Front Garden Revamp Advice

sfroneman

Hello, I am having some work done in my north- facing front garden. The existing border will be extended all along the edges leaving a roughly athletic track shaped lawn in the centre (access on left for lawn mower via rose arch) - see mark-up on pics.

I currently have a Salix Flamingo in the right hand side corner, but also really fancy a Tibetan cherry tree for height and the beautiful bark. My question is where to put the trees: shall I move the Salix to the left corner as it’s under 2m and will not get any bigger and then put the cherry on the right or any other suggestions?

Thank you!

K67

Is the parking area to the right in the photo yours?
If not your neighbours wont appreciate a tree overhanging their drive. Also if the car isn't yours is customery to blank out the number plate.
Have you thought about making a central bed and planting it there?

B3

I think a central bed with a bit of height would look better too.

sfroneman

The drive on the right is ours, so no worries about a tree overhanging.

I was considering the cherry tree on the side rather than a central bed to avoid blocking out light from the lounge window as well as to make mowing simple?

Cambridgerose12

Just wondering why exactly you want to keep an Olympic race track in the front garden? I've also had the experience of trying to keep a lawn that was already there, but actually, it's less labour-intensive (and more fun) to have a mixture of perennials and low shrubs. (Eventually I crumbled...)

You could have a cherry in the middle then, to conceal the view of the road. As others have suggested, you want to avoid blocking the light to your windows; a narrow tree like Prunus 'Amanogawa', the columnar cherry, is also possible though. Although it's a north-facing space, it's pretty open by the looks of things. A mixture of tough but shade-tolerant plants, like hellebores, ferns, euphorbias, Solomon's Seal, Geranium macrorrhizum would work under the cherry and towards the house, moving through to ones which require more sun at the end of the bed. A low evergreen edging might work too, such as London Pride or Bergenias. Providing you mulched with something like chipped bark, you'd avoid the need to mow there all the time and the weeding would be pretty modest.

edhelka

Personally, I don't like how all the lines in the design are long and almost parallel. I would want to break this pattern somehow. Maybe one deep bed on the house end (shade planting), one deep bed at the road end (sun-loving plants) and a statement plant in the middle. The statement plant could be the tree you want or some architectural shrub or maybe the salix. The tree could be planted in the middle or roughly where the salix is now. You could do something more complicated (diagonal, geometric, semi-formal etc.) but this looks like the easiest option to me.

SydRoy

I'd go across the road and ask your neighbour - they look like they have a nice garden. 

sfroneman

@SydRoy Yeah, my neighbour’s garden is nice, but not my style! I like lots of flowers and colour. Think the cherry tree may go in the middle after all.