To ask for help zoning garden? pic attached

[EmJay19]

Hi I am drawing a blank so would love some ideas.

Recently moved to new house and had garden levelled with a lawn and bedding space at edge, thought that would be job done.

Since watching more gardening programmes have realised ‘zones’ seems to be the way to go atm and sounds a lot more fun and usable. Where to start though?

The only thing we’ve added so far are some plants in the shady zone (top left) the rest is still bare. It’s a huge rectangular shape (about 30m x 15m) so lots of potential.

House layout: the downstairs of the house is split level and so is the garden. The kitchen / diner has bifolds opening onto the upper patio which then has steps down into the garden. The utility room is on a slightly lower floor and opens up onto the lower patio. The patio stones are all new.

Wish list:

Patio. The last of the evening sun is in the top right hand corner so we currently have that space earmarked for a patio.

Mud kitchen / play area for little ones

Some lawn space

Some sort of ‘walkthrough’ garden space with plants either side

Washing line

Sheltered area shielding sun / rain

Swing?

Anything else to consider?

Totally new to gardening so the lower maintenance the better.

All ideas greatly appreciated!

I’m the exact same @EmJay19 - Straightened our whole garden out recently but now all these gardening Programmes are making me think I need to consider much more than just neat and tidy 🤪

Currently I’m just waiting for some sun so I can plot where it lands over the course of the day which will help to decide where I need to focus sun seating/dining/Shaded seated etc

In your case I’d say (as I’m obvs a professional after hours of Alan Titsmarch viewing 😂) do the same with the sun to plan out seating areas, but the washing line needs to be near to the lower patio, mud kitchen and kids play area needs to be visible from the house so you can watch over them.

Another thing I LOVE the look of is the embedded seating around a fire pit, You’d only use this at night so I’m thinking of placing at the back of the garden as wouldn’t want to annoy neighbours.

Storage shed?

We have similar conversations here. We have a pretty big garden, maybe 50m x 80m and it has lots of bedding plants and interest but this massive big lawn. Zoning seems to be fashionable, but I can’t see how we would. And anyway, kids love to play on a lawn.

Trampoline

Please leave a section of the garden to grow wild, and think of drainage. Perhaps gravel/stones not a patio will help.

I think a BIG thing to consider at this point is how much time you want to spend gardening on an ongoing basis. Also, you say mud kitchen/play area for your little ones. Presumably those little ones will get older and will probably appreciate as big a lawn space as you can give them to run around in. Honestly, other than the evening patio/fire pit area, I would probably leave it much as it is for the moment.