Anyone with a wide shallow garden

[hrgy]

Our garden is wide but not deep

I'm looking for inspiration on how to transform it.

Currently it has a boring square patio in front of the house and to the right, a boring patch of grass and an overgrown hedge to the left

How can I make it look better?

Depends what you want to use the space for and how you define "better" - more interesting? More plants? More variety? Less of a boxy feel? Colour?

What do you mean?

Also, how radical are you prepared to be about transforming it?!

What's the budget?

I would plant tall, interesting shrubs along the sides of the patio. I like a "hidden" seating area that is shielded from other sections of the garden. Laviteria (sp?), weilega(sp?), bamboos, smoke bush, that kind of thing.

Smaller gardens can benefit from being broken up into different zones - when you always have somewhere else to travel to it tricks your brain into interpreting the space as being bigger even though each of your zones is now smaller than the whole garden was originally.

Diagonals also make short/small spaces feel bigger.

And dark coloured fencing would recede away from you, making it feel bigger. Whereas your light fencing advances towards you and makes you feel hemmed in (it's the opposite colour rule to working indoors). If you want to feel cocooned though, light colours are the way to go.

But mostly it depends on what you want from the space.

Thanks for suggestions

I think it needs landscaping the patio is uneven and I was wondering about getting it decked but not sure if that will make it high maintenance and slippy

Also can you deck over patio or will it need removing

I want it to feel less boxy. I like white tendered walls which I have tried to achieve with planters but they are expensive. I think a few curves or diagonals would work as pp said to break up the space

I've also been pinteresting re garden mirrors which look interesting

The patio nearest the house is almost always in shade ( garden is north facing)

The patio on the right against the fence is in full sun until evening and probably needs some shade as that's where our furniture is

I was thinking about a pergola

Sadly kids trampoline and goal need to stay!

Budget .. not sure whatever it takes to get it looking nice but ideally not too much!

Should also say I love the hedge as it's green all year and attracts loads of birds but it has ivy and weeds growing through it at the bottom and it's become far too wide and obviously I can't plant anything on that side of the garden

I'm not sure how I can make it narrower

We have a garden quite similar to yours- though I suspect yours is longer.

We've done what a PP suggested and split it up into areas; we've put a seating area on both sides of the patio - a small folding table and chair on one side and a little sofa, chair and coffee table on the other.

We have different height plants in the garden and you can't see the whole thing like you can yours; we have a dwarf willow and a magnolia next to each other, some pots with irises in them next to those. Along the fence we've got a jasmine on one side and mock orange on the other and a couple of buddleia. They all smell lovely and break up the space more than one type of plant would do.

We've painted the fence a dark colour - it's dark green at the moment but we don't really see it because of all the plants along it. Having the different seating areas means we can make the most of the sun; we face west at the back so move round the garden as the sun does.

Which direction do you face?

North @maxonebitch

Your garden sound lovely

Have you got a pic?

I don't have a pic but this is a good thread for pictures of gardens.

I’m just redesigning our current garden, did the same with the last house. Here are some tips I found helpful.

Draw a birds-eye picture. Mark what you can’t move. Mark where the sun goes.

Write a list of essentials and desirables eg seating in morning, kids play. Look at the sun and mark where they could go.

Mark on paths. They have to go relatively straight or you’ll end up cutting the corner. If you want curved paths then block the way with plants etc.

You can mark out the design with your current planters to get an idea of how it would work in practice for walking around / sun etc.

Buying paving or decking is expensive. Look into lifting the existing paving and re-laying in a different shape, or rearranging to form paths etc.

We’re about to put in a pergola. If you do, make sure it will provide enough shade- the sun never goes directly overhead in the UK so you could find that half of the area underneath stays sunny. Use a stick’s shadow to check the shade area.

For plants put redder plants nearby and blues further away to make the garden look longer. That’s what light naturally does, like mountains far away look blue.

How about changing the shape to a backwards “C”? Curve the patio inside the angle of the L. Make a path at the end so you walk around the backwards C to the hut. Have a plant area from the hedge sweeping out to the centre and back. Fill the middle with grasses and soft plants, put shade loving wild flowers under the hedge. Hide the trampoline and goal at the tip of the C where they are now.

I'd avoid decking. Slippy, especially where it isn't in the sun, and rat heaven.

Your garden looks a lot better than I was expecting from your description

You can cut a hedge right back, up to 50% of its width according to the RHS - just don't do it the same year as your neighbour decides to do it. www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=398

Great tips thanks @peajotter

@MereDintofPandiculation thanks!

I just want to make the best of what we have. We live in a nice area and lots of our friends have what I would call "grown up" gardens and they are much bigger than ours

I love our summerhouse and our hedge and we can't afford to move so just trying to improve what we have

Decking may not be right .. I don't want rats or slippiness. I just think the patio as it is ( not level) and all the grout between the slabs has come out needs attention and then I think well we may as well start from scratch!

And we have a massive conifer which again I love ( reminds me of the magic faraway tree for any Enid blyton fans! ) but it sheds loads and I can't imagine much will grow under it

@hrgy you could build a slippery slip!

Or remove some of the lower branches. They are much wider than the top and will increase the light to the ground massively without destroying the tree.

@peajotter dh is reading the magic faraway tree just now to ds and I wanted to sit in. Haha slippery slip.. I loved it !

Has anyone got decking and patio .. does it look odd?

I've got a landscaper coming on the weekend so any ideas welcomed!