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Completing on a move in the next 3-4 weeks. The garden around the front and back is pretty much a blank canvas other than there's a summerhouse at the back and a driveway taking up 1/3 of the front. Side has been eaten up by the extension.
North/south facing.
Looking for some ideas ahead of time as naturally we can't get a gardener/landscaper to come up with stuff until the actual move.
Particularly keen on evergreens that add volume all year round as well as plants/shrubs/trees that add colour at different times of the year.
Might also need to replace the current patio as it's a bit dull.
What have you done that brings your garden to life?
Probably looking at 60ft rear and 30-40ft front.
[i]What have you done that brings your garden to life?[/i]
fitted 650B wheels to my lawnmower.
igmc.
What have you done that brings your garden to life?fitted 650B wheels to my lawnmower.
Post of the week.
Partly it depends on how much work you enjoy gardening. For minimum maintenance go for more hard areas. We recently had our small rear garden overhauled by a little man who did a great job setting out new paths, built some very tidy looking raised beds for veg and dug us a new pond (highly recommended for wildlife interest). If the summerhouse is nice, make this the focus. We don't use it much in the winter and it isn't overlooked from the house so winter colour is not of too much interest to us. A corkscrew hazel looks good in the winter (a bit scruffy in the summer though). Winter flowering jasmine is pretty and keeps going. Lots of snowdrops bring spring in early.
Can't really see us having much time for keeping everything pretty. hence lower maintenance would be preferable. I like those bulby things that come up in Feb/Mar and stick around for a while - they seem hardy little fellas. And perennials(?) that do their thing all year round and get bigger each year?
Summerhouse will probably be turned into an office/chill-out room.
Veg patch will go somewhere, possibly in raised beds.
Lots of inspiring photos here www.wollertonoldhallgarden.com.
One of the top gardens in the country, but on a relatively small scale compared to these huge NT places
Make the veg patch twice or three times as big as you think you'll need. There is no point growing a few plants as it's lots of effort for only a few dinners. It's only a small bit more work to plant a lot of seeds if you're going to plant a few, water and weeding the same - so you'll need more space than you think.
Oh and those bulby things - daffs are best bang for your buck. Buy a bag with 100 bulbs in autumn, dig holes in the lawn and beds put 4 or 5 in each hole the right way up and put the bit of turf back. Really quick, cheap and easy.
Can't really see us having much time for keeping everything pretty.
Then I would say don't go for evergreen leylandii type hedging unless you are willing to pay someone to trim it regularly. If it gets too overgrown, hard pruning can kill them. Similarly, laurel can look pretty horrible after pruning.
+1 for a pond if you want wildlife. And small trees or hedging. If you want low maintenance you could have fencing but add dwarf trees, like fruit trees, and Japanese maple (acer) for some colour. You can find seed mixes online that encourage bees and butterflies and plant things like heather.
I planted bulbs in the middle of our lawn and it drives my better half mad when he has to mow around them (so he ends up mowing over them). But they are great value for money and give you that early colour.
I would recommend a soft fruit bed somewhere relatively warm (south facing) and against a fenceline, because it gives you great value for money. In particular, home grown strawberry varieties seem to be much more flavourful then the ones you get in the shops these days. I like growing stuff so we have about 20m x 5m strip of our back garden given over to veg. Last year was great - peppers, chillies, squash, loads of tomatoes as well as the more traditional British stuff in the garden, and aubergines in the greenhouse.
And for that size garden, think about a petrol lawnmower and strimmer, saves a lot of time and energy and therefore makes you more likely to keep up with the maintenance.
if my house moving 'new to me' garden experiences are anything to go by you need to pick the correct plant for the correct location, and most gardeners seem to be complete naturals at this; examples
- near foundations - trees are really good, they won't ever get bigger and cause fundamental issues with movement etc and they'll never be difficult to dig out - oak lasts well apparently
- near drains - see foundations above
- on walls - ivy works well, slow growing, non invasive, just let it do its thing, low maintenance, fabulous coverage and colours
- near paths/heavily used access points - well you really need some evil prickly thing - roses/brambles/nettles etc, these look lovely and just won't grow or be a problem if they're not maintained for a while
- if you like a neat, tidy low maintenance hedge, leylandi are brilliant, they never grow beyond 4ft - grow leylandi - your neighbours will love it
Any recommendations for tress that will add privacy but won't grow enormous, is a Silver Birch a good size? Similar garden to OP
Make the veg patch twice or three times as big as you think you'll need.
Agreed-ish. We did a big patch here 3-4 years ago. Some of it worked well, some of it far less so. We then did a communal one with a neighbour who knew what they were doing and it worked a lot better.
daffs are best bang for your buck
Those are the fellas. Probably the 'plug and play' equivalent of the planting world.
Wouldn't have them in the middle of the lawn for the very same reason konagirl mentions. I remember my ex once planted some in the shape of a heart. Euurgh. I know we were keen on each other at the time, but seriously ... I probably mowed over them in the end too 🙂
Not going for a pond just yet.
Hmm, south-facing soft fruits? Might have to put those in the front then. Tomatoes have been a right struggle to grow here in the last few years. Odd weather maybe. Still want to give them a go though.
Petrol mower? Nah, it's not really a big enough space. We've a big conservatory taking up part of the rear + the summerhouse (also big) + veg patch + an Asgard box + patio. Front is 1/3 driveway, which needs smartening up too.
Not a fan of ivy - bad feng shui. Would prefer a trellis with whatever variations of climber.
Not sure about prickly things as we'll have little chimps on the loose.
Going to take another look at Scamper's link as well as Houzz over the weekend.
Ta all
This is all you need, I used this to design our total garden refurb last year: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector