That certainly presents some interesting challenges to gardening, but not insurmountable if you adhere to the principle of 'Right plant, Right place', something that I learnt formally in my training as an ecologist and landscape architect and more informally through many losses trying to grow all manner of plants in my own garden. In short I would be recommending a palette of alpine and moorland plants with a scattering of more coastal species that are equally tolerant of exposure. A lovely and very effective example is the interplay of small tussock growing moorland grasses with heathers, maybe interspersed with specimen dwarfing pines. Another stunning and very simple approach would be to sow an alpine meadow mixture of suitable perennials and grasses, again interspersed with sculptural pines or incidental birch and willow. A truly interesting site with plenty of potential, remember shelter can be created with large rocks around which slightly more temperamental plants could be located. I hope this helps, we will happily produce structured planting plans for projects of all sizes and conditions - take a look at our website for some more inspiration.

I really would avoid Leylandii. Yes they are fast growing, but they are too vigorous for the average garden and will require pruning twice a year. They also rob the soil of all moisture and nutrients and it is therefore very difficult to grow anything beneath them. If you want evergreen I would go for cherry laurel, or maybe yew. Alternatively, Ligustrum or Photinia grown as standards would free up the soil beneath for under planting. Another lovely idea would be a small group of Betula utilis var jacquemontii (Hinalayan Birch) strategically placed for privacy without completely blocking the view.

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

Update on our garden project! Thanks for the sleeper retaining wall ideas - we are very pleased with end result! See before and after picture. Still a few finishing touches to be done but getting there and finally have some grass growing after a winter of mud, mud, mud!!! Just need some bushes/plants to go along top edge of sleepers as it is quite a drop off the edge, dont want anything too big but just something to give it a bit of ad edge to save falls! Any comments or ideas what to use for this please?