Brand new garden - blank canvas! Pictures to start... need ideas!

Hello everyone! New member here, I think I may be staying a while

I have a brand new garden to do something with. So far, see pictures - you can see its got a patio, some stepping stones to the back gate, and at some point in the next week there will be turf laid. There is also a drain in the middle of the garden (!) and the part you cant see is the side brick wall. My garden experience is mainly potted roses, hostas, summer pansies for some colour and not much else. I've never had this much blank canvas before. I wondered whether it would be better moving the stones to the centre of the garden, using the drain as part of the path. or building a gravel path around the stones down the side as it is now. I need somewhere to locate a chimenea, bench, and a fair few pots.

It is a north facing garden, so will get a fair bit of sunshine in the mornings, especially down the side brick wall just out of shot and where I'm stood.

Any ideas on; paths, plants, bushes... anything really! I hope to answer any questions to help you out. thankyou!! :D

 

Hi and welcome.

Looks like you've got a great opportunity to make a really nice garden there.

I'm not of an artistic disposition unforunately, but I have picked up one or two things

Being surrounded by quite high boundaries, there is a chance it will look a bit closed in if you make any design blunders. I think I'd start by painting the fence in a pale colour to maximise the available light. However I wouldn't go with white, its too stark and will make the fence seem closer than it is. Perhaps a pastel shade.

Straight paths running the length of the garden make it seem smaller. After all a straight line is the shortest route across.

How about making the garden into distinct sections, each section having a slightly different theme (but not too different, otherwise they might not gel together), and then you could make your path a little bit windy as it meanders through the different sections.

 

Hi Pawlala and welcome to the forum. I started with a totally blank canvas several years ago - knowing nothing about gardening.

The first thing I did was to look through lots of gardening books with pictures (you can do it in a shop) and at each picture of a garden I asked myself if I liked that garden and why, and if not why not. It took a little while. But after a time I started to develop an idea of what sort of style I liked. As it happens I didn't like straight lines, neat cut box balls or the formal look. What I did like was soft curvy lines, and plenty of colour in the blue, pink, purple range. And thats how I have got my garden now - no straight lines and plenty of colour - mostly perennials, but with some areas of biennials for early colour to be replaced by Dahlias and late flowering tender perennials for late colour.

The other point is the practical one of what you want to do with the space. In my case I wanted a summerhouse and sitting out place. So this had to be in the sunniest part of the garden. If you want to play football, you need a different layout.