Hello... I am new to the forums and hope I am posting in the right place. I just started renting a home and it is obvious that the garden areas have been unattended for years. I just started to dive into the first area in front of the home where I would like to put a flower garden featuring wave petunias. I have never seen weeds this big in my life! When I pull them out, I end up pulling for a foot or two. There are a lot of small, new weeds as well. There is ivy in it that I would like to keep, but it is completely intertwined with weeds. I might just be better off getting rid of everything, ivy included, and starting over. I feel like I will be pulling weeds forever and I am concerned they may just pop right back up. I should also add that I am completely new to gardening. I have always had an apartment before. I am very excited about getting into the dirt and putting the hard work in to end up with a beautiful garden. Please help with any tips on how I properly revamp this garden. I am renting, so I don't want to invest loads of money, nor do I have expensive machinery like a rototiller. I have included a photo so you can see what I am working with. Any tips you may provide would be tremendously appreciated by this gardening newbie with an overgrown mess.
Welcome to GardenStew gardennewb. :-D I'm afraid I can't see the photograph you said you had included in your post. Could you submit it again for us please? I'm sure there are many of our members who can advise you on what to do with your new garden and how to cope with the weeds.
Greetings Eileen and thank you! I think I got the photo uploaded correctly this time. Garden Area Before ( photo / image / picture from gardennewb's Garden )
Shoot, that isn't bad! Those weeds can be dug out with a "sharpshooter" which is a long, narrow shovel (not expensive, and a decent one will last a lifetime). If you have to pull/destroy some of the ivy, it will return, believe me! It should be removed from the house where it's crawling up the foundation. The ivy will get under the shingles or siding and cause trouble later. Even though you are renting, it won't take much effort to get the ivy off, and your landlord will thank you. Mix in something taller (zinnias, marigolds?) with your petunias. More color, different heights, and something will be in bloom all summer. The little white cap that is almost at ground level--is that a dryer vent cap? If so, and if hot air comes out of it, don't plant within 1' of it--the air will scorch the plants. You may want to put an extender on the downspout. Right now it empties into the flower bed, and with the loose soil you'll have, it could wash away some soil, or make a puddle which could drown some plants.
Don't that area discourage you, that's a piece of cake...I cleaned out much worse in my front and back yards with just a garden fork and my hand trowel. Some of what you have there, the really long 'weeds' you mentioned look like they might be St. Augustine grass...some do consider it a weed because it invades flower beds and sometimes the neighbors yard, but it is an expensive grass to begin with. It pulls up in long pieces but is easy enough to get out. Can you give us a closer photo of the plants on the right closest to the gutter downspout? From this distance they appear to be a flowering bulb and if so you should dig them up to be replanted in the bed when you are finished. The ivy needs to come out, lovely to look at but that appears to be trying to grow up under the house siding and can cause major problems if left uncontrolled. I cleaned out an area about 30' by 15' of Ivy a few years ago and I found the best way was to start pulling it and cutting it. The roots do come up pretty easy but you might need a hand trowel at times. The home owner would most likely much appreciate you getting rid of it before house repairs have to be done. You don't say where you live but if you are making that area mainly a Petunia bed, be sure they will survive longer than Spring in your area or you will have a lot of empty space when they die out later. Find some perennials that will grow in that area too (is that full sun, part sun, mostly shade or a combination?) Are you going to limit the flower bed to that area surrounded by the brick edging? I think it would be pretty to extend that bed using more bricks and making a curved edge to run along that other wall too.
From the looks of some of those 'weeds' you may have some daylilies. A closer picture will tell. Jerry
Is that a drier vent coming out of the foundation? Might not want to put plants directly in front of it. Closeup pictures might help identify any perennials that would give you a good start on a new garden. Jerry
Thank you very much for all of the tips and advice everyone... they are tremendously appreciated! I decided to just take a shovel to the entire area. I dug 8-10 inches deep and removed all of the weeds. I'm almost done weeding the entire bed, just one small patch left! At the end of the season, I will probably need to smother the area with a tarp or newspaper in preparation for next year. That is a dryer vent, so thank you for letting me know not to plant near it. I would not have known that. I will also need to extend the water spout out of the garden bed. It looks like the area only receives partial sun as it is shaded by the house until the early afternoon. I'm wondering if the petunias will hold up with only partial sun or if it would be best to go with impatiens, violas, begonias or something else that is better for only partial sun. The wave petunias were my dream, so I am a little disappointed by that. I left the ivy against the house today, but after reading your posts, I'm thinking I should get rid of it. Either that or pull it out from under the house and keep an eye on it. I like the idea of extending the area, but the house has so much gardening work to be done all around it, so I may have to wait on any extensions. I'll be pretty proud of myself as a gardening newbie if I can get the whole place up and running nicely. Here's another question. From what I gather, once I am done weeding, I need to add compost, then plant and then mulch. Is that correct? Thanks again everyone!
