Help me plan my garden - I haven't a clue what I'm doing

[GinAndOnIt]

When we moved into the house, there was a rose plant at the top of the path which gives gorgeous flowers but is in need of a bit of attention I think - it was tangled in a bush and only 'set free' by me when I saw the flower. It's then grown three flowers since then and not done much else. I cut it back according to MIL's direction so hopefully it will be better next year.

Anyway, I was at the garden centre at the weekend and got three rose bush plants for fourteen quid, so that combined with a little rose plant DP gave me when we first moved in, I thought I could plant them with the existing rose and create a little rose garden at the top of the path. (It's a long path and I feel people need the little reward of seeing something pretty after completing the trek )

But I've started digging up a little area and now I think it's not big enough, and the plants will be too close together and/or too close to the hedge. I can't dig further towards the path as there's brick work there (?) so I'm stuck.

Do they look too close together on this pic? Am I better planting elsewhere? I could do a circular patch nearer the bottom of the path which could be bigger if they'd look better there, and maybe plant some other flowers with the rose at the top of the path.

What do you think? And what flowers would look nice and grow well in the original plot if it's too small for the roses?

I've attached a picture of where I wanted them to go, and also a picture of the bottom part of garden where I could dig a bigger patch.

Thank you!

Yes , a drawing woudl be good. Also you need to think about the views from the house, which rooms do you see the garden most from - is your kitchen window when you wash the dishes or the living room while you sit on the sofa .

you want to have something to look at from there

As you have a particularly good view into the fields , think how you coudo frame it in some way or design the garden to lead the eye to that view

Also think about sun and shade - that's going to be hard while you have these big bushes , but try to work it out on your plans . You'll have a better idea when then tractor and chains have ripped then out in the autumn

Don't forget to watch the Alan Titchmarsh how to be a gardener videos on you tube, they are a great introduction

Oh bloody hell, this is getting more complicated by the minute

I'm going to have a day of binge watching YouTube and gardening programmes I think.

The are worse things to do with a whole day ......

www.housetohome.co.uk/garden

I really really need a plan pleas, with indication of where north is and the house and so forth. And I will happily come and help you decimate your huge shrubbery - I love a bit of destruction.

Right I'll do a drawing now - have been trying to hunt out my drawing pad but can't find it anywhere! So it will have to be on the back of my smear results

I would be out there with the loppers, just hacking stuff down.

It is so tempting to buy stuff when you have a new garden, but part of gardening is patience.

I would wait until you get rid of all the hedges you want to, before starting to plan what goes where, as the space will be different.

Unless you are set on planting lots of bulbs (Autumn planting time) you can easily wait until next spring before planting perennials and shrubs.

Be prepared to make mistakes! Some plants love where you first put them and will thrive, others will give up the ghost.

Your next door neighbours know what works with the soil and aspect, so their advice will be invaluable.

Buy some of these books. I find them invaluable. (Rubbish at links, sorry)

I don't know if these will show up well enough but here are the drawings. I got carried away and ended up going onto a second piece of paper, so the one with the compass is the very end of the garden. Can take pics of anything that doesn't make sense

I really would be taking out that massive hedge asap.

So your front garden is North facing, but huge!
The amount of hedging must make it gloomy in places.

I can't remember if you said, but what general area in the country are you? Eg I am in East Anglia, so this means more dry conditions compared to the west, and we can get hard frosts quite late in the year.

Try to observe where and when you get sun in the garden. My back garden faces south and my main border is on the east side of the garden, but I have to be aware that from the afternoon, that side is in the shade, so the plants have to tolerate sun and shade.

I'm in Hertfordshire.

The drawing makes the big hedge just look ridiculous doesn't it. The front does get a fair bit of sun because of the lack of buildings, but the trees and bloody hedge do obviously create shade. The top and bottom half get sun for the second half of the day, but the pine tree and hedge stop the sun in the middle. The veg plot has done really well so I do think the garden has the potential for things to grow well.

Something my mum and cousin have done (they are really good gardeners) is create curves in their garden, so you can't see the end IYSWIM?

Oh how lovely! It's more curvy than next door's garden (theirs is a solid rectangle, with straight path) so bends would look nice.

I've just drawn on the original drawing with a rough idea of what I thought I could do. I don't have much imagination though.

I would, personally, have a path directly to the veg patch, but that's only for ease and getting veg in the rain!

There is a path that runs along the edge of it, would that not work? I wouldn't go out of the front door to get veg anyway because of walking back through the house with muddy feet, so if I'm going to walk round the edge of the house in the rain anyway, a few more steps round the veg won't hurt me

Just watching another episode of Garden Rescue and they're doing a long garden who want lots of veg on a low budget - could be promising for ideas!

I should also say, we don't really use the front door, so it's only really delivery men and new visitors who use the path to the front door.

Both gardeners suggested a curvy garden - you're definitely onto something mad

I would love a long garden to make curves. Mine is square, so going to make diagonal lineseventually

These are gorgeous, so many textures.

This was my border in June, at it's best.

Oh wow! What is that beautiful orange?

Can't leave the drawing alone now...

I did warn you it's addictive .....

Mad - your border is looking great, I love the colour scheme. I have a border that's annoying me because there's too much yellow and orange ( I think we have the same Orange geum ) , so I'm putting in some dark purple and blue to cool it down .

I've just bought

Buddleja Lochinch for the back
Salvia cardonna
Verbascum ' sugar plum ' ( new to me, supposedly only 30cm tall and purple )
Nepeta - one of my stalwarts as lavender isn't happy here

And I'm moving some dark blue Iris sibirica , sedum 'purple emperor, and hosta from elsewhere .

I love sedum, I'd have it everywhere.

Yes the geum went mad this year. I was disappointed that a lot of my alliums didn't come up, as they contrasted beautifully together the year before.