Can I show off a little bit please?

[Crikeyblimey]

We moved to a new house a couple of years ago and had nothing but a boring square of grass. We had a patio laid and got a teeny greenhouse (mostly for DH’s chilli plants).

Well this year I have demanded gardening takes place.

First pic is ‘the beginning’ on good Friday. Today we have narrowed and forked in 900 litres of compost and I’ve actually planted stuff 😁💐

I am very tired and ridiculously happy.

Any suggestions of what else to plat gratefully received.

[WineIsMyCarb]

Beautiful job OP! You've transformed it!
What about something tall and grassy in the corner to soften?

[floraloctopus]

It looks lovely.
I'd plant trees along the back - mountain ash, acers, maybe a cherry and apple tree and then lots of butterfly and bee friendly wildflowers in the rest. I'd have a corner where i let dandelions grow as they are great first food for bumblebees - i have a pot on the patio with them but I pull them out every morning before they go to seed.

[Strandliv]

Lovely!

[HappyDinosaur]

Looks lovely, well done! I've always wanted a magnolia tree, we don't have room but it'd look lovely in the back corner.

[floraloctopus]

Oh yes, a magnolia would be lovely - we have one next to the pond in our garden.

[Casiloco]

A couple of flowering shrubs are always good - for fragrance philadelphus and daphne. Evergreen shrubs with colour - euonymus japonica "Emerald and Gold"/choisya ternata and almost any acer is good.

Climbers - clematis, honeysuckle, ceanothus. All good.

Avoid hebes - easy but dull and rampant. Roses - lovely but can be hard work.

[mommybear1]

Looks lovely OP have a for all your hard work

[Dogwalks2]

Sitting watching Gardeners world on catch up and wanted to sayWELL DONE. Definitely a magnolia in a corner, I’d suggest herbaceous plants as they come up every year and quickly fill up gaps.

[Alwaysrebooting]

Wow! I have a similar sized garden and you have totally inspired me. Well done, it looks totally different already.

[Crikeyblimey]

Thanks all.

Excellent ideas. I’d love a magnolia but it’s only a small garden and each plant will need to earn its keep - magnolias are magnificent but not for long enough.

DH wants an acer but I’ve already killed one at the previous house. I suppose if I plant it up to the east facing fence it would be fairly sheltered.

I’ve got daphne, clematis, honeysuckle, mock orange and a beautiful climbing rose on my list. Oh and a quince (some friends have one and it is spectacular). Must get rid of ‘death by fence’!

All I want to do now is shop for plants 😳

[ChinaBear]

Looks great! Plant trees, juneberry and crab apple are good all rounders. Some evergreens and shrubs for winter structure (dogwood has colourful stems in winter). A climber on the fence, maybe a clematis if you can be bothered to put up trellis or a climbing hydrangea if you can’t. And don’t forget to water those heucheras with nematodes in Spring and Autumn to kill vine weevil!

[Roussette]

I planted a small tree Amelanchier Rainbow Pillar. It has white flowers, then little black berries (you can actually cook with them!) and in the autumn the leaves are every colour imaginable... green, yellow, orange and red. After 10 years it grows to 10 foot maximum so it's not big.

[Crikeyblimey]

Thanks for that tip ChinaBear. I’ve always wanted them but have no idea how to care for them, so ta.

[Crikeyblimey]

Rousette - that tree sounds just the job. I’ll check it out. Ta.

[cwg1]

I think I've just died of envy! That's a lovely plot, very manageable size and you've done a great job preparing it.

My top tip would be to wire the fences - it's not difficult - and have a good browse at climbing shrubs. You've got a good proportion of surface area vertically in comparison to what you have horizontally - climbers will make a lovely background without taking up a lot of the ground. After that, I'd personally go for mostly herbaceous stuff, but that really is individual choice. Treat yourself to a few magazines and see what style of garden you're attracted to and take it from there.

You've definitely got space for a small pond - water is hugely beneficial for wildlife, so I'd consider that - of course, if you have small DC, you need to think very carefully about ponds.

Good luck!

[TellItLikeItReallyIs]

I've always wanted to plant a flower clock.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaeus%27s_flower_clock

[Roussette]

Crikey the tree is native to North America (can cope with cold!) and is over here now. This is what it's like in autumn

[cwg1]

Oops - slow typing - lots of xposts.

[TheQueef]

If you can get the Lidl magnolias they are indestructible mine are still just flowering after two years neglected in a pot.

[KooMoo]

Beautiful :)

[peanutbutterismydownfall]

What not to do is go to the garden centre and buy everything which looks lovely now as then your garden will always look lovely in April/May & a bit dull for the rest of the year.
Instead, do a bit of research and think about trying to have something in flower/or interest every month and also balance evergreen with others.
You don't have too much depth to those borders so I'd don't get too carried away like I did and plant things like you're on Gardener's World with layers of plants as everything will just merge and the wrong plants will dominate and it will all get a bit messy. Having said that, you can put climbers along the back and a mix of shrubs and perennials in front.

[cakeandchampagne]

Well done! Have fun shopping!

[Beebumble2]

Your garden looks great. You must feel very rewarded after such hard work.
I hope you enjoy the fun of planting it out.
May I suggest you draw a rough plan, with the track of the sun plotted. Then you can note which plants you want and where they will do best.
Some lovely ideas up thread. Don’t forget, later in the year to plant some spring bulbs for an early display.

[userxx]

That looks amazing, well done!!!! Glad to see you have heuchera in there already, I love those plants. For a shady area I would go with a fatsia, big beautiful glossy leaves.

[TheDogsMother]

Fabulous OP. I second the advice about not buying everything at once as you will only get colour at a specific time. I've been trying to get a bit more colour throughout the summer/autumn so have been planting perennials from seed. You could use your little greenhouse