Garden design help!

Hi all,

I hope someone can help. We have renovated our house, and are now moving onto the garden, in the hope that we can have somewhere nice for the kids to play in the summer. This is our garden at the moment:

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Not very child friendly, as I'm sure you'll agree

We hired a skip yesterday, and are in the process of flattening the garden completely, digging up the existing turf (what's left of it anyway!), get rid of all the paving slabs, etc. Basically, start all over again. The only things that are staying that are in the photo are the garage, shed and wood store (the new wall at the rear of the wood store can be adapted, depending on our chosen garden design.

Here is a plan of the garden at the moment (the above photo was taken from the back door):

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Our ideas are:

• To have a trellis fence between ourselves and the neighbour on the left (we get on great, and they don't even want a fence up, and besides, their garden forms part of our view).
• To have an area by the wood store for a patio table and chairs (maybe a quadrant of paving stones?) - this location is best for the sun
• To be VERY low maintenance, i.e. gravel/pebble borders
• A decent area of grass for the kids to play on - we were looking at artificial grass, but it's far too expensive, so will go for turf instead

Other than that, anything goes. Every design I can think of looks boring and rubbish, so I am living in hope that there is a budding landscape designer on here somewhere!

Hope someone can offer some advice

 

That's a nice blank canvas you have there.

Definitely stay away from astroturf even if you find cheap stuff - otherwise all you'll be doing is treating skinned knees all summer

If you want low maintenence I'd go with shrubs, shrubs and more shrubs. A few to add to JWK's selection - Choisya, Ceanothus, Euonymous (emerald n gold is fantastic) or maybe a Spirea. I have all of these and do nothing to them year after year (I should trim the Spirea but I never do!)

Good luck

 

I am new to gardening but we have small children and have recently moved so are doing similar.

definitely keep real lawn (I like daisies!). the plants we have, some were already here and some I am putting in new include barberry (I think thats what they are anyway), hebes (I have got a few different coloured ones) lots of daffodils, wild flowers, poppies, freesias, cyclamen, pieris, heuchera and my new additions camellias. If you don't want it to look all regular with straight edged lawns and beds along the sides etc then you could make them wiggle in and out a bit?

I would put up a fence, even if you get on well with neighbours it only takes someone to get a dog or for a child to behead a flower and things can fall apart. what about a nice countrylike waist height picket style fence? or a small fence with trellis along the top?

 

Before you decide on a definate plan. I would clear every bit of rubbish in whatever form, that you can find and sling it in the skip. Be absolutely ruthless, once the skip is gone you will find it awkward to get rid of any other rubbish that piles up. You paid for the skip so get the most out of it mate.

While you are clearing the garden of rubbish Put to one side any paving slabs you find. Even parts of slabs can be re used. The slabs that you have as a path in the photo will scrub up really well. Bucket of water with a good splash of bleach, stiff broom and scrub away all the moss and dirt. They will look new and save you a fortune buying new ones. Be good for using as a patio. Any broken slabs you can use to do a patch of crazy paving.

I would define the boundry in some way. You get on well with your neighbours at the moment, but you never know what could happen later. A low picket fence is a nice idea. Defines the boundry but allows you to chat to next door. A lawn doesn't have to be a square or rectangle, add a few curves.

If you have small children, I would either buy a large cage so that they cannot run away when you poke them with sticks, or if you actually like them, use gravel for footpaths rather than hard slabs. Toddlers roaming around will trip over and hurt themselves on slabs. Especially the edges. Gravel will be a lot softer for them to land on.

Once you have decided where you want your patio, everything else can be blended in. Choosing which plants to go for now could very easily be very different when you actually come to plant them. If you cram any flower beds with plants that you like, weeds will have less chance to grow. Shrubs may sound like the easy option, but you can add lots of colour and interest with a few annuals. Easy to grow from seed. Cheap to replace as well.

Good luck with it.

Chopper.
PS: I only eat children on Wednesdays.

 

Wow, thanks for the great feedback!!

OK, we have now cleared the garden. Concrete path at the back broken up and skipped, along with the old concrete greenhouse base. Paving stones (majority of them) are stacked up ready for Freecycling (we're getting new, nicer ones). Lawn dug out, although we are just left with sub-soil now



It's now ready for levelling. My mum has lent me her laser level for the job, but I'm yet to figure out the best way of going about it??! I have left the paving slabs by the shed in place, as this will be the level of the new patio. And the old slabs along the back of the house are still in place (out of shot in the photo).

We are looking at buying some turf online (is this place any good?) and will also need some new topsoil.

Still haven't figured out the best layout for the garden...

We need this to be zero maintenance, aside from mowing the lawn. I know this may grate on some of you, as you are mostly keen gardeners, but I am not... no time at all for gardening yet!!

So we're looking at having no-maintenance borders and growing things in pots (especially blueberry bushes). We will also have an area on the patio for growing vegetables (larger planter in the back left corner of the photo). We were looking at gravel borders, but having kids, they'll probably kick it all over the lawn and then the lawnmower will get trashed... what do you think about bark mulch?

Thanks in advance for your continued support and advice!!