I am in a real quandry here!! I hate gardening (Gardening)

Member Name: Scooobydooo

Product:	Gardening
Date:	11/03/04 (488 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: no maintenance

Disadvantages: no grass, no plants, no mowing

The other whilst going my pictures, I came across the pictures of the house and gardens last year when we first moved in. Horrendous Jungle was an understatment. Let me describe it to you.

We have large lands to our house, it goes from around the front of the house, down the side next to the tarmac drive and about 40ft side on. The back garden is jungle warfare land. The last occupants had tried to stone the front garden and dumped the residue land in the back garden making minature hills everywhere. The dogs love it, I hate it.

So lets start with the front garden, it is cut out like two sqaures on top of each interlinked by the corners. The the borders are about 5ft all around with stones that they tried to do but did not put a liner down and grass and weeds are abundant. This was driving me absolutely crackers and the grass was around 4ft and the bushes were falling over onto the wall and brushing against whoever is walking past on the pavement. They are really nice bushes but look stupid in the middle of the border with noting else there.

I have 4 dogs and 3 cats and security is paramount. We have a fenced off garden within the garden and that is theres to play and poop in. This is what we refer to as the mountain garden as it is hilly due to previous tenants dumping. This has got to be dog friendly as it is literally their dumping ground and play area. It is around 40ft in length and 15ft and runs and meets the end of the house to the drive. It has to be able to be cleaned daily so we need a water tap outside so any poop can be cleaned and packed away. It has to be relaxing, so I was wondering if any of you who have dogs, create a poo area and how did you do it. I am thinking about sectioning a part of the garden off and filling it with sand. After all I do not wanted them pooing on stones. This would be easy to get up and would act like a giant litter tray.

The other option is concrete slab the back completly but I do not li
ke grey concrete. Another idea is to slab it and give it a bit of colour by using multi coloured stone chips therefore it would break up the garden slabs. I would like pots in the garden and a table and chairs out ready for summer and with careful planning we could all be happy. This enclosed mountain garden has a 6ft fence all around so the dogs cannot get out of it.

Back to the front of the garden, one of the easiest soloutions would be to keep the grass but unfortunatley I hate anything to do with gardening and want a garden that will look after itself. I could just put soil all around the borders and this would neaten it up and would really be very easy to do, but I also suffer from hayfever and the mere thought of my husband using the lawn mower makes him feel ill.

I am not one to potter around the garden but do like a hanging basket at the front, it looks nice for a couple of weeks but in the end it normally dies as I cannot be bothered watering the damn thing every night.

One of the other options is to rake all the stones that are on the border out of the way and kill everything that is green and lay a cover and stone the lot, which sounds really appealing. I love the colour green so I could go for coloured stone. I thought of plonking a stone in the middle with a nice bird bath in the middle, but then the other side of me thinks that the cat will make this his favourtie place to hang out for birds, although he is not that much in the front garden as he is quite keen on watching the neighbours koi carp at the back. although I love stones and the convience of it, i am worried the local kids will lean over the wall and pick up the stones and throw them at our windows or our neighbours.

The side part of the garden is half tarmaced and halfed grassed. This will be killed off and stoned, but what stones do I get, are a certain stone better than another or is it only for cosmetic reasons that we like coloured stones. I would l
ike to do something with the side as it is plain and boring but have not come to a decision yet.

This has to be done by the end of April and we have set a budget of £1,000 to complete all the gardens and get it ready in time for summer.

I want a veg patch at the bottom as I like my own fruit and veg but how do I stop the pets ruining it all. should I fence it off again.

I am not a garden person and these are some of my ideas for my garden, My mum and my brother have the most beautiful gardens one could wish for.

I laugh at them and say well my garden is a wildlife sanctuary and at this they normally fall of the back of the settee and say get it done, you have been there 6 months now. Ok so I did attempt at mowing the other day and brought the mower through the house and dropped it all over my beige carpet.

i want a garden that is quick and easy to clean and that I never have to hold a lawnmower ever again. As for planting plants and the sort, forget it. I will leave that to my mum and brother who spends hours and hours pottering around. I will never understand this as what is the point of mowing when the damn thing grows back twice as fast.!

Any other ideas and tips will be useful from you all

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