What to do with this area where a trampolie was?

Im stuck for what to do with this area! It used to house a big trampoline but thats gone now and 2 years ago I planted over 100 perennials but that didnt really work, I think the area is too big/deep, I couldnt really get into it when it was grown in summer to weed and the whole area is a mess!
My first idea was to swap the bigger plants I have from the raised border over to this area and lift the perennials and plant them in the raised bed - at the same time, building a pathway through the area so i can weed it etc. How does that sound? My worry is I do all that and it still looks like an area of garden that was 'missed' when doing the rest of it!
So, a couple of ideas I had this morning and I'm really open to other suggestions here - I dont want to spend a fortune and want to do the work myself since its a nightmare getting hold of people to work in gardens and being a smaller job, I think I would struggle.


I extend the raised border at the right hand side to the end of the back patio where the gazebo is (so not the curved stone bed, but behind that where the gazebo is. One thing, that patio is higher than the raised bed, would this look odd? What would I plant here? Just more large and small shrubs and a lot of the perennials, I would then turf the area in front so extending the lawn a little
I extend the raised wooden bed round the outside of the garden, meeting at the back of the patio/Gazebo. In front of this, I turf the area
I go with my first idea - I simply do a swap and add in a path, big plants in raised bed to this area and perennials to the raised bed - this is probably the easiest/cheapest but is it the best option?

Not the best pictures, but hopefully these show the area and the idea, red colour will be raised bed, green will be grass.

Its 3.6m wide(between fence and the back patio) and 5m long

Im just really struggling to see what would work the best without a complete redesign of the whole area!

 

Hi,

Does that fence at the back of that area face North ? and does it get any sunlight eg semi shade or almost all shade ? Also can you say what area your are in eg North,South, Midlands ?

To us that area looks nice on its own without extending that raised bed by the garage(?) wall and if you choose the right plants it could be a really nice area.
Possibly add a few bags of manure/compost/topsoil to refresh the soil and also raise it an inch or so would be good for any new plants.
A closer pic might show what existing plants can be re-used.

Have you drawn up a planting diagram ? we could perhaps comment on what we think will work well togther or give better suggestions.

Rather than a full path, a few well placed small pavings placed a stride apart would be less obtrusive yet still allow you to tend to the area easily.

Would be interested to know what you planted before and apart from lack of weeding, what went wrong with it ?

ps - if you see the 4th entry in this post you can see a well planted area similar to yours - is that more to your taste or a bit too cottagey for you ?
Lawn and Climbers Advice

 

I think the pic in the 4th post you mentioned above was what I originally wanted for the area. I contacted a local nursery and they supplied a planting scheme and all the plants (around 100) but it didnt work. The area is really damp, even though when I added the plants I dug down and added drainage, its still sodden! What happened was some plants took off and the whole area filled out but then it was impossible to get in and weed and now its just a state!
What im going to do is extend the bed then in the are not covered by the bed, put down turf, if its big enough, I might plant a small tree, like cherry/apple blossom but will wait till I see what space there is.