Garden Project Advice & Ideas

So we have been in our property 1 year, and last year I simply planted all the plant's you see in the attached photos.

But now the wife would like me to make the garden more child friendly, you can imagine a lot of the plants get damaged (3 small children), but that's probably because the plants are all over the garden. I was thinking to make 1 or a maxium of 2 large planting areas, and move the plants.

I have all summer free, and I heard July is going to be extremely warm :D

Well take a look at the attached photos, and post your suggestions and ideas.

 

I see what you mean, bet those ones in the l-shaped bed around the patio take a beating.

How about picking the most sunny and fertile looking areas to create new beds in - the kids will need less sunscreen on if they play in the shady areas. Alternatively, the section near the patio beyond the stepping stones might be good, as you can landscape it to look good from the patio so you can sit enjoying a beverage next to it while the children play.

I would make sure the serious planting bits are kept well away from the serious playing areas, possibly by erecting a light fence, such as a cute picket fence, or something delicate made from bamboo canes. You'd need something that would deflect a football but not create an ugly barrier or restrict light.

The kids' bit should be totally free of delicate plants so you won't have to nag them or wince every time they trample something. Your planting area could be made out-of-bounds as an exchange. If it suits you to have their trampoline at the side of the house the whole of that strip could be the child-friendly area.

 

i cant see any of the pics for some reason?

 

Strange, the pictures load here, maybe a problem with your browser?

Yes the L Shape planting area is a nightmare with the children, So that's the first to go. Going to fill, level then grass seed.

The area which contains the trampoline, does have half circle plating area's (near fence) but a little overgrown with weed's, also thought about returning these areas back to lawn space.

Which leave's the second area near the fence, with the wall top stones (swing ball picture), thinking about making this wider, and removing the straight lines, making it a curved planting area? How would I go about marking out a curved line?

And not sure what to do with the mess at the back of the garden, lots of stone wall, but well rooted from the tree's.

 

The images are mounted on Northern Toys own domain, and maybe it has limited bandwidth. I had to refresh the page several times - I got a few more pictures each refresh.

The images appear to be straight-from-camera - 4MB each - which also won't be helping, particularly for anyone on a mobile device.

 

Yes, I'd take the lawn right up to the fence, the planting areas are too bitty to make much impact anyway. You could try putting in a few tough climbers to brighten up the fence but you'd still have to protect them until they got big enough to look after themselves.

If you do that, what will happen to the swing ball? Can it go anywhere else? You can lay down a hose pipe to test out curved lines - rearrange it until you have a curve that pleases you. I often lay down a trickle of dry sand or even flour to mark out something, if it doesn't rain it will last long enough to get the cutting job done. Best to make the curve wide and generous, not small and wavy -looking.

I don't think you'll be able to grow much directly under those trees, so give that over for play area! The stone wall looks dilapidated, you might be able to harvest the stones for use elsewhere as border edging, and take the lawn up to the base of the trees and cut a neat edge to it. Otherwise, just neaten up the wall as best you can.

 

Hi NorthernToys, welcome to the forum.

May I suggest that the photos you use should be scaled down. It will make this thread load much quicker and more reliably, and it will put less strain on your own servers.

 

Scaled down all images in Photoshop, So hopefully all images load correctly now :D

Yes the swing ball can be moved, and don't have a hose at the moment, so maybe a trip to the garden center.

The wall was left by the previous owner, and never really known what to do with it. Ill remove the stone wall, and take the lawn right up to the base of the trees, and try to recycle the wall for another part of the garden.

Some great idea's, keep the suggestions coming, and thank you for your time.

Going to start the work this Friday, So I will insure project pictures are uploaded :D

 

yes i can see all the pics now

simplest option...get rid of the kids!