Where do you start?!

[GardenDesign]

This is our current garden (I use the word garden loosely, it's just a field!)

I have no idea where to begin on working out a layout for this. Where's the best place to begin?!

Wow amazing! But yes can see, overwhelming. What do you want in the garden? Flowers? Trees? Veggie patch? Big lawn?

It needs plants! why not dig a small area up and make a rockery,. It’s such a huge area so it’ll be easier to do things bit by bit rather than all at once.

Good grief!! First question - do you want the whole thing as a garden? Graph paper is essential and plot out roughly what you want in your garden/field. Vegetables? Seating area? Barbecue? Kids part?

then play about with your graph paper. Or apply to Garden Rescue?

Figuring out what you want it to.contain. Do you need kids things, storage, veg beds and greenhouse, a water feature. Do you want it structured or more natural. Low maintenance or needs a bit of work each week. Do you want shade, gazebos or trees. Lots of options.

You'd need very deep pockets to turn that entire area into a garden. I'd mark out a section where you can focus on a more formal garden area and leave the rest to pasture - get yourself a John Deere mower to whiz around on.

Maybe rear some poultry but you'd need to ensure they had a safe place to be locked in at night. Plenty of boundary hedging and trees.

You might need to consult with your local authority in case there are any restrictions on structures such as sheds, fencing etc. eg if it's in a conservation area. A group of houses near me fell foul of planning and had to pull down various fences etc because they breached local regs in that area.

Think about what you actually want. Is it to look out of from the house? For entertaining? For children running around, for dogs to run in? To keep a horse or other animals? For wildlife? For growing vegetables? How much time will you have?

Work out where the sun falls in the day, and over the year. Are there any bits by walls which get very dry? What is the soil like?

Break it up into sections. (Garden "rooms".) You don't have to do it all in one go. Start with the bit by the house, and fig out a flower bed. I'd let the rest go to wildflower meadow for the time being.

I would probably dig out a wildlife pond and get that started, and I'd be tempted to plant an orchard/nuttery down the end. I'd also think about where I might want a greenhouse and potting shed and compost heaps.

I'd have lawn and flowers near the house, vegetables and herbs and fruit a bit further away. In autumn I'd plant loafs of spring bulbs, because that early colour is so important.

Take it slow, in sections, and don't do it all at once. You'll probably change your mind over some of it as time goes by.

Wow what a wonderful plot you have OP. You need to start by observation. Make a plan with measurements on a big piece of paper and mark in the direction of the sun and orientation and any shade. What is the climate? Sunny mild wet cold dry? SW in UK is prevailing wind direction so record that.

Mark in any microclimates eg where does the wind swirl around, where is it dry or likely to be flooded, any frost pockets? This is vital at planning stage so you don’t waste time and money. This can guide your design. Then buy a cheap soil testing kit and measure the alkaline/acid levels of soil so you know what will thrive and what would struggle.

Have a big discussion with everyone in the household about what they would like from the garden so you can make a plan suitable for your individual needs egare there children who need places to play, can you have water or worried about little ones, pets, hobbies, space to practice sports (football cricket badminton basketball hoop etc?).

What is the house like? It’s good if the garden can complement the house eg if built of stone use the same stone to make garden walls or if terracotta brick use in paths.

Copy your paper then have fun doodling different designs. Use interesting shapes to break up the square and straight edges. I would have a huge pond with a waterfall as this is a wildlife magnet, lots of trees and winding paths and interesting hidden surprises to come upon.

Mark in where you want trees and think about where they will cast shade at different times of year. You need somewhere sunny for a sitting area and somewhere shady for hot days. It’s getting a bit late for tree planting so make a plan for the autumn as they are best planted in the dormant season.

What a great project - enjoy every minute.

I wasn't expecting that! How much gardening experience do you have? Got to be honest here, I'd be thinking about how much time, effort and money you want to spend in regular maintenance, and work back from there!

Thank you all for the tips, lots to think about! I sketched up this rough plan the other day while we were away on holiday, but now not sure if I want to make the big open space feel more enclosed. I just keep standing out there not knowing what I want!

We have alpacas (only 3) and are really enjoying having them near us/coming up to the house, so don't really want to just fence them off towards the back. But then it restricts what we can grow as they'd just eat flowers etc. So do we just do trees and shrubs, and maybe flowers etc on the decking they wouldn't reach...

(We have to have some deck as our house is raised off the ground and needs airflow underneath, currently have a load of pallets as steps to get out!)

We also have rabbits and gearing up for chickens, but they are/will be round the side of the house, closed away from the main garden.

Plus 3 kids!

I really like gardening but we also run a farm so reality is in peak summer we don't have time to be tending to it constantly. I would like fruit and veg but not sure if I have the time while the kids are small

If you don't have time for veg, you could consider something perennial, like planting an asparagus bed or rhubarb, which you won't have to do much with. And asparagus needs to sit there for a year or two before you can pick it anyway.

I do have memories of having to pick a colander of strawberries and/ or raspberries before and after school when they were in season, so you could consider including the children...

I would definitely like to involve the children! We had a veg patch at the old house but when the third baby came along it was just too much to keep an eye on two toddlers picking everything before it was ready/bickering over everything in between looking after the baby! But they are all getting older now and I do think they'd enjoy growing veg again. Perhaps I could buy the older two their own special hoes and they can be in charge of weeding

We were made aware from quite a young age never to put anything in our mouths unless Mum or Dad said it was okay, and particularly to recognise poisonous plants (of which there were plenty - foxglove, monkshood, belladonna, etc, etc.) The one thing Mum refused to have was laburnum, because the pods are too similar to peas.

I would definitely fence off a good big chuck for animals/ orchard/ football pitch etc. Leave a wild life garden in sections and around the trees. Around the house plan it like the rest doesn't exist..like a large normal garden with a deck / formal cut lawn/ shrubs/ pots/ seating area/ barbecue area. You will be overwhelmed otherwise. We have two acres and thar is what we did. Hedge off some spaces so you cannot see it all at ones and plan some winding paths through it. As it grows that will provide the dc with little secret places to play. But focus on a certain amount around the actual house that is fitting for the size of the home and fence the rest off.

How big is it? An acre? It's difficult to tell from the photo. If it was me I'd start next autumn with a mini orchard at the end with apples, pears, cherries, plums, elder, cobnut, figs etc. You could have the chickens in it or even a pig to fatten. That could use a big chunk.

Then a decent kitchen garden with space for bushes and perennials like asparagus, rhubarb, currants, gooseberries, lots of herbs and as much space as you want for annual veg.

Closer to the house a pleasure zone with a seating area, and somewhere for an outdoor kitchen and space to eat, grass for the kids to play, lots of bulbs and scented flowers, maybe have a bit of a cutting garden so you can have flowers in the house.

What's the planning permission on it? You may need to get permission first, to convert it from agricultural use to residential use.

It isn't converting it from agricultural to residential use if the OP is using it as an animal paddock with a load of fruit and nut trees, with a small section fenced off for growing veg and with a couple of benches to sit on. That would be classed as a smallholding, so still agricultural.

OP - couple of questions: which way is north on your plan, where does the prevailing wind come from, and what's the soil like - acid/alkaline, is it clay/loam/sandy, well-drained or stays damp, are there land drains, other utilities or any public right of way across it, where's the water supply, and are you prepared for a lot of hard work?

Great previous suggesions, where does the wind come from and does it howl through. You might consider a shelter belt of trees on the perimeter to slow the wind. It will also protect some trees from wind and sun burn. I got over excited and didnt do this. I have some lovely Acers on my fence facing due south getting badly burnt every year. Wish I had planned better.

Also, find selections of low maintenance plants that will naturalise and spread (you have the room) and plant in swathes. Pick 3 or 4 and repeat intead of lots of differnt plants dotted around.

Grasses are great, will give you height and year round interest.

Look at where you are going to sit and where you are going to eat. Draw a circle around those two places as a starting point. Ease of maintenance I would plant rosemary, lavender, lemon balm and make a herb garden in the circles.

Trees you want year round interest. Have a look at Barcham Trees, their website is like an encyclopaedia of trees. Have loads of acers, Prunus and trees with. Ornament bark. Interplant it with dwarf fruit trees. Look at where you want your lawn are, children’s play area and wildlife area.

i would add in raspberry canes and blackberry bushes to fill up the space.

Look at Piet Oudolf for prairie planting which would work really well

It's south facing, so has sun all day, and is pretty sheltered as it's in a dip between barns on the right hand side and sloped up fields the other. It's very warm, with the only shade up where the swings are. It's about an acre.

Soil wise, we're Hertfordshire so it's chalky but also slightly clay like in parts... The field is full of nettles everywhere currently. (The grass is so patchy at the moment as we built the house here this winter so it got a bit trashed)

My main aim at the moment is to create a bit more privacy from the footpath on the left hand side. Hedge runs along most of it, but the footpath goes up hill so people walking down it are looking right down into us. Husband wants more trees!

I definitely agree with the PP who said we need to section off a bit as 'garden' and I love the idea of winding paths for the children to get 'lost' in as they play, but finding it hard to bite the bullet with losing the open feeling of it all!

I always used to like Alys Fowler's edible garden back when I used to garden before children. Although don't suppose that works so well when you have animals who want to eat everything! But that's the kind of thing I like. Big plants towering over little pathways

Id plant trees for a small woodland garden at the end. What is the house built from?

Can you wall in the veggies / florals rather than fence out the lamas? So put in a raised walled garden of some description but that is open on the side closest to the house so you can still see it

Build a ha-ha...

It's a black timber house