Does anyone know anything about gardening?

The white area shows the non-moving water, which is just sitting and building up. Eventually when it reaches a certain level it seems to flow down towards the terrace.

The actual concrete does seem to be slopped away from the building, but the grass is built up which seems to stop the water flowing away.

French drain. Remove 6 inches of concrete, dig a slit trench as deep as you can. Layer with a few inches of pebbles. Back full with earth and pebbles/rock plant dwarf varieties of hardy herbs.

pea shingle

Just to check, you mean on the left, or the top edge?

Wouldn't it be easier to dig soil rather than smash the concrete.

At some point we might be redoing the terrace, so I don't want to do too much work.

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Hugo,
This is more on for the DIY thread.
What is the problem with the water build up, with the rainwater we have been getting the water will always build up somewhere. If you put the drain in the grass it will tend to fill with soil and grass and then not drain so probably better to put in line with red rectangle but that means angle grinding a bit of the concrete. Is the water build up such a problem? I have a 9" angle grinder and diamond disk if you want to borrow.

What zebra said... In the red box. It's actually not a massive job, think it will be easier than you think. The only thing or won't solve is the puddling in the center of the concrete.

Cheers.

I don't know if it's a massive issue, but I don't like the build up touching the outside of the building wall - there looks to be a dark build up on the wall surface which looks I guess is due to water sitting there. Puddles on the rest of the concrete are fine.

We want to redo the terrace as it's a bit grim, but I guess I could just put the French drain in and then revisit the layout.

Also if anyone has any creative tips for improving the built up flower beds I'd be interested.

They're not to our style, but they are solid and well put together.

https://flic.kr/p/HruF6K

Cheers for the offer of the angle grinder - I might take you up on that.

does anyone own or know anyone that owns a rabbit ?
looking to get a regular supply of droppings for the compost pile

I've just got a carbon fork.

enve or spear and jackson

How stong are they? I've broken two forks easily in the last two years in stony ground.

right the comfrey brew i made
absolutely stinks, as i knew it would, but it really stinks
i think i'll just add the raw leaves to the compost heap in future rather than steeping

it has invaded the house, my skin, my shed in fact i think i might start getting complaints from the neighbours

maybe if it dries and start aerobic decay it might lessen the smell

Does it stink less if you don't break the surface? When I do the same for nettles it's benign until I have to use the liquid so I'm careful not to disturb it until I have to.

all the comfrey was well under the water with tiles / old terracotta pots on top to keep it down

some people say it should be aerated to stop the anaerobic decay , the smelly one

interesting experiment but until i have a few spare acres, i'll just chuck in the compost hopefully it'll decompose more subtly

Is there a tried and tested method of getting rid of dandelions from a lawn? Ideally not digging them all out at the roots because there are looooooads. My lawn is mostly dandelion at this point to be honest.

how big is the lawn ?
dig it over and re seed ?
get a fresh new lawn

Regular mowing will stop the broad leaves developing, the roots will run out of energy after a few years and the plant will die. Thing is, if you go on holiday or don't bother mowing one week, boom, they're back and recharging that root stock.

The solution to he holiday problem is Feed and Weed, the dandelions go black and look ugly for a while so do it just before you go on holiday and it should look nice for when you get back.

Dandelions:
remove 10 a day, as much root as possible,
never let one flower.

My compost bin is mostly comfrey and is non offensive. It's a good accelerator for compost too.

Who needs a green lawn anyway.

Feed and Weed sounds like the best option, I spend a lot of summer travelling with work so can't mow regularly. I've got 2 smallish lawns and would like to avoid digging them up if I can, purely because I'm lazy.

What to do here? I'm After some inspiration. With lack of time to garden and lack of gardening knowledge, I'm veering towards a maintenance-free(ish) option, however I really don't want to rule out a lawn.

We tore up the rotting decking and are left with an uneven tarmac surface with a drainage hole in the middle. Turf will require the tarmac to be dug up, right?

Before and After attached

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If you want to grow anything then the tarmac has to go. The raw space has good potential though.

Are you keeping that shed/garage/thing with the large hole near the roofline?