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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Front garden help

7 replies

Mmotherknowsbest · 04/02/2023 18:53

I have bushes out my front and im having them all cut back /removed Monday. The previous owner of the house planted them 20 years ago and they are completely overgrown. The diagram shows what will be left on the patch of grass opposite our house which is our front garden, that you see when you step out of the house (this is confusing so I have drawn a diagram) the area cleared (I'm terrible at drawing to scale) will be about 4mx4m)

The diagram shows what will be left in terms of trees (two apple and one cherry, all quite large) and the round circle is a Mediterranean bed, which has a medium sized olive tree and lots of plants, all covered in large white egg sized stones. This will all be impossible to move so I need to work around them. The squiggly bits between the public pathway and the garden are the bushes / trees that will remain, for privacy. They are about 4m high,

It's going to look awful, as under all the overgrown bushes and trees is like a dead floor. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can tie it all together? I want to work on it now so come summer it's nice.

Front garden help
OP posts:
Mmotherknowsbest · 04/02/2023 18:55

To clarify, the left side of the circle, with the one tree, is the area being cleared. The side with two trees is empty already and just grass.

OP posts:
brambleberries · 04/02/2023 23:02

A few queries to help with ideas -
Is the area square-shaped (you mention it's about 4m x 4m)?
Is the circular Mediterranean bed positioned in the centre of the garden? Or at a midpoint of the width?
Is there space for another tree next to the single tree on the left (to balance out with the two trees on the right) ?
Are you planning on keeping the grass?

larchforest · 04/02/2023 23:49

What type of bushes are they? I can't help wondering whether the easiest option would be to cut them back severly / do a renovation pruning, rather than remove them altogether.

Mmotherknowsbest · 05/02/2023 13:31

I'm planning on keeping the grass. The circle isn't central, it's about 4/6th of the way access. Once cut back it will be a off circle shape removed

OP posts:
Mmotherknowsbest · 05/02/2023 13:31

larchforest · 04/02/2023 23:49

What type of bushes are they? I can't help wondering whether the easiest option would be to cut them back severly / do a renovation pruning, rather than remove them altogether.

It's a mix of a load of bushes and trees where the previous owners threw a mix in

OP posts:
CatherinedeBourgh · 05/02/2023 15:01

Which way does it face? Will the house and the hedge cast so much shade that it's mostly dark or is there a fair bit of sun (as a mediterranean zone would suggest)?

brambleberries · 05/02/2023 15:26

The size of the plot, even with the shrubs removed will still have 3 large trees, a hedge and a circular bed with a fourth tree. This sounds enough planting to me for a small area of lawn, otherwise mowing will become difficult and it will look crowded and messy.
Here's what I would do...

Focus on getting the lawn back up to a healthy and even standard throughout the garden. If you don't feel up to tackling yourself and have the funds, use one of the companies that come and weed and feed the lawn for a year - it will make a huge difference.

4m sounds a very high front hedge and difficult to manage, so I would reduce that if you can to 2m to 2.5 m, excluding any trees within the hedge.

If you are keeping the circular Mediterranean bed, I would dig small circular beds around each remaining trees and echo some of the planting and landscaping features such as the pebbles and one or two plants - it will link the other trees to the bed. You don't need to use every plant in the original bed - just an echo of one or two to link it or even just the pebbles to start with.

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