How to make a garden?

[Aimee L]

We are trying to do the lower half of our garden in the next couple of weeks. Its a quite a large space for just a play area which is what we want to do with it. It's 26ft x 18ft.
The main purpose of the garden is an area for our one year old to play, so we cant have any sort of stones down there. we just want to make it look nice for as little money as possible.
The idea i have is to have a flower bed around the outside of the garden, which is wider at the corners and bark in the middle.
We just really dont know where to start. We have today got rid of all the weeds, so its just mud down there (more like clay really)
Can anybody tell me what my next move should be? Do i need some sort of membrane to cover it? how do i make a flower bed? If we get a shed can i put it on top of the bark?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Huge]

A shed has to be mounted on a firm base not on bark. The easiest way is to buy it with a wooden base that can be pegged into the ground then mount your shed on that. Alternatively lay paving slabs to mount it on. You have to achieve a firm level surface though for either so you need a spirit level, fork and spade and rake. For most sheds you get instructions on how the prepare a base but basically you want it on a well drained level surface, so for the wooden base put a gravel layer down before fixing it in place.
For the garden, my advice is to lay some turf rather than bark but if you must have bark then yes you need to buy black ground cover sheeting to cover the ground before you spread the bark and you need to buy enough to produce at least a 25-35mm thick covering. You also need some edging to keep the bark in place and stop it getting blown or kicked onto the flower beds.
Your first move is to clear and level the shed and garden areas. Your next is to go to a garden centre and order all the materials and get direct advice. To make good flower beds buy some screened top soil to improve the soil you have and compost too.