Garden service
Garden makeover across North Yorkshire and County Durham, from overgrown to back in shape
Garden makeover and garden renovation across North Yorkshire and County Durham: clearance, levels and soil repair, rebuilt borders and a lawn brought back.
Garden renovation
A garden renovation is a sequence, and the order of it matters more than the effort. The ground is cleared first, because nothing can be judged or set out until it can be seen. Then the levels, the drainage and the soil are put right, and only after that does planting go back in.
Clearance means brambles, scrub, self seeded saplings, dead shrubs and anything that has grown into a tree. On a badly overgrown plot that is heavy vegetation work, and it goes to Ross Webster Tree Services, who take the stumps out as they go: tree removal, crown reductions, stump grinding and storm work. Their contact details are on their own site, and the garden work that follows is ours.
Some things in an overgrown garden are worth keeping, and keeping them costs nothing: a mature shrub that has been in the right place for twenty years, a tree that gives the garden its height, a path under the moss. Those are marked out before anything is cut and the clearance works around them. Getting that order wrong is how good plants get lost in a rescue.
Be realistic about the time it takes. A garden neglected for a decade takes a season rather than a weekend, and part of it cannot be hurried, because soil recovers at its own speed and a lawn that has been smothered needs a year to knit. The first visit is the slowest, since cutting, clearing and carting away take longer than anything that follows.
Garden transformation
Cutting back years of growth exposes what was underneath: a broken path, a level that does not work with the house, a drain buried under the shrubbery, soil compacted to the point where water sits on it. Better to find those before replanting than after. So the middle of a garden transformation is levels, drainage and edges, the least visible part of the job and the part that decides whether it lasts.
Light is the other thing clearance changes, and it is often the reason the garden was abandoned in the first place. With the overgrowth down, a canopy above may be the real problem: thinning or lifting it is garden tree pruning, and taking a tree out is tree surgery, which belongs to Ross Webster. The tree blocking light page covers that decision.
Drainage is decided at the same time. Ground falls away from the house, water from a higher garden is intercepted before it arrives, and a low corner either takes a soakaway or is planted with something that tolerates wet feet. None of it shows when the job is finished, which is exactly why it is worth doing first.
A garden that has been dark for years also dries out slowly, and the soil under years of shrub cover can be sour and waterlogged. It is worth forking that ground over and letting the air into it long before anything is replanted.
Only then does planting go back in, spaced for the size the plants will reach in five years rather than the size that fills the border on day one. A garden that looks full on the day the work finishes is overcrowded by the third summer.
Garden planting
Planting a garden back in is where the shape of the borders is settled for good. Borders work when they are wide enough. A metre wide either side of a lawn looks generous the day it is planted and thin two years later, because the plants grow into the middle. Depth front to back gives room to layer tall plants, mid plants and ground cover rather than squeezing everything into one line.
The shape carries weight too. A straight border is more demanding than a curve, because every gap and every straggly plant shows along it, so a straight edge needs a stronger and more repeated scheme. The soil is repaired before anything goes in: organic matter worked through, drainage sorted where it is needed, and a mulch after planting.
Structure goes in before colour. Evergreens, a clipped hedge line and shrubs with winter stems give the garden something to hold on to when the herbaceous plants have died back, and they are still there when the perennials need lifting and dividing. Where a shrub has been taken out, the roots are grubbed out and the hole is refilled with fresh soil, because a stump left to regrow makes the next five years worse.
Lawn care
The lawn is usually the last part of a makeover to come right. After clearance and replanting the ground may be uneven, compacted or full of weed, so it can need levelling, reseeding or returfing before it is worth cutting. Levelling is best done while the ground is soft, before any seed goes down.
In the first season after a makeover the lawn wants a light touch: cut high, keep it fed and watered, and stay off it while it knits. Weed and moss return where the ground is compacted or shaded, so the causes are worth dealing with rather than treating the growth.
Seed or turf depends on the season and on how the lawn is used. Early autumn is the best window for seed, while the ground is still warm and the rain is reliable, and the new grass can be cut before winter. Turf knits faster and can go down through most of the year while the ground is workable, which suits a lawn that has to be walked on.
Ground that looks bare at the end of the job comes back. Give the grass a season, and let the garden settle before you judge it.
Tree surgery, handled locally
Tree surgery is handled by Ross Webster Tree Services
This page covers the garden side of tree work: planting, pruning and aftercare. Tree removal, crown reductions, stump grinding, emergency and storm work, tree surveys, ash dieback and commercial contracts are carried out by Ross Webster Tree Services.
- Tree removal
- Crown reductions
- Stump grinding
- Emergency and storm work
- Tree surveys
- Ash dieback
- Commercial contracts
They work across the same ground as this practice, and their contact details are on their site.
Ross Webster Tree ServicesQuestions about garden makeover
- How long does a garden makeover take?
- A garden that has been left for years takes a season rather than a weekend. Clearance and levels are quick by comparison. Soil recovers at its own speed, and a lawn that has been smothered needs a year to knit. Planting done at the right spacing looks thin in the first summer and full by the third.
- Where does a garden makeover start?
- Clearance. Nothing can be judged, set out or planted until the ground can be seen, and the levels, the drainage and the soil are the jobs after that. Planting comes last, because planting over a problem only hides it for a season.
- Do you clear the overgrowth and take the stumps out?
- The heavy clearance is work for Ross Webster Tree Services: brambles, scrub, self seeded saplings, anything that has grown into a tree, and the stumps that come with it. They work the same ground and take enquiries through their own site. The garden work that follows is ours.
- What drives the cost of a garden makeover?
- How overgrown the plot is, how much has to come out, whether the levels and the drainage need rebuilding, how much soil has to be brought in, and how much planting is done at once. Staging the work over two or three seasons spreads it.
- Will the garden look bare when the clearance is done?
- For a while, yes. Ground that has been under scrub for years can be bare and full of weed at the same time. Planting goes in at the spacing the plants need in five years rather than the spacing that fills the border today, and a mulch closes the soil while the garden settles.
- Which areas do you cover for a garden makeover?
- North Yorkshire and County Durham: York, Harrogate, Ripon, Richmond, Durham, Darlington, Bishop Auckland and the villages around them. Most of our makeovers begin with a garden makeover near me search, so the first two questions are always the same: how far does the firm travel, and will the same people do the clearance and the planting.
- How do I find a firm for a job this size?
- Plenty of names come back for garden makeover near me, and the ones worth talking to will visit before quoting. Ask what happens to the material that comes out, who carries out the tree work, and whether the firm that clears the ground is the firm that plants it.
Tell us about the garden
Send a few details and we will come back with the next step for the garden.