Mount Stewart is an excellent start. They have formal gardens as well as more relaxed, woody areas but. You could translate some of their grander ideas to your smaller scale. I love the formal pond there but it would look ridiculous in my field. Unfortunately the NGS doesn't seem to reach this far. Quelle surprise! You could do worse than look on the picture thread on this forum for ideas. What some people cram into "ordinary" sized gardens never ceases to amaze me and we have very eclectic tastes on here too. I featured in a calender photographed in Mount Stewart...just sayin'!
Looking at your photos, a few thoughts spring to mind. You'll need to think about where you might want to position a seating area to enjoy the fruits of your labours. And you'll need to decide whether you want to keep your fence the colour that it is, or change it.
It's helpful to spend a lot of time looking before you begin. Think about how you'll overcome any problems, such as areas with very dry soil, shady places or anything you want to screen off. I entirely agree with the comment above about dividing up your garden. Think about where it would look most sensible to plant a small tree, for example. Your best bet is to map out where trees and shrubs might go first, as these will need careful thought since they're much harder to move. Think about producing a picture of foliage and colour relationships, rather than going for one plant in particular just because you like that.
It's also best to plant trees and shrubs in the autumn--with any tree, make sure you know exactly how big it will get at maturity, unless you want to see nothing else, and make sure you choose one which doesn't have invasive roots or take all the moisture from the soil. So, if you start there, you have all summer now to learn about your soil and plan. You'll almost certainly find the soil under your grass is compacted and poor, so your preparatory step, having chosen the shape of your borders and removed the grass, is to dig in A LOT of organic material at least a spit (a spade's depth) down into the border area. Two spits would be better. In your spare time, rub in unguent to your aching digging muscles, and read gardening books--I borrowed everything my library possessed.
Then next spring, with your shrub and tree structure in place, you could move onto planting perennials and grasses. Whatever you plant will depend on the PhD and composition of your soil, so it's crucial to learn about this before you plant anything.
I wish there was some 1) easy 2) free 3) efficient garden design app out there. Like Pixlr for gardens. It seems like a real gap in the market. There are some that are free but not easy. There are some that are easy but really limited. Ho hum.
Lots of great advice there, the only thing that puzzled me is why you think you have to bend wood to create a border edging? You can use border edging natural or otherwise stones, those little wooden border thingies that consist of a series of 15-20cm high half poles wired together at the back that you can bend to your desire, bendy metal strip edging, brick pavers or just your lawn as the edging that you keep neat with a border edging tool... just google border edging and there are a myriad of options, from cheap and cheerful diy ideas to very fancy bespoke systems. Your local diy store will have a few off the shelf options.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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You could do worse than look on the picture thread on this forum for ideas. What some people cram into "ordinary" sized gardens never ceases to amaze me and we have very eclectic tastes on here too.
I featured in a calender photographed in Mount Stewart...just sayin'!
It's helpful to spend a lot of time looking before you begin. Think about how you'll overcome any problems, such as areas with very dry soil, shady places or anything you want to screen off. I entirely agree with the comment above about dividing up your garden. Think about where it would look most sensible to plant a small tree, for example. Your best bet is to map out where trees and shrubs might go first, as these will need careful thought since they're much harder to move. Think about producing a picture of foliage and colour relationships, rather than going for one plant in particular just because you like that.
It's also best to plant trees and shrubs in the autumn--with any tree, make sure you know exactly how big it will get at maturity, unless you want to see nothing else, and make sure you choose one which doesn't have invasive roots or take all the moisture from the soil. So, if you start there, you have all summer now to learn about your soil and plan. You'll almost certainly find the soil under your grass is compacted and poor, so your preparatory step, having chosen the shape of your borders and removed the grass, is to dig in A LOT of organic material at least a spit (a spade's depth) down into the border area. Two spits would be better. In your spare time, rub in unguent to your aching digging muscles, and read gardening books--I borrowed everything my library possessed.
Then next spring, with your shrub and tree structure in place, you could move onto planting perennials and grasses. Whatever you plant will depend on the PhD and composition of your soil, so it's crucial to learn about this before you plant anything.
Lots of great advice there, the only thing that puzzled me is why you think you have to bend wood to create a border edging? You can use border edging natural or otherwise stones, those little wooden border thingies that consist of a series of 15-20cm high half poles wired together at the back that you can bend to your desire, bendy metal strip edging, brick pavers or just your lawn as the edging that you keep neat with a border edging tool... just google border edging and there are a myriad of options, from cheap and cheerful diy ideas to very fancy bespoke systems. Your local diy store will have a few off the shelf options.