What to do with this area on a budget ?

[yekimevol]

I bought my flat a year ago and it came with a plot of land out the back and I'm in need of advice on what to do with the space which will make it useable on a budget but within minimal maintenance work as I work away a lot.

Decking, artificial grass would be expensive I would imagine, would gravel work?

 

[Sean Regan]

I bought my flat a year ago and it came with a plot of land out the back and I'm in need of advice on what to do with the space which will make it useable on a budget but within minimal maintenance work as I work away a lot.

Decking, artificial grass would be expensive I would imagine, would gravel work?

View attachment 53123

Hi and welcome.

re; BIB, when you find an answer, there's many of us "old stagers," who'd be interested in learning too!

To be honest there's nothing cheap in gardening.

Ex-corporation paving stones could be the cheapest, a lot councils are progressively changing to tarmac, from paving slabs, which cars parked with two wheels up on the pavement continually damage.

With gravel, you'd need the ground prepared and have a membrane, to prevent weeds, but you'll still get some.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Yes, nothing cheap in gardening, agree. Most likely the cheapest you can do in plants and with the most success is to focus on native plants, shrubs to your area. You might need a trip around for any cast off of building stuff, slabs etc. this will take time. If you wait till off season, lots of garden centers will price down greatly their inventory, some plants will look ragged, but with some nurturing, they would come back. Sometimes in the back of hardware stores you can find some useful materials, they want to toss. With a creative mind anything is possible. but it will still take time. come to think about it, there are some really cheap hostas out there that can grow huge, you just have to buy the plain type.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

It depends on what you want. I'm personally not a big fan of gravel or rock, as it tends to make things difficult in the future if you or someone else wants to remove it. A possible alternative would be to put down a weed control fabric and cover with woodchips. Woodchips are inexpensive, and sometimes free. Where I live, we can get free woodchips from the electric company. I'd suggest working on a plan to potentially include in some plants that are native to your area to help the pollinators and other wildlife in your area. Allow the plants to fill in nice and thick and they'll out-compete most weeds, especially after the first year or two. I'd recommend looking for native seed mixes, which would be the cheapest way of doing it, but keep in mind that you'll likely have to wait to spread the seeds in early winter because many seeds need to sit through a winter before they'll grow. Otherwise you could buy plants, but the cost would be more than buying a seed mix.

Here's an example of what you could do:

I have a North American native garden and I thoroughly enjoy it. This particular area in the photo below was the first to fill in, and when it did, maintenance became minimal. No watering, no fertilizing, no special care at all. Occasionally, a weed or two starts growing and I pull them. It does take a couple years for the plants to out-compete the weeds, but once they do it becomes significantly easier.

Meanwhile, surrounding my pond, I use the woodchips and weed control fabric method, and it really makes things easy. The occasional weed pops and and I pull it. I don't think I pull any more than 30 weeds a year, and usually it's right where the weed fabric stops.

 

[Doris]

my thought is put in a vegetable garden in the back and up toward the front you could put a fire pit in with a couple of lawn chairs relaxes and in joy your garden that will give you tomatoes corn or what every you would like to grow.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

If you would like some annual flowers, try Zinnias. Zinnias come in different heights and colors.

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forum @yekimevol
That is a very valuable space for you to use, so don't waste it. There are plenty of ways of gaining pleasure from a plot like that without it costing a fortune!
If you join your local ''freecycle'' site, you will be able to find all sorts of materials and equipment for nothing - things that others are wanting to find new homes for without disposing them at the tip! Second hand bricks, or broken paving slabs are useful for making pathways, walls, and seating areas. The soil needs to be freed of weeds - and a garden fork won't set you back too much money, and you never know, you might even find a bit of digging to be good therapy.

Plant some shrubs, and a small tree to sit under. Turn it into a little haven - somewhere to chill out whenever you get home.
Good luck.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum from me too.

Lots of useful suggestions already offered. The Wheelie bins are unsightly so a good place to start but really you've got a blank canvass to play with and it could prove very interesting indeed. Free woodchip is about the easiest and has already been suggested; you could remove everything that is already growing then turn the ground over and allow it to remain empty for a year. Next year remove any weeds that appear then as already suggested scatter native seed mix to create a small meadow which I've just done? Meadow flower seeds are cheap

https://www.meadowmania.co.uk/wild-flower-meadow/wild-flower-seed-mixes.htm

I scattered my meadowflower seeds a short while ago but it was breezy ending up with a bare strip of soil but I'm confident these meadow flowers will spread without help from me; yesterday I went around with an hoe removing seedlings in unwanted places.

Removing what is already there should be easy enough because it's not a big area then a bit of spadework will work wonders.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Kind regards, Colin.

This is my attempt at creating a small meadow to attract butterflies and bees; I can keep the area contained be hoeing. What prompted me to do this was whilst driving through a very rough council estate in Sheffield; lots of the houses had been demolished and meadow flowers in their place; the flowers looked absolutely delightful and were most unexpected in such an environment.