Sounds like you have considered the pitfalls so I would always advocate going for it though in your position what I would do is get professionals in or to reduce the
paved area, re edge to stabilise the paving and you get the opportunity
to prepare beds.
When it comes to the rose hole I always dig a huge hole to put compost etc in so the rose gets an improved soil, perhaps as you say it is awkward rather than impossible to do that through a small aperture.
You can grow hedges from below the level of a short wall but you would need to remove quite a lot of paving bricks for all the plants imo. I got these images from internet but I have seen such things. All advice I've seen on this forum advocates planting away from the wall because of the rain shadow problem, maybe irrigation overrides this. I admit I have planted a large climbing rose into a hole chipped through a concrete slab and keeping fingers crossed the soil beyond my excavation is adequate. But I do water a lot and the rose has a 10ft structure to climb into. But all I have to lose is the plant.Good luck
Edit; Do you know how wide the wall footings are? You would obviously have to consider not being physically able to dig near the wall.
Sounds like you have considered the pitfalls so I would always advocate going for it though in your position what I would do is get professionals in or to reduce the
paved area, re edge to stabilise the paving and you get the opportunity
to prepare beds.
When it comes to the rose hole I always dig a huge hole to put compost etc in so the rose gets an improved soil, perhaps as you say it is awkward rather than impossible to do that through a small aperture.
You can grow hedges from below the level of a short wall but you would need to remove quite a lot of paving bricks for all the plants imo. I got these images from internet but I have seen such things. All advice I've seen on this forum advocates planting away from the wall because of the rain shadow problem, maybe irrigation overrides this. I admit I have planted a large climbing rose into a hole chipped through a concrete slab and keeping fingers crossed the soil beyond my excavation is adequate. But I do water a lot and the rose has a 10ft structure to climb into. But all I have to lose is the plant.Good luck
Edit; Do you know how wide the wall footings are? You would obviously have to consider not being physically able to dig near the wall.
Yes this would be a great starting point if achievable. And are with the plants either side of the window, yes we do suffer from rain shadow ... a lot less I would say by the front wall but equally yes we have a comprehensive irrigation system which could easily manage this. Like that. And your wall in the bottom shot is first class. Shame shaped bricks like that so hard to source and insanely priced.
The walls are deep footed but not extending greatly passed the wall width itself which is good so we really could re-install bordered which would give options.
Grow structure, well we have the house itself which roses grow very happily to at the rear. Some managed version of this is possible and could look rather good at the outer edges....garage left hand edge and bay right hand edge. Although bay RHS much harder as brick base rises and is very deep ... that would be a challenge getting through.
Thanks for the pictoral ideas on the hedge, like that.
I would say if you're going to go for planting or planters, then do it big style. Little pots or planters will look lost and more like an afterthought. I agree about getting professionals in to do any work to sort out edges etc. Obviously it depends how much room you require for vehicles but l would cover at least the area of the trailer
That area we could loose without so much loss and indeed I guess there's nothing stop that being built in the same brindle brick. or would that be just a bit too much brick again?
Pavior laying is not so difficult in reality, more a formula to follow like Lego. Mind I am tempted get some one to do out of pure ease of life. We have spent 12 months re-inventing the rear garden at huge effort and ongoing with probably another two months to run.
Also an idea to roll around .... one large or more small? Interesting. Thanks again for changing the rules ... much better so now and get it right second time round.
I am with you, I couldn't live with a front garden like that. I would, as a minimum, want a big deep border on the left, with mixed shrubs and perennials (and roses too). And maybe a tree, there's never enough trees.
You could remove the pavers and re-edge yourself but you would need to: order a skip (to throw away the unwanted pavers and hardcore), buy some edging, sand, cement, topsoil and compost/manure for the bed... a lot of things and a lot of work. If you enjoy similar types of projects, go for it, but if you don't, it would be much easier to have it done by professionals and only focus on designing the planting.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we have created a family culture were such materials don't go to skip, they just go to another family members current, imminent project(s) ... e.g during back garden renovation our 25 year old decking top boards (still amazingly good) were lifted, cleaned up, sanded, preserved and re-laid by daughter No. 4's partner and oiled ... looks like new ... and we treated ourselves to a new Millboard system. Expensive but wonderful. Is quite a nice way to work in a way ... everything is kept methodically and picked like a second hand Wickes or Garden Center :-)
Agree about the tree. Always fancied a specimen Acer (I think it is) ... copper colour and shapely leaves. And in fact on the plus side, the fact that the frontage was professionally laid out means we know drain routes, electrical, gas, data routes etc and can manage around them etc.
But separating the 'work' from the planting most certainly has an appeal this pass. Many thanks
If you don't need all the space for parking, I would remove a wide strip of paving on the side where the bay window is, along the side wall, and have new edging done to stabilise the paving.
Yes this appears the best compromise of space, effort, access and result potential. So you mean from bay across RHS to front wall facing road? This does seem to have the best return potential and to some extent allows consideration of nearly all the ideas folks on GW have been kind enough to forward .... hedge, tree, roses and stand alone.
And no fortunately we do not need all the drive although I only want to loose a limited amount of it.
If you have children, not sure if this was mentioned before, but bear in mind in no time at all they will probably want cars of their own, you may need the space. I like it as it is, don’t feel guilty about not having a green space, plenty of green spaces around the countryside and towns.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
If you have children, not sure if this was mentioned before, but bear in mind in no time at all they will probably want cars of their own, you may need the space. I like it as it is, don’t feel guilty about not having a green space, plenty of green spaces around the countryside and towns.
Processed and dispatched five of them off through Uni in their own cars to career land ... hopefully not to return for a few years bar Christmas and BBQ's yet
Yes it's not so terrible I guess but a little lacking in soul .... I think if we can structure up those bay side plants to be more effective it would help but some interesting ideas coming out.
Bins are such ugly, albeit essential, things but they are kind of taking centre stage where they are. I would put them right forward against the short, front wall to the right of your entrance in a smart bin store. Doesn’t have to be twee, you could use any contemporary material from corrugated sheeting to core ten steel. Even wood, painted a dark grey would look good. I also agree with the majority that a decent, wide border with new supported edging on the right gives you more planting options. You could even start it with a quarter circle curve under the bay window joining a straight run as far as the new bin store, leaving a gap for access to the corner bin.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Re: the bins, I vaguely remember one of the GW episodes had a home video with a lady who had made a bin enclosure and planted it up with a green roof of some kind?
Bins are such ugly, albeit essential, things but they are kind of taking centre stage where they are. I would put them right forward against the short, front wall to the right of your entrance in a smart bin store. Doesn’t have to be twee, you could use any contemporary material from corrugated sheeting to core ten steel. Even wood, painted a dark grey would look good. I also agree with the majority that a decent, wide border with new supported edging on the right gives you more planting options. You could even start it with a quarter circle curve under the bay window joining a straight run as far as the new bin store, leaving a gap for access to the corner bin.
Bins are such ugly, albeit essential, things but they are kind of taking centre stage where they are. I would put them right forward against the short, front wall to the right of your entrance in a smart bin store. Doesn’t have to be twee, you could use any contemporary material from corrugated sheeting to core ten steel. Even wood, painted a dark grey would look good. I also agree with the majority that a decent, wide border with new supported edging on the right gives you more planting options. You could even start it with a quarter circle curve under the bay window joining a straight run as far as the new bin store, leaving a gap for access to the corner bin.
Interesting now we came to think about it, we have an in sink waste disposal and in fact have next to zero food waste by design. Also plastic reduction we have turned into a successful sport ... our recycling volume is never more than a quarter bin .... same for household rubbish and usually green as well. So we have three full size bins when we could get away with half size ones.
I wander if half size ones are available on a swap basis? Even if needed to pass for that privilege it would be worthwhile and then the covering or enclosure route is significantly more attractive.
Posts
The walls are deep footed but not extending greatly passed the wall width itself which is good so we really could re-install bordered which would give options.
Grow structure, well we have the house itself which roses grow very happily to at the rear. Some managed version of this is possible and could look rather good at the outer edges....garage left hand edge and bay right hand edge. Although bay RHS much harder as brick base rises and is very deep ... that would be a challenge getting through.
Thanks for the pictoral ideas on the hedge, like that.
Pavior laying is not so difficult in reality, more a formula to follow like Lego. Mind I am tempted get some one to do out of pure ease of life. We have spent 12 months re-inventing the rear garden at huge effort and ongoing with probably another two months to run.
Also an idea to roll around .... one large or more small? Interesting. Thanks again for changing the rules ... much better so now and get it right second time round.
Agree about the tree. Always fancied a specimen Acer (I think it is) ... copper colour and shapely leaves. And in fact on the plus side, the fact that the frontage was professionally laid out means we know drain routes, electrical, gas, data routes etc and can manage around them etc.
But separating the 'work' from the planting most certainly has an appeal this pass. Many thanks
And no fortunately we do not need all the drive although I only want to loose a limited amount of it.
I like it as it is, don’t feel guilty about not having a green space, plenty of green spaces around the countryside and towns.
Yes it's not so terrible I guess but a little lacking in soul .... I think if we can structure up those bay side plants to be more effective it would help but some interesting ideas coming out.
I wander if half size ones are available on a swap basis? Even if needed to pass for that privilege it would be worthwhile and then the covering or enclosure route is significantly more attractive.
Will follow that one up
Unfortunately they are all the same height .... just narrower. Shame, that would have been ideal had they been lower than the wall.