Any ideas for my garden

[eviehodgson]

I’ve made a start on my garden today but want it to be a nicer place for us to sit outside anyone have any recommendations of what I could get for my garden. Planters are a definite yes ! :)

Which direction does it face and how much sun do you get? So much potential! I would start by getting the foundations right - set up a water butt to collect rainwater (it will have to be a container garden, so you’ll be doing a lot of watering), cover the walls in trellis for plants to cling to, build something to hide the bins and get some industrial sized planters (used cattle troughs or zinc water tanks would be great). Then buy the biggest tree you can afford and stick it in the far corner.

This is where AI is your friend!

A wooden pergola would be fab as a private seating area for your chairs and table. If you can't dig through the concrete, buy large pots for the legs and train vines/ clematis/ wisteria up it.

Those walls are such an asset! I'd go to town with fan trained and espaliered fruit trees.

What aspect? Can you water (outside tap)? How much work are you willing to do?

Ooh, those lovely wall, you are so lucky. I would drastically reduce the amount of paving, (will make the garden cooler in heatwaves), have some borders and a seating area. Definitely climbers on the wall, maybe a fruit tree trained against it too. A birdbath might be nice.

Planters are harder work than planting in the ground, the plants need more care and attention. Select hardy plants of varying heights and leaf shapes which flower at different times of the year as your mainstay. Choose shrubs carefully, paying particular attention to ultimate height and spread. Shrubs which want to be eight feet tall don't look so good if constantly having to be chopped back to four feet.

Chat gpt is good for coming up with ideas.

Is that solid concrete (in which case I'd put a layer of gravel over it) or is it paving slabs?

I'd put a lovely big raised planter all the way along each of the long walls and go from there. If its paving slabs it will be cheaper to create a bed by lifting the slabs along the walls and just creating normal beds.

A tempation might be for lots of pots and climbers. But this would create a lot of work in terms of watering and tending.
So I would stick to a simple, low maintenance design that will give year-round seasonal interest and impact without too much effort. For this I would look to develop the hard landscaping in a way that can be enhanced and added to over time.

I've uploaded a design, and asked AI to generate a design plan from it (I've uploaded them both to give a clearer idea).

Three large planting beds for three lots of watering, instead of many smaller pots. It will also create a semi enclosed area for the seating, as well as a privacy screen that hides the bins. The screen can be attached to the top planter. The planters will also provide interesting vista from the house.

For planting schemes in the planters I would stick to a limited palette of plants that will look good throughout the year..plants that have low water and tending requirements once established and wont outgrow the planters..

For a sunny aspect:
Choysia ternata white dazzler (for year round greenery and spring blossom);
Geranium Rozanne, Geranium Dreamland and Geranuim Biolova (for a lilac, pink and white combination). Perhaps Liriope muscari (lilyturf) if sufficient space. Spring bulbs.

For a shadier aspect:
Mahonia eurybrachteata Soft Caress (for year round greenery with winter flowers); plus the same geraniums as before and the lilyturf. Spring bulbs.

All of these are tough plants that will cope well in large planters.

The artificial turf is not something I would usually recommend, but essentially the damage is already done with the concrete base you have - there is no biodiversity there.
It would: soften the whole area and make it feel like a garden rather than a yard; reduce the glare and provide a nicer surface underfoot (there are underlay surfaces for it). But there are other options such as gravel and bark - but these would require more maintenance over time.

Agree with @RelievedNoYouTubeMum , this is where Chatgpt is useful, just tell it the kind of thing you like and it will create something for you.

These two pictures show how I used Chatgpt for my garden, I asked for easy to care for plants that grow well in planters, the colours I liked and said how much sun etc. the garden gets, one picture is AI, the other is my finished planter.

What do you want from the garden?

It looks like you value somewhere nice to sit, but do you have small children who will want things like sandput, paddling pool, etc? Or do you want space for outdoor exercise (eg private corner with room for a yoga mat)? Pets? Grow food? Encourage insects? Anything other than bins to store? Do you want them closer to the house but screened off by planting? Or happy tucked away at the back. Where is it sunniest? Most private?

How much time & money are we talking...? Im guessing chipping up the concrete isnt feasible. But big BIG - even though they cost more- raised beds. Or huge corten steel planters would look amazing with the wall.

Where do you look at the garden from? If the back windows are well-used (eg not frosted glass) then ypu want to think what it looks like from the house in different seasons.

Di you have a particular style or mood in mind? EG do you want it neat and tidy or more wild & woolly, zen-like calm or energetic? You might need to be flexible - eg its shady then its much easied to go for jungley foliage than full-on cottage garden billowy flowers.

Once you know what you want, you can figure out where to put it all!

I'd go for a "figure 8", with the circle that gets most evening sun being where tge patio is, but depends on size!

Ohhh, I can definitely see the potential!
You can soften it up with lots of planting, like large planters along the walls with grasses, hydrangeas or evergreen shrubs, it all looks nice together and would help hide all the brick if you want to. I'd also add a couple of climbing plants like jasmine or clematis to break up the walls.
Then, if it's in the budget, you can cover up most of the concrete with porcelain paving or composite decking and leave some raised beds around the edges. For lighting I'd go for midsize outdoor lanterns and festoon lights. There are also garden planners where you can try different layouts first to see what works best before spending any money.
The fence could be painted too and you can add an outdoor rug with a cute inscription (like Home Sweet Home or something like this) and add a couple of garden figurines (we have hedgehogs with books mushrooms and foxes with apple baskets in or garden).

Absolutely first thing I’d do is get a tree where the branches and leaves are above the wall -to screen the other houses.
many trees nowadays are sold multi stemmed bit id get a single stem. Amelanchier doesn’t get too big, apple tree, hawthorn. Could you plant it in the ground or does it have to go in a pot?

Don't know if something like this is your style

That latest AI image looks the most feasible, the others look either out of scale or like you would have to use a lot of pot.

Op I'm a garden designer. If you would like some sketches I'll be happy to have a look. I will DM you.

Have you thought of applying to be on Garden Rescue?