New Garden Needed - Please Help!
Steven Long
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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1shanson
6 years agoSteven Long
6 years agoRelated Discussions
New Kid friendly garden help please
Comments (12)Hi. I have a couple of ideas. First, I'd rule out trying to flatten it to one level - it is very expensive, even though it doesn't look like it is a big deal to do. You'd end up with retaining walls around the sides and back and have to redo the fencing and labour costs would be big because the access isn't good (think wheelbarrows of dirt for weeks!). Second, I'd talk to the church. Say that you want to trim the holy bushes so that they are level and lower. Tell them you'll pay for that (rent a hedge trimmer for a day - less than £100) but will need access from their side too for trimming and to clean it up (because you are a nice friendly neighbour :). Then say that you are worried about the trees because you think they are getting so big they might be dangerous and they should be trimmed. I'm not suggesting they should be cut down. If they are under a Preservation Order, they are protected, but trimming is normal and healthy for a tree. I know if the tree is in the street the council has to do it and where I used to live "the Swiss church" (never got any more info than that) had a giant horse chestnut tree that they had to trim every five years because it was massive and surrounded by everyone's back gardens. I don't know about the legality of all of that but a third alternative is for everyone affected by the super large trees pitches in and pays for the trimming. There will still be leaves, but their will be less and you'll have more light back there. Anyway, on to the more interesting bit. In the spring, hire a Karcher (a high powered hose) to clean off the green from your fences and your patio area. It'll also clean out all the muck on your little retaining walls. Then I would stain all the fences the same colour - Cuprinol stains and protects the wood too. I'd keep the front as a patio for a table and scooter laps, keep the middle as lawn with narrow garden beds on either side and plant honeysuckle in a couple of corners of the pergola - it is slow growing at first but easy and very low maintenance (and doesn't drop much stuff!). A hammock is a lovely idea for under there. Let it go back to lawn so you aren't worried about falling toddlers. I'd move all your nice pots down to the patio area and group them. It is really easy to put herbs and annuals in them in the spring for colour. As nasmijati recommended, the back section could be rubber tiles or a sandpit. I can't tell if it is paved at the moment or just sodden grass.... if soggy grass, do the sandpit, if paved, put the rubber tiles over the top. You can move the little playhouse back there. Now you should have plenty of areas for the kids AND the adults. Oh, and get a couple of kids rakes for Christmas and teach them how to help their mama with the garden! I hope that helps....See MoreNeed help with our really slopping garden please.
Comments (8)You're almost there with the hospitality area. Simply extend what you have, to the right as you come out of the back door. Your neighbour on that side has already terraced to the extent you have something to butt up against. You need to decide whether any food will be served from indoors or whether to build in, say, a barbeque, a pizza oven or some other idea for preparing hot food outdoors. There are so many to choose from it can become overwhelming and confusing so I'd suggest narrowing it down quite a lot before beginning to search for your ideal. There are a variety of methods for providing seating which is a part of the landscape. You could use walling, capped perhaps with limestone to match the patio or select a contrasting material; sleepers; moveable furniture, to mention just four off the top of my head without giving it any thought. Looking at the bottom right corner, it would appear it gets little if any sunlight but inside the back fence looks shaded too. So north is roughly to the top right corner of your pictures from the top? Or is it more directly over the back fence? Figuring that one out will offer some guidance as to where to plant which species of plants. The garden is currently featureless. It is plants, not stone and props, that bring a garden to life. I'm afraid "general usage" is too general a term to interpret into a design concept. Who is it to cater for and what would they like to do there? Adults? Children? Old? Young? Do you want lawn? Planting? Play area? Seating? Loungers? Only you and whoever else lives there can think through or articulate these aspects. The rest of us, as said earlier, can only guess....See MoreGarden new design with a new garden office
Comments (5)Hi Stacy, yes thats where my comment came from. I will look back at that again to see about the planting. I wasn't keen on the horizontal pavement. What I really need is a designer to look at the whole space. I'm not sure how to best build up the raised area and I'm worried it's going to be put together quickly and I will miss a key moment to get this right!...See Moregarden design ... confused! help needed please :)
Comments (4)Hi Emma Yes - I see what you mean. I think one of the main reasons the garden doesn't work is that it is very open and empty. This means that you see all of it in one go. There is no story, or journeys, focal points or mystery within it. When you sit on your new patio you see an ugly trampoline and fence and a large (if magnificent) Wendy House. The plain area of lawn also shows up how the patio takes up half the depth of the garden - again making the scale feel wrong and the 'green garden area' look small. I think what you need to do is break up the space somewhat and put planting going across into the middle - runninig along the edge of the patio. People often worry that this will make the space feel smaller, but in fact because it means you can't see everything at once the space feels larger and more interesting. The planting coming across into the more central areas of the garden then also acts as screening for the ugly features. Other suggestions would be to turn the Wendy house through 90 degrees, so it is less directly looking at you, deep planting beds around the edges and coming into the more central garden space and lots of climbers on the fences. As regards being over looked - conifers are really horrible screening trees. They get very big and are very solid dark green, so feel very oppressive. A more open canopy deciduous tree with say spring blossom and good autumn foliage colour would be much better. Flowering cherry Prunus Okame is a good example. Your neighbours would likely love it. Finally can I suggest that you watch 'Your Garden Made Perfect' on BBC I-player. It is different to the normal garden programmes in that is discusses the design concepts behind the garden improvements. All of them are great, but you may find the 1st and 2nd ones particularly useful on views, focal points and structure. Good luck!...See Moreembzop
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