grass free garden conversion(Work in progress)
Phillip55
Posts: 21
Finally given up on moss fighting and dug up the lawn. Of course the heavens had to open up spectacularly while doing it......
Picked up some stone cheaply on ebay to put in a few feature stone beds...
Next job, make some nice borders and paths using remainder of stones and made up some wooden planter boxes...
Added some bark chippings to brighten up the paths.....
Installed paths to side borders with willow sticks and bark
Added a nice seating area with chippings to rest and admire my handywork.....those stones are heavy!!
added a spot for feature pot and a clothes drying area. Many thanks to platters slate of haslingdon for the many bags of free waste slate chippings...amazing the amount of free or next to free items if you look hard enough.
Added a central border, herb planting area and wooden raised veggy bed. Made up a few pergolas for the ouside paths for my climbing roses...
Burnt out 6 masonary bits fixing these in place....what the hell is indian stone made from!!!
Next step, order the compost to fill everything up.
now for the donkey work! Wheelbarrow 4 one tonne bags of compost from front to back /groan
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and then I can get on with planning out our planting design. Open to critisism (constructive) and ideas from all you experienced gardeners here. This is my 1st try at designing and building a garden from scratch. Please feel free to leave ideas for plants and shrubs that would look great in this design....have a few ideas but feel free to chip in
Phil&Sue
so all done....barbeque area gravelled. Roll on spring! So....watcha think?
What a transformation from the muddy patch at the top of the page. It must've been back breaking, shifting all that stone. I like your seating area, the perfect spot to sit back, relax and enjoy your newly designed space. Looking forward to seeing your planting this summer.
Well done Phil & Sue?
Last edited: 10 February 2017 12:52:06
Looks fantastic, well done on sourcing free materials too!
I would add some height in planting, grasses which suit your soil condition? maybe plant up the stone walls with alpines.
Wow that is an awful lot of hard work you have put into your garden. Keeping lawns in good condition isn't easy so your plan has worked well for you.
The pergolas are lovely and your roses will look beautiful covering them, bet you can't wait to get planting now. The little daffodils add a splash of colour a hint of things to come.
Well done, hope it isn't too long before you can sit and have a cuppa and admire your hard work. Spring is on its way. Thank you for sharing
wow!!! legend!
amazing work dude!! Really really well done!! Must have been srs graft!
Wow Phillip it looks amazing and bet you are really excited to plant up
plant suggestion wise I would plot some evergreens and then fill the rest with what ever you love.
What style of plants do you like? What aspect is your garden?
Its a SE facing aspect so doesn't do too bad for sun. Pics taken when I used to have a green lawn that was actually only grass. Since digging it up we have found the reason for it not thriving is the same as other people have posted about reasonably new builds.....its only a few inches of soil and the rest is just building rubble/waste and clay left over from building the house. Wont be getting rid of the greenhouse its only a year old. We love growing tomatoes and veggies in it, same with the cloches. Its not really a shed you can see its a small wooden greenhouse and we use it to grow on seeds. We already have large borders to each side of the garden as the pics show so are not stuck for growing room. Nothing like growing your own fruit and veg. Its cheaper in Tesco etc I know but its just not the same! The existing borders have 3 apple trees a plum tree, cherry tree, along with raspberry, blueberry and blackcurrant bushes. Also alpines, evergreens, peonies, hostas etc. What I would really enjoy is a theme of naturalness. I.e not geometrical, sterile patterned but natural, flowing oasis that looks like it grew all by itself. Not a wildflower garden.....you need really poor soil for a good wildflower garden and mine is too rich for that.Something that will have some colour in all seasons. So yes definitely some evergreens and grasses (love the way grasses sway and sing in the wind). I have bought myself a copy of RHS Encyclopedia of plants & flowers to study. Amazing piece of work and am sure it will help me chose the right plants for the right place. That doesn't let you guys/gals off the hook though. Perhaps someone could start a new thread with pics of your own gardens and we could "borrow" some ideas from you all. We would be honored if you "borrowed" some of ours too!
p.s if you look at the pic of the right hand border and enlarge it a little see if you can spot our cat "Jessie" (for obv reasons when you find her) enjoying the last fading rays of the summer sun.
Last edited: 12 February 2017 00:30:30
Just in case you couldnt spot her here she is!
Hi Phillip
i have a black and white Jessie too but mine is a boy
Jessie James in full 
we have garden gallery threads for 2015 2016 and new one started for this year too.
please can someone add the links for Phillip please as I do not know how to do!