What to do with this garden?

Hi all,

New to the forum and I hope you can help this new gardener. We have recently moved into a new home and it has a lovely garden at the front I am currently repairing the grass which was unloved but I have no idea what to do with these drains in the middle of the lawn.
I cant now straight over them because they are raised, they just get in the way!

Also any other suggestions on what I can plant to give my garden a bit of year round colour would be appreciated.

Thanks
MrB

 

Welcome @MrB ! Can you tell us more about the garden soil and aspect? Have a dig somewhere and see if it is clay or sand, damp or dry. What direction does it face and is it shady or sunny?
As for the drains, I would suggest hiding them by standing a couple of nice pots on them filled with small shrubs or summer bedding (need to be able to move them!)

 

Hi @CarolineL . It is clay when I dig down. It is fairly damp, but that's not surprising being in Scotland!
It's a south facing garden so gets the sun all day.
Thanks, I have thought about pots but i thought it would look out of place with 2 random pots and not much else i the garden? I dont suppose you have examples?

 

You can actually get manhole covers which can be sown with grass seed, though the line of the frame still shows: Ecogrid covers.

On my patio I have a drain cover which is like a tray and the slabs are cut to infill that, so it fits in with the general pattern of those and isn't too noticeable.

Your garden gives on to the pavement, I see; do you want it to stay unfenced? I think I would be considering reducing/ reshaping the lawn to create an extra area of earth to plant in, or maybe finish with more of those slate chippings. That would let you introduce more plants, beside the pavement; if the area is to remain unfenced they would probably need to be quite tough ones! Low shrubs or ground cover plants could work well; the drain covers could be concealed under feature pots amongst those, as @CarolineL suggested.

 

Thanks @Clare G I will have a look I to those manhole covers.

I do like the idea of reducing the lawn and putting in shrubs/ground cover plants beside the pavement as I dont really want a fence. That would then make pot on the manholes less out of place.
Can you suggest any shrubs or ground cover?

Thank you

 

Hi @MrB goodness, if you're going to open up some soil, the world is your lobster! Small rhododendrons if your soil is acid (eg the yakushimanum ones with lovely furry young leaves and generous flowers), various euonymus if you want different foliage, hebes ...

 

Thanks Caroline. I guess I am just not very good at putting it all together and struggle imagining it.

 

Hi @MrB I would suggest reading online or using Pinterest to see what takes your fancy - though remember a lot of stuff might be from different climates. There is nothing wrong with seeing a plant in a garden centre, putting it somewhere, and then moving it if it doesn't work! While they are young, plants are easily shunted around. And if you go to garden centres at different times of the year, you will see what is looking good at that time - giving interest throughout the seasons.

 

Another thing you can do is just walk round your neighbourhood, to see what's doing well and looking good in other people's front gardens. I've often got ideas myself that way, people are usually happy to tell you what a particular plant is or if not I believe there are apps you can use to identify plants from a photo.