Small rocky-weedy garden

Ghetofarmulous

Hello I have just moved into a rented house and it has a small garden Aprox. 15 x 5 meters.

The Ground from what I can tell has lots of rock/old laid ground and is some parts what looks like slate. This is all buried under about 4 inches of useless gritty soil. Weeds have started to take hold.

Im wondering what my best option is to achieve a tidy garden, Just grass. Someone told me to lay cardboard over the entire area and put some top soil onto it? Any comment on this?

I have no access from the rear so I will be carting soil through the house. Is now a good time to do this in prep for spring?

Thanks in advance

looksee

I would not be in too much of a rush to spend money on topsoil for a rented house. Give it a while to see is everything working out. In the meantime, it does not sound as though there is any drainage problems even though there could be a fairly solid layer of rock a few inches down. How level is it? Does it have rocks on the surface? You could try just mowing the weeds and see is it tidy looking.

Even if you have, say, a tiled hallway and a straight route through, bringing wheelbarrows of soil through the house is going to be a very dirty business. You might do better to buy a few prepack bales of farm manure and compost to improve the soil a bit. Some photos would help, but you do not have enough posts to put them up.

Ghetofarmulous

looksee wrote: »

I would not be in too much of a rush to spend money on topsoil for a rented house. Give it a while to see is everything working out. In the meantime, it does not sound as though there is any drainage problems even though there could be a fairly solid layer of rock a few inches down. How level is it? Does it have rocks on the surface? You could try just mowing the weeds and see is it tidy looking.

Even if you have, say, a tiled hallway and a straight route through, bringing wheelbarrows of soil through the house is going to be a very dirty business. You might do better to buy a few prepack bales of farm manure and compost to improve the soil a bit. Some photos would help, but you do not have enough posts to put them up.

Hi thanks for the reply.

I will be staying here for a while and I would like to make the garden neat enough to enjoy.

The house itself is quite old. The dividing walls between neighbouring gardens and the back wall is rough stone with cement support. I suspect that the garden had a hard standing structure at some point but its hard to be sure.

The surface is smooth and quite level. No drainage problems. In some areas there is what feels like a slate layer about 3 inches deep. Other areas there are rocks and gritty soil. Not great at all.

I like the idea of using pre-packed bales to line the garden. I have attempted to dig the garden but its very tough due to the inconsistent nature of rocks and concrete.

When I get enough posts I will get some photos up and document my progress over the winter. I think it is not too late to lay some soil and seed for next spring.

Sgt Pepper 64

Ghetofarmulous wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply.

I will be staying here for a while and I would like to make the garden neat enough to enjoy.

The house itself is quite old. The dividing walls between neighbouring gardens and the back wall is rough stone with cement support. I suspect that the garden had a hard standing structure at some point but its hard to be sure.

The surface is smooth and quite level. No drainage problems. In some areas there is what feels like a slate layer about 3 inches deep. Other areas there are rocks and gritty soil. Not great at all.

I like the idea of using pre-packed bales to line the garden. I have attempted to dig the garden but its very tough due to the inconsistent nature of rocks and concrete.

When I get enough posts I will get some photos up and document my progress over the winter. I think it is not too late to lay some soil and seed for next spring.

Theres nothing for it Im afraid but to dig out but you dont have to go very deep. Grass will grow in an inch of soil, so I would advise dividing the garden up into sections using string and then go over it one section at a time, that way you wont feel overwhelmed. Remove what you can and then you buy quite cheaply black weed control fabric from woodies. This will kill all the weeds. Then you can either sow grass seed or cut holes in the fabric and plant plants and use chipped bark to cover up the rest. This will immediately make it look nice

its not to late at all and now is a good time to plant bare rooted cheap plants

macraignil

Rather than digging the entire back garden to make it all suitable for lawn it might be worth considering growing some plants in containers to make the area nicer. There is the advantage that you could take the containers with plants with you if you do move address. It sounds like a lot of work to set a lawn if you would have to bring topsoil etc. through the house. Would it be practical to simply put planting containers over the spots where the soil is very poor. There are lots of crops that can do well in containers including strawberries, tomatoes and cooking herbs. The slate could be good for the ends of the containers to make sure they are well drained.

strandroad

Hard to say without any pictures but would a thyme/sedum lawn be an option? You can sow/plant creeping thyme and it will cover the ground well, it's easier to maintain than grass with no cutting required. Thyme is fairly tolerant and if you mix up some bags of compost with the rocky soil it might be just fine. You could intersperse it with sedums for a more intricate effect. You'd be getting something like this:
http://agardenforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSC01088resized.jpg

Ghetofarmulous

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

I would advise dividing the garden up into sections using string and then go over it one section at a time, that way you wont feel overwhelmed. Remove what you can and then you buy quite cheaply black weed control fabric from woodies. This will kill all the weeds. plants

macraignil wrote: »

Rather than digging the entire back garden to make it all suitable for lawn it might be worth considering growing some plants in containers to make the area nicer. Would it be practical to simply put planting containers over the spots where the soil is very poor. There are lots of crops that can do well in containers including strawberries, tomatoes and cooking herbs. The slate could be good for the ends of the containers to make sure they are well drained.

mhge wrote: »

Hard to say without any pictures but would a thyme/sedum lawn be an option? You can sow/plant creeping thyme and it will cover the ground well, it's easier to maintain than grass with no cutting required. Thyme is fairly tolerant and if you mix up some bags of compost with the rocky soil it might be just fine. You could intersperse it with sedums for a more intricate effect. You'd be getting something like this:
http://agardenforall.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSC01088resized.jpg

Thank you all for the great suggestions. I have been reading them tonight and I think I will take all of your suggestions and incorporate a mixinto the garden.

I google Mapped the house I am in and it shows the garden and house before the recent renovations which I had not seen. There was a huge shed that took up most of the garden. Given that there is hard standing under the shallow existing layer of muck I think the options you have given me are the easiest, cheapest and cost efficient. Especially if I am to move away again.

Weeding the garden will be the slowest but in fairness its not that bad.

I just realized that I can post pictures so I will get some up tomorrow when it is light.