Garden landscaping ideas wanted!

6 years ago

Hello,

I'm planning on having all the concrete in my yard taken up and the brick flower beds on both sides taken out, but beyond that I'm struggling to know what to do with it, so would love to hear what ideas you have.

It's approx. 4m x 8m at the widest/longest part and unfortunately it slopes down towards the house and slopes slightly to the right too. As a result, rain water accumulates outside my back door, so one thing I would like in the new design is to avoid too much paving or hard surfaces, so all water can soak into the ground, so was thinking a combination of grass and gravel. I would like to introduce colour too with planting but I'm not a gardener so need something that doesn't require much upkeep. I mainly want a garden for sitting and eating in.

Some awkward features to mention - there are two man-hole covers (the rectangular blobs in the plan) which both need to stay, and 4 doors/gates leading off this small space! It also feels quite overlooked by neighboring houses (both at the rear and the other houses in my row), so something to address that without blocking out the sunlight would be good. It's an east facing garden, if that helps.

Is that asking for too much?!

Featured Answer

PRO

Garden Design Guru

6 years ago

Based on what you have written and the unpredictable weather I think you should consider a threshold drain. There is down pipe by the back door and it runs into a drain which will go to a soak away. A drainage channel by the back door could legally be channelled into that. Assuming the soak away is effective that could save you some trouble if you get 'an extreme rain event'.

Making the whole garden more porous is great idea but I like to work on 'belt and braces' so as to do everything possible.

Comments (7)

Charlotte E
Original Author
6 years ago
Any suggestions for layout?
PRO
London Stone
6 years ago
Hi Charlotte,

Why don't you have a look at our Ideabook on small gardens, we always find it that small gardens get transformed to look the best - even better than large spaces.

https://www.houzz.co.uk/ideabooks/81398906/thumbs/small-back-garden-inspiration

I would suggest putting down some artificial grass - that will solve the flooding problem.

However, with the proper drainage system, you should not have a problem with this even if you install natural stone or porcelain.

We have a full system of drainage designed especially to help you avoid flooding once paving in installed.

http://www.londonstone.co.uk/paving-accessories/drain/

If you would need any help in choosing materials or any general advice at all, please call us or visit one of our showrooms, and one of our sales team members will be more than happy to assist you during the transformation process.

Kind regards,

London Stone.
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PRO
Garden Design Guru
6 years ago
P.S. At least some areas of gravel will help a lot with dispersing rainfall. If you keep a slope than gravel stabilisation grid (which you can find in B and Q) would be the best idea.
PRO
The Interiorist
6 years ago
Hello Charlotte,
Having just had a look at the picture and layout of your backyard, I would have a couple of suggestions which may be useful to you; I am not a landscaper, but as I have just completely re-vamped my own garden, I have learned a few lessons along the line ;). First of all, think twice before you remove the raised beds/borders, as they are in the right position to provide screening for your yard and it's much better to have larger plants sitting in the actual ground, as they'll thrive and require much less watering than those in planters; also, the beds look nicely part of the existing structure, so I'd probably rather try to incorporate them into th scheme, or maybe remove just a part. You could try to incorporate some of your desired seating into, or rather onto, the beds, by building (or buying) some simple seats out of decking planks o.s., therefore saving space whilst still keeping the precious(!) soil. In terms of ground cover, I think the gravel is a great idea and it will look and feel soo much better than the existing concrete!

Another thing that came to mind is that you could section the floor space a little by building some raised decking where you want the seating area to be (I imagined it on the left hand side of the picture along the raised beds, but in an irregular shape to make it interesting and more natural). This will create different "zones" and will, strangely enough, make the space feel larger. It's difficult to describe all this adequately, but if you are interested in the idea I could do you a quick drawing or mockup for further explanation :) Plant wise, I would recommend to go for those varieties that do not need full sun - I can very well imagine large ferns and wild flowers, maybe some bamboo, palm trees, or hedge plants for screening. I did quite a bit of research on the RHS website for my garden; it gives you the option to look for varieties suited to your soil type and climate, which I, as a novice gardener, found very useful!
Hope this helps a bit; I tried to keep it short, so feel free to get in touch should you have questions :)
Best Regards, Stephanie
Charlotte E
Original Author
6 years ago
London Stone - Thanks for the link to your ideabook, I love the one with the pleached trees. I was looking into these for providing screening, particularly on the right hand side where the wall is quite low. Do you know what trees they are?

Garden Design Guru - thankfully even in heavy rain the water doesn't come into the house, but just creates a puddle outside the back door. I'll probably see I get on with making the garden more porous first of all, I'll bear the drain channel in mind if further action is needed. Thanks so much for the tip about gravel stabilisation grid too, I'll have a look into those.

Stephanie - Thank you, that's an interesting idea about using planks to turn part of the existing flower beds into in-built seating, I hadn't considered that before. I think I would still like to get rid of some of the raised beds though as they make it feel much narrower being raised. I'd probably still plant something along one or both sides, but at ground level and not coming out so far. I like the idea of creating different zones. Thanks for the plant suggestions too, I'll have a look at the RHS website. I hope your garden re-vamp went well!
PRO
The Interiorist
6 years ago
I may post it once it's finished - would be nice to see your "after", too. Good luck with it all!

Garden landscaping ideas wanted!

Garden Design Guru

Comments (7)

Charlotte E
Original Author

London Stone

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Garden landscaping ideas wanted!

Garden Design Guru

Comments (7)

Charlotte EOriginal Author

London Stone

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The Interiorist

Charlotte EOriginal Author

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Charlotte E
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Charlotte E
Original Author