Triangular garden

mlawn

Hi - my wife and I are in the process of buying a house with a triangular shaped garden. It's quite long (around 100ft) and starts probably 50ft wide, but while one fence runs in line with the house the other one is diagonal to make almost a perfect triangle.

It's pretty much a blank canvas at the moment so we're trying to work out what to do that will make the most of the space/shape, and also soften the slightly severe diagonal fence.

We've put quite a lot of time into our current garden and happy to do the same again, we're just not very knowledgeable! Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

AnniD

Hello, welcome to the forum 
Can you give some idea of the garden please, sunny or shady etc. Also do you know the soil type ?
If you can post any photos or a site plan that would help. 
Also what sort of style of gardening you prefer.

mlawn

Hi Anni - thank you!

It faces pretty much due-West, but as you'll see there are some high hedges and trees around which will no doubt create shade in some areas. According to a website I've found the soil type is 'Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage'

Ours is currently a sort of cottage-style I suppose which we like. My wife really likes lots of bright colour and I like 'things', for example I'd really like a small water feature. We are happy doing gardening but wouldn't want it to be very high maintenance because of time. We also want some lawn as we're planning to have children in the near future.

I've attached a couple of pictures which will hopefully help. We don't have loads of money to spend on it right away but it's a long-term house and will be happy to spend a bit more to get it looking nice.

mlawn

I should also say, you can see from the satellite picture that there's currently a patio laid in front of the house. The first picture must have been taken stood from that

Fairygirl

Looks like a lovely plot @mlawn
A good way to 'disguise' the shape of an awkward plot, is to create separate areas by screening across it. That can be a physical screen of trellis or similar, with climbers, or it can be done with beds/borders full of planting with various heights. It means you can blend the boundaries into the surrounding a little more easily too.
The laurel hedge on the right will certainly be taking up a fair bit of space, and they can be a drain on water and nutrients. The mature trees will also be a factor in growing other plants [shade and less moisture]  so growing across the site will make that easier too. 

AnniD

Well you certainly have a blank canvas to start with ! 
My first comment would be not to rush into anything until you have some idea of the way that light moves around the garden. Obviously through the year this will change, especially with those surrounding trees, but it will give you some idea over the next couple of months. 
The next thing is any hard landscaping. Most people have a patio or seating area outside the back door, but you might want to think about seating areas elsewhere, such as halfway along one side, or even at the far end, maybe under a pergola to make a feature of it.
Do you want a shed and/or a greenhouse? If the latter, you will need to take into account it's location away from overhanging trees. Maybe you will want a power and water supply. 

A search for "triangle shaped gardens" will produce many images, l would suggest keeping any you like the look of, on Pinterest or similar. 

As for planting, the mantra "Right plant, right place" should see you right  .

As it's a long term project it will change over the years as your circumstances change, but if you get the bare bones of it right to start with, the rest will evolve .
I hope you'll be very happy in your new home and make good memories. You have come to the right place for advice , l hope this helps a bit !

Obelixx

You need to come up with a list of things you need - storage for tools, storage for bins, space for seating and dining, safe surface for children to play - and then things you want which may include a lawn, wildlife area, pond, fruit, vegetables, pergola for climbers etc.

Having done that, draw your garden to scale, draw the features to scale on separate paper and cut them out then play with them on your base plan to see how and where they would fit.

I would go for lots of curves with circles of grass or play surface eg
   

or very geometric

Plenty more ideas online if you google triangular garden designs. 

As you know in advance you have a drainage problem I'd suggest that would be the first thing to address if you want a decent lawn.  Then you can mark out beds, even if you don't yet have the paths or lawn sorted and think about trees and shrubs to plant in autumn to give them the best start.  Some bulbs could go in then for spring colour and that would make a start on making it your garden.

mlawn

Thank you so much everyone! These are all really helpful comments, as I say we're still in the process of moving (should be in the next couple of weeks) so I might use this bit of quieter time to do some thinking and planning before the moving process starts.

I expect I'll be back with more silly questions at some point, but this was my first post so thank you so much for the help this gives us a really good starting place!

JennyJ

Another vote for circles in the design. My back garden is a more extreme triangle than that. I'll get a few pics in a bit when I've fetched the washing in.

JennyJ

There's a lot of growth at this time of year so you can't see the layout very well,  but there are three circles - slate, lawn and a small one of setts.

 

And one from the upstairs window (sorry about the reflections).

Edit: here's a screenshot from Google Maps so you can see the "interesting" shape of our plot. It's a few years old because I've made the grass area in the front corner section smaller and next-door took out the privet hedge along the boundary and put in a fence.

Fairygirl

Not silly at all @mlawn. It can be daunting having a blank canvas, and unless you have unlimited funds to engage a designer and pay for someone to build it and plant it, it's wise to just look at options and think about what you like and need, before spending money. It can be expensive enough anyway