I can relate to the excitement and bemusement of having a blank canvas of a garden in a brand new home...was in the same situation 18 months ago.
We found it really useful taking accurate measurements of everything and made a scaled model on PowerPoint and then we overlayed all our ideas for the space. In our case we wanted to break up the length of the garden and we introduced a curved path with a paved central section in herringbone brick with a more formal arrangement around our mature apple tree at the other end...with the vista terminating in a summer house my partner wanted.
We kept revising the plan on the computer screen and printing it oir and discussing it was immensely helpful and took some of the dread from the whole process.
For the first year we added some extra pots to add interest until we had the funds for all the hard landscaping...a good way to test how plants do out there. We were lucky to have had a few potted acers and bamboos we brought from our previous (tiny) garden.
Take it easy and don't lose the excitement about it. It's your space, make it as beautiful as you can and be patient, even small improvements can make great impact.
I am attaching our plan that our builders followed...if it's of any help.
you could do one hell of a good waterfall feature/rock garden like NT Cragside in Northumberland in the really steep bit.
great for kids to do natural play jumping about on the rocks and playing in the waterfall, and no need for a pond at the end it can disappear into the pebbles at the bottom.
and also really low maintenance if you use ferns, hosta's, heather's, azaleas, dwarf rhododendron's that sort of thing
Wow. Such amazing responses... I cant thank you all enough - so much to think about. Will spend some time watching and learning the space before we commit. A very good 1st step , so thanks for that. Will def keep you guys in the loop if that's ok. So very glad to have found a nice helpful community to learn from. I look forward to some fun and possibly muddy adventures in the future!
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We found it really useful taking accurate measurements of everything and made a scaled model on PowerPoint and then we overlayed all our ideas for the space. In our case we wanted to break up the length of the garden and we introduced a curved path with a paved central section in herringbone brick with a more formal arrangement around our mature apple tree at the other end...with the vista terminating in a summer house my partner wanted.
We kept revising the plan on the computer screen and printing it oir and discussing it was immensely helpful and took some of the dread from the whole process.
For the first year we added some extra pots to add interest until we had the funds for all the hard landscaping...a good way to test how plants do out there. We were lucky to have had a few potted acers and bamboos we brought from our previous (tiny) garden.
Take it easy and don't lose the excitement about it. It's your space, make it as beautiful as you can and be patient, even small improvements can make great impact.
I am attaching our plan that our builders followed...if it's of any help.
Will spend some time watching and learning the space before we commit. A very good 1st step , so thanks for that. Will def keep you guys in the loop if that's ok. So very glad to have found a nice helpful community to learn from. I look forward to some fun and possibly muddy adventures in the future!