What can I do with this neglected patch?

[Summerhillsquare]

Wise gardeners, what can I do with this? About 5x5m, former workshop and so littered with rotten wood, gravel, coal and plastic bin liners 😔

I've strummed and dug out the bramble roots and thistles. South facing and high fenced at north end.

Rhubarb would love it there, it seems to grow best in the crappiest places!

What do you want from it? Do you fancy a seating area, a vegetable plot, a cottagey border, or something else? Start from there and work around the soil type etc.
Although, I do agree that rhubarb is always a good thing!

Hmn photo might help

Won't upload. Ah well.

I want something green or colourful, that doesn't need mega maintenance.

I don't think I can eat 25sq m of rhubarb tho 🤣

Maybe a small tree with a bench that goes around it and grass surrounding? At the outer edges you could have planters or raised beds to give seasonal colour.

I'm not really a low maintenance sort of gardener (for me, the work is the whole point!), but I think that one larger thing with a few raised beds would be fairly easy to maintain. Do you know what kind of soil you have?

Draw it out on some grid paper.
South facing part would be good for something like figs or espalier fruit trees.
Patio, seating area. Think about where the sun goes during the day and if you want some shade.
If money no object - outdoor pizza oven.
Ferns and aquilegia would be quite at home on poor soil, as would Welsh poppies.
Raised beds would help to import better soil into.
Climbers on the north facing wall? Not sure what likes that aspect though.

Get rid of the plastic bin liners pronto.
Defo fairly high raised beds with ferns (in shade), allium, wood geranium, rhubarb, euphorbia, alchemilla mollis. And maybe one for veg like lettuce, etc and for height a few french or runner beans.

Lay down permeable sheeting throughout cover with gravel and put in a fruit tree like medlar, quince apple plum in the middle with a seat underneath. Put a rose or fruit tree you can train against the high fence.

And try to put in a water butt. If parts of Scotland are being warned about drought, these are a must and you can get one to suit. Makes watering a tad easier and might help save the planet!

My friends at uni successfully built a pizza oven themselves out of scrap bricks and a YouTube video, so doesn't even have to be mega expensive if you are prepared to put the time in upfront.

When you say 'workshop' is it possible the land is contaminated? This should be checked before growing food if it was not you who used the workshop. If just your own old workshop, then you'll know what went on there, so can be more confident.

I want something green or colourful, that doesn't need mega maintenance. The easiest thing is to grow native plants, I would go for things like crab apple, hawthorn, wild roses and then add things like honeysuckle, cranesbill, other wildflowers.

Yes @wildfirewonder the old workshop almost certainly had creosote on it, probably oil used in it.

I do have some spare bricks, but my back doesn't permit building ovens or heaving topsoil. I love the tree and (round?) bench idea, I think some climbers that like poor soil up the fence could be a go-er.

I think that a tree would be nice for some height. I presume that you want it at the south end so you are not casting shadow on your own garden. Have some seating under the tree, which will look out on the mid-section (plants that like sun) and the north end (climbers up the fence).
I have a clematis that does well against a north fence but I'm afraid that I long ago lost the label so I don't know what it is (apart from Group 1, small-flowered, pinky-white). And an ivy, of course.
I know you said that the ground might be contaminated but poor soil in the sun would make a good herb garden (low maintenance).

Yes, herbs and climbers I think. Fence issouth facing. Has anyone tried interesting grasses eg flax, chamomile, clovers?

I went for 3 different climbers on the fence, which gets sun. And then sowed heartsease, thyme, phacelia and some other things I can't remember! The phacelia went bananas straight away and was covered in bees so that was a win. I think I was too late for most of the others so hopefully they'll germinate next year. Might strim it all back for the winter - been pulling out thistles and dandelions as I go!