Help! My garden looks boring!

lizzieparsnips

Hi, our garden is a triangle and one side is fence (we've put a curved border in front) and the other is hedge (hornbeam). The birds absolutely love the hedge so unlikely we'd get rid of it but obviously it looks a bit dull in the winter and even in the summer the shape is a bit unexciting. I'm wondering if we could put a curvy border in front - probably with a tree in the middle.
We'd need to leave room to trim the hedge of course.
Wondered if anyone has done similar or has any ideas on if this would work (also open to other suggestions).
Hedge faces south. We have kids and a dog so will need to make sure we leave some grass for playing. 
Thank you!

Fire

It looks like a great space for the kids to play!

JennyJ

A border in front of the hedge would work if you can make it wide enough so that you're not planting into the root zone of the hedge (that area could be your access path for maintenance - doesn't have to be paved or anything, bark chippings or similar would work well). Or you could make a large island bed towards the hedge side. A thin border  with small-ish plants along the grass side of the path might add interest too. It really depends how much grass you want to keep.

JennyJ

I've borrowed your pic and done a but of rough sketching on it - not sure that I explained very well in words

TheGreenMan

How about borders and a bed like this (forgive my terrible artwork!) 

TheGreenMan

Snap @JennyJ but you explained it better in your pics. 😂👍🏼

Fairygirl

If you have children and a dog, I wouldn't bother putting beds/borders in the middle.
Leave that for when they've all grown up. 
A simple bit of screening for the swings is useful though, depending on how much you need to watch them on those. It can be shrubs etc, or trellis and climbers.
Your budget plays a big part too, as well as how much time you have for maintenance.

Fire

I think it very depends, at this point, on function. If the space is primarily used a football field, then you would prioritise that accordingly. Delicate flowers that get trashed are not going to fly. Unless a football hits them.

If there is a place out of the way, separated, that the OP could use as her own growing space, that might work, marked off, protected in some way, a 'no ball' area. Fence it, screen it, net it. Maybe a front garden? Or section off a bit of the large space and protect it from play and dogs.

Otherwise assorted colourful flowering shrubs around the area of the main lawn would probably prove the toughest against bashes.

Fire

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TheGreenMan

I forgot about children. I have an indoor cat! 😂

JoeX

I’d put the border in the middle. Kids like having thing to explore, run around.

it’s what I did.