New build garden design

[Borris]

I’m looking for suggestions for my new build garden. I want something relatively low maintenance but some form of orders on some of the edges. Has anyone got any ideas?

diagram attached

I'm not much of a garden designer but new build gardens are notorious for very poor soil quality. If I was starting a new build garden from scratch I'd probably invest in some raised beds before I spent any money on plants; this would also have the bonus of making it much, much easier to maintain. You could install some raised beds with integrated seating in several spots around the garden so that you're always able to sit in the sun.

I've not used this company but they look interesting for a more cost effective way of building custom raised beds www.woodblocx.co.uk/blog/the-woodblocx-gallery/
The general advice is usually to work out the shape of your borders first, then think about the plants to fill them afterwards. Use the compass on your phone or Google Earth to work out which way your garden faces. The crocus.co.uk website allows you to filter plants for the direction your garden faces, as well as a 'low maintenance' filter, which would probably be a good place to start when choosing plants. If it was me I'd be sure to include some scented plants as well and evergreens, and be careful to make sure things flower across the season, rather than all in one month. Also, don't make the mistake of choosing quick growing plants to get everything established quickly- you'll be forever having to cut it all back! If its important to you to make the garden look established quickly spend a bit more on larger, more established plants- think the 5-12 litre plant pots rather than the teeny tiny 9cm pots. The Crocus website also have some ready made borders that suit various conditions which might be useful. Good luck- enjoy your new garden!

Where are the windows - plan a nice view from them.
I would say the diagonal in your plan points north so areas near the house might be quite shaded by the house.
Small trees and shrubs can be left to get on with it and required little maintenance (until they get too big).
Hawthorn, some flowering cherries, field maple, are small trees. Photinia makes a nice small tree if you buy it in that form. Everything in the garden grows and requires trimming back or digging up once they spread too far or get too big. Unless you just plant dozens of annuals each year there will be some ongoing work. I would say plant warily following guidelines for size. Even herbaceous flowering summer plants can spread and require digging up as they've spread too far.
I would take a diagonal across the large corner and plant a tree and several shrubs putting bark on the ground either over the whole corner or just around each shrub - as they grow and shade the ground the grass will eventually die back.

How do you want to use the garden?
Do you want to socialise, have BBQs?
Do you need room for kids to play or kick balls about?
How overlooked is it?
Do you want things like hot tubs?

How long have you lived there OP?

The reason I ask is because I agree with the PP about new build soil quality.

I bought my new build in November 2015. The builders had turfed the whole garden. By the following spring, the whole lot had rotted and I didn’t have a single blade of grass on it. I then had a further 12 months where any lawn we tried to grow was full of mushrooms.

We have a lovely garden now but it took about 5 years to get to that point, we planted large fast growing shrubs along the back fence to try and take up a lot of the moisture and it became obvious nothing would grow in the part of the garden that’s always in the shade of next door’s garage - we laid a patio here and put nice furniture on it. My garden is a west facing sun trap so it’s nice to be able to sit in the shade.

We had to put down a lot of topsoil before we could successfully grow lawn seed and even now it still requires a lot of effort with overseeing and top dressing.

Thanks for your comments.

@QueenWenceslas I’ve only lived here since June so maybe I need to wait and see how the lawn fares. So far it looks ok.

@WhyCantPeopleBeNice In terms of function my dd is beyond wanting to play in it and I won’t want a hot tub. So mainly to sit and socialise in I would say.

@Wildwood6 I do like the ideas of raised beds and see that would get round and soil quality issues.

@Hyacinth2 I’ve looked at lots of those plant names. I think a small tree or larger shrub would definitely suit the big corner so I may start with that and see what follows.

I would suggest some form of seating area in the corner where the diagonal ends. It gets sun most of the day so is ideal for morning, noon and evening. It could make a nice focal point when viewed from the house.
You will need a path to get to it; where that goes may influence the rest of your design. Try to make the path interesting, not just a straight line from A to B.

Any garden needs a bit of height in it, a bit of 3D-ness. I'm assuming that the wall of the garage is a bit boring so you could grow something up that. It will give you a nice view back towards the house from when you are at the seating area.

You need to design in the boring bits - shed, bins, clothes line, etc. (behind the garage?)