Another New Build Garden

A question about : Another New Build Garden

Hi everyone

Sorry for another help thread, I have read through pages and pages of great advice all weekend however I am still at a loss for my retaining wall, which is what I want to concentrate on for planting, as it's in our eyeline from the car on approach to the house, the kitchen & dining room and bedroom windows.

We purchased this house and moved in just before Christmas, the garden is not touched, except what the builder has planted on top of the retaining wall.

I'll show you pictures then I'll explain - it might be easier and save me waffling on

Best answers:

• Sorry for some reason I couldnt finish the previous post
  https://s1219.photobucket.com/user/ya...House%20Garden
  I hope you will see these pictures, it'll make explaining things abit easier
  The top of the retaining wall is a path and road for the development, so privacy and security is key here. The rest of the wall is all about coverage as cheaply as possible without losing interest and colour
• You seem to have a number of shrubs there that will grow up to provide a hedge for privacy.
  I'd plant trailing plants like lobelias and other hanging basket type things in summer and maybe some shrubs in pots at the base of the wall to break it up a bit.
  How much time/ money are you wanting to spend?
• I'm mostly doing things by trial and error in ours, and have a little bit of experience of volunteering in an old walled garden.
  Don't know if you have aldi/ lidl/ wilkos in NI but they tend to have cheap stuff to try and see if it works.
  I would dig it over first and see how much builders' rubble you have in there. The kids may enjoy that as a worm hut etc. That will impact on some things
  (am happy to keep talking about this but find the gif in your avatar a bit dazzling with the flickering).
• You might want a couple of hand forks for kids to play.
  And definitely gloves. Try to get ones with leather palms for picking up rubble/ pulling nettles etc. I managed to get loads of nettle stings yesterday through cotton type gardening gloves :-(
  Things like mahonia are good shrubs- ever green, and have flowers very early in the year. Bit prickly though. But if you'd like to keep people out, useful! I wouldn't go for anything expensive yet until you see what goes well.
• (thanks for changing the avatar btw), much less distracting
• Thursday's special buys at Aldi include roses for Ј1.89, some unusual varieties amongst them. I'm hoping to get a couple of the Arthur Bell climbers. Also perennial geraniums.
• Most geraniums might be perennial but are not hardy so need bringing in each winter to protect them from frost. Don't think our garage was protected enough this winter as mine look very very sorry for themselves just now
• Feeling positive today - to (Bribe) get the kids on board and involved, aged 11 & 5, we went and looked at seeds and bulbs etc just to rouse the interest
  Or so I thought
  Purchased 1Peony bulb, says Sarah Bernhardt on it, will google later
  10 Gladioli, Prince Claus
  15 Persian Buttercups
  Pk of 50 seeds - Echinops globe thistle, Sweet pea grandiflora & Viola chicky chicks
  Went to Lidl on the hunt for some gardening gloves or tools, and purchased none of what I was looking but got 100 Lobelia, seed packs of bright hedging and fragrent flower border seed tapes.
  No idea what we're doing with it all but it certainly got the kids interested.
  Tomorrow I'm purchasing a Fork, and Rake for the larger work, but will let the kids get started with the seeds.
• Great idea to involve the kids from the start! Hope you all enjoy your new garden.
  By the way, when starting a new garden I found it useful to scrounge cuttings of perrenials and shrubs from family and friends and plant them in a small area near the house where I could keep an eye on them for watering and protecting from slugs and snails. They can be planted out when they've grown on a bit. I think friends and family are the best money saving resource for a gardener. There are packs of annual seeds which can be sown direct into the ground to fill in gaps while the permanent stuff gets going.
• I'd be wanting to find out how water was being drained from behind that long wall. There should have been "weepers" installed along the base, but then that water should be also be channelled away rather than making the ground around the patio wet.
  Looks like the builder has planted 'whips' for a privet hedge or similar.
• Have no idea about the wall - that retaining wall runs along 5 houses, I've only pictured ours but never thought to ask about it.
  The wall has been there 4 years, is there something I should be doing with it before addressing the soil and planting on it