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

I've already said above that wooden steps can be open, without risers and slightly wider than the version in the photo and with chicken wire stapled on for grip. Grip strips would do the job too but more visibly.

I would get the terrace levels and steps sorted before bothering about neighbouring fence heights as you may change your mind about how important it is to add extra height and that may also determine what style and height of trellis you need to make the edge of the terrace safe.

 

Hi all.

Right so been thinking about this some more. I think the consensus is that the central steps don't work and moving to the left side of the patio would be better. But there were also mixed views on just appending a set of timber steps onto the edge of the existing patio.

So where I think this might lead now is a combination option.

How about I do move the steps to the left, but partially inset them and partially outset them? So a couple steps inset to the existing patio, and then a couple steps to be built new on the front of the existing patio. I could leave a couple feet gap to enable some plants to be put in between the steps and the boundary, hiding that gap a bit better.

I could do the steps in brick, as shown below - or I could make the main bulk of the steps from sleepers/timber, so I have a combination of brick and wood for example.

I could then build a new raised bed in front of the brick wall which connects to the existing raised bed on the other side.



Any thoughts on this please?

 

Looks good to me @Dan1981

 

I just went out and measured for it. It's not really gaining me a lot of patio space - couple square meters that's all.

 

Is that going to be worth your while then @Dan1981 ? With the steps at that side it's looking crowded to me with it being butted up to fence, wheelie bin, bits and bobs. Water butt too. But that's just my opinion.

 

Yeah some of that stuff has gone now, and there is a lean to greenhouse against the wall instead. Its a bit of an old photo.

But yeah, I don't know.

Maybe I just keep the steps where they are, make them neater (as they are scruffy slabs, uneven step heights etc), and then do the privacy screening as originally intended.

It was just a common view that the steps in their current location are not good. But there isn't a perfect alternative I don't think

 

@Dan1981 I like the extended raised bed in front of the wall and if you add some sort of decorative barrier (or even another raised bed) on the top edge of the wall it’ll be great. Need to add that I am not a minimalist! The more plants the better …..

 

This is an up to date photo of it.



I rebuilt the mini raised bed a couple of years ago as it was falling down basically. Then last year we added the sleeper area on the right to put some vegetables in. The lean-to greenhouse I built a couple of years ago as well.

Sorry the previous photo was old, I didn't think it mattered as we were talking mostly about the steps, but I have made some changes already just not physical ones to the steps or patio.

 

Well, that's a big improvement from the old photos Dan but I wish you'd shown it to us before as I feel we've been wasting our time trying to come up with solutions.

 

I agree! That looks pretty well great! You’ve done a good job, no need to take it further really IMO. Looking nice and balanced too and like the beds at base of steps. Use tall plants for any needed screening!

 

Sorry its because we were focussed on looking down the garden from the house/patio, not the other way around. The photos looking down the garden from the patio are up to date, and it was the privacy I wanted to address.

Then moving the steps started to come up, so the photos looking back to the house were just shown to show the extent of the wall and steps, to see how they could be modified. So I didn't think it mattered if it was an old photo because it was all going to be changed anyway (if I move the steps).

The new photo looking from the lawn to the house hasn't changed anything about the privacy looking from the patio.

 

Even with the new image I think the steps would still be better on the left. With the removal of the original steps it would give you more surface space on the patio.

 

@Plantminded im not sure what's happened as I now can't see any of your replies on this thread.

But you'd previously suggested excavating a planting bed within the raised patio itself, rather than building a raised bed.

Just want to explore this some more. If I dig down say 2ft, do I not then create a 'hole' that risks the surrounding patio collapsing in on, even if filled with soil? Wouldn't I have to build a new brick wall within the hole to stop the sides of it falling in and taking the surrounding slabs with it?

 

@Dan1981 I can't see any responses in this thread by @Plantminded either.

 

Yeah can still see the bits of his posts I quoted though. Eg see page 7. Weird.