Sorry - I realise a long list of questions is probably not very helpful before you've moved in!
The first garden I designed myself was a new build full of rubble and on a slope.
From experience, the most important element of the design is the hard landscaping… The patios, paths, pergolas, arches, trellis, steps etc, and where the lawn will be positioned (if you want one). Mistakes here can be costly, time consuming and very hard work to fix. Plan this part well before deciding on any planting.
Four crucial factors for this -
-The garden aspect (the direction your garden faces). You don’t want to lay a patio only to find its in the gloomiest, darkest, coldest part of your garden with no afternoon sun, and equally, you don’t want your recycling and bin storage shed monopolising the only lovely sunny corner.
- The entry/exit points into the garden - Arranging your garden’s hard landscape around these points successfully will help your garden flow.
-The garden scale and your preferred style, to ensure the garden is not overly dominated by one prominent feature, and has a sense of balance and harmony. Particularly important in a small plot.
-How the garden will be utilised, so lots of outdoor entertaining might mean a larger patio area with extra seating and lighting, with little or no lawn.
At the start, collect some bamboo sticks and rope. Use these to mark out the hard landscaping areas in the garden horizontally and vertically, and leave them down for a few weeks before you start any work.
Go sit out on a camping chair for a while in the proposed patio area at different times of the day - is it sunny? Traffic noise? Overlooked? Are you missing a lovely vista a few feet further over?
What’s the view from the window/doors at the back of the house? Is the proposed moon gate blocking the best view of the garden? Will the pathways be too narrow to navigate easily? Is one feature too large and dominant? You get the idea.
Hope that helps!