I think any garden designer (or garden design student) will begin by asking what you need and want from the garden, and what you like in terms of styles, colours, materials, plants etc, so you'll need to have a think about it. Books, magazines, probably websites these days, or even have a look at garden design type TV programmes eg Garden Rescue on the BBC (it's probably on iplayer so you could fast forward through the boring bits and just think about what you like or dislike about the designs, and why). If you live with someone else it's probably worth involving them too.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Edward you're an engineer, you already have a 3d and 2d layout of your garden, plan one yourself that's the funnest part, only you know what you really like and do it in stages and take your time and you'll be fine!
Avoid any big trees along the back fence as that would block out sunlight, shed to go next to your side gate as that would make use of that space and a shed anywhere else in the garden would cast shade over the main area of your garden which I would personally avoid. I think your patio is crying out for a bbq/pizza oven outside kitchen area to the side (would go next to shed so adjacent to the patio area). I would also plant some dwarf fruit trees along the side fences to give a little privacy and fruit and would have a quarter of the garden turned into a little veg plot with 4 Square raised beds (just personally think its nice to grow fruit/veg at home especially if you can use the produce whilst cooking outdoors on a bbq/pizza oven). Rest of the garden I would leave mostly grassed with a nice 2-3 ft border around the fences with as I said fruit trees and some flowers of whatever type you like that are suitable for partial/full shade depending on whether it's the side fences or the fence at the back of the garden you're planting in.
Bob's your uncle! Honestly blank canvas is lovely in some ways, you can be very proud of your results in a couple of years then! Good luck 👍
Well thanks everyone for your suggestions. After having a chat with a professional garden designer I’ve decided to continue and have a go myself. I’ve now come up with some ideas and created some sketches. I’ve attached something that might work below and am keen to get the plants and trees for the back/side fences as soon as possible as they’ll probably take a long time to mature.
The sketch looks south and the back fence is a north facing fence so there’s a fair amount of shade there. I’ve been trying to think of some evergreen shrubs or climbers for the back right fence. I’d like a green backdrop which covers the fence but isn’t too deep so there’s more room to plant flowers in front that will hopefully pop out against the green backdrop. Googling has come up with some Ivy varieties that aren’t too invasive but I was wondering if there are other options too.
Tree wise I’m thinking about an Acer but not sure on the others. I don’t want them too big but something which just pops it’s head above the fence really.
Does anyone have any ideas what might be suitable for the hedging and/or trees?
I can't help with plants but just wanted to say that I think you're sketch looks great and am very interested to see how you're getting on with your planning? We're also trying to design our (much smaller) new build garden and it's always interesting to follow other peoples work so don't stop with the updates
Thanks for your comment. I'm actually in the process of coming with alternative ideas so I'll post those sketches later on once I've finished them. I found inspiration from something I found in a book which had a basic design for a short, wide garden. Something my mum sent through. I'd spent ages looking for something like it that and she seemed to hit the nail on the head immediately, typical! It looks promising though and as I said I'll post some of my ideas later.
As the owner of an equally blank canvas, 3 years ago, I concur that it is daunting as hell!
Whilst I knew my plants, back then, I had never designed anything on a larger scale than a postage stamp.
So I asked the advice of an eminent landscaper whose garden I visited for years during the open garden weekends.
She said this: start with what features you like (I knew I had an existing pot grown olive that I wanted to stick in the ground, I wanted a small pond and a rose arch somewhere).
So I placed those items, figuratively speaking, as markings on the bare ground (you could use that lawn chalk to draw things out onto your grass).
Then she advised me to think about the main uses I’d like for a garden and things I couldn’t live without (for me, it was a garden room one day, which we built ourselves a year later, but which we left a space for), a patio at the back of the garden to capture the spring morning sun to have breakfast on, deep beds and not too much grass.
Then she said to take a photo of the garden throughout the day, at hourly intervals, on a sunny day, to see exactly where the light falls and how much shade different areas have. I did this in Winter and in high Summer, to give me an idea. One side of my garden gets zero sunlight in winter, but is lambasted by hot sun from 1pm during the summer months, so it really helps to know this when choosing plants that could survive that.
Then I chose a colour palette I liked, also based on the plants I’d brought with me in pots, from my old garden.
Then I remembered Monty Don’s advice that you have to choose a few plants you can repeat here and there, for maximum impact, whilst trying to achieve some year round interest, rather than having a garden centre garden (one of each plant you like!) because unless you have a garden the size of a park, you’ll never have the space for everything (that’s the hardest part for me to stick to!) and based on the principle that drifts of plants often look nicer than individuals, unless they’re feature stand alone plants.
It wasn’t an infallible plan, but it worked and the backbone of the garden was born.
Also don’t be scared to move things around once planted, as many plants can be moved without killing them off.
I ended up making my beds deeper, to make more space for plants in the end.
I also trawled through gardening sites and books from my local library, taking photos and screenshots of schemes I liked the look of, so I could amend them and try to incorporate them into my own design. It always helps to see what others have done visually. Bear in mind that your soil conditions and weather will affect what you can achieve enormously, so don’t set your heart on a Mediterranean gravel garden if you’re north facing, on clay 😁 but I’m sure you know that already!
Well thanks everyone for your suggestions. After having a chat with a professional garden designer I’ve decided to continue and have a go myself. I’ve now come up with some ideas and created some sketches. I’ve attached something that might work below and am keen to get the plants and trees for the back/side fences as soon as possible as they’ll probably take a long time to mature.
The sketch looks south and the back fence is a north facing fence so there’s a fair amount of shade there. I’ve been trying to think of some evergreen shrubs or climbers for the back right fence. I’d like a green backdrop which covers the fence but isn’t too deep so there’s more room to plant flowers in front that will hopefully pop out against the green backdrop. Googling has come up with some Ivy varieties that aren’t too invasive but I was wondering if there are other options too.
Tree wise I’m thinking about an Acer but not sure on the others. I don’t want them too big but something which just pops it’s head above the fence really.
Does anyone have any ideas what might be suitable for the hedging and/or trees?
Many thanks,
Ed
Bloody hell Ed! That looks professional! Go for it yourself and don’t overthink it. You have some good ideas.
As the owner of an equally blank canvas, 3 years ago, I concur that it is daunting as hell!
Whilst I knew my plants, back then, I had never designed anything on a larger scale than a postage stamp.
So I asked the advice of an eminent landscaper whose garden I visited for years during the open garden weekends.
She said this: start with what features you like (I knew I had an existing pot grown olive that I wanted to stick in the ground, I wanted a small pond and a rose arch somewhere).
So I placed those items, figuratively speaking, as markings on the bare ground (you could use that lawn chalk to draw things out onto your grass).
Then she advised me to think about the main uses I’d like for a garden and things I couldn’t live without (for me, it was a garden room one day, which we built ourselves a year later, but which we left a space for), a patio at the back of the garden to capture the spring morning sun to have breakfast on, deep beds and not too much grass.
Then she said to take a photo of the garden throughout the day, at hourly intervals, on a sunny day, to see exactly where the light falls and how much shade different areas have. I did this in Winter and in high Summer, to give me an idea. One side of my garden gets zero sunlight in winter, but is lambasted by hot sun from 1pm during the summer months, so it really helps to know this when choosing plants that could survive that.
Then I chose a colour palette I liked, also based on the plants I’d brought with me in pots, from my old garden.
Then I remembered Monty Don’s advice that you have to choose a few plants you can repeat here and there, for maximum impact, whilst trying to achieve some year round interest, rather than having a garden centre garden (one of each plant you like!) because unless you have a garden the size of a park, you’ll never have the space for everything (that’s the hardest part for me to stick to!) and based on the principle that drifts of plants often look nicer than individuals, unless they’re feature stand alone plants.
It wasn’t an infallible plan, but it worked and the backbone of the garden was born.
Also don’t be scared to move things around once planted, as many plants can be moved without killing them off.
I ended up making my beds deeper, to make more space for plants in the end.
I also trawled through gardening sites and books from my local library, taking photos and screenshots of schemes I liked the look of, so I could amend them and try to incorporate them into my own design. It always helps to see what others have done visually. Bear in mind that your soil conditions and weather will affect what you can achieve enormously, so don’t set your heart on a Mediterranean gravel garden if you’re north facing, on clay 😁 but I’m sure you know that already!
Good luck!
Wow, thanks dabledshade that is a fantastic post and some great ideas there. I seem to be working my way (slowly) through the same process as you. It's fantastic having someone else's experience to give you guidance and ideas. Like you I find photos/images much better. I know what I like but it's sometimes very difficult to come up with something from scratch. My problem is I don't know enough about plants to instantly say "oh yes that would be great here". I have to go away and research for hours!
Your comment about clumping and repeating is great, I'm a bit of a garden centre warrior I have to say. I'll take that onboard when we get to the planting scheme.
Also, having limited funds for the garden is a decelerator but I am planning to do everything myself which should considerably reduce the cost and will hopefully be a lot more rewarding. It might take 5 years off my life though.
We'll get there in the end. I'll keep posting updates when there's something worthwhile.
As the owner of an equally blank canvas, 3 years ago, I concur that it is daunting as hell!
Whilst I knew my plants, back then, I had never designed anything on a larger scale than a postage stamp.
So I asked the advice of an eminent landscaper whose garden I visited for years during the open garden weekends.
She said this: start with what features you like (I knew I had an existing pot grown olive that I wanted to stick in the ground, I wanted a small pond and a rose arch somewhere).
So I placed those items, figuratively speaking, as markings on the bare ground (you could use that lawn chalk to draw things out onto your grass).
Then she advised me to think about the main uses I’d like for a garden and things I couldn’t live without (for me, it was a garden room one day, which we built ourselves a year later, but which we left a space for), a patio at the back of the garden to capture the spring morning sun to have breakfast on, deep beds and not too much grass.
Then she said to take a photo of the garden throughout the day, at hourly intervals, on a sunny day, to see exactly where the light falls and how much shade different areas have. I did this in Winter and in high Summer, to give me an idea. One side of my garden gets zero sunlight in winter, but is lambasted by hot sun from 1pm during the summer months, so it really helps to know this when choosing plants that could survive that.
Then I chose a colour palette I liked, also based on the plants I’d brought with me in pots, from my old garden.
Then I remembered Monty Don’s advice that you have to choose a few plants you can repeat here and there, for maximum impact, whilst trying to achieve some year round interest, rather than having a garden centre garden (one of each plant you like!) because unless you have a garden the size of a park, you’ll never have the space for everything (that’s the hardest part for me to stick to!) and based on the principle that drifts of plants often look nicer than individuals, unless they’re feature stand alone plants.
It wasn’t an infallible plan, but it worked and the backbone of the garden was born.
Also don’t be scared to move things around once planted, as many plants can be moved without killing them off.
I ended up making my beds deeper, to make more space for plants in the end.
I also trawled through gardening sites and books from my local library, taking photos and screenshots of schemes I liked the look of, so I could amend them and try to incorporate them into my own design. It always helps to see what others have done visually. Bear in mind that your soil conditions and weather will affect what you can achieve enormously, so don’t set your heart on a Mediterranean gravel garden if you’re north facing, on clay 😁 but I’m sure you know that already!
Good luck!
Wow, thanks dabledshade that is a fantastic post and some great ideas there. I seem to be working my way (slowly) through the same process as you. It's fantastic having someone else's experience to give you guidance and ideas. Like you I find photos/images much better. I know what I like but it's sometimes very difficult to come up with something from scratch. My problem is I don't know enough about plants to instantly say "oh yes that would be great here". I have to go away and research for hours!
Your comment about clumping and repeating is great, I'm a bit of a garden centre warrior I have to say. I'll take that onboard when we get to the planting scheme.
Also, having limited funds for the garden is a decelerator but I am planning to do everything myself which should considerably reduce the cost and will hopefully be a lot more rewarding. It might take 5 years off my life though.
We'll get there in the end. I'll keep posting updates when there's something worthwhile.
Cheers,
Ed
Or it may give you an extra 5 year’s on your life in sheer pride and pleasure, once you see the fruits of your labour 😁 My budget was tiny too, so I grew stuff from seed, got cuttings from people’s front gardens (I did ask!) and from neighbours. Go to the bargain basement section of a GC where they’re selling off plants that are no longer at their best/in season, cheaply, great for snapping up cheap stuff. Also, some plants can be divided as soon as you buy them, because they have multiple stalks from the base, so you can split them fairly easily and get several plants out of one pot. Ask family and friends for cuttings! I also got cheap trays of annuals, like cosmos, from Sainsbury’s, to fill in the many gaps in my first year here. Helps to reduce the starkness when you don’t have enough plants from the word go. Advantage is that they’ll die after one season anyway, just as other surrounding plants are getting larger and you’re able to buy more plants too.
Posts
Avoid any big trees along the back fence as that would block out sunlight, shed to go next to your side gate as that would make use of that space and a shed anywhere else in the garden would cast shade over the main area of your garden which I would personally avoid. I think your patio is crying out for a bbq/pizza oven outside kitchen area to the side (would go next to shed so adjacent to the patio area). I would also plant some dwarf fruit trees along the side fences to give a little privacy and fruit and would have a quarter of the garden turned into a little veg plot with 4 Square raised beds (just personally think its nice to grow fruit/veg at home especially if you can use the produce whilst cooking outdoors on a bbq/pizza oven). Rest of the garden I would leave mostly grassed with a nice 2-3 ft border around the fences with as I said fruit trees and some flowers of whatever type you like that are suitable for partial/full shade depending on whether it's the side fences or the fence at the back of the garden you're planting in.
Bob's your uncle! Honestly blank canvas is lovely in some ways, you can be very proud of your results in a couple of years then! Good luck 👍
The sketch looks south and the back fence is a north facing fence so there’s a fair amount of shade there. I’ve been trying to think of some evergreen shrubs or climbers for the back right fence. I’d like a green backdrop which covers the fence but isn’t too deep so there’s more room to plant flowers in front that will hopefully pop out against the green backdrop. Googling has come up with some Ivy varieties that aren’t too invasive but I was wondering if there are other options too.
Many
Ed
Thanks for your comment. I'm actually in the process of coming with alternative ideas so I'll post those sketches later on once I've finished them. I found inspiration from something I found in a book which had a basic design for a short, wide garden. Something my mum sent through. I'd spent ages looking for something like it that and she seemed to hit the nail on the head immediately, typical! It looks promising though and as I said I'll post some of my ideas later.
ATB,
Ed
Whilst I knew my plants, back then, I had never designed anything on a larger scale than a postage stamp.
So I asked the advice of an eminent landscaper whose garden I visited for years during the open garden weekends.
She said this: start with what features you like (I knew I had an existing pot grown olive that I wanted to stick in the ground, I wanted a small pond and a rose arch somewhere).
So I placed those items, figuratively speaking, as markings on the bare ground (you could use that lawn chalk to draw things out onto your grass).
Then she advised me to think about the main uses I’d like for a garden and things I couldn’t live without (for me, it was a garden room one day, which we built ourselves a year later, but which we left a space for), a patio at the back of the garden to capture the spring morning sun to have breakfast on, deep beds and not too much grass.
Then she said to take a photo of the garden throughout the day, at hourly intervals, on a sunny day, to see exactly where the light falls and how much shade different areas have.
I did this in Winter and in high Summer, to give me an idea.
One side of my garden gets zero sunlight in winter, but is lambasted by hot sun from 1pm during the summer months, so it really helps to know this when choosing plants that could survive that.
Then I chose a colour palette I liked, also based on the plants I’d brought with me in pots, from my old garden.
Then I remembered Monty Don’s advice that you have to choose a few plants you can repeat here and there, for maximum impact, whilst trying to achieve some year round interest, rather than having a garden centre garden (one of each plant you like!) because unless you have a garden the size of a park, you’ll never have the space for everything (that’s the hardest part for me to stick to!) and based on the principle that drifts of plants often look nicer than individuals, unless they’re feature stand alone plants.
It wasn’t an infallible plan, but it worked and the backbone of the garden was born.
Also don’t be scared to move things around once planted, as many plants can be moved without killing them off.
I ended up making my beds deeper, to make more space for plants in the end.
I also trawled through gardening sites and books from my local library, taking photos and screenshots of schemes I liked the look of, so I could amend them and try to incorporate them into my own design. It always helps to see what others have done visually. Bear in mind that your soil conditions and weather will affect what you can achieve enormously, so don’t set your heart on a Mediterranean gravel garden if you’re north facing, on clay 😁 but I’m sure you know that already!
Good luck!
Your comment about clumping and repeating is great, I'm a bit of a garden centre warrior I have to say. I'll take that onboard when we get to the planting scheme.
Also, having limited funds for the garden is a decelerator but I am planning to do everything myself which should considerably reduce the cost and will hopefully be a lot more rewarding. It might take 5 years off my life though.
We'll get there in the end. I'll keep posting updates when there's something worthwhile.
Cheers,
Ed
My budget was tiny too, so I grew stuff from seed, got cuttings from people’s front gardens (I did ask!) and from neighbours.
Go to the bargain basement section of a GC where they’re selling off plants that are no longer at their best/in season, cheaply, great for snapping up cheap stuff.
Also, some plants can be divided as soon as you buy them, because they have multiple stalks from the base, so you can split them fairly easily and get several plants out of one pot.
Ask family and friends for cuttings!
I also got cheap trays of annuals, like cosmos, from Sainsbury’s, to fill in the many gaps in my first year here. Helps to reduce the starkness when you don’t have enough plants from the word go. Advantage is that they’ll die after one season anyway, just as other surrounding plants are getting larger and you’re able to buy more plants too.