Turning a concrete terraced yard into a garden

Hi,

I currently have an average sized concrete terraced yard with about 15 pot plants in. It's north facing but gets a reasonable amount of sunlight. I'm thinking about what I can do to make it "more green", and to attract more wildlife. I would like to retain the shed and decking. Currently we get visits from blue tits, robins, slugs, bees, blue bottle flies, and ladybirds in small numbers.

I would like a patch of lawn but there doesn't seem space for it. Also anything that involved digging up the concrete would probably be expensive.

Does anyone have an ideas for things such as lawns,water features,beds,particular plants that would make my yard more green?!

See attached for photos of my garden.

thanks

Ric

 

Hi Tornado- welcome:-)

First, thats a lovely courtyard space you have there. If you have the time, search for Julie-Cornwall who has posted here over the past few months and has a courtyard space similar to yours which she has developed beautifully.
Here you go: http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...e-gardener-need-help-small-border-plants.html

At the moment her photos are displayed at the top of forum. Or go here:http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...ms-small-back-garden-before-after-so-far.html

Second- If you want to continue with using containers then I think you could do with some LARGE rectangular planters along the walls in which you can grow some climbers along some galvanised wires embedded into that long white wall.
Clematis, jasmine, sweetpeas, roses, climbing hydrangeas... would all do well depending on which direction each wall was facing. Id go for something intensely scented- its a smaller space so fill it with fragrance!

Third- Id get some strategically placed mirrors in there and reflect light and plants , it effectively doubles the area you can see.

 

Fantastic, I love yard gardens. I've been trying for years to persuade my mum to let me build one in her yard, but she isn't green fingered and worries about the maintenance effort.

Here's some ideas (most of them robbed of course, I'm not that creative):

How about some tall plants with a small footprint. Perhaps bamboo, or hazel. They'd add height and structure to the plan without taking up much space.

I often think shed roofs and other relatively flat roofs are wasted space. How about reinforcing it a bit with some bits of wood, arranged so that it can retain soil, then you could plant something trailing in it. Perhaps nasturtium (masses of bold round glassy green leaves, and nice flowers), or of course strawberries.

Perhaps make more use of the walls. I see you have a hanging basket on there. Hanging baskets are great, but I sometimes think they take up too much space. How about those baskets that screw directly to the wall. At my place, I'm thinking of building some wooden stepped shelf type thing on the wall, where I will grow strawberries and some flowers.

To make the place look bigger, how about some clever use of mirrors. Have a look at this:
Garden Mirror Illusion - Small Window £94.95

 

many thanks for the suggestions.

i'm probably going to go down the route of buying a couple of very large containers.

i was even thinking of getting a separate half-barrel from somewhere and making a tub pond, although I won't be able to put a pump in it as there's no outside electrics

also, i don't have a car. so does anyone know of how to get a large quantity of soil to fill my containers delivered?

i do have a birdfeeder already - you can see it in the photo attached to my kitchen window!

i may have to give some of the other suggestions a skip (at least for now) as I am both time poor, and tool poor to be building anything or drilling holes.

 

it looks lovely!

my suggestions are to get some hoppers - i love them on the walls and it gets the garden up higher, secondly you say you want a lawn - what about some sort of camomile seat? its just so lovely and its a bit lawn like - you say some sort of lawn. i had a water feature with no pump it had a beautiful water lily in it and i put charcoal in to stop it going stagnant which worked. site it mostly in shade though. i used an old tin bath - i just love galvanised steel



good luck

loopy

 

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Loopy

 

I am pretty new to gardening but I would say some tall climbers to add some height. I bought a honeysuckle and a clematis montana a couple of months ago which have gone completely mental growing in my garden and really changed the look of the side of the garage. also I like the blue paint you have, perhaps use that as a bit of a 'theme' and paint trellis going up the wall (even if nothing growing on it) but vary the shade of blue, just mixing the paint with cream so it is all just shades of the same colour. hanging baskets? easy to plant with winter pansies etc too for year round colour. it looks to me like it has great potential, a nice size and loads of pots. perhaps just play around with arrangements of where they can be etc. if you can add some depth and height to the corner areas then it will look more interesting and some of the garden mirrors are lovely and could be great in your garden especially with climbing plants or trailing hanging baskets round them. water feature wise my husband mentioned possibly getting a solar powered water feature. not a pond but just one that cycles around a small amount of water. solar powered so doesn't matter that you don't have electrics outside.

 

or something else you could do if you liked it is to rearrange your slate and make a 'path' of a different colour stone, like a dry river bed almost?

 

Hi, I don't have a car either but can recommend Wilkinson for soil as well as great, reasonably priced large containers. Multi Purpose Compost with added John Innes 20ltr | Multi Purpose Compost | | Compost from Wilkinson Plus Asda Groceries used to have compost as well but seem to have delisted it this year.

Perhaps it would be possible to have a solar power pump for your tub pond? It probably won't be very efficient but enough to give the sound of moving water... oooh... now I suddenly want a small pondlet as welll...