Tiny courtyard garden thread

[SamphirethePogoingStickerist]

Morning all,

I hope you don't mind a newbie starting a thread asking for help!

When we rented we had a large garden, chickens !!!! and veg patches. But now I have a small courtyard garden with very limited growing space and a dog that likes to eat plants. Picture is from a few years ago, most of the plants no longer exist!

Area behind the camera is a gate and bin store.

If you were helping me decide a planting scheme to include flowers, herbs, tomatoes, chillis, maybe soft fruit, what would you be telling me?

All help gratefully received.

Depending on which way the wall faces, it looks ideal for climbing roses, fan trained fruit trees and clematis. Not necessarily all at once. A couple of perennial small shrubs for structure, they could be in pots. Strawberries would trail over the raised wall, but the dog might eat them.
I’d put herbs into large pots, that way you can control how much sun and planting conditions they have.
As for other plants, I’d look to have something of interest all the year round, such as bulbs in pots, summer bedding, Autumn colour and a few evergreens.

God only knows which way we face. The fence with the gate and the back of the house gets most sun. The wall is shaded for most of the day, gate end almost permanently.

I'll have a plot with your suggestions...

Most phones have a compass. I've only ever used mine to check gardens when I was house hunting a few years ago.

Yes clematis. Put some to grow over your fence and the wall where the baskets are. It will look gorgeous.

I have a back wall in an area we get no sun at all so we converted it into a gazebo/walk out area to the garden. The brick didn't look great so I covered it with fake ivy.

How good is your dog at respecting raised beds? Should work well for tomatoes, herbs, some basic veg.

For tomatoes, chillies etc how about a small mini greenhouse, some go up against the wall, some even smaller can be hung on it. Could it go on the fence, on the left where it meets the side wall?
www.aldi.co.uk/natural-wooden-mini-greenhouse/p/812717580118600?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkpy4j7za9wIVVO3tCh3j3QvxEAQYBSABEgL16_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Or lots and lots of pots, some on the ground, some hung on the walls. You can get trailing cherry tomato plants that tumble down from a wall pot or hanging basket.
And chillies will do well in a decent sized pot placed in full sun. Or against a hot wall.

You could make that space really lush and verdant with wall climbing plants and varied plants in nice pots.

I'd paint the back wall gold and get a solar light trellis on it so the gold shines through. Nice set of furniture, more lights, a bar, and some fresh veggies and tropical flowers.

Why didn't I think of that? Thanks

Oh he respects them! To oblivion! I am hoping that now is is alittle bit older I will get away with being able to replant it. But am looking at pots rather than planting in the really well composted soil that is under the gravel!

Let me see...

Not painting the wall gold. Listed building and conservation area. LA would have a conniption

Patio furniture is metal, dog proof. Unbrella not sail because of lack of adequate fixing points and the huge shadows cast across the full width.

No bar. Just no, never!

Veggies, yes. But I think it's going to have to be a select few and raised of the floor.

Yep. Before the dog (BtD) I grew tomatoes and chillies in hanging baskets on the wall and across the fence. They grew really well.

I am considering clematis, because I really like it. And pots to get stuff out of the dog's reach, but having to consider the weight and the shade across the wall for a good portion of the day. Gardeners keep on planting white lillies and purple hellabore interspersed with ferns along the wall. To be fair, the hellabore loves it and will be staying - it's on the left, the corner that sticks out. The Calla lily is annoying, 2 flower spikes and little opportunity to stake them upright, they are in a tight wedge shape by the gete! Ferns didn't survive the dog!

And of course I have to ponder dog toxicity and the stupidity of the beast. Here he is 'respecting' the back corner planting - none of these plants survived! And I want to recreate that shade for him in something that he won't wreck, bless him!

Wow look at that landscaping! You've got a great canvas there as a starting point, especially those white walls and split level.

Really recommend you take a look at the Distinctive Gardener on Instagram. They're a garden designers, probably really expensive but I think you'll be able to take a lot from their pictures as their style would really suit your garden. Also search Mediterranean style courtyards as you'll get loads of inspiration.

I would work out the placements of use, so where you will have a seating area for example. Not just table and chairs, but somewhere to sit and chill with a glass of wine or beer.

Definitely plot sun and shade spots. Also any points that catch the wind. Go and sit in your garden at different points of the day over a couple of weeks and just look. You'll get a feel of where feels natural to sit, where feels natural to put things.

I would think in terms of 'pot displays' because the border is very narrow in places. So one display of pots can be riotous colour of blooms, another can be herbs etc.

You can grow fruit and veg vertically in limited space or to add height, take a look at Pinterest. Depending on sun position, you can grow fruit trees in the espalier technique- so flat up a fence or wall. You can get large raised veg trugs to grow veg at chest level. And things like tomatoes and strawberries look great in window boxes or hanging baskets.

A few pots of bamboo can shield from neighbours eyes, add some sound and movement in the breeze.

www.instagram.com/thedistinctivegardener/

You could look at something like an area planted with a lawn alternative in his favourite spot. Like chamomile or thyme, so he lie on it without unduly crushing it (think both are OK for pets too?) Or just moss!

A hydrangea would provide brilliant cool shade, my cats favourite spot is underneath the hydrangea in summer. Or lavatera (sp?) grows really quickly and provides lots of shade to lie under, you just need to give it a prune every year to stop it getting bigger than you'd like.

Love ferns and ornamental grasses as well! They help make a garden feel really luscious when you have limited planting space.

A climbing rose would help give that English garden feel toom

Getting overly invested here but...

I thank you! That's going to keep me busy for a while.

It is lovely. We spent ages with the landscapers discussing the narrowness of the bed at the pinch point. But it was inevitable if we were to have the circular seating space and still get the back door open. That narrow part will have a shade loving, evergreen trailing plant in it, once I have found one I like. The soil under the gravel and membrane is really good stuff too, zoned for the ahde lovers and Mediterranean plants at the fence - it gets, erm, scorchio along that section.

The gravel already has a lot of various sedum growing through it - a happy accident that happened in our last hoise that we cultivated here.

Compass loaded: North is top right of picture, almost precisely, South is bottom left, by the gate you cant see The gate you can goes into next door, it's their emergency exit! So, most of the wall is West, the house wall East. You can see how that effects planting. When we want to use it half of the garden is in scorching sun the other half in full shade. Makes sensible planting a bit more difficult.

Thanks for your thoughts. I've lost heart, with the dog and just keeping on top of the bittercress, or similar, weed that is rampant around here!

Raised beds for veg (depending on your dog), small greenhouse for tomatoes and lettuces, evergreen honeysuckle such as 'Halliana' on walls, pyracantha 'Red Pillar' trained up a wall trellis would give all year round colour and interest. Pots of seasonal bedding that can be changed out/replanted/moved around for colour - daffodils, sweetpeas, snowdrops, violas and pansies. Ivies and heathers will tolerate shady corners.

You're so lucky to have a hot spot for tropical planting! Think of the cannas!

@Kat1953 that pot arrangement is the kind of thing I am thinking of. With something in the corner for the dog to lie under, we are looking at various dog friendly ground cover for that deep corner, various chamomiles have been bookmarked, but chances are he'll scrabble though them to the stones beneath, to make a circular depresssion - very cat like!

Oh that's so sweet :) maybe just let him? Sometimes I think there's no point in fighting the inevitable!

I am beginning to be persuaded into the tropical dea. Just need to think carefully about overwintering and the fact that the ground is ALL concrete (not possible to dig through it as it is a lot of layers of feet thick commercial yard) with the foul water drain along the house side, it's shared with next door and is very shallow - don't ask how I know 😳

And it really is small!

I put an ostrich fern in a crappy corner of the garden with terrible soil. It's come back again this year and has made a baby. The other plants in there are hyacinths which are indestructible. I tried to pull out as many bulbs as I could to replace with fritillaries but the hyacinths won't go away. The photo is from a few weeks ago, both are much bigger now.

Oh and the weed is gone. DH sent me the photo with the question.. should I pull out this thing on the right or is it another fern?