Some good advice from Rachel above. Bamboo is wonderfully lush and creates a tropical wall of green but be very careful if you plan to plant directly into the ground. The roots will travel horizontally and pop up wherever they fancy ending up in neighbours gardens who won't be best pleased. If you do want to plant bamboo make sure its in large containers and feed it seaweed fertiliser to get it going and create the lush abundant foliage. It will also need plenty of regular water especially if its in a container. Once your shed is positioned in the right hand corner of your garden you could think about softening the side with planting. attach a trellis and grow a climbing clematis to blur the lines. Good luck and happy planting!

Hello Nick, What you want does depend of children and their ages. Sunlight etc And budget as excavating and making safe will cost. And style. Some ideas: 1. Create 2 levels one at the same or just higher than you walk out level. This will be you BBQ area seating area. The rest grass and raised beds. 2. Create a sunken garden area taking out the middle where you would sit, eat... 3. Add large and small, potted plants on steps. The back of the garden add a trellis and grow rambling roses or clematis, This will soften the back. In between add lights. 4. Depending on you age and how much you like gardening. Very large pots can act as your planting area. Or create theraised bed all at the back. 5. Lighting on the wall all the way around. Above it an outdoor mirror to reflect light into the garden. Can be framed or not. Or a steel, aluminium... screen, with some sort of cut out design. The light behind and or in front of them. 6. Create a living wall. The living wall can be a mixture of edibles as well as flowers. Paint the white wall a different colour. 7. Make use of the steps. Take off the top and plant inside them, or add plant pots in them. Add decking to the grass, a circle or oval of decking. From the decking create a path going down, by covering the steps in the same decking. For a modern take on decking alternate concrete with decking. eg. a border of concrete which will match your white walls then decking in the middle. 8. Take out the steps at the side and make a large deep square or circular planting area out of concrete. Then you could plant a tree. (check appropriate sizes and growth time) 9. Your back wall can just be a fusion of different coloured lights, random or structured and or can change, or can be daylight bulbs. 10. Move your seating area to the brightest side / edge. This area an have built in seating, an out door banquette with storage underneath. The flooring in tiles or decking to zone off the area. 11. If you have a particularly dark area, why not put a structure there. A modern pegola and or light structure, sculpture with lights to brighten. I hope these ideas help or a combination of them. They can be a modern or classic twist depending on what your style is. Have fun :)

Thanks everyone for your input and advice, it really has been much appreciated. As some have suggested, I think our next steps are to collate a "vision board" (if you like) of what we'd like to get the ball rolling. We've not had much luck with finding inspiration here, as most gardens, even with a compact filter seem to be significantly larger than our space or heavily floral focused, which don't get me wrong can look beautiful but is not quite what we're looking for. Pinterest (see, board) and Instagram seem to have a varied selection of both features and completed gardens (although most are much larger spaces). Once we have an idea of what we think we might like, we'll then reach out to some of the garden designer professionals (thanks to those who shared their details) to help reaffirm our plans. We're more than happy to roll up our sleeves and get with the graft and heavy lifting that might be involved, even if to cut down on cost, but we would be more than likely to get professionals in to ensure a quality execution/finish. We'll have have shop around a view various portfolios to gauge what sort of prices we should be expecting to pay for the various services (e.g. Design, Landscaping etc...) but we're in a much better place to start. Finger crossed, we'll be able to update you all with progress soon.

Hi there, If you are aiming to be eco concious, it would be good to try to use as much permeable paving as possible (gravel, hogging etc) to keep the disturbance to the natural water cycle to a minimal. In the theme of being eco concious, it is a good idea to have wild life in mind and do the planting accordingly and also maybe have some sort of "insect hotels" around. Also, having a "wild lawn" as in letting in grow and the wild flowers set in is very good for the environment. Also, it is usually good to have the pond in a sunny area and not under any overhanging branches to keep debris to a minimum.  With regards to your sketch, do you need paving in front of the garage gate (as in are you intending to have a seating area there) or can it be just a path on the lawn (extending the permeable area)? Just some food for thought for you =) If you feel like you would benefit from getting a professional design drawn up for you so that you can have a final picture to work torwards (maybe bit by bit as budget allows), please have a look at my website. I provide online services and would be happy to help. Have a good easter! Deborah www.therootedconceptgardendesign.co.uk  deborahbiasoli@gmail.com