenny

josusa47

Hi Jenny, welcome to the Forum!  There are a few basics things you need to know about your garden.  First, the compass orientation, which will determine how much sun it gets and during which part of the day.  Your soil type: clay, which can get waterlogged in winter and baked hard in summer; sandy, which is very free-draining; or loam, which is in between.  Take a handful of damp soil and mould it into a ball.  If it holds its shape, it's clay; if you can mould a ball but it falls apart, it's loam; if you can't mould it, it's sandy.  How acid/alkaline is it on the pH scale? You can buy a testing kit for about a tenner, or your neighbours might be able to tell you.  All of these factors will determine which plants are likely to thrive.  Next, think about what you want from the garden?  A low-maintenance but pretty space to relax with a G&T, a play space for children and/or pets, do you want to grow stuff you can eat?