If this was your garden what would you do?

[Pipbin]

It faces due south but there are a lot of trees at the back, we back onto a park.
There are a lot of trees in the garden too but the main willow has been cut back a lot so there should be more light.

Here it is in the summer.

I really like that!

It's so interesting, and like a fairy glade. I would want to have strings of lights across it, and little bridges...

That probably wasn't the response you were looking for though. Sorry

No kids.

Not much desire for chickens either.

It is like a fairy glade isn't it Fog. The bottom is a bit of a mess though. We have two apple trees and a pear tree but the willow has been blocking out so much sunlight that nothing was really getting a fair crack.

We want to put a summer house where the shed is. I love the idea of lights.

And a picture from the summer when the willow was all big.

I think it's beautiful! Maybe add in some climbing \ rambling plants like roses for a splash of colour... Bulbs for spring time. And definitely those fairy lights!

What do you want from it? Vegetable garden? Big patio? Croquet lawn? Whatever you do should be driven by what you want to use the garden for.

Well as I said, no children, so it'll be a grown up sitting about in garden.
It's too dark to grow any vegetables really. There is also a patio at the top by the house.
The funny thing about it is that we can't get to it directly from our house, we have to go out our back door, down a shared set of steps and through a gate.

A picture from the other end and one from the patio.

The only plant that I really don't like is cyclamens!
I might see what it is like once it gets a bit sunnier.
I think that having the willow chopped back will allow so much more light into the garden.

Massive trees will be draining the water from the soil which will be a big problem. How about Ferns I'm some of the trickier areas?

Clematis like their roots to be cool and shaded and then grow up into the sunlight, so that might work.

How about a pergola or something with a hammock underneath? That would be my idea of heaven!

That's really very pretty!

I very much like the way you've created a circular area towards the front by just hinting at the circle rather than filling in the whole thing - it looks terrific. In fact, it's SO nice that I'd be tempted to do it again further up but on the opposite side: so you have a circular area to the left at the bottom, and a circular area to the right in the middle third of the garden, with a narrow, very curvy path inbetween. It would involve shifting the second third of the path quite a bit more to the left, so it follows the line of that existing circular mini-hedge you've so cleverly planted. You'd then use the same kind of circular movement with another row of shrubs to the right.

This would give you a real sense of drama: you see the first circle, you walk through a narrow area where the path is framed quite closely on both sides by circles and then a second part of the garden unfolds on the other side, and then you have the lovely, shady end of your garden as a third area.

You are lovely Holly but I have done none of this. We have been here three years and done naff all.

Clematis like their roots to be cool and shaded and then grow up into the sunlight, so that might work.

I could do that!

Pipbin - Well, it's a lovely space you have anyway! (And you can't have done naff all - it'd be a wilderness by now and it's not, it's a very lovely back garden!!)