Any help with my garden?

[TheGirlWithAPrince]

Hey all :) so i have a massive garden .. its wide and long and has a bit of woodland at the back.

At first i thought that was great as lots of potential but now im so confused on how to design it!!!! I want a large patio seating /entertaining area and then to keep a lot of the grass for kids to play and also to plant some fruit trees at the bottom of the garden but im so lost on where to put things and stuff

At the moment its just grass and a tree will try to input picture but cant get the whole garden in one picture so will be a picture of half of it.

What do you people think? Any ideas of what i could do to it. I do want to paint the fence mahogany and cut the grass and bushes back

I also want big planter boxes full of herbs

You will be limited what you can do right now

First, measure the garden accurately & draw a plan with all existing features & measurements on it. Work out where the sun hits at various times of the day. Think about what you will want to be in the sun (e.g. herbs) & where to put them, remembering that if you put in trees or large shrubs they will shade things. Work out how big an area you want for the kids, & what shape. Check out those fruit trees for height, width, seasons, all-year interest, soil type required, etc.

Love the idea of a dark fence. We once painted ours black & it made every colour zing when seen against it. Unfortunately, it faded quite quickly.

Remember that if your soil type is wrong for the plants you fancy, consider putting them in pots. We've had to do that with some things. I'd say go for neutral/natural colour pots (not loud colours or bright terracotta but earthy tones), but that's just me. I'm also a fan of lots of different foliage colours, as leaves last longer than flowers! Also think about attracting butterflies & bees.

@NoMorePoliticsPlease

Yeah i wouldnt be getting started til about june
So hoping that this corona will be sorted by then, maybe not but one can dream :D

ill be happy if i can do it in july as long as done before winter so its ready for next summer.

@ifIwerenotanandroid

Thank you :D thats really helpful, ive got a birdbath that i was thinking of using and will look into bee stuff because i love bees.

Im also thinking of getting a little solar panel water feature fountain thing , going with what you said about shade, i may plant the fruit trees by the house which is already shading a lot of it, i was thinking just 2 or 3 small trees and maybe a cherry blossom tree at the end of the garden for prettiness haha

June or july! You must be joking! Any gardeners worth using will be booked up with their usual clients and thats only if they are able to keep working.

@bilbodog

I've got one :D

My uncle is a gardener but actually retired so he said he will do it thankfully.
He's also got some good ideas and has shown me some tiles that i love for the patio, just thinking of all those personal touchs

Keep your herb garden planters close to the back door, so you can nip out and quickly cut the herbs you need when cooking.

👍👍👍

@AdaColeman ohhh good idea!!! See things like this i dont think about

Another idea is if you are going to make an arbour where you can sit and read or day dream, plant some honeysuckle, lavender and roses near it so you get wafts of sweet scents.

Think about what you are going to use the garden for, and at what time of day, then plot where and when the sun falls in different areas. For instance, if you plan to sit and have early evening drinks in the garden then note where it's a sunny spot about that time.
You have got space for a few different seating areas, and you could give each one a different vibe with a range of planting.

You might like a flower bed especially to provide cut flowers for the house, lots of garden centres will have advice about specific plants for this.

I love Ada's arbour idea. How about sweet peas growing up it, for summer scent?

Cherry blossom can be out really early, so it's great when there's not much else around. Just check which ones flower when, as one of mine (prunus okame) has been & gone, while the unknown one (we didn't plant it) hasn't flowered yet.

Damn you guys are on it!!
@AdaColeman i bet you have a really nice garden :D im definitely going to do that!! A plant box full of nice scents, never smelt honeysuckle so will try that x

Thank you so much, im noting everything down that i should do and buy haha

Don't cut any of the bushes back until you have found out what they are, and whether you can incorporate them into a design. You need to know the best time of year to prune the different species anyway.

How long have you lived there?

Thank you @yamadori

I just moved in a week ago :D have been busy decorating the inside of house but then started thinking about the garden.

I will definitely see if we can incorporate them, im keeping the trees that are in the garden as they are nice :)

Have been thinking of a vegetable and fruit garden by the side of the house as there is a lot of wasted space and its close to the house then maybe have a tiled pathway leading to a patio area in the semi middle of the garden but a little closer to the house surrounded by planter boxes of nice smelling and pretty flowers with my garden furniture on and then fruit trees at the end of the garden near where the woodland is then that leaves plenty of just plain lawn for the kids to play

Consider raised beds for your vegetables.

@AdaColeman

Thank you :) yes i like the light brown wooden boxes in all different shapes and sizes.

Also thinking of doing a vegetable wall that i saw someone on youtube do, looked pretty cool as a veggie garden backdrop :D

This is all very new to me as i have never had a garden before so exciting but new

It is always a good idea to plot where you get the sunshine in the garden at different times of year, and also the direction of the prevailing wind. Then you can best decide where to put a seating area, and things like herbs, which like it sheltered and sunny - and fairly near the back door so you can pop out and pick them as you are cooking. Put mint in pots though, as it can get a bit rampant otherwise.

Veg like a reasonable amount of sun, and try and plan for there to be a water supply or hosepipe nearby, so you aren't lugging cans about if we get a hot summer.

You don't have to do it all at once, let things develop steadily

And find somewhere to start a compost heap as soon as possible.

Get yourself a nice giant piece of paper and let your imagination go!

Thats a fantastic garden, get a rope and mark out the borders, you can do all the planning and make borders seats etc now then its all ready for the summer and planting.
I would split it in to three, put the seating where you get the most sun facing south or west for late evening sun.
I would be tempted to make a frost / wood land trail at the bottom of the garden you could possibly grow a line of Bushes with a gate to separate the areas? Beach hedging is good as its green in the summer but the leaves turn brown but dont fall off in the winter, they only come off when new ones from in the spring.
Then have a footy pitch / play area for the kids
One top tip we did many years ago we buried all the cables for power to the shed and patio, outside lighting switched on from the house, pipes for an irrigation system too, its simple and cheap to do. An electrician can advise on cables and you save a fortune by doing the donkey work your selves.
The irrigation system waters the whole garden late at night on a timer, cost about £100 but so much time is saved not having to water the lawn and plants ( if on a meter dont bother)

How old are your children? I'd need a lovely pond in that garden.

Thank you guys :D some brilliant ideas! Would love a pond but my kids are 9 months and 20 months so unfortunately i need it as safe as i can make it haha, got a little toddler paddling pool and going to get a little play frame that has activities on it.

@Funf good idea about the wood trail :D

Put in a small seating area on the west side to catch the morning sun and one on the east side to catch the setting sun in the west. Some lovely planting around both would be really pretty and it's so lovely to have somewhere to drink your morning cup of tea or coffee, and somewhere else to enjoy a glass of wine at night as the sun goes down.

Thank you :D maybe i could do a sort of T shape patio with maybe one area a dining area and one area just a seating relax area

One of the favourite things I did was ask all my close family for their favourite plant (and the remembered favourite plants of family no longer here). I then made a "memory bed" because we have quite a small garden, and planted everyone's favourites in it. You've got enough space to spread out much more, but I just thought I'd share the idea - I love being able to tell DC that bleeding hearts were grandma's favourite, and the foxgloves are DH's, the climbing rose is Nana's etc etc