The people I bought my house from extended it into the garden, but the ground was uneven and instead of filling in the hole they just put decking over it. They didn’t seal it right so it’s started rotting, plus I need to have some work done on my drains that’ll require it to be taken up anyway so I’m taking the opportunity to get it filled in.
My initial thought was to just put gravel or something over the whole thing, but I’m now looking into a low maintenance wildflower lawn, something we can put chairs on and hang out in but is nicer and more biodiversity friendly than a standard lawn, but I don’t really know anything about what would be involved. I also don’t have loads of money to spend on it, so cheaper options would be good. Though I think I’d have to buy turf rather than grow from seed as the local cats have a habit of digging up any soil left bare. It’s pretty small so I don’t have loads of space to work with, plus as you can see from the picture I’ve previously attempted a standard lawn that didn’t really work out
The garden is south facing and becomes a real heat trap in the summer (I’m in the south west of the UK). The main things I’m looking into are what kinds of plants would work well and what would be the best stuff to fill in the hole with (there should be a load of soil left over from the drain work but I’m thinking I’ll probably need rubble/stones or something underneath).
Does anyone have any thoughts or tips about this project? Anything I should consider before starting?There’s a good chance I’ll end up getting help from a professional but it would be good to have some idea of the options going into it!
by MrCrystalMighty
2 Comments
This sub is constantly recommending white clover and for once it may be the right call because it’s actually native in the UK! I’d seek advice at r/UKGardening
For deterring cats, it’s a small area so chicken wire held down by bricks will likely do the job.
Picture shows a small garden of a terrace house facing the house, the garden is about half covered with decking on the corner in front of and to the left of the house and the rest has paining stones around the edge with a patch of soil with weeds in the middle. There is a lot of random garden junk and two somewhat hidden cats
My location is SW England, I don’t know the hardiness zone