Fed up with my front garden

kiehugh

Morning all,

I am fed up with my front garden.  I have attenpted to start a few times, I get 70% complete then do nothing for a few months.

I find myself at a cross roads.  I am either going to sell my house and as such I need to tidy up the front.  Or stay where I am and redo the whole drive way, it is in need of some repair.

The area used to be grassed and I removed this a few years ago, put down some membrane, bark and some nice plants.  However it is now in a state of repair.

The first thing that I need to do is clear the weeds and grass around the edges

A couple of challenges:
- I dont have any weeds growing through the membrane, but they do appear to grow in the bark.  Is there anything I can do to prevent this.
- My drive is on a slope so the bark appears to move towards the path over time.
- Fence needs replacing.
-  Edging needs replacing. In the first picture, you can see that there is a row of bricks between and the drive and garden area with extends 3-4" into the garden under the layer of the soil.  This means that putting the edging in is difficult.  I encountered a similar problem around the drain cover.

If I sell I need this to be an easy (due to my disability) and cost effective solution.  

My preference would be to work with what I have, clear the weeds and put in a nice edge.

I would also like to do something under the front window, my ideas was a few biggish pots the same colour as my front door, and to paint the electric cabinets the same.

Open to ideas....

 

bcpathome

If you are selling ,the buyers will do their own thing with the garden so I wouldn’t bother. What I would do , is buy one of those bin cupboards to tidy those away and take down the Christmas lights .That would give kerb appeal. Maybe a trough of coloured plants under the window ,but I’d leave the garden if it was me .

Fairygirl

Re the edging. If you take that stuff out, clear all the weeds that look like they've had weedkiller applied, and then get some simple brackets, and appropriate screws or bolts from a DIY store and attach them to the drive directly. You could then attach some heavy duty battening to the brackets to form a new retaining edge. Doesn't have to be very high. Paint the fence and the edging with a colour that matches your windows. That keeps it uniform. 
Lay bark in a thick layer, after giving any existing annual weeds a hoe. If there are perennial ones, a bit of carefully applied weedkiller will see them off.  The bark will keep the weeds at bay for a while. They will seed into bark from outside, but you do need to give them some attention, and re apply mulch every year or so as it breaks down  
I wouldn't do anything much apart from that, other than what @bcpathome suggests, especially those lights. To prospective buyers, it suggests that if you can't be bothered taking them down,  you might not have been bothered doing other things that might be more important. 
If you don't want to spend money on a bin store, try and locate them elsewhere, even if it's just for photos and for viewings.
A nice pot of something at the front door would be good, but I would just keep it tidy and uncluttered. That's more important than anything else when selling. 

B3

A neglected front garden might make the buyer wonder what else was neglected inside. I'd do the weeding and straighten up the edging.

Obelixx

It wouldn't take more than an hour or two to pull or fork out those weeds and that would already smarten it up.  Then clear away the rotting wooden edging and plant one pot of bright plants by the front door to disguise the leccy box.

Hide the bins, remove the fairy lights and it will all look so much tidier and cared for.  If you stay, you can do something more attractive to suit you but no point trying to anticipate potential buyer's tastes.

Weeds will always arrive on the wind or by bird droppings, just like dust falls in houses.  You have to do an occasional clean to keep it looking good.