Help me with small garden design please!

[hippychick12]

This is my garden . It's not to scale but it's wide and short with a big summerhouse at the back. 2 patio areas a tiny patch of grass a big hedge on one side and a fence the other.

At the moment it's just patio leading to grass with no definition or areas. I have garden furniture on the right hand patio as this gets sun the patio immediately in front of the house doesn't get much sun as garden is north facing

Any budding designers here who can give me advice? I thought perhaps a patio tree or climbers on fence but not sure which.

Also how do I distinguish patio from grass ( low wall maybe? . We have patio doors leading out to the garden so would also like some flowers or point of interest to look at .

I don't think I can do much next to the hedge and I have a trampoline next to that

I also have a small child who likes to play football so need to have nothing too fragile

Thanks

Anyone?

Hard to work out the scale, do you have any photos or a rough measurement? What do you want to be able to do or have in the garden? E.g. entertaining, play areas (how old are DC?)

Thoughts so far are perhaps low raised beds around patio to plant up with flowers/herbs and beds or tubs around summer house. As the right hand patio is sunny that would be good for climbers against the wall.

What plants make up the hedge? The garden might be sunnier if that was cut lower?

Are there trees in the garden?

A flowering cherry or apple tree in the corner by the summer house would give a focal point.

Thanks

There is a large conifer to the right of the summerhouse which I've drawn on in my rubbish pic!

The hedge is a mixture of allansorts privet laurel etc

Tree a good idea on the patio

I set need something between patio and lawn as they are roughly same size and make garden look very small ( wide and shallow)

I would think about getting rid of the conifer as they usually just create shade and poor growing conditions for other plants.

As you have a DC who will be using the garden for playing, I would look into getting a few robust plants such as Hydrangeas and hebes and planting them in containers on the patio. Large plastic pots are good because they are cheap and easy to move around. Near your bac door you could plant a climber such as a rose or clematis which will grown on a N facing wall. (this is what I have).
As your summer house is in some sun, I’d put wall planters, the manger type, and plant seasonal bedding plants that you can see from the house.

Photo attached

Ah see you’ve got a Hydrangea already. Another plant that’s good for a planter is a Fatsia Japonica, they’re almost indestructible and don’t mind partial shade.
I definitely wouldn’t make any flower beds in the lawn.

Hi thanks

No I was hoping to maybe put something on the patio ( raised bed) to make it appear less wide and the garden bigger as the patio isn't used for anything.

Or an arch or something as a focal point . I read on Pinterest that small Gardens look best when you can't see all of it so it looks bigger but I don't know how to achieve this

We had a pergola put across where our lawn met the paving. We used a fencing firm to put it up because we wanted it to be very sturdy and long lasting. It is about 10 ft wide, was under £100 ( although they were doing other work in the garden) and is strong enough to hang a swing from.
We grow a vine and clematis over it. You could make raised beds with sleepers on the patio, but drainage might be a problem, unless you lifted some of the slabs.

Thanks bee do you have a pic of your pergola ?

Can you take up the un used patio and replace with lawn/ beds?

Here’s a picture of my pergola. It might out me, but I don’t post anything controversial.😁

That's great thanks beebumble

Do you think I could just add beds on top of patio or would that cause drainage problems? Are there beds with an insert which would mean it wouldn't sit on slabs?

Beds on top of the patio would either drain out onto the patio and leach soil stains or would not drain and become boggy.
You could lift the slabs that would be under the beds.

I'm thinking that I should lift some of the paving slabs and replace with beds.

Or pay someone to landscape. Any experience of this? How much would I need to budget

Ideally want to do something that had maximum impact and minimum cost!