Small new build garden ideas

[NeedSleepNow]

I'm in the process of trying to move house, I have a buyer for mine and am desperately looking for one to buy. I love my current garden, it's very private and full of mature shrubs, hedges and flowers.

I've been struggling to find a house to buy, there's so little on the market within my budget. I've found one today, a beautiful house, right area, within budget but the garden would be a big compromise. It's very small, north facing and feels overlooked, although in reality it's more that you can see lots of other houses from it rather than them being able to see into the garden. The house is only 4 years old so a typical new build style garden. No real plants, a small bit of grass and some paving.

How easy is it to transform a space like that and to make it private? Any ideas on how to go about screening without taking too much light from neighbours by just growing tall hedges/shrubs etc.?

Hi OP

I assume you want evergreen hedging/shrubs, or would deciduous be ok because you won’t use the garden much in winter? If you have grass, it sounds like the drainage and light levels are okay at the moment; do you know which direction you might want most screening and would this affect light levels? That might limit somewhat your choices due to lack of sun. Laurel would do okay but can be a pain to keep in check once established. Variegated Euonymus would be good for its splashes of white but is slower growing. Have a look at small and shade garden books. Hi

The easiest way to give your garden privacy would be strategically placed trellises placed on the adjoining wall that feels overlooked.

Flowers don't need to be on the ground. Hanging baskets and flower beds are great ways to add vibrancy and a feeling of nature to your garden without digging up concrete.

There is also netting that you can buy that would give a sense of privacy but allow light to travel through still.

A small, North facing garden is always going to be dark. Add in privacy and you are doomed to gloom. I would keep searching.

A small north garden will be virtually sunless in winter. After the equinox it will begin to get sun from the sides in early morning and the evening, and in high summer if it’s not too small you may get sun at the far end. It won’t be a good sitting out garden, except in heatwaves when you’re desperate for cool.

i’d always recommend winter jasmine - yellow flowers brightening the darker months. Mine’s been out for a couple of months already and I expect it to go through till end March.

Rather than privacy, go for an illusion of privacy. Don’t close yourself in with thick dark evergreen hedges. Instead plant statement plants which will break up the view of houses and draw your eye back to the garden. DS is a very new gardener, and nothing in his N facing garden in the centre of a modern estate is more than 2m high, but already the surrounding buildings feel far less intrusive because the garden itelf has enough interest to hold the eye.

Try and get hold of one of David Stephens’ books on small gardens for design ideas.

Ultimately, it depends on how important the garden is to you. If gardening is your passion, or if your lifestyle is around living outdoors in the sun all summer, I’d carry on looking. If a garden is a pleasant view from your living room, with only the occasional sortie, then yes, you will be able to make it lovely.

Thank you for all of your replies and suggestions. I thoroughly enjoy gardening but struggle a bit with time constraints now since going back to work full time. I was lucky that my current garden had been planted out beautifully by the previous owner. It is very private, although there are a lot of houses nearby, but it has hedges trees and tall shrubs which really screen the other houses and make you forget that you're in the middle of the town.

I have three children, my youngest loves playing football in the garden and the older two enjoy sitting out there in the summer to eat or just to relax and read a book etc. The house I've seen does have a large park down the road where ds could play football but I worry with a small northfacing garden it would be so gloomy and dark that none of us would really want to use the space. One thing I've been looking forward to is having a pretty garden with any type of plants I like (I'm in the middle of a divorce and my ex used to want to cut everything down in my current garden, it was a real battle, so I've been looking forward to being able to grow whatever I want!)

The more I think about it the more I am coming to realise that this may be too big a compromise for us all, I think I will probably have to keep house hunting and look for something with a better garden.

I'm also looking for a new place as part of getting divorced, and a small, overlooked, north facing garden would be a compromise too far. My friend has one and said they rarely spend much time out there because it's gloomy and no sun. Might be okay if you're in a really hot part of the southeast but definitely not where I am!

North face gardens can be beautiful and wonderful in a hot summer - unless you are sun worshipper

You don't need to worry about taller plants casting shade as you will be looking for plants suitable for shade anyway. Woodland plants.

Paler colours and white work well as well as ferns if you have a damp spot

Get away from a lawn and borders ; think about height and all year interest ; examine where the houses seem most intense and plant a tree with shrubbery in front

I wouldn't let it put me off - I love a nice garden and you can create that anywhere - you can't create more space or a nice kitchen anything like as cheaply as a garden