Advice or ideas on narrow garden landscaping, partitioning and dealing with a raised patio

@Plantminded thanks, I have actually ordered a bamboo already. A 3.5m tall Phyllostachys Nigra from a garden centre. Its being delivered next week.

I know the Fargesia are definitely clump forming and the Nigra are running, but there was mixed information on the aggressiveness in UK clay soils, with some sites saying it is far less aggressive here.

I'm initially going to plant it within a large plastic bucket, which will allow me to easily move it if I need to.

 

@Dan1981 I have had Phyllostachys nigra for over a decade on my clay, pebbly and rocky soil, fairly good drainage and it's about 1 m by 1 m which it's easily kept to by removing any runners with a sharp spade or secateurs. I've cut a couple of chunks off for friends over the year.

 

This is the image that chatgpt generates when I try to feed it with my existing garden photos and some ideas for what I want.




Chatgpt doesn't seem to understand that Im looking down on my garden from my patio, not up. That highlights how much more aesthetic it is to look up from a sunken patio than to look down from above.

It also doesn't understand when I ask it to make one side of the trellis smaller. Again that highlights how AI image generation prefers the symmetry, because that is what it has 'learned' looks best.

Note how full of plants, shrubs and trees the garden is though. I don't mind having a long narrow garden if I can get it to look like this.

 

Personally - I wouldn't have something of those dimensions @Dan1981 . Your steps are quite long and they're narrow, and if you add that size of construction to the screening you put in, it'll be very enclosed and could be quite claustrophobic. It'll also look a bit odd on it's own unless you add a climber, but that could also make everything seem hemmed in.
An 'arch' would be ok, if it was just a simple, single style. A post each side, at the bottom of the steps, with a nice horizontal. Less oppressive for such a small opening.
The pic you're showing does have one side of the trellis lower. However, it also shows a large bed on each side, which you don't have, and couldn't have unless you remove some of that main patio area. That also makes a difference to how it looks, because it makes the whole area more open and in proportion.
As it stands, you'd have screening coming right across from your side boundaries to the steps, at around 6 feet, and you'd need something in place for the return back to the top of the steps, to make that drop safer. That could be lower, like a typical handrail, or you could do another freestanding raised bed on each side.
The pic is also the other way round from your garden. It's looking up to the garden from a lower area. You'd be looking down to the garden from the higher level - ie the patio, so that pic's not the view you'd have of the garden area.

 

My battens are approx. 1 inch apart @Dan1981 . I use a piece of batten as a spacer which is the easiest way to do it once you get the first one in, using a spirit level to make sure they're going to be accurate vertically. It's easier to make small adjustments if it's just a run of screening rather than a fixed space like my pergola sides.
When it comes to planting any areas, you have to be realistic about sizes and how quickly they establish and grow. You say you've been there three years - that's nothing in terms of planting shrubs/trees or anything woody that's eventually going to be a couple of metres or more eventually.
The most important thing before you plant anything is the prep. That means researching the plants themselves to make sure they'll suit your location, your climate and your conditions. Then, you make sure the ground itself, or the growing medium if it's a pot/container or raised bed [as that's also different from growing in the ground] is properly amended/prepped to give the plants the best chance of success.
There's no point trying to grow something that needs consistently moist conditions if you have light sandy soil and you get long periods of drought. The opposite also applies - plants that like very sharp drainage and much hotter, drier conditions won't be happy in year round cooler, damper conditions.
There's a limit to what many plants will adjust to, but there are plenty which are very adaptable, so it's best to stick with easier shrubs to get the initial structure in place, and then experiment at a later date. The eventual sizes of anything also affects the amount of sun/shade, so it's often necessary to change things too, as time goes on. That's how a garden is - it always needs some tweaking and altering.

 

Another thing to keep in mind on sizes, most plant sizes are quoted at height & spread in 10 years. This gives an indication of how fast it will grow, not necessarily what the ultimate size will be. This may not seem important at first but you can be taken by surprise at how fast time goes and just how big some plants will get, even different cultivars of the same plant type.

 

@lizzie27 in the pictures of the privacy screen, it looks like you have additional vertical supports mid span, but these are not full size posts like at the ends of each segment. Are these just freestanding on the slabs to stop the slats bowing?

@Allotment Boy yep agree on the plants, I don't mind if things grow as long as I can prune them back. It will be years before anything gets high enough to need big limbs chopping off.

I understand, but it looks like Ive had 3 wasted years. I need to flood the garden with plants, because if I don't, I'll be in the same position in another 3 years time.

I completely agree - that's what I want to do. Basic shrubs, and lots of them, to fill out my space. That's what I should have done 3 years ago.


Regarding my trellis/screening design. That chatgpt picture gave a rough idea but the dimensions of it were nowhere near what I will have in real life. Im thinking of altering the steps to make them less long, and so a bit more steep. I also am going to demolish 2 courses of brickwork on the left side retaining wall to make it the same height as the right side.

Im torn on the trellis/screening though. Im considering the following options:

1. No arch over the steps, 6x6 trellis/screen on the right side blocking the worst of the view.

2. Symmetrical trellis/screen, both on the right side and the left side. No arch.

3. Arch in the middle, with full height trellis/screening to both sides. This will the most claustrophobic.

4. Arch in the middle. Far left and far right, full height trellis, but immediately either side of the arch have the trellis half height.

 

Hi Dan, yes the middle verticals are the same battens and fixed to the horizontals to stop these from bowing. They're about 2-3 ft apart I think, it's raining hard so I can't check at the moment.
They are just resting on the paving slabs although I wish I'd asked for a small gap as I think they will rot quicker. They are treated battens however so should be okay.

Personally I'd go for your first option. You can always add a left hand trellis later if you change your mind. I'm not sure about an arch over those steps and I wouldn't make them steeper either as that could be dangerous, especially when carrying a full washing basket up or down.

I think your ideas are beginning to consolidate nicely. Have a look at shrubs like Choisya Ternata, Sambucas 'Black Lace', Buddelia 'Lochinch', shrubby Potentillas, Lonicera fragantissima (winter flowering honeysuckle, good for early bees) or more camellias perhaps if your soil is on the acid side.

 

If you want to change those steps - for heaven's sake don't make them shorter and steeper! The best thing you can do with them is make them wider. If you're taking part of the wall away anyway - take a couple of feet away and then those steps will be much more attractive, and you can do whatever you want in terms of screening and they'll look more in proportion, and the whole area will be less oppresssive and claustrophobic. An arch would also be more attractive if they were wider.
You could even have them on an angle across that corner, with a simple, lower handrail/screen, combined with a raised bed to match the other corner if you wanted, or on it's own. That would then make the patio area less symmetrical, and would offer a different view of the plot, and also give options for some pots to sit on them for seasonal colour and interest.
Wider, shallower steps are always better. Steep, narrow ones are horrible as well as dangerous.

 

Finally cleared all the bricks away so I can take a better picture.

This is a crude drawing of a trellis on one side. Im not overly keen on this, it just looks wrong being only on one side I think?

 

What do you think of something like this?

 

I like that idea @Dan1981 but would suggest reducing the height slightly of the two outside panels and making the two inner panels. The difference in height between the two levels being too extreme in my opinion. Could you also show it in a different colour, maybe a grey/blue to match the topping on the steps maybe, to see what that would look like?

I don't know how to draw stuff like that online but wish I could!

 

Thanks. I only used a photo and MS paint on the computer to draw on some rectangles. That's about the limit of my skills.

Id like to go the full 6ft height on the outer sides, but I could split the width into thirds for each side, so I have a tall on the outside, a medium in the centre and a lower panel on the inside.

Also re the colour I'd prefer not to paint it, I prefer the colour of natural treated wood. I'm going to clad the boundary fences in brown treated feather edge as well.

 

Here's the design split into three heights.

 

I think that looks better Dan but do you like it?

I prefer natural wood as well, we never paint our fences - too lazy!