Planning a small garden

There is a corner next to our house that we have never used. I started to clean it, remove old plants and the paving. I need some advice please!
This is a rough drawing of the area:


Facing from north to south: (the photos are from left to right)






Facing from our lounge area:




We thought of putting some paving like this in the centre:



Any ideas/photos etc?

Thanks. This is my 1st post on your site

 

Welcome to GC avz10 an good luck. I would start by painting the wall where it has been painted terracotta a light maybe cream colour to lighten it up down there and bounce some light around. That path would look cool not sure how viable it would be though but I'm sure Pro will be along to help out on that.

What about some raised beds along where the banana is and incorporate the banana into the bed as well?

On the wall of the garage where it joins to the neighbours wall what about a mirrored trellis thing to make it look longer? Like these:

http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/garden-mirrors-c-83.html?gclid=COWNhcTJt5UCFRqH1QodXxapPQ&source=googleads

What about a nice pebble water feature in the shady corner with some nice ferns?

 

Hi AVZ10, It looks like a nice little spot there, the paving sounds a good idea, I personally would like the brick paving laid in a herringbone pattern there, I think it would make the area look bigger-and then pots here and there. I would also put a striking variegated ivy around the walls to counterbalance the amount of red that would be there, if not ivy then a climbing hydrangea would be a good choice.

It would be great if you keep us up to date with whatever you decide with pics though-I personally love these step by step projects that are on this forum. Very kind of the people who post them to let us see.

 

Hi there avz10, your garden is about the same shape and size as my back garden. It's hard isn't it finding things that don't grow too large but still look really nice, as you don't want to take away too much of the space with just one plant. I'm just starting out properly on gardening myself and have found lots and lots of advice on here

 

Im not sure about that sort of paving method, Difficult to get the slabs properly beded yet retain a growing medium.

Personally id lay the slabs normally using larger and small slabs and leaving out a few small slabs in a chequer board pattern, densly planting these areas with thyme/chamomile.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

Leaving now for 2 days, and this project is for the next two months. Will keep you posted and include some other photos taken of the rest of my garden.

Please keep on sending ideas!!

Albie

 

I add some more photos of other sections of my garden:
The rear part-where we "live":





The front garden, with the clivias flowering a year ago:



With regards to the new area, we plan to have some sort of paving in the middle and plants around it.

This is how the "new" area looked, before removing nearly everything:





Keep the ideas coming, I will respond properly when I have more time!

 

OMG, your garden is Amazing..:thumb: Im just wondering why you completley cleared the small area, it looked fine to me, maybe just a few plants removed to open it up, but it looked like a great shady place to sit when all that sun got too much..

 

I liked it too it looked like a secret hidy hole

 

Hi avz10. I too am wondering why you changed it, looked good to me also.