Distinctly Pedestrian Garden Overhall

A year ago, if you’d have said to me that I would be ripping out cottage garden perennials, and replacing them with ‘low maintenance shrubs’ I would have laughed in your face or broken down in tears.

 

But, after a soul-destroying, non-stop summer watching the weeds grow and the perennials die, I succumbed and did the ‘sensible’ thing – created a front garden that may have a chance of staying tidy (we don’t have a back garden).

I have this bohemian hang-up that it’s OK to have a messy garden as long as it is pretty – plants not staked properly, but rustically spilling over each other in a riot of colour etc… However, it is not pretty or tidy when those perennials are choked by bindweed and other weeds, starved of nutrients and dying of thirst, because you don’t have time to a) weed or b) water. It is just a bit sad.

So, I spent the weekend setting up a garden that looks smart, if not riveting. I dug the borders, removing the cottage garden perennials, which will be temporarily re-homed in a spare patch at my parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took my credit card to the local garden centre, and came away with some shrubs - nothing exciting but selected so they at least contrast in leaf shape, texture or colour. Most are evergreen, because I will be relying on them to form the main structure/interest in this otherwise featureless garden. I came away with Cotinus ‘Grace’; Escallonia; Choysia Ternata ‘Sundance’ (two either side of the gate so the scent catches you as you walk past in the spring); Ecuba Japonica and Euonymous, a Dogwood and a Weigela. I can’t say I love them –they are the sort of shrubs you find in a carpark in Swindon (apart from the Cotinus – I have always loved them). However, they will do the job. If I really can’t live without colour, the perennials can be planted back in the summer, in-between the shrubs.

I tackled the raised beds in between us and our neighbour –which had gotten overgrown with tough ivy and weeds, and replanted with lavender, for summer colour and generally good weed control.

I then tackled the lawn. A long tenancy with a huge dog before us had left bare, scorched patches, there was a moss issue and vast swathes covered in weeds.
 

 

I dug out the worst weed patches, and firmed/raked the topsoil to form a seedbed. I raked all of the moss out of the lawn with a spring rake – my poor abdominals! And lastly, after a good soaking with the hose, I re-seeded with a tough grass seed mix.
 

 

It looks terrible now, I appreciate. But give it a fortnight, and there should be a carpet of fresh green shoots. A nice, neat lawn with sharp edges, weed free beds with nicely shaped shrubs and the finishing touch…my lovely box planters (a birthday present). If nothing else, it will be sharp and easy on the eye and most importantly I won’t want to die of shame every time I enter the house.