Advice for novice gardener and blank canvas garden

[dindot]

I'd be really grateful of some advice on where to start with our garden!

We've moved to a new build and have a decent sized southeast facing back garden, which is a bit of a sun trap. It's all turfed except for a paved patio. We were very lucky in our last house to have a beautiful garden with trees and shrubs which made the garden a joy to be in and plenty of privacy. We're now overlooked by several houses along the back and to the right, so we'd like to plant something along those borders for privacy as well as get a bit of colour and excitement to the garden year round!

Any suggestions on where to start would be most welcome!

Firstly I'd have a think about what you want. You've said privacy and colour -what colours? How much maintenance do you want to do? What do you want to DO in the garden? Seating? Bbq area? Do children need lawn to play on? Trampoline etc? Do you need storage...

And where ish in the country area you? Ie North South, coastal...?
And what is your soil type like, do you know?

Thanks - some good things to think about.
I'm quite happy with any colours really, although I did particularly love the white, blue and purple flowering plants in our old garden. I was thinking about something evergreen which would grow past the top of the fence along two borders to provide a bit more privacy but not sure what would be easiest to maintain. We have a toddler so wouldn't have tons of time for gardening!
We'll have plenty of lawn left over even with the two borders we're planning. There's one area behind the garage which is in the sun all day into the evening so we were thinking that could be an additional patio/bbq area in future but we're just leaving that alone for now.. one thing at a time!
We're in the north west about 30 minutes drive from the coast. I have no idea on the soil and not sure how to find out? All I know is the land was previously used for farming/grazing animals.
Thanks very much!

In new builds the soil is often poor and quite thin. As you dig down you find all sorts buried in there just to 'fill space' so be prepared to spend the first few years really working on getting the soil into good condition. Lots of organic additions and lots of coming across bricks etc that you remove as you go.

Well worth taking your time digging those borders and spending some time and £ adding in compost/composted bark and manure (for e.g.) to make a more fertile bed for whatever you end up planting. Then add a good organic top dressing yearly, at least for the first few years.

I would, anyway.

I am in the same boat. Not a new build. But the garden had grass patio and a shed. Nothing else.
I have spent the last few months watching where the sun is at different points in the day.
I have read and read and asked on here. And researched. I’m still going.
But yesterday two lots of seedlings emerged from my seeds!!!!!
Keep going. I’m doing it slowly with a two year plan.

Oo...South east facing garden - lovely!
I think this will likely mean your back and right hand borders might well be shaded for much the day by your fencing until late afternoon - is that right? And the right hand top corner will be in shade most of the time?

Agree with improving your soil & watch out for drainage.

A quick fix would be raised beds-we did this in 3 corner areas, all built from sleepers with stepped down a sleeper a the edges. I'm pleased with it but wish we'd built it from reclaimed brick. Before you decide, pick where you want your seating area as the sweet spot of the garden. Really recommend watching your garden made perfect, (I can't get some lovely gateposts from it out of my mind), garden rescue & filthy garden sos. Love them all!

An easy way to test your soil is to put a handful in a bucket of water. If it floats up to the top (or some of it does) it’s more sandy, if it sits on the bottom it’s more clay. It’s a rough guide anyway.

I agree with everyone’s comments about digging in organic matter to improve the soil.

Years ago I had a new build with overlooking neighbours, and I found things like a pergola, with a wisteria growing over (which I wouldn’t recommend as it broke the pergola 😂 but some other evergreen climber would be good) small trees, trellis on top of the fence with clematis all worked.

The gardening programmes do give good ideas especially how to make a garden feel bigger.

I always suggest Lucy Bellamy's book 'Brilliant and Wild'. Easy growing and colourful perennials, loved by pollinators. She has a lot of purples, which pollinators see best.
Dig your borders as big as you can, across the garden if there's space, and avoid the small border style all around the edge of the fence, makes your garden look bigger even though it sounds unlikely.

Pick a color palette. For example my garden is all purple, blue and pink flowers (from allium to foxglove to lavender) with no hot colors like orange, yellow and red.

Also keep the needs of pollinators and wildlife in mind when you select trees, shrubs and perennials.

When you say ‘decent sized’ what do you mean? Any chance of a photo or two?