Help with ideas for my garden please

[vladimirVsvolodymr]

Westerly facing garden. I need some slight shady trees. A shed will be going on to the right end of the corner. I would love to make the garden more private as we are very open and almost on top of each other as most new builds are. Thanks in advance.

Ooh. That is an exciting project and it's a nice big garden. If look on youtube for privacy ideas for UK new build gardens you will find lots of inspiration. A pergola covered in clematis or virginia creeper will give you privacy and shade quite quickly.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/_mbpDecQVMc

There's an excellent article on garden privacy here - she talks about sight lines, and thinking about which bits of the garden need privacy. For example, you might like to screen a table and chairs - putting the tree/shrub/screen closer to the table is much more effective than something at the bottom of the garden.

A shed will be going on to the right end of the corner.
Why? Is there any rationale. Put it nearer to the heat source and hide both together. Unless you make it a pretty shed, so it's a focal point and/or something to grow plants up.

If you are west-facing then you will get the setting sun. Don't put big solid plants in the way of that view (I note that you talk about slight trees).

But the main thing is: what do you want to do in the garden? Decide on that and put it in the best spot (i.e. sunniest/shadiest, depending on whether you like sun or shade!)

Thanks everyone, will check out the links. We had a shed removed at the end of the gravel/stones (where the play house is) and we’re looking to get another. The garden is very overlooked and there is an empty plot behind us. The house going up behind us will be perpendicular to us but I want a bit of greenery at the back as the sun heats up the kitchen. More pics attached

How long until the perpendicular house goes up? It might be worth waiting until that is up, and until you have lived in the house a while and know how the sun tracks across the garden. Then you can make plans.
Meanwhile put a sunsail over the kitchen window.

We have been in the house for 8 years, the developers have been refused planning permission for a two storey house but had a now expired permit for a single storey due to the proposed property overlooking the already existing bungalows. We don’t know when they will get permission. The back looks very bare.

You could put a cherry or apple tree outside your French doors, just at the start of the lawn and about three feet from the fence. It would grow to give shade directly on the house, but leave a sunny lawn beyond it that gets south and west light. In winter when you want sun it would be leafless, in spring it would get gorgeous pink blossom, and in summer/autumn it would have shady leaves cooling your house. Nobody would see in your windows, and it would make a nice view from indoors. You can add a bench under it facing south or west, and pots of herbs by the back door.
Beyond the lawn, line the fences with climbers of all sorts to soften them and add interest. Put the shed next to the air pump - that’s the north wall so it won’t cast a shadow on your garden. Make a seating area in the nicest spot, not right outside your back door but down the garden slightly so it’s sunny all day instead of just in the afternoon.

Have you considered Pleached trees?

Thank you so much everyone. Loads of ideas to go with. @MaryLennoxsScowlthat sounds absolutely perfect, I need to see how big they grow as next door neighbour has artificial lawn and I don’t think he would appreciate leaves from my tree 😂
@LivingwithHopenowandforeverim off to google pleached trees 🙈

A simple modern design.
Privacy by interrupting sightlines to the patio, rather than enclosing the garden: a light arch with bay standards.
One Amelanchier Rainbow Pillar as the feature tree, and a pot of Miscanthus Morning Light to soften the heat pump. Some border space for low planting (The design is mine, but I've used AI to recreate the image).
An advantage of standard lollipop trees is you can choose the height you need.. the trunk height is stable, only the crown will fill out as it matures. Plus the're easier to maintain than pleached forms.
It's adaptable to a less formal style.

@brambleberriesthis is so lovely, thank you.

Any ideas for the fence on the left hand side or should I leave it the way it is @brambleberries? Thanks again

I would cover that fence with an espalier fruit tree or a rose like a Gertrude jekyl, allowing large rise stems to grow, bend them over to create arches on the fence, then you’ll get an incredible display

Personally, I'd be inclined to leave the left-hand fence quite simple.
It already benefits from the borrowed greenery beyond, which helps the garden feel larger. The bay standards will also become noticeably fuller and denser as they mature, so they'll provide considerably more visual presence and privacy than it's possible to show in an AI image.

If, after living with the design, you still wanted a little more privacy on the patio, I'd be more tempted to increase the canopy of the two lollipops (perhaps replacing the bays with small ornamental crab apples) than add climbers along the fence, as that would keep the design open while filtering the key sightlines.

Every element has been chosen to do a specific job. Rather than screening every boundary, the arch and bay standards gently interrupt the main sightlines while keeping the garden open. The standard bays are relatively compact and well suited to planting nearer the house. The pale shed provides a quiet backdrop for the Amelanchier's silhouette and its seasonal colour; and the pale Moonstone gravel with the simple stepping-stone path helps the garden feel brighter, calmer and more spacious.

A generated image of how the design might look with two Malus Evereste (crab apple tree). It gives a less formal appearance, but you lose the winter greenery of the bay laurels.

One advantage with ornamental crab apples is that they're available on different rootstocks, so you can choose a tree with a more compact eventual size. That makes it possible to gain a slightly broader canopy for privacy while still keeping the garden in proportion.