Blank canvas with pictures!

[Helpmyhair2019]

Hello
Last year we moved into our new house and have a garden (see attached photos) that was pretty much all a vegetable patch when we moved in. Last year we just tried to grow as much grass as we could and had the two huge apple trees cut back professionally.

What can we do with the rest? We would ideally like to keep the centre of the garden grassy, we want to update the patio and keep the chickens in their run next to the greenhouse as they’ve been totally free range but have eaten lots of the grass seed!

We have a small budget of approx £350 so would like to use this to create bushy colourful borders covering as much of the fences as possible. We are putting a fence around the gas tank eyesore! But what bushes/plants would we use? I’m a total gardening novice so other than planting more grass seed don’t know where to begin!

More pics here

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=157

This site is great for ideas - I'm quite new to gardening but designed a border (still a work in progress) using books from the library and websites. You'll need to know where the sunny spots and shady spots are, and I wouldn't think you would be able to plant under the trees as would be too dry and shady.

Shrubs can be bought cheaply if you pick small ones and wait for them to grow, depends how impatient you are!

There's a lovely book which could be just what you need to help you decide what you want to do. It is called 'Making a Garden' by David Stevens, City & Guilds leisurecraft books.

There are chapters which might be particularly useful in assessing what you already have, what you want to keep, and what needs to be got rid of. Then planning what you want to have in your garden, and how to do it.

There are a few gardening shows on Netflix that you might like.

There’s one by Monty Don. I think it’s called Big Dreams, Small Spaces or something like that.

As a start, draw a plan of your garden and track the sun through the day. Then you can plot what type of plants do best where you want them.
When planting and creating new beds think about the view from the house windows and having plants that give all year round interest and colour.

Fab space, is all I want to say!