Help us decide what to do with this corner of our garden! (See pics)

[Crunchyside]

Hope the wise/creative gardeners of Mumsnet can help us! I've included pics from a couple of angles. Corner in question has a red square around it in the panorama image. As you can see, at the moment it is just home to a small pile of dirt.

Basically we've lived here 3 years and still haven't decided what to do in that corner. It's a nice sunny corner but it's sloped and not a huge amount of space so unfortunately we probably can't put a patio or decking with full sized table and chairs there.

We've had all sorts of ideas but never really settled on anything:

• Arbour/corner seat
• Extend the raised beds all the way to the fence
• Extend the raised beds all the way to the fence with a little corner seat/bench in the corner (this would be a DIY job)
• Very small patio/decking area, just big enough for a bench/deckchair and a couple of pots
• Pizza oven or brick BBQ
• Red telephone box (replica, can't afford £6-10k for a real one )
• Playhouse for toddler (probably not enough space for this)
• Play equipment for toddler (ditto?)

I guess I'd really like a place to sit in the sunny spot even if it's not a dining set. We don't currently have a garden table and chairs and in the summer we just sit on a picnic blanket for BBQs, because our patio is in the shade nearly all day.

Just want some fresh eyes on it really - any thoughts on existing ideas or new ideas welcome too!

I'd put an arbour, climbing, fragarent roses and some paving for a small bistro table and chairs. Pinterest might give some ideas along these lines.

I would shorten the raised bed in order to be able to make a decent sized patio/deck area where you can sit.

Put a nice bench there, with some nice fragrant flowers. Just sit there an enjoy the sun :)

Like Liara I would shorten/ remove the nearest raised bed and have a decent sized curving patio with a dining set. Play equipment could go on the lawn?

I like my raised beds Only good spot for growing veggies/fruit... Before we put the second one in, we did consider having a larger decking/patio area in but it would have been a massive piece of work due to the slope of that corner... doesn't show that well in the photos but in order to bring the corner up level with the rest of the garden it would end up with the ground level being nearly halfway up the fence - so if we then stood in the corner we'd be taller than the fence. If we only have to bring a smaller area level it wouldn't be too bad though.

I do think a nice place to sit would be good! Have been browsing on Pinterest. Just got to convince DH to do a DIY job as we are supposed to be on a low budget at the moment!

Totally understand your reservations!

Another thought, could you turn the final raised bed 90 degrees to the fence so it juts out into the lawn. Then use it to border the new deck/ patio in the corner? That way you wouldn't lose it and it would still get good sun. Neighbours have similar and it looks great. If it leaves a gap you could even fit an extra portion of raised bed in against the fence to make a continuous right-angled raised bed.

I really love having a proper garden table and chairs, it's a must for me. Somewhere to admire your garden from and watch the children play while you enjoy a a nice cold beverage
Personally I prefer a folding wooden set as you can pack it all away in the shed over winter and the chairs take up less room if they're not all in use.

I've never built a deck before but I thought the beauty was that you don't need perfectly level ground. I could be wrong! If you end up losing a bit of fence height you could always add trellis on top of the fence plus a few climbers which would finish it off nicely.

What do you think?

But have a built in cover for the sandbox. After kids outgrow it, you can turn it into another veg box.

Or a water feature