Opinions please

I've mulled this over but not come up with any brainwaves ...

Buy a lottery ticket and then move to a larger garden?

I have seen people do Exotic planting around the edge of a conventional rectangular lawn / plot. It still looks dramatic, and leaves space for football etc. in the middle.

Some example gardens, picked at random :

 

Damn. That Guaranteed Salesman Course that I paid a tenner for was complete wasted

 

Know where your coming from, and then it will be needed for the Grandkids!, plus you need some lawn for when you have a Barbie or entertain in some other way. Always remember, gardens are for living in, not just looking at.
Compromise is the name of the game FC, be it curves or kidney shapes you can give yourself more growing space but keep some lawn, that's what makes a British garden in MO.

 

I went through all these ponderations when deciding what to do with our back garden.

In the end, I figured that very locally, there are wide open patches of flat grass far bigger than my garden, which would be far better suited for ball games and such. So I couldn't compete with what is locally available for that.

So, the result is my lawn occupies probably less than a quarter of my back garden.

I also built quite an expansive patio which is a dual purpose thing, for wife and I on nice evenings, and for CL1.1 and his mates (and more recently CL1.2) to use as a hard surface for chalking and playing cars on and such.

All down one side of the garden is play area, but not lawn. It comprises a willow den, a willow tunnel, then a wobbly bridge leading to a ramp which leads up to the platform/fort thingy, then down the other side via a slide, or off to the side (towards the centre of the garden) via steps or another much larger, steeper slide. So onwards down the side of the garden its under the half buried tractor tyre leading to the far end of the garden, which is currently a construction site for the tunnel and bridge.

Running down the other side of the garden, for the first half of its length, is a wide curved border, but it has 'secret' paths running through it. Then its the greenhouse with 'secret' path running between it and the boundary fence to the pond area (ill conceived that bit, but I'm, going to either move, cover, or get rid of the pond), and onto the 'beach'.

I make it sound like my garden is massive, but its not really. I've just been exploiting a trick I learned. That gardens get bigger if you divide them up and get rid of all straight lines.

There's still enough lawn for various larkings about, but for a major kickabout we just go to either the beach or one of the local parks, where as I already said, they have vastly more open space than can be found in the typical (sub)urban garden.

I'm pleased to report that it is a success. Both my sons love being out there, and my older son (now 5) has his mates around sometimes, who also love it. My 9 year old nephew recently described the garden as 'epic', and it was all done on almost no budget at all. Literally using whatever was available for nowt.

So when it comes to the question of open space vs interest, I think sometimes you have to switch off the grown up mind, and think like a kid. When you were a kid, did you prefer expanses of flat grass, or stuff to climb and explore?

 

Luvvly, luvvly FC.
Listen to your back and take it steady,
Jenny

 

Looking good matey!

 

Where are you going to park the bus?

 

Your garden is looking really nice now, you have obviously been working really hard nice when you have a bit more planting space, you then have the lovely task of choosing the plants!!

Val