Shed, kennel and garden ideas please

[diydemon]

We have a medium-size garden with a large shed (housing bikes and loads of other stuff) at the bottom, next to it a former small playhouse which is now the dog's kennel.

Both look dreadful and either need a revamp or replacement - would prefer revamp as it would be cheaper. We look out onto them from the house and they're in a cold, north-facing spot (the back of the house is southwest facing)

Also, I'd be grateful for ideas for sprucing up the garden in a way that once done wouldn't need too much maintenance - we're very short of time, dh has absolutely zilch interest in gardening, and much as I love trying to grow tomatoes in pots etc I'm fed up of our dreadful weather making it a pointless waste.

So, any ideas for things I can shove into pots on the patio or in the beds at the side of the grass - I wouldn't dignify it with the title of lawn - which will blossom beautifully all spring/summer as I sit there with a G&T after work?

I usually plant geraniums - it's a big patio and I've inherited loads of pots which go around the edge of it.

The dc are teens now so we don't need a play area.

All suggestions gratefully received, thanks

Perennial hardy geraniums are brilliant for ground cover - here are a few egs, some flower longer than others.

Cosmos are also great fillers for the border - if deadheaded regularly they flower at least 2 - 3 months, sometimes more. If you keep pinching them out they also grow v bushy so just one plant fills quite a large space with lots of blooms.

Can you stain the shed and kennel dark very green or black so they dont stand out?
Perhaps plant climbers (repeat flower climbing roses?) to go over the sides and roof of the shed? Something like this
oldroses.co.uk/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18&products_id=39

Re easy things to grow, if you plant Foxgloves and Cosmos (which taffeta suggested) in the same border you will have flowers from early summer till November. They'll both do better sown/planted in the ground rather than in pots.

Penstemon also flower for months but need a good sunny spot, most varieties are good in pots.

Could you put a trellis up against the shed, and then plant climbers? I think I'd go for clematis armandii on one side of the shed to get the evergreen foliage, and then as P says, Mme Alfred Carriere growing up the other side.

I wonder if you're better off with perennials than annuals, if you don't like gardening. I know you say you put geraniums in pots, but then that means planting things up and watering. How about biting the bullet and re-doing your borders instead, and then leave them to look after themselves?

Oh yes clem armandii is a good idea, there is a less vigourous one you can get now called Little WHite Charm, available from here (scroll down)
www.clematisplants.co.uk/clematis-spring-flowering.htm

Btw, GrendelsMum are you on CAT? I wanted to ask you a bit more about your Honeywell system.

Thanks for all the ideas - I've thought about disguising with climbing plants, but the shed and kennel are both facing northeast so I don't think flowering plants would like clematis would do so well as it gets virtually no light for most of the year, especially on the roots - or am I wrong about that?

Since posting I was musing about painting both creamy white with blue edging around the windows - and then if I can find a climber which would bloom, trying that - they're stained dark at the moment but because the shed is dark it looks grimmer possibly than if it were light-coloured - not sure about that though.

I'd keep the shed and kennel dark as dark colours are receding whereas a light colour will stand out much more.
IMO your best bet is to hide it with climbers. We are about to put up a large shed and will stain it black or dark green and am going to plant one of these I think to cover the roof (nice flowers, evergreen foliage and pretty hips)

www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/r/rosa_mulliganii.html

Clematis need their roots in shade to survive and clematis armandii will do very well in shade though may not flower loads.
The rose I linked to is also happy in shade and should flower well facing North East. It flowers all summer so would make the shed look much prettier.

There are plenty of climbers which will be happy in a shady postion: clematis montana/alpina/macropetala, Akebia, Parthenocissus, non clinging Ivy (less invasive than the clinging kind), climbing Hydrangea, Honeysuckle...
Another option is wall shrubs trained to hide the sides of the shed, Garrya/Pyracantha etc.

Have a look here:

apps.rhs.org.uk/AdviceSearch/Profile.aspx?pid=467

If you dig a decent size planting hole for clematis and roses and add bone meal and compost before planting they should do well.

I have a shed painted a pale purple and it's lovely and brings a light feeling into that corner. I think the colour was called Heather.
I second the perrennials in pots. Annuals can be quite a lot of work. I have a fuschia in a pot with some small spring flowering bulbs around it [can't remember the name], a little magnolia stellata, clematis armadii, bamboo and various others which all come up year after year with very little input from me.

Pannacotta - I'm not on CAT (I don't think), but you can email me on [email protected]

I think the difficulty with a light coloured shed is that it will draw attention to it, and if it's in bad condition, that will be very obvious. That's why P and me are suggesting hiding it behind shade-friendly climbers - I think we both have visions of a rotten wreck in the corner of your garden. On the other hand, if it isn't in that bad a condition, you could go for a pale green colour - or I did my previous shed stripy in dark and light green, like a beach hut.

Hops take deep shade for scrambling over the shed.
But will only be out over the summer months.

Ivy
Honeysuckle
Hydrangea

It's not a rotten wreck - the roof needs replacing and both need repainting or re-staining. Plus we need a very good clear-out inside and I think I might disguise the stuff in there by putting up curtains on the shed.

There isn't any ground to plant between the shed and the kennel - they're sitting on a decking platform - so any plants would need to go alongside the kennel and climb quite a long way to reach the shed.

Hear what you're saying about dark colours receding but I do like the sound of the pale purple - clematis montana would go very nicely with that. Any thoughts on what colour to paint around the window frames? (DH is muttering dark thoughts about it needing painting every year if we go for paint instead of stain).

There's a honeysuckle over a seat/pergola in the opposite corner of the garden (northwest facing) and I've never been able to get it to flower - I've just chopped most of it down in the hope that might prompt it into action - so I don't have a great track record with flowering plants since we've moved here! But a clematis montana in our previous house (in a sunny spot) did very well.

Agree that perennials rather than annuals are the way to go - I actually like gardening, but just don't have the time to go out there and do it, especially as our summers have been so bad recently.

Ok, part of the shed is now painted purple - need to do the rest of it - dh used Cuprinol in lavender. It looks great - much better already.

Does anyone think the climber - perhaps the Rosa mulliganii - would thrive in a large pot?

One side of the shed is against the fence and a path, with decking underneath it, so the only bare earth for planting is next to the kennel.

So it goes fence, shed, kennel (on decking/next to path), then bare earth against north-facing wall.

I'd like to to do: pot with rose on decking next to shed, kennel, clematis in earth next to kennel.

In the hope the two climbers will meet in the middle.

No don't plant a species rambling rose in a pot, it will probably die and certainly won't thrive. It's a very vigourous rose so you could easily plant it 1m or so away from the shed (or even more if needed) and train it that way and it will climb. You can use rope to guide it, it is quite a pliable rose so shoudl work well.
Facing North it will grow up towards the light/sun so should be fine.

I really would go for clematis armandii rather than clematis montana. Clematis armandii is evergreen, very happy in shade and flowers in early spring, so it will be a lovely companion for a rambling species rose. Clematis montana is a thug that will try to knock your shed down

I agree about choosing a Clem armandii over a montana. The clem montana gives no cover in winter and easily gets very messy/tangled, whereas the armandii is easier to prune and manage and has far nicer foliage. The montana would also compete too much with the rose.
TBH though you prob dont need both, IMO either an evergreen (or good as) rambler like R mulliganii or Clem armandii would suffice.

Thanks - armandii it will be. I have a long list of things to buy now -hope Easter will be dry!

Ah, had not realised that the rose is evergreen.

But I still think armandii is lovely, and I'm rooting for it!

I've been looking at the garden and the spot for the armandii. The planting spot really doesn't get any sun at all - will it do ok in deep shade?

If it grows enough to drape over the kennel/shed, the bits on top will have sun though.

I spent4 years transforming my large rear garden in a Japanes e garden - properly researched, not an imprssion of a japanes garden. We also built a tea house.

Now its done its almost zero maintenance, and it looks great all year round, and very pretty in the snow.

Its not a thing to attempt frivolously, takes a lot of work to make it authentic. I had to learn how to built with 4 inch bamboo, for a start :D

I grew it in deep shade with no problems - needs water to get it off to a good start, though.

diy yes it will grow in fairly dense shade, might be best to buy a good sized specimen so some of it will get some sun, if you want flowers.
If not it will just grow up toward the light.

Thanks - and any sort of soil? It must be quite acidic in that part of the garden as there's a lovely camelia which has flourished there over a number of years.

I'll also dig in a load of compost from the compost bin before planting.