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Garden planting around decking

6 years ago

Hi there, I am looking for planting suggestions for surrounding my freshly laid decking area. I want to keep the planting quite formal with plenty of structure.

Please ignore olive / aced trees they will be moved.

In photo one to the right of the decking I was thinking of preached hornbeam to give us a screen due to the low fence or should I keep it simple and surround all around with privet hedge to hide fence and give me the additional privacy.

Any suggestions welcome.

Any help and suggestions of plants and ideas welcome.

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Kit Peel Gardens

6 years ago

Hi Kanye,

Here are your design challenges:

1. The decking area has a variety of colour - red brick garage, pale deck, wood fence.

2. The fence isn't straight, but slopes to different levels.

3. The area is very open, which isn't conducive to spending time in. People typically prefer to have some sense of enclosure in outside dining/seating areas.

4. The garden itself is plain lawn, sloping up to the patio area. This area has become a focal point, so needs to be both inviting and offer interest. In other words, you want to be intrigued to get from your house to this area.

Design solutions:

Without knowing a full brief, this is educated guesswork, but you may consider:

1. Adding a perception of depth by surrounding the sides and rear of the space with a hedge, climbers and trees. Pleached is design classic. Look at trees around your property for clues. Privet is thirsty, so you may consider hornbeam/yew hedge, clematis/ivy and repeat hornbeam pleached or fruit trees. Bring hedge/pleached trees around the front of the deck, to create an opening entrance to the deck.

2. You might consider adding a pergola over a proposed dining area.

3. Consider extending this hedging/tree pattern in the rest of the garden. Why not create an orchard area with path moving through it taking you to the deck. . Also plant beds etc...

Kit

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Comments (6)

Jane Bateman
6 years ago
Looks like you're in the UK, so I'd go for drought resistant plants!

I love having scented useful plants such as Rosemary and other herbs.

For height you could have Honeysuckle attached to trellis on the wall and fence, or even a trained fruit tree.
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rachelmidlands
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Decking looks good. Some great ideas for planting already, one more to consider is Italian cypress trees for height but without the bulk. Also like the idea of a pergola with climbers as it would give somewhere inviting to sit and privacy. How about a corner pergola situated opposite the garage wall where the fencing is lowest.
Tara Dempsey
6 years ago
Great ideas already and you're lucky to have such a good sized space to work with. As Rachel says, a corner pergola would be lovely with wisteria or Virginia creeper to soften the angles. Also fab for hanging lighting. Laurel and bay are good hedging plants as they are fast growers, easy to shape and evergreen. Also as they have dense thick leaves they act as a sound muffler which can be a bonus. Spiders and ladybirds love them so you get less flies. The end by the garage wall, you could gravel and have a chimenea and feature log store.

You could also get some bamboo in containers to give you instant screening and height whilst your chosen permanent planting gets established.
Kayne Cross
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi guys,

I went with box as a quick solution and it's made a great difference, this I will follow down to the other part of the garden in November( bare root season) to make it flow better.

Pleached horn beams are next on the list I think as the area does feel a bit exposed.

Here's how we're looking now.
1milebeachcourt
6 years ago
What about a Japanese garden??

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