Garden Viewpoint

Only really got into gardening this last year - and I'm annoyed with myslf for all the time I've wasted thinking it would be boring.

Anyway this year have grown a lawn from seed, put in a mini veg plot (which will be twice as big next year - I just love it and dug out and built a patio from scratch. I am so pleased with it all and so proud. Still got lots to do in the garden to get it sorted but I'm getting there.

Started a new little project this week as realised there was a great (wasted) viewpoint half way down my garden

The garden is about 100 foot long and slopes away from the house with lovely views for miles. The top lawn slopes with the slope getting steeper at the bottom - this is were the 'view point' is going - and this is how it looked Sunday lunchtime.





A couple of hours on Sunday saw the turf all cut out but not moved



And after work yesterday I dug it all out

 

So what now?

It isn't going to be heavily used. There will just be a bench in there (stood off to the side at the moment)

I'm thinking

1. make it level
2. use the remaining half bag of 40/1 as a base and cover with slate or small pebbles of some description.
3. using stone from around the garden, build a low dry stone retaining wall.

And then I'm not sure

It's facing more or less south. I'd like to put some sort of living screen around it to break up the wind. Brush wood, split bamboo or trellis and grow climbers over it. Have also thought it would be nice if it was made into some sort of arbor - enough to give shelter from occasional (?) showers.

Browsing around, I've come across willow arbors. Not got the cash for a predesigned one but how easy would it be from whips? how quickly do they grow? how much maintenance do they need? Can I grow other climbers through it?

Really still quite open minded about how I want it to be yet so really interested an any ideas.

 

Hi Hec,

Living Willow structures can be very attractive indeed, but I believe we ( because I too am pondering a similar question), need to be quite careful about where they go. They apparently are very greedy things and can suck an area dry of nutrients and moisture, and in their search foir these things their roots can be quite destructive to any nearby structures.

I am therefore also considering those iron spiral support thingys ( I am sorry I don`t know the correct name) and perhaps throwing up them my annual sweetpeas, or an everlasting type.

You can grow climbers through the Willows I think and think that in the correct place they can provide quite an interesting feature.

You can take whips from them about now I think and jsut push them into the ground-lengths of at least 3 ft I have read-but that means having to wait for them to grow tall as well to allow you to start to weave them over the area. As an experiment I took some whips from my Kilmarnock Willow in July and they have starting to sprout nice healthy shoots already-all of them have worked fine-I watered them in every day except of course when it rained.

If it will be far enough away from the house then I would have a go-mine are about 20m from the house.

 

Thanks lollipop
There are no structures other than a path close by so that shouldn't be a problem. the area can get quite waterlogged as it's part way down a slope and there is a levelled concrete path just in front so the drainage water tends to collect there.

It's only about 3 or 4 metres from my veggi patch though. Would it suck water, nutrients from there - as they are obviously far more important.

I was guessing there may be some major drawbacks to them as they look so good but they seem to be rarely featured and there has to be a reason for that.