Ideas please blank canvass (house down to river)

Right I am new....... not just to this site...... but also to house ownership and gardening

I googled gardening forum and clicked on here.

I have a slighty unusual garden thats a proper mess at the mo and I'm looking for ideas please.

I have done a slighty dodgey picture explaining the general layout that I have and have no real clue how to make best use of what could be a fantastic garden.

Its 100 foot long and about 30 wide at the moment there is a real bad patio area, then some half decent grass, then some slightly inclined (dodgey) grass then it drops off quite steep to a decking then the river



I'm just not sure of what best to do?

I am thinking of raising the dodgey grass up to the level of normal grass then have steps to the decking.

Would love to hear any ideas anyone has no matter how excentric or mundane!

The only thing I'd say I do like, is oriental looking plants/flowers

 

In what way is the patio bad ? do you intend to do the work yourself ?

 

Yes all work myself mate.

The patio is just old and sad really and badly laid, needs redoing nicely

 

Id sort of terrace the slope in some way .....

 

Rail slepers teracing with stone steps would be my aproach, sleapers are caypable of holding back about 2' in height of soil so id calculate the teraces acordingly.

If your on acid soil then id also be tempted to have several sloping areas planted with autumn and spring flowering heathers, the trick is to plant close and multch heavily with bark/ leylandi chippings.

 

Can you post pictures of similar ideas please?

I'm a bit pants at imagining it but I'm quite good at stealing other ideas

 

It would be a very good idea and would help a lot if you could arrange to supply some pictures nelly.As it would be easier to imagine what you have there.

 

Yeah your right I thought as much myself

I will sort some out for tommorow

 

Is that a big heap of soil? dosnt look to bad a slope.....

 

Yeah its some sandy soil I wanted to level it up a bit part way

 

Is that slope facing north-south-east west? Sunny or shady?
DO you intend to have a low low low maintenance garden or do you think you can invest some hours of work on it?

I like the sleepers idea from Pro Gard, but IMHO heathers can be quite boring all by themselves. I see you have some trees on the place so I guess some places at least are shady. Oriental looking plants that will tolerate shade and be easy on a new gardener may be hostas, ferns, hydrangeas (lacecaps look definitely more oriental and stylish). AMong hydrangeas I wd plant also one or two of the really tall ones if you have space, they are a bit more unusual and give quite special look, with no trouble involved. Hydrangea heteromalla "Snow Cap" is possibly the easiest. I wd definitely try to find a place for a wistaria, for the same 'oriental look', may be "Longissima Alba", Lilium regale (the easiest of lilies, and one of the most beautiful by far) in some more sunny spot, and if you have some moist land by the river, dogwood and willows with colourful stems to cheer up the winter landscape a bit.

All of the above are easy plants. If you can go to the trouble of lifting and sheltering tender plants I wd add cannas, zantedeschias and and even dhalias.

This is all "summer plants", so I would plant spring bulbs under the hydrangeas.

The only roses I would put in this company is single flowered roses.

If you make one tall terrace instead of several small ones let some scandent plants tumble down the wall. ;-)

 

Thanks very much Ivory! plenty for me to think about there

 

Hi nelly, and welcome!

I would definitely spend some time on getting your general layout right first (you could always plant up a few pots if your green fingers are itching!)

My initial wonder is whether your garden is atall at risk from the river flooding. If you are happy taking on landscaping, I would I think feel inclined to raise level of the land under the decking area to protect your garden from possible rising water levels. I have no experience in this - it was just an eccentricly mundane idea!

What have the neighbours done with their gardens? Do they work/appeal?

If it were mine, I think I would be dreaming of gorgeously cottagey planting up by the house, with paths lacing through, leading to a large wildlife pond - situated exactly where your mound of earth is - then continuing down to a wildflower meadow at your steep slope - ending in a hammock slung between your trees!

Look forward to hearing/seeing how you get on!

 

You are welcome, I like designing gardens. :-)

Talking of how and where to plant things I think I wd keep the patio, (that is always a nice feature, connecting the inside and outside very effectively), with the necessary improvements, and the good lawn you have, with borders at both sides in front of the fences, then a sturdy arch or pergola (where you could grow the wistaria, a somewhat Japanese style square pergola is relatively easy to build, if you want to stick to the oriental theme) creating a "door" to the sloping area (that I wd terrace, I possible, so that it is almost level, with one tall "wall" at the decking). Here I wd go for a "total planting", shrubs and bold perennials planted close, no grass, and the ground mulched deeply to help with the weeds; I wd leave only narrow paths, so that you are really immersed in the greenery when you pass. Then I wd have a line of scandent plants over the edge of this tall terrace, and then the decking.

It is a very simple layout, but simplicity has its advantages. I wd also have some large containers on the patio for choice plants and for herbs (if you cook).

I dont know how large your garden is, but it looks smallish from the pics, so I wd consider playing a few quirky games with false perspective. If you make two arches, one between the patio and the lawn,and one between the lawn and the slope,and the second arch is a bit smaller than the first you have an effect of increased distance. Same goes with colours, keep bolder colours near the house and paler ones in the distance. All these tricks do work, believe me.