Please help me design my garden?

[Gardenhelp264]

Hi all, I’d really appreciate some ideas for my garden. Have seen other posts that have had brilliant ideas, so offering up a diagram with my fingers crossed!

I’m really stuck with how to make it into a sanctuary. At the moment it’s almost entirely lawn with a thin border to the south side.
there are 4 small fruit trees as shown.
I’d love to have an area for chickens, and have more ‘rooms’/interest.
I do have an allotment, so space for veg isn’t so important. I want it to be pretty!

the south side is pretty unshaded as on a small hill and garden slightly slopes down that way. Views over fields. fence is 4ft and sufficient.

flat bit is on the north side, house, garage, sheds, trampoline. Kids are small so trampoline is staying. In time will replace sheds/trampoline with a garden room.

Deck is going to be built this year, it gets the evening sun there and will have a pergola/planting over for shade.
My Neighbours are quite noisy, and the little patio at the house doesn’t get used due to this. No neighbour to the south/East/North.

Thank you to anyone who replies, ideas or other places to look/sites/books so appreciated.

How tall are your conifers? They will provide increasing shade for the garden.

If it weren’t for the conifer, that garage wall would be ideal for training something that would appreciate the warmth, peach, fig, a more tender climber.

”Rooms” is a nice idea. I like a garden which can’t all be seen from the house, and your eventual garden room will feel more of a sanctuary if youre not always conscious of the house. You don’t need a fixed boundary like a hedge or a fence - a bed with low bushes and one taller one will work well

design the bit nearest the house for show only. My inclination would be to design it for winter - Viburnum bodnantense, winter flowering cherry, winter jasmine, witch hazel, hellebores, Cyclamen coum etc, add spring bulbs, add spring and summer stuff if you have space after making sure it will lift the spirits in winter, and supplement with pots in the summer if you feel the need.

The ‘conifers’ are actually apple and pear trees, my phone drawing app didn’t have many tree options. They’re around 6ft at the moment, and on smaller rootstocks so shouldn’t get huge. They don’t cast a shadow on the garage.

I hadn’t thought of planting something to grow against it. A fig would be brilliant - they’re my favourite fruit.

thanks for the tips, I’m a novice when it comes to non-vegetable gardening!

The way to soften the garden is with curves circles, trellises pergolas and support frames and winding paths. Section of parts of the garden by wide gap trellising. Not only will this provide support to climbers but will give you rooms that you can see through. Th calming area should be just off centre and the largest area. Not a circle more a peanut shape. Use highly scented foliage,
and plants as well as soft grasses. Piet Oudolf has great gardens.

Keep the same path winding through the garden to link all the areas. Screen of a play area and use silver birch, a dwarf Robinia Frisia, prunus Seralia for coloured bark to create a magical forest. A children’s garden with cornflowers, wallflowers nigella and nasturtium all easy for the children to plant and care for. Put in an insect sanctuary.

For climers plant Rosa Lutea a thornless Mile a minute rambling rose that flowers profusely once past its second year. Repeat this throughout the garden, rambling roses should not just be used round the perimeter. Stand some trellis at right angles or use pergolas.

Thanks @Rictasmorticia , that’s really helpful advice. Looked up Piet Oudolf and his gardens are stunning, different than anything I would have thought of.
it’s so hard with a blank canvas to know where to go, what to do. And the fear of getting it wrong is hard!

It easy to get overwhelmed with a blank canvass . The secret it is to do a vague overall sketch then start on one area that you feel confident tackling. Treat that area as if it is your whole garden. You might have a few false starts but with a small area there will be nothing that is not repairable.

I Second planning year round garden. Look at the Winter Garden at Anglesey abbey in Suffolk or better still visit if you are near. We went in January and it was stunning.

i would be tempted to have my chickens close to my noisy neighbours. As you are likely to be a better person than I am, you could. Put your winter garden there. They probably make less noise in winter. The neighbours not the chickens

prunus Seralia Prunus serrula.

I was thinking of the winter garden near the house, as that’s the time of year when you want to look out and be cheered up. I did my back garden winter garden at the far end, to tempt me out when the weather is rubbish. I can’t say it’s worked.

Is the drawing to scale?

I design gardens freelance. I always start by printing out a scale drawing of the plan a few times. You can then do a load of sketch designs too test what you like.

The 'rooms' idea is always a good one. If you draw three rough circles, one big one in the widest end section and two smaller ones nearer the house. These become your main spaces that can be lawn or patio as budget requires. Connect the remaining spaces into deep curved beds and connect the circles with paths of lawn or paving.

The trick for sanctuary designs is to try to hide the edges and fences to make it feel more secluded. Aim for taller planting at the edges to soften the fence lines and generally fill the beds with plenty of volume. Go for hardy perenniels and some evergreen shrubs as the main structure of the planting for low maintenance year-round interest. The areas closer to the lawn can be more personal and varied as it's easier to maintain and see.

Having a simple structure at the end of the garden can give you a visual focal point and add to the feeling of privacy. You can buy very reasonably priced pergolas or metal domes which would be the simplest solution but bespoke is an option too.

Oh and for maintenance purposes I always recommend edging between lawns and planting. Steel, paving strip or even plastic will make things much simpler to maintain the shape of the design.

On that last point, with a limited budget invest in the very. Best you can afford for Structural things like fences, trellis supports , edging and paths. They are a pain to replace.

For complete year round interest Acer Sango Kaku fits the bill. Scarlett stems through winter then bright yellow leaves moving through the whole spectrum of shades.

Sorry for the crude sketch. I'm away from my work computer. Something like this. Adjust the size of the beds to suit the scale, add plenty of higher elements, trees, portals etc.

My understanding of the OP is that the garden is sloping to the S with a view over fields, so you wouldn’t want to screen that out. You might be able to pull off that trick of a more natural planting to merge in with the fields and visually “steal” them for your garden

The two main features to accommodate would seem to be the view to the south, and the short but wide shape of the garden.
To make the best of the view I would avoid circular lawns with border planting around the edges.
Something like this might suit, depending on the overall size of the garden. The offset lawns drawing the eye outward to the view, detracting from the garden shape - (I've drawn the lawns triangular, but you could soften them more into semi-circles).
The central ribbon of planting (white in picture) through the garden creates separate distinct areas.