My garden. I need a plan

Well buying a load of flowers and just sticking them in anywhere isn't working. I need help.

This is my garden and its pretty much the way it was when we moved here except that it was tidier, the headges weren't patchy and there was bark chips around the plants.

I took some shrubs and bits out that I didn't like (thinking that was a bad idea now) I also dug up the grass and made a little vegetable patch.



The soil is heavy clay. I accidently dug the bark chips into the soil last year when I tried to plant my annuals. I think I must be naturally destructive, it seem to me that I'm making the garden worse rather than improving it.

The main problem is there is so much shade where the boarders are. The worst shaded area is along by the hedge. And the hedge being green, everything I plant tends to blend in so theres no clear definition really. Pics are my garden, travelling around from right to left. Its a side plot on the house.


This corner is the only patch that recieves full sun from about 11am till evening.


This bit of the boarder recieves a fair bit of sun but tis dominated by quite big shrugs and things. A buddliea, that flowering currant thing, tamarisk and fire thorn. Its all cramed into this one space because its one of the few places that gets the sun. Theres no plan to the way its laid out and I'm not sure thats a good thing. The buddliea gets huge and swamps everything else (you can see how big it gets by where its killed the grass) I chopped it back last weekend. Not sure if that was a stupid thing to do?



Between the shed and the laurel (is it?) recieves no sun at all. The right of the laurel recieves some sun at different parts of the day and is a right mess. I shoved a jasmine, a shrub called the bride, theres a honey suckle and three azeleas in there, most of it you can't see because it doesn't do well enough in the shade.


But by far the worst boarder is this one. Recieves no sun at all.


How can I rearrange things, I want a garden that has lots of flowers. In my head I see roses trailing all the way around and masses of blooms. The truth is I haven't a clue what I'm doing any suggestions as to where I can move things/what I should plant/take out would be gratefully recieved.

 

Hi Abi, Loofah has good advice and I can only add to it by advising you to visit gardens this year until you are sick of the sight of them ( if you can ever be sick of them), they give so many different perspectives you would never have thought of yourself.

And like mentioned, you definitely need to do something about the measly borders.

 

There are plenty of perennials that thrive on clay and do well in shade. As a start, think about ferns, hostas, astilbe, eupatorium, dicentra...

I have shady borders in some places too and those are just some of what I have growing in them. You could also think about climbers that do well in shade - honeysuckle likes dappled shade and I'm discovering the benefits of ivy, thanks to Lollipop!

 

It looks like the sun is in the middle of the garden most of the time, so I would get rid of most of the lawn, doesn't look in brilliant condition anyway.

Firstly, I agree with Claire and loofah, you need to extend the side borders to at least double the depth. How about making in sweeping curve round the corners rather than dead straight right angle?

Maybe make an oval or circular bed in the centre, leaving a strip of grass, about 3 ft wide, as a path all the way around. You could fill the centre bed with roses.

There are lots of plants that will do quite well in shade, look at the BBC gardening website for ideas.

Cutting down the buddleja will do it no harm at all, but it will regrow to the same height again this year. If you don't like it, get rid of it.

The fences could have clematis, honesuckle or if very shady, ivy.

This is a very simple and probably obvious plan, I am sure that you could come up with better ideas.

Once you have designed the layout, believe it or not, I use watered down emulsion paint to mark out the lines when I am making new borders. The neighbours will think you have lost it, but it makes following your plan easier. If you go wrong, it will mow off when the grass grows a bit.

Once you have removed the grass, fork over the new beds and dig in as much organic matter as possible. Then, best of all, put in new plants.

 

Thanks all for your suggestions, have given me alot to go on. I like the idea of having a bed in the middle of the garden blackthorn, I wouldn't have thought to do that. I need to consider that one a bit more... your right the lawn is ****. I managed to kill that somehow too LOL! :dh: I fertilised it and aeriated it today so for now I'll see what happens with it.

I think the biggest thing thats come out of this is that you're right, I need bigger borders. I think the sunshines made me a bit fool hardy, this afternoon I took a can of spray paint to the lawn and doubled their width. And things started making abit more sense. I pulled out all the log roll and began to pull up the lawn.
I discovered in this moment of mayhem that there is bloody gravel under the lawn so I started chucking that in the green bin, and then....

the realisation of what I was doing hit me. I felt a bit out of my depth and overwelmed. Am I sure about this? I felt transported back in time to my first flat where I was convinced that dark purple and forest green seperated by a white dado rail was the only choice of colour for the walls and I was struck down with cowardice.

I think I'll do some drawings like you said Loofa and come back to it when I really know what I'm going to do and where i'm going to put it all.:yez: Will keep you updated on what I decide.

For now I've stuffed the log roll back in and hid the evidence. LOL!

 

It seems a big job only because it's new to you. Absorb as much information as you need, but the most important job of all, the absolute pinacle of work-is ti remind yourself at every step-enjoy it.

You will have a beautiful garden, I know it.

 

Don't loose heart!
One think that I've learnt over the years is a garden just like the plants in it need time to grow and develop. Something that you find you like in your early days as a gardener may not be to your liking in time to come, so perhaps the best advice I could give is take your time, focus on one are of the garden that you want to improve first, (the bit that you see most is where I start), and tackle that, get it to a level where you are satisfied and move onto the next area. Before you know it, you'll have plants everywhere, and you won't realise that the garden has been transformed.

Once you have a better idea of what you can physically and financially achieve, you will beable to plan how to spend both time and money to make the most of it.

Don't forget, the organic matter, perhaps one of the most important things when increasing your borders.

Hope this helps.

 

Best advice I've received: visit your library, read the books and then just try to limit all the wonderful ideas and inspirations you get. It works too well, I personally waste all the sunny days indoors just drawing models, planning, googleing plants etc..

 

When you're all talking about organic matter, what do you mean exactly? At the risk of sounding stupid - would horse manure count??!!