Another thing to think about is building a greenhouse/potting shed/work area, if you are going to be active gardeners. What is the best place for a compost bin? How will you store your tools? You will get more pleasure if it is ergodynamic as well as attractive. Keep your access routes as simple as possible, as it will stop you getting out the spade if it's always behind the wheelbarrow, for example. For veg, laying a seep hose would be easier at the start of the process, too.
No time to read all the above, George. Where in the country is your new abode? I'm on the South-East Coast, so soil and drainage are where I'd start. I'd get stuck in designing a rough layout. It's amazing how that can change as you get going. I started gardening from scratch only 3 summers ago with a garden which had no flowers and hardly any beds. All shrubs and trees. Also shade all along one side like your's. I've got so interested that I opened it up the public for charity last year. Huge success. It has massive variety of plants from full sun to full shade, plus loads of hardy exotics. I started with a subscription with Gardener's World, which I STUDIED each month. I also bought 'The Gardener's Year' by Alan Titchmarsh (published by Readers' Digest)...brilliant!,and through Amazon I bought the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Gardening Plants (greatly reduced). Because I learnt by doing and reading I'm now an official plant triallist for the UK's largest on line supplier.....so, if I can do it so can you!....from scratch! EVERYTHING depends on your answers to my above two questions. Also, I built a brand new garden extension which was a builder's side yard....5 tightly packed skips full! Now I have a 19' X 5' wildlife pond. I also have a 10000 ltr pond in my main garden. A bid pond in the middle, with possibly a bog pond beside would be a great start as you can work from that.......I also bought a (must have) greenhouse, which is in a part shade area, and tow slectric propagators; I have saved huge amounts of money this way. I also have well established trees....for your garden a must, BUT be very careful to ensure you buy from a very reputable garden centre where I bought beautiful, inexpensive, unusual and exotic trees which do not create much shade (you have to think ahead....a tree blocking light in the wrong place will cause you future problems). I could go on and on!!! Good luck! PPC.
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Another thing to think about is building a greenhouse/potting shed/work area, if you are going to be active gardeners. What is the best place for a compost bin? How will you store your tools? You will get more pleasure if it is ergodynamic as well as attractive. Keep your access routes as simple as possible, as it will stop you getting out the spade if it's always behind the wheelbarrow, for example. For veg, laying a seep hose would be easier at the start of the process, too.
No time to read all the above, George. Where in the country is your new abode? I'm on the South-East Coast, so soil and drainage are where I'd start. I'd get stuck in designing a rough layout. It's amazing how that can change as you get going. I started gardening from scratch only 3 summers ago with a garden which had no flowers and hardly any beds. All shrubs and trees. Also shade all along one side like your's. I've got so interested that I opened it up the public for charity last year. Huge success. It has massive variety of plants from full sun to full shade, plus loads of hardy exotics. I started with a subscription with Gardener's World, which I STUDIED each month. I also bought 'The Gardener's Year' by Alan Titchmarsh (published by Readers' Digest)...brilliant!,and through Amazon I bought the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Gardening Plants (greatly reduced). Because I learnt by doing and reading I'm now an official plant triallist for the UK's largest on line supplier.....so, if I can do it so can you!....from scratch! EVERYTHING depends on your answers to my above two questions. Also, I built a brand new garden extension which was a builder's side yard....5 tightly packed skips full! Now I have a 19' X 5' wildlife pond. I also have a 10000 ltr pond in my main garden. A bid pond in the middle, with possibly a bog pond beside would be a great start as you can work from that.......I also bought a (must have) greenhouse, which is in a part shade area, and tow slectric propagators; I have saved huge amounts of money this way. I also have well established trees....for your garden a must, BUT be very careful to ensure you buy from a very reputable garden centre where I bought beautiful, inexpensive, unusual and exotic trees which do not create much shade (you have to think ahead....a tree blocking light in the wrong place will cause you future problems). I could go on and on!!! Good luck! PPC.