Re your water not draining, Michael, is it possible that a previous owner may have misguidedly laid down some sort of membrane under the soil level?
This only occurred to me because many years ago we had some friends who started a market garden on about 3 acres of land they had acquired.
Once they started digging down to prepare the ground for planting, they discovered a huge proportion of this land had been covered with sheet after sheet of builders polythene. They never found out why.
It looks like the garden is a good length, So you could fool the eye making it longer by making the garden shape to be 2 circles, a larger one nearer to the house and then an overlapped circle which is slight smaller at the end of the garden. This will give you a varied border depth down the garden. If you do get sun on the back of the house, then you could have decking but if its shaded I'd avoid it as it gets greasy and slippery. You want an entertaining space where the sun shines when you want to use it. In the evening, in the middle of the day etc.
Posts
Re your water not draining, Michael, is it possible that a previous owner may have misguidedly laid down some sort of membrane under the soil level?
This only occurred to me because many years ago we had some friends who started a market garden on about 3 acres of land they had acquired.
Once they started digging down to prepare the ground for planting, they discovered a huge proportion of this land had been covered with sheet after sheet of builders polythene. They never found out why.
Looks like you have a lot to do this year. How about planting up a few pots on the edge of the patio to brighten things up till it all gets going.