help for novice

[anoldcharter]

Been searching the internet and reading these boards for inspiration but I am pretty clueless and overwhelmed with the information out there so thought maybe someone could give me a few pointers on where to start

Moved to a house with a reasonable sized garden, mostly grass and three borders. The border on the right hand side looks pretty healthy, has a larger conifer, lovely acer and a few other largeish shrubs that look nice, also lots of green shoots (daffs possibly) shooting up over the last couple of days - bird feeder here and lots of birds and squirrels visit.

Border at back also has quite a lot of shoots, and has two large shrubs / small trees that I would keep, but everything in between looks messy and a lot of carpet growth (looks like Ivy?) this backs onto woodland so lots of trees and I would imagine a lot of shade.

Left side border is mostly a mess, it has a conifer and a buddleia (?) which I would keep, but not much else, looks like lots of flattened grasses?

Where do I start? Garden is mainly west facing, but lots of trees in neighbours garden too - I'll post some photos - one taken from Oct when we first moved in, too dark to get one now but I'll try and get one tomorrow...

Any help gratefully received

There will be much more knowledgeable people than me (the gardening board is a bit like gardening itself, be patient, the results are worth the wait).

Your garden looks lovely, scope to make it your own, but doesn't require a massive overhaul.

A lot of people say don't make major decisions about your garden till you've been there for a year. You'll see what gets sun when at different times, what plants look best when. There might be stuff that has still to emerge.

If I was in your shoes, I'd be thinking about tall stuff that doesn't mind the shade for the back border.

I would agree with 'wait and see' .Meanwhile you can plant annuals this year for splashes of colour.
Your patio is nice, perhaps you could echo that circular shape elsewhere in the garden. Look at GoogleImages for "garden design circles" - two circular lawns squished together in an eight-shape (or snowman shape!) is popular at the moment.
Also, I think a 'focal point' of some sort would add interest.
Another also: do you need a path?

thanks both.... should have said we have (since this photo was taken) knocked down the old greenhouse and falling down shed and replaced with a new shed and yes, we have a path planned to go down the left hand side to the shed.

I guess maybe I need to be patient then and just see how things change over the year. I want some colour on the back border, I love the red / orange colour of the Acer that we have on the right hand side, but guessing its too shaded there for one of those??

I love the idea of a circular connecting lawn but feel my DS will be v upset that he won't be able to play football so I maybe will have to wait a few years for that.

I feel this might take up quite a bit of time planning what to change (if much) for next year.

Cheers again

I love the idea of a circular connecting lawn but feel my DS will be v upset that he won't be able to play football
This is one of the important aspects of design: deciding what the garden is for.

Acers can take a degree of shade.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Acers can take a degree of shade.

Bit expensive, though, just to try one as an experiment.

If your garden is west facing, then the border by the wood will get the morning sun

yes it does mere maybe I'll look for something less expensive but still those lovely colours to put in the border by the wood - i'm envisaging lots of hours and pounds spent at the local garden centre

hmmmm just wondering what people think about Virginia creeper on that back border fence, its the colour that I love, and I think it likes shaded areas, is it a good choice?

Morrisons sometimes has acers at a very reasonable price, so I would keep an eye out for supermarkets and the like. If you've only paid £3 or 4 for it it doesn't matter so much if it doesn't take!
Agree, wait and see this year. Think about what it will be used for (enough room for football, plants that will withstand occasionally being flattened and so on). Maybe as the year goes on take pictures of bits you would like to leave or areas that need changing, then you can look back easily and plan accordingly.
No idea about Virginia creeper, sorry, bu aren't they rather rampant?

Hi OP, your garden looks lovely! Those mature trees at the back are fabulous! I'm fairly new to a west facing garden too, and I'm still trying to work out that tricky border to the left! With a west facing garden the right hand border is south facing, so it gets baked by the sun, and the left hand border is north facing so is often is in shade. I sat on my hands for the first year (tricky I know!) before starting to formulate a plan. I've focused on finding shrubs that can tolerate shade (trying to find evergreens where I can), and once those are established I'll fill in the gaps with some shade loving bulbs and perennials. My newly planted viburnum tinus is going great guns on the left hand side- it flowers in winter which is lovely, and is evergreen too. My hydrangea arborescens has grown but is not really thriving, I don't think its getting enough sun to flower well. I've planted sarcococca, which are meant to thrive in shade too, they're looking good but they are taking a while to put any growth on (I wish I'd grown bigger plants now!). I've also planted hydrangea seemannii, Garrya elliptica and Blepharocalyx cruckshanksii which are all meant to thrive in shade, but I planted them fairly recently so I can't really give an opinion on them yet- although nothing has died!

My advice would be to really do your research on what will suit the site (so suitable for shade/semi shade on that left hand side), and buy bigger plants than you might think to. Everything on the left side of my garden is taking much longer to get established than I would have thought.

Once the shrubs are established some of the plants I'm earmarking to fill in the gaps are snowdrops, Japanese anemone, larger ferns, Solomons seal, anemone nemorosa and sweet woodruff. There's a great website called Plants for Shade that I've found really useful www.plantsforshade.co.uk

Oh wow @Wondaa all that information is just fantastic! Thank you. I'm off to do some research on all the fab suggestions and have a look at that website.

You’re welcome! Enjoy your lovely garden!

Virginia Creeper is very vigorous. I git rid if my closely related Boston Ivy when it started growing three storeys in a single year. It might be easier to manage on a fence, though you would be keeping it artificially small.

Thank you all 😁 some really useful comments.
Hmm mere I didn't realise it was that vigorous 😱