Time to see if I can become a garden master!

Hello All,

Well a bit about myself, i am 22 with a young family (2 beautiful girls) we are lucky enough to have a nice sized garden at the minute its all grass with a couple of slabs around the bungalow and a small shed. I am aiming to really improve it this year, with some more slabs with a firepit, some planters a little veggie patch for the girls so they can grow there own food! So you may find me asking silly questions as I am a complete novice at gardening but looking forward to getting stuck in! My first project is going to be a 3 tier planter which I am excited to start!

This is a view of the garden, and I have a narrow bit that runs down the side:


This is where I am aiming to extend the block of slabs and run a planter down the side of it:


Anyone have any ideas?

I also love hydrangeas and would love to have a section for them

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

I'm just veg & wildflowers department, but someone will be along in a bit

 

Hi

A new garden how exciting , a couple of apple trees that your daughters could help to plant and then take some pictures and see how they all grow would be great

 

What a marvellous blank canvas. Just browse through the various threads here - you will find lots of ideas and inspiration. How's about a little raised bed for the gals to sow some seeds in? A sunflower or two perhaps?
to Gardeners Corner,
Jenny namaste

 

Welcome to GC! You have a lovely blank canvas and I look forward to seeing how it comes along.

 

Miniature Greenhouse?
Wildlife Area?
Raised Pond? (Easier than you think!)

 

I also have this trouble causer to contend with! Thanks for the comments so far


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aaawww....
to GC little chap

 

How cute! You're probably right about him being a trouble maker though! I know from experience that dogs only seem to dig precisely where you least want them to... that probably means slap-bang in the middle of your veggie patch.
Investing in a raised bed would prevent this. It will also be useful to improve the condition of your soil as you can fill the raised bed with good quality compost and add well rotted manure. It's also excellent for drainage. In turn, this will present a higher success rate with growing new crops and could help keep your daughter's interested
If you're interested, there are plenty of good videos on youtube showing you how to make your own raised beds for a fraction of the cost of buying one.

 

Just realised this post is incredibly long, and you may get very bored. But it's 20 to 12 and it may help you sleep so...
One way to prevent the hell raiser from digging where you don't want him to would be to fence off an area of the garden you would like to keep him in.
You're lucky in that your whole garden is a mini fork knox to a dog, assuming he doesn't like to dig too much.
The fence you could keep him in needn't be particularly oppressive, and you could mask it with a flower bed each side of it.

You really need something to take the attention away from the neighbours windows. First thing i saw when I looked at your picture was the lawn. The second thing I saw was this:

My actual worst nightmare. Have it my way and I'd put conifers at the back, but they're equally, if not more ugly than the horrendous curtains they'll probably put up in one of those windows.

Shed: Functional, and a must have item in any garden. My opinion, move it to the bottom of the garden. Either the right or left hand side, but definitely not in the middle. You'll be able to grow climbing plants up the side of it too, taking up minimal space of the garden. Orientate it according to the sun. I think yours is a south facing garden, so if you wanted to have climbers up it, left hand side. However climbers will also grow up the fence too, making the fence far less of a visible barrier.

Bench: By the looks of things, you'll want to be able to sit out in the garden in the summer evenings with a bbq and a pint to wind down after managing that warehouse. Make the most of the sun and move it to the other side of the garden, and maybe towards the back too.

That boundary fence and paving: A vision I have would be to pave over a corner section towards the bottom of the garden. Leave enough space for a border, possibly a raised bed between the paving and the fence though. Honestly, that fence is an eyesore, but your daughters could paint it in whatever style they like. It's a blank canvas to them.

Lawn: Way too much lawn. You have two girls, so they're probably not going to want to play football, no matter how much you ask them to. I could be wrong though. You could probably encroach on the lawn from all sides, leaving pathways to each side, whilst still keeping a reasonably sized lawn area.

Separating out your garden into sections if done well can make the garden seem far bigger than it is. If done wrong can leave it feeling cluttered.

I've done a quick mockup on paint gave me this as a possibility. the black is the shed. Yellow is paving. Green is grass. Red is house. Brown is flower beds/veg plots.

You don't have to stick to squares. You can go circles, triangles, curves. I just did squares because I'm lazy, if my using paint didn't already give that away.
I know these mockups don't reflect the slabs idea you have yourself, but everything can be moved around, resized, shaped, and altered to suit your liking.

 

Wow thank you for that write up and taking the time to do it! I agree 100% on what you have said especially regarding the overlooking windows!


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Hi...welcome to GC. Good luck with your garden

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Mkilbz.