A long narrow garden is perfect to have a relaxing retreat at the bottom. Our patio louvre roof creates an outdoor living space in your garden perfect for relaxing in away from your home. The louvre roof is automated turning the louvres flat to create a fully watertight roof. It is perfect for all year use and great for keeping protecting your garden furniture ready for the summer. This free standing Umbris patio roof below, creates an undercover retreat in their garden. The vertical louvre panels also provide an element of privacy and weather protection from wind also helping to keep the new living space drier in heavy rainfalls, whilst still maintaining transparency to keep the outdoor living experience. Additional elements can be added such as, heating, lighting, audio system all built into the roof profile. We have just had an Umbris installed at our showroom in Amersham at Sky House Design Centre, you can arrange a showroom visit by contacting us on 01494 722 882.

Ok, it’s been a little while since we left off on the garden project, however as we’re approaching spring we’re keen to get the space cleaned up for spring. To open up the space we’ve removed the middle two bar fence and relocated the beech hedging to the screen the remaining fencing. The aim being to create more privacy and blend into the landscape behind. To add security we was thinking of adding gravel and rockery / water feature (not pond) to the righthand side near the gate. Opposite create a gravel area for the stone bench and dot a few ball shrubs and a Victorian lamp for interest. Uplighter’s will be used to illuminate the hedge. In the main section of the garden add one or two trees on the section on the righthand side to create some privacy from the neighbours line of sight into the bench area. Thereafter add more ball shrubs, lupine and foxgloves to create height. Apply a horizontal slat fence (painted a muted sage green) to tidy up the bad side of the existing fence. All borders will be edged with a slim red brick to match the house and make it easier for moving. Finally to mask the shed, introduce some rose bushes and lavender.

Love the frontage of your cottage. That wall is adorable! You have a couple of shrubs there already. Do you know what they are? There are some great low growing plants that need very little work once they are established. As well as T Gray‘s suggestions, you could also add Aubretia which is a low growing plant that has gorgeous purple flowers in spring. It’s very common and available everywhere. Campanula is a blue flower that cascades in summer (some are tall so read the labels). Another flower is Erigeron, again it spreads and is low growing with quite large purple daisy like flowers in the summer. My favourite is Geranium - they come in a huge array of colours and various heights so check those before buying. They flower in the summer. Don’t forget daffodils, such a ray of sunshine in the spring. They can be planted in the autumn. A lawn is a great idea - relatively cheap to lay too. I think the best way to have a low maintenance garden is to stick with trees and shrubs which dont need too much fussing with. Trees can be pricey, but so many places sell shrubs, not just garden centres, such as nurseries,, supermarkets and even car boot sales! AUBRETIA CAMPANULA ERIGERON GERANIUM ROZANNE

Hi Ellie, ok I will edit it more as it should read we want all the shrubs and trees removed which is a tall feat when your not qualified I would guess. Also with the council not available to remove garden waste, we already have a lot piling up with the compost awaiting the date for when we can remove it. Our garden already has fence all the way around, however it needs updating as it has broken it a lot of places.