Help! Long garden - summer house?

[sporky]

Recently bought a new house with a great plot but struggling to picture what to do with the garden. It's a completely blank canvas at the moment with absolutely nothing in it, just grass.

DH wants a summer house at the bottom, but I feel it's too far away from the house.

Garden is about 50m x 13m

Has anyone with a long garden placed a summerhouse along the side? I think with some thoughtful landscaping it will help break the length of the garden up, DH thinks it would look wrong.

Or is anyone with a long garden prepared to share pictures/drawing of their landscaping so I can get an idea of how to break it up?

TIA

Hopeful bump

I think I'm team bottom-of-the-garden. I feel like I wouldn't actually want a summerhouse to be particularly close to the house, otherwise I might just as well be in the house anyway!

Thanks for your thoughts....50m away from the house just feels really far away, especially with young children in the house I'd worry they wouldn't know where we were! DH is picturing us sat down there, enjoying a drink in the evening and I'm picturing the kids dialling 999 thinking they've been left alone 🤣

How old are your kids? If they're old enough to dial 999, aren't they old enough to dial your mobile?

We have a long garden which is divided up - terrace just outside the house, catches the sun, it's where I grow my herbs, another terrace with big pots for veg, then the greenhouse with a slightly winding path down to third terrace, covered seating area, pond. Then "wild flower meadow" with bushes, followed by trellis with loganberries and raspberries, then formal veg garden now completely shaded by 30 year old apple trees, and finally the "woodland" with a hammock hung between two flowering cherries. Not outstanding garden design, but it divides up a long narrow plot. What works for us is a seat just outside the back door - if you just want a quick sit down with a cup of coffee, you're not going to take it to the end of the garden - and quite a few sitting areas scattered through the garden for change of scene as well as the main sitting area.

On the other hand, neighbours moved in to similar garden, put the whole thing through a shredder, and ended with unobstructed view from one end to the other, covered half with paving, the rest with grass, and put up a climbing frame and a trampoline, which now their children are older has been replaced with a garden room half way down the plot.

We have a very long, thin garden (40m) and DH built a workshop / house for his motorbikes at the end. In front of that is a raised decked area where we have the BBQ. With a long thin garden it's difficult to put anything to the side!

Youngest is 4 but very safety savvy after having lots of safety talks at nursery. Eldest would probably run around screaming. I'm being a little dramatic but still uncomfortable with it being so far away from the house. But I think the general consensus is right, it wouldn't work being closer to the house to the side, particularly as the garden isn't very wide.

I'd like to break the garden up into areas - veg plot at the far end, a play area for the kids and some pretty borders/planted areas. Then a patio/BBQ area at the back of the house.

13m wide is not thin! I agree that 50m s a bit far for summer house and would put it closer.

If you place it closer it will create a natural break if you want to do what most gardening shows suggest and break up the length into 'rooms'

They’re not going to be that young forever, it might be a couple of years of checking on them if the summer house is down the bottom, but you’ll love it when they’re a bit older. How about a bbq hut then you can use it year round (I love mine)

We have a long narrow garden. And put a summer house facing back up to tie house about 2/3rds of the way down. Behind is not seen from the house and is veg plot and compost area with a little storage too..

We have a very long garden (nearly a quarter of a kilometre 😳) and whilst I hate the idea of 'garden rooms' as espoused by many landscapers, I have zoned the garden.
The last third is the meadow, accessed through an arch but still visible from the house as the barrier is formed by raised beds. Benches and thinking spots, native hedging, dogwood copse, spring flowering shrubs.
The middle section is, on the sunny side, The Med and in the shady side 'The Bog' with a wide (12m) lawn between the two. Part of the sunny side is the produce zone. The Bog will soon have a wildlife pond added.
The nearest third is English Country and we have a quadrant summer house here at the far end of the area, facing back towards the house. Rose beds, fountain, etc.
Just take your time. Learn about your soil. Never economise on shed and summerhouse bases. Spend lots of time sitting in the sun and thinking.

Oh I know @BewareTheBeardedFatMan I just mean in comparison to the length!

That sounds lovely @LionLily

If your youngest is 4, then you should be able to explain to both of them that you go into the summerhouse each evening.

A story, to show we all worry about these things ...

When we moved into our current house, we had a toddler and a four year old. There's a private road at the back, leading to the other houses on the road, and most of our garden is the other side. We have a terrace close to the house with a small wall round it, and an open gateway - no gate. And the private road opens on to one of the busiest roads in the city. So obviously, when we moved in, we thought "install a gate, confine the children to the terrace, but in the meantime we stressed that under no circumstances were either of them to go past a defined marker at the side of the house. We still haven't got round to putting a gate in., and the youngest is considering starting his own family.

Then a family with two under 5s moved in next door. They have no terrace garden near the house, so planned to install an automatic gate across the private road. But we're all natural procrastinators, and their children grew up, and the idea faded. Then the house beyond that acquired a new baby, and the gate idea reared its head again ...

It still hasn't been installed and I doubt it ever will.

@MereDintofPandiculation thanks for sharing, you're absolutely right. I will spend the next few months (or year probably) taking my time to understand the garden and where the sun is, etc while we tackle the house. And most likely put a summer house down the bottom 🤣

Which direction does the garden face? That might alter where you put a summer house too.

I would go for one about half way down and to one side. I would prefer that to one at the end with all that trekking along with various things you might want to take there. Think it would look better.

I would go for one about half way down and to one side. I would prefer that to one at the end with all that trekking along with various things you might want to take there. It doesn't make much difference whether you trek 50m or 25m, as soon as it's further than just outside the back door, it's a major expedition.

It's useful to have an electric kettle, and a jerrycan for water.

Whether it looks best at the side or at the end depends on the design of the garden and its width. If it's very narrow, having it constrained to not much more than an alleyway part way down isn't great.

@Tumbleweed101

Which direction does the garden face? That might alter where you put a summer house too.

It's west south west

Ahh ok, so it won’t make much difference as the garden will get the afternoon sun.

Marking my place - long garden here and lots to do !

I would put the summer house halfway down to break things up.

My garden is half an acre, and divided into rooms/zones/whatever you want to call them. Outside the back of the house we have a patio, then steps leading down through rose terraces (as the land slopes downhill slightly) to the main lawn. This has flower borders around it, except for on one side (at right angles to the house) which has a pergola and gazebo over a second dining area, for when it gets too hot up on the top patio by the house.

At the far side of the main lawn, opposite the house, you go through an arch in a thick leylandii hedge (I know I know, previous owners put it in but I maintain it rigorously so it is clipped, dense and not too high) to a second lawn. This is the kids’ territory, with goal posts and a badminton net in summer. It is surrounded by a clipped leylandii hedge which keeps all the balls and shouty children contained.

Another archway through the far side of the bottom hedge leads to the bottom garden, which houses the compost heaps, bonfire patch, wildlife log piles and whatnot.

Kitchen garden is on the other side of the house.

Welcome @TiddleTaddleTat! So far all I've decided is that the hedges need a good cut, I reckon I've got another 2 foot of garden in there having realised there's a boundary fence right in the middle 🤣

@VenusClapTrap - I am thinking zones/whatever you want to call them is the plan.