Blank Canvas Project

Hello!

I'm hoping some of you lovely people will have some ideas on how I can improve my garden. It's my first ever grown up garden, I moved here a year ago and now have High School aged children so can finally do something with the garden that they won't destroy! I do have a puppy but he is quite good at the moment and isn't currently digging holes everywhere!

I have a blog to chart the progress, all my pics are on there: http://bugsandberries.wordpress.com/the-garden/. But I will put some here too, it's just there are quite a few!

I live on a corner, on a hill. I have every type of condition when it comes to all day sunlight, partial shade, full shade, shelter and exposure due to the location. It can get windy up here too.

I really like gardens that are just a mass of bushes and flowers. I have no knowledge about gardening other than some things I plant grow, and some don't! I also would like some privacy along the front fence. My front garden is very exposed and I have a small yard at the back, you'll see on the photos.

OK, the front garden:




This is a thistle, which I absolutely love. At the moment it is breaking into beautiful vibrant flowers and looks lovely. It's also covered in ladybirds. I would like to attract bees and butterflies to the garden.



Where these two fences join is actually my drive way, which the previous owner, in his infinite wisdom, threw the soil from the back garden when he dug it up. There is a layer about an inch thick, and grass has trouble growing on it. Eventually, I will dig up the soil and get the drive back, replacing his fence with gates again. The drive is the width of that first low fence panel, I think I measured it at 10'8".

 

And the back, which runs to the right of the house:



This fence is the property of my neighbour. Basically he and the previous owner were in dispute. He dug up a beautiful sloped garden to level it off (rather badly) for his dogs, exposing all the fencepost foundations and causing the collapse of the fence.


I would love to take a sledgehammer to this cement. But I have thought about raising the little wall by one more layer of bricks, and putting a large pebble top on it. At the back, in the corner, I'd like to have a raised bed for veggies. I like French gardens, and would like lots of pots and an antique style iron table and chairs out here, eventually.


'Orrible, innit?


This is where he ran out of cement and left the sand, which is about an inch thick. My puppy digs this up all the time. This is where I would like to build a raised bed, so I was thinking I could use the soil from off the drive to start building this back up. Or smash up the concrete and use that as a base. The concrete has NO drainage so the garden pools really quickly.

 

Hi, I'm pretty new to things but just wanted to say wow, it looks like there's so much you could do with your garden. Frankly, I wouldn't know where to start. I suspect I would start daydreaming about landscaping, and playing about with ways to do something different with the lawn (wild flowers? Lift it and have some beds?). And yeah, lovely job he did on the back there...any thoughts on what you would do with the fencing? I would love to have some jasmine (can't find which type) in my garden but a) I don't have anything for it to climb on and b) I'm in Yorkshire and apparently it's quite tender. We used to have some in a house I lived in in London, it smelt fantastic at dusk and was easy on the eye too (evergreen, small white flowers). I'd totally grow that on your fences!

What's top of the wish list for you?

 

I had a Jasmine once that I grew in a pot in a tiny garden I had, and it was lovely. So yes, Jasmine, climbing roses, honeysuckles I would love. I'd like to have stuff on the wall at the rear of the house. The fences are going to be fixed by the neighbour, so will look like they do now but in tact, and then I can paint my side and do whatever I want to them, within reason.

My wishlist would be a little privacy at the front, not too much, but at least so we can use the garden without people gawping. At the back I'd like a little oasis, somewhere I can sit and read a book and smell flowers etc. Hanging baskets and window boxes of flowers, and big planters full of herbs (I cook a lot). I would love two apple trees and a manna tree (or the tree that has white fluff on it in spring, can't remember the name). There are 8 tree stumps where the guy before hacked down the trees to concrete and lawn the gardens. I still can't get my head round that. So there is plenty of room for trees out there.

 

Come and see mine! The secret is getting rid of the lawn.

Great project, I love a blank canvas.

A few preliminary thoughts - don't be too quick to attack the concrete. If you want a patio at the back you may wish to use part of the concrete as a base for a tiled or slabbed seating area. So if you dig it up now you may find yourself having to relay a base. Also, I sense you are keen to get going and a concrete area can easily be softened by arranging strategic temporary planters.

If you want to get busy, I recommend sorting out the fence first.

Spend a lot of time with pieces of paper sketching out alternative possibilities. I made a photocopy of the outlines of my garden space and used those to explore possibilities. Also don't start heavy structural work until you have thought your plan through to a conclusion and you are happy with it, otherwise you may find yourself undoing work you already did, or wishing you had something different.

You could do some buying plants and planting (the really fun bit, unlike humping gravel or hauling chunks of concrete). If you plant in the ground you can move stuff after a bit if you get it wrong, or put it into containers until you are ready with the final spot.

I like the idea of making a low pebble wall, as long as you are sure you won't trip over it!

 

Hi Madahhlia,

Tripping... I did that about five weeks ago and smashed my knee and shoulder. I'm still struggling with the shoulder!

Everything you've said makes sense. Along the fence which is broken, I thought I could build a wall a few feet in, or use railway sleeper kind of structure, then fill in the gap between my sleepers and his fence. He is okay with that. His garden sits about two feet higher than mine, so a problem I forgot to mention is any excess water from his garden just pours onto mine. I thought if I built it up as a raised bed, with some broken rocks/bricks/rubble at the bottom, then the soil off the drive and eventually some nice soil/compost on top, it would prevent water from pouring and pooling on to the rest of the garden? Then I could plant nice things in it. Regards the concrete, I think if I drill some drainage holes in it, then get a membrane and fill with some kind of gravel, that would look okay. How does that sound as a plan to start with?

 

The shrub you like with red tips is probably photinia.
http://www.sustainable-gardening.co...ped-photinia-x-fraseri-and-photinia-serrulata

 

The problem with the neighbour/fence sounds like a complete pain.Rather than going to all the trouble of building a fence substitute on your side would it be better to grit your teeth and do a deal with him? Although of course, it shouldn't be your financial responsibility.

I think the idea with the raised bed would work. If you think it might get over-wet, choose bog garden plants!

Ditto the gravel idea, cheap, quick and effective for the short term. Mind you, some of my gravel paths have been down for years. Bear in mind, the gravel might skid on a concrete surface, it's not very nice to walk on in bare feet, and it might gradually become polluted with soil, although that helps to bind it together. When that happens, you can just dump it onto the nearest flower bed.

 

Hi,

I'm not building a fence my side, just taking the level back up to ground level like nextdoors... otherwise there is no point him fixing his fence because it will just collapse again. It's neither of ours fault that the guy in my house before was a complete plank and caused all the problems in the first place. Next door is quite amiable. The wall I'd be building would only be 2' high and would form my raised bed, if that makes sense?

What are bog garden plants? And yes that red tipped plant does look familiar. There is a heap of the stuff round here, I'll take a photo tomorrow when I take the pup out and show you what I mean. That would be all along the front fence x

 

In the second to last photo of the back garden, there is a blue fence post towards the left of the photo (in fact, it looks like the line prop is pointing at it.) Well, at the base of that post there is a large concrete slab vertically on the neighbours side of the fence. They had to put that there to stop their garden falling into mine! It's secure, but the height of that slab is how high their garden is above mine. Mine should be that high on that side of the garden, then slope down naturally. That way it would still drain well, being at the top of a hill! But because of the little curved wall and cement, the water ools on to. When everyone else's gardens are dry, mine is still full of puddles! It's a dilemma what to do for the best.

 

A few thoughts ...

1. The front fence is crying out for some nice informal hedging shrubs. What you grow there depends on how high you want this to be (ie how much privacy you want). You could use some evergreen shrubs for complete screening or fragrant roses.

2. The damaged fence - once that is replaced ask if you can attach some posts to it, then attach trellis to them for some honeysuckle or climbing roses. Or some large planters with trellis in along that back fence would also look lovely. Once you have the trellis, you could grow a variety of climbers.

3. The concrete bit in front of it (looks like it's a nice sunny area) - you could make a lovely patio area out of that. If you like the French look, how about a row down one side of planters with lavender (which bees love) and other herbs? You could really plant whatever you want out there (maybe some fragrant roses in planters) and make it look gorgeous for when you want to sit out.

4. The slatted fence leading from the front garden to the back - if you really want complete privacy in the side garden, then either plant some screening plants in planters in front of it, or else attach trellis to it and a nice evergreen climber.

I have loads of stuff in planters and the only limit is your imagination so whatever theme you want, go for it!

 

Ooh, thank you! I like the idea of attaching trellising to the fence. I love climbing plants and that would give me a much better view from the kitchen window (where I seem to spend most of my time!) and would give a nice scent too. I will chat to the neighbour about it next time I see him. And along the front fence I'd like some informal hedging, I'll see what I can find at the garden centre.

I love the idea of large planters and pots, and at the moment there seems to be laods on sale. So I will at least stock up on some, and see what I can plant now and what can wait until later in the year.

That fence between the two gardens: well, I hate that. Also, it serves no real purpose. The back door is actually on the side of the house and leads into the front garden, so there is no access to the back garden from within it, if that makes sense? I'd like to move the fence forward into the front garden or get rid of it altogether. I really would like it moved forward though, so that the side door is then in the back garden.

What can I plant late in the season, ready for next year?

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Milliebert. Just a couple of ideas to start with.

1. The front fence.......If you are patient enough time wise, I'd be inclined to grow a hedge ( some grow quicker than others) along that, it would help to keep the wind out being as you are on high ground, or replace the fence with a higher one and grow climbers up it.

2. The back patio......if you don't want to take up the concrete you could add a second tier to it further back following the curves it has in it now, which would raise the height for you and then repair the fence and create a bed in front of it.

 

If you can wait until later in the year, there are lots of things which you can plant while they're dormant. Particularly in terms of hedging, you'll be able to get bare root hedging plants which are much cheaper.

If you list the sort of stuff you want to plant, then someone will be able to advise when it can be planted

 

HI!

Been busy last few days and not had time to think about the garden.

Yes, it is photinia I like. It's known round here as Red Robin, I asked a neighbour. It looks lovely when it's a mix of green and red. I'd like to mix it up with another kind of informal hedging, so if anyone has any ideas?