Tips for a small square garden

[Koph]

DS has bought a house with a back garden about 30' square. It's fenced and south facing. There is some patchy grass and one rather horrible holly tree.
He hates gardening and essentially wont do anything with it apart from adding some paving / patio. I'm happy to do a bit of work on it.
Any ideas for low maintenance and to make it look bigger / interesting?

One fence borders waste land which is very weedy. The other two border neighbours but all three sides are new 6' fences.
I love gardening but am limited by arthritis so not able to do wholesale landscaping.

i would stick to small shrubs that flower for a long time, maybe an autumn, spring and summer. if you plant them in a way that it looks like the garden mysteriously extends beyond them. They will just need pruning down once in a while.

A few queries to help give a useful reply -
What type of soil in the garden? Is it flat or on a slope?
Where in the garden is the holly tree located?

@Autumnscene, yes, good idea. There are no borders atm, would you make a bed in the middle?

I think the soil is probably clay and stony. Completely flat and the tree is in a corner, so if tne house is six o'clock the tree is 2 oclock.

I would work with the positive features you have - so
a square, flat garden would work well as a small, traditional and simple semi-formal design, with some symmetry, emphasising it's squareness.
If your DS isn't really into gardening, keeping an open square lawn with straight visible neat borders can look good all year round, and be appreciated whilst viewing from the house, if he or you, are prepared to mow the lawn.
With this type of set up you could use @Autumnscene's idea of small long flowering shrubs in the borders, along with evergreen low growing shrubs, and perhaps a couple of dwarf trees, such as crab apples with long lasting berries in winter.
Could the holly be pruned into a more formal shape - not necessarily topiary but a loose ball or double ball, above the trunk? Then perhaps add another at the opposite corner to balance it (so at 10 o'clock location).
I think I would be tempted to create border at the top and right hand side of the lawn; and have an L-shaped patio next to the house and along the left hand side. Then you could have seating, (perhaps a summer house) or a bbq set up to catch the afternoon sun from the west on the LH patio, and appreciate the garden from both sides.
You could use garden pots on the patios at the corners for small conifers, perenials, summer bedding etc as you feel able with each changing season. It would enhance the formality if you had 2 of each pot for each season.
If you had a strip of gravel between the house and patio you could sow annuals such as californian poppies which self seed and need no tending.
Although it's quite a traditional set up, the advantage of this type of garden is it's fairly easy maintenance, and you could adapt the range of pots as you are able to manage with your hands. Also, if you aren't able to tend it for a while, it's easy and quick to get it back in order or for someone else to easily spot which flora are weeds and which are plants and take over for a spell.

@brambleberries thank you so much, that is just brilliant! Those are really useful ideas.
The symmetry and straight lines would appeal to DS. He didn't like my suggestiions of curves at all .

My own garden is a riot of flowers and colour so I was a bit focussed on colour and hadn't really thought about using mainly shrubs. Again that would actually suit DS as he loves green plants and has lots of green house plants.

The holly tree is huge, probably 30'. It's dark and hideous and casts shade but the lower half has been pruned to a clean trunk. The ground beneath is bare as nothing will grow. I will try and thin it with my extending loppers but I think it probably needs more than I can do.

With a more formal type garden I would limit the colour scheme and repeat around the borders through the planting - eg: white, yellow and pink/purple for summer, perhaps switching to red/orange, yellow and white in winter.

I have tried to attach a plan of possible ideas for design and planting, with low maintenance shrubs that can be kept 2-3 feet high easily with just one trim a year (hope it attaches!)..

If you keep the holly tree it would be an ideal spot for a bird bath/ nesting boxes on the trunk and hanging feeders, or if you decide to have the holly tree cut down you could replace with the dwarf crab apple in the corners, or smaller amelanchier variety trees.

You could add interest with some garden lights - spaced uniformally to fit in with the formal theme - perhaps 3 at the end border and 3 each side ... either at the back of the borders in between the shrubs, or along the lawn edgings.

If you go with the summerhouse/fancy shed idea, you could dress this with a string of solar lights.

I like the idea brambleberries of shaping the holly tree. Maybe cyclamen would grow under it. There’s all sorts that like dry shade.. hellebore certainly does. Snowdrops and pulmonaria probably would too.

I'll try and print off your sketch bramble.

The brick edging is a nice touch and the vendor has kindly left a pile of old bricks and roof tiles.
I have some potted shrubs I've grown from cuttings - abelia, euonymous, cornus. I also have some solar fence lights.
Good time to buy some cyclamen @Autumnscene. They never survive in my own garden for some reason. I was thinking of just putting bark chips around the holly as it's just bare soil anyway.

Get him to think about what he will use the garden for, will he be sitting in it to chill after work, having friends over to bbq, does he cook and need herbs, does he want to encourage wildlife, eg birds, insects. Does he needs a table, how big, what style, what materials, urban chic or pub garden? Is there an outside tap? Having easy access to water makes a difference in keeping plants alive for a lazy gardener ,if no tap can he invest in a water butt?

I would forget about a lawn, it’s a small area but would still need regular cutting and edging, requiring tools needing storage. Paving would be the answer, but it’s important not to pave the whole area, there needs to be drainage so some open space/soil for surface water to soak away naturally is essential.

I honk he needs to think about having some different levels, to break up the space visually, this would be hard to achieve by landscaping and shifting soil, but you can do a lot with raised beds (really raised, say 40 cm, )or raised seating areas .

I would look at getting interesting pots that can be arranged in groups, lots of perennial plants grow well in pots or he could fill them with cheap annuals from the garden centre for seasonal interest.

In terms of plants he needs fool proof things that have strong lines and both look after themselves and have year round , or as near as damn it interest eg Fatsia japonica, standard bay tree, standard olive, figs, New Zealand flax, rosemary, lavender, winter box. All fine in pots, but they will be in them for a while so plant in decent compost like a John innes.

Does he know which fence is his? I think he could grow fan or cordon apples or pears, not too difficult and look striking.

I honk? Possibly, but I also think!

Thanks Viques.
I think paving more than a patio would be too expensive but he will still be left with only a very small lawn. DS will do nothing in the garden apart from cut the grass occasionally
All the fences are new and were installed by the previous owners but I don't think any of the neighbours would object to plants against the fences.
Fatsia is a good idea, lavender I have dozens of plants I rooted a year ago and have no home for!

@Koph

Thanks Viques. I think paving more than a patio would be too expensive but he will still be left with only a very small lawn. DS will do nothing in the garden apart from cut the grass occasionally All the fences are new and were installed by the previous owners but I don't think any of the neighbours would object to plants against the fences. Fatsia is a good idea, lavender I have dozens of plants I rooted a year ago and have no home for!

If he is going to have grass then why not go for a proper meadow, not just a lawn gone wild, but properly planted wild flowers, and no need to keep it Square , you could have all sorts of shapes a circle, a swoosh, a teardrop.... would need cutting once a year in late summer to make sure flower seed had set. I saw a very pretty meadow in an urban back garden, they had left a path through it so youcould walk through and really get close to the plants.