Dividing up the garden

JoeX

Hi all

Im thinking of splitting up my garden as it’s just plain lawn mostly, with an island border maybe?


We have swings at the back of the lawn and a shed at the front so the back would be a play area.


 I’m also fencing of the south east corner as an evening sun sitting area. And putting arches over the side path with grapes to develop over the next few years.  Front against the house is a large patio area, that really needs splitting up too so I’m thinking table to one side, barbecue and a plant wall.

Is a border coming out of the fence better? A hedge or even a fence?  My wilder imagination has me planting an Acer and dogwoods for winter colour or huge grasses...

DampGardenMan

With a long rectangular garden you need to introduce some curves (paths, edges of borders) to make it more interesting. Ideally you need to be able to walk down the garden one way and come back up another. Or even a third, if you can find the room. And use trellises or hedges or blocks of shrubs to "hide" parts of the garden so there are surprises to be had as you wander about.

Give thought too to what you want to do with the bottom of the garden once the swings are no longer needed and how this might tie into what you put elsewhere.

Papi Jo

Hi Tin Pot,
How large is your garden? Length x width (in metres).

JoeX

Papi Jo said:

Hi Tin Pot,
How large is your garden? Length x width (in metres).

Hi Papi Jo,

Couldnt find a tape measure in the dark tonight - are fence panels all a standard size? I’m guessing about 3m wide 2m tall?

In total it’s 9.5 panels by 3.25 panels by 9.25 panels, and Ive paced across the patio as about 11m.

so that’s 28.5m by 9.8m by 27.8m by 11m. Call it 10.5x28 ...294m2 total area.

The lawn starts 3 panels in, finishes about a panel before the end, and has a 1m wide path down the side, so that would be about 12.8m by 10m ...128m2 lawn.

JoeX

Okay, I put it on paper and I’d got it wrong (measure twice, cut once eh?). It’s basically 11 panels deep, the lawn is roughly 10.5x31m or 325.5m2

looks a bit like this (to scale, lines are one panel/3m apart)



A is the lawn, I’m thinking of splitting it in half about where the A is.

B - Sitting area in progress

C - Continuation of lawn, may become a cabin

D - Patio

x - grapevine planted, half arch to come
y - cotoneaster 
z - cherry laurel (hacked down to size)

JoeX

DampGardenMan said:

With a long rectangular garden you need to introduce some curves (paths, edges of borders) to make it more interesting. Ideally you need to be able to walk down the garden one way and come back up another. Or even a third, if you can find the room. And use trellises or hedges or blocks of shrubs to "hide" parts of the garden so there are surprises to be had as you wander about.

Give thought too to what you want to do with the bottom of the garden once the swings are no longer needed and how this might tie into what you put elsewhere.

Just had a new baby arrive in August so the swings won’t be going anywhere soon

Bearing in mind that I’m a novice gardener, I hear the “add curves” but it does add work.

Below is continuing the right angles already prevalent, and the most simplest for me to put in. Shaded areas are borders or something else.



Then going curves, and getting more complex and resource intensive from top right, clockwise round to top left...

Wayside

When looking back up to the house, I notice that you barely have any planting in your garden.  All the plants are borrowed from your neighbours.

I'd start thinking about trees.  Perhaps two or three specimens.  And I'd place away from the edges.  Then from there I'd start thinking about borders.

The patio area is oddly divided.

Which way is North?

Fire

I think the 'borrowed' trees look like a great asset

JoeX

The house as you look out onto the garden is facing SE.  So I get lots of sun down the left side of the garden, and plenty of shade on the right.

Most of the neighbours trees have been recently cut back so I’m seeing more light, I like their trees on the whole and don’t really want more except perhaps something with winter colour like an Acer, or to replace my dying apple tree in B.

Ive got a bunch of unwanted trees in the front garden I’ll have to deal with soon.  I’m planning to turn two of them into archways for my grapevine.

raisingirl

Simple shapes will make it seem larger - too 'busy' can close it in. If it were me I'd make a long slow S curve from the bottom left - steps from the patio - to the top right - proto-cabin. Then 'fill in' the area above the curve with planting to surround the seating area and leave the bottom right as lawn with swings and make a path along the curved edge. Then gradually add or amend over time, as your confidence grows, family needs change, etc.
If you do make a border across the middle, you should make two distinct areas so there's a reason for the divide rather than just a 'blob' in the middle of the lawn. And any border really needs to be at least a metre wide to get enough depth of planting in for it to feel intended and attractive from both sides.

Wayside

Firefly∆ said:

I think the 'borrowed' trees look like a great asset

That's defo true, but you have to give something back!  I have two immediate neighbours with pretty much no planting in their gardens, apart from two out of control sycamore trees at the rear.  And laughably both have remarked about their privacy - and yet our garden is very over-planted.

This garden looks big enough to show off a tree, even if it's a replacement for the apple.

It's a great sized space.