Long narrow garden

[MightyMeerkat]

I'm in the process of buying a house which has a very narrow (4 or 5 metres) but long (80 metres) garden. At the moment, it is mainly lawn with an abandoned area at the moment which is overgrown. I've never had a garden before so am a bit at a loss as to where to start.....

If I have the funds then I would like to create a series of raised beds with railway sleepers and install a summerhouse but I suspect I won't have the funds for some time - the fence will need to be repaired in the first instance which is going to cost an arm and a leg Can anyone suggest any inexpensive ways of giving the garden some character? And maybe breaking it up slightly into zones?

Thank you

Maybe make it a curvy lawn to the bottom with slightly deeper borders along the way. Focus on boring stuff like fixing the fence first. If you have kids make it an adventure to get to the bottom of the garden. A lavatera gets big and bushy quickly with lots of blousy flowers and it flowers for ages - and you'll curse that suggestion because you'll need to keep it in check.

We had one that was about 15feet wide, and 160feet long. It had a couple of large trees, and a steep bank up at the end, which did make a difference. We laid a wiggly line path from top to bottom. This gave the effect of staggering the beds, and so brought it all together. It worked brilliantly. I even made a couple of them veg beds, and it worked, because the flower beds in front and behind softened them completely. We also had two round patio areas, one towards the middle, and one at the bottom, which were shaded at different times of the day, and the shed at the bottom just before the slope.

A bit of patio, some lawn with dug beds with wavy lines (you can fill in later), and some trees to break it up. My garden is about as wide as yours but only 40 ft long and zoning it has helped make it seem larger. I'm getting some planters, I've put a shed at the end and I think I will get a pagoda to go across the width of the garden about a third of the way down so I can grow things up it and zone it some more. I agree with the pp about having things to push through if you can. Could you mow a path through the overgrown bit to create a 'meadow' area?
Finally, I'm going to get some festoon lights at one end.
Buddlias grow quickly, and lavender and fushias are good investments.