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Really Need Help - First proper Garden Design
Devine
Posts: 25
Hey guys, right, real dilemma. (Pictures below)
I have heavy clay soil. And a boring wide rectangular garden with very shallow depth. I have made a small corner bed planted with perennials on the left hand side. But thats as far as it goes.... The garden looks over a field, but I really want to add some features to the garden.
The field means the lawn is FULL of weeds, which makes me wonder if less lawn is a good idea, But its going to be really hard to get a "focal point" with the field and such a shallow and wide garden...
I loved the thoughts of a water feature, and maybe some winding beds, with an archway and a patio... but can't visualise it!
Anyone got ideas...
thanks in advance
Andy
made a
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Posts
Beautiful field and view Devine!
I'm just starting out but have found the Titchmarsh book how to be a gardener very useful with plenty of tips on garden design and looking after the plants, soil etc. There is also a TV series that goes with the book that some kind person has put on YouTube!
I'd say the field IS the focal point. It's wonderful.
I'd certainly lose most of the grass , maybe a smaller lawn in the middle ( to keep that view ) with much more planting to the sides.
Thanks guys, it used to be landfill back in the 80s, but now grown over and very lovely. Having been in so many others gardens though, its lovely when they have all sorts of levels to it, or little features here and there... like the idea of more beds perhaps. as the lawn will never be beautifully manicured due to the wild environment!
I agree with WonkyWomble. The Titchmarsh book on Garden Design is great and will give you some things to think about.
You could make the patio nicer with a curved edge and some nice york stones if you wanted to go that far.
The view is spectacular so you want to "frame" it and make it part of your garden. You can use design tricks to make it less obvious where you garden ends and the field begins.
I wouldn't worry about weeds. If the grass is in good condition and you feed it once a year or so it should resist the weeds pretty effectively. You can also use a selective weedkiller if it gets really bad.
Any recommendation on weed killer for grass I want to keep?
Id really appreciate that tip... And the framing Idea is lovely, and decent sized flowing shrubs that grow to 6 feet in height with dense vegetation?
Ordered the book BTW
There's lots of branded weedkillers that include grass feed and weedkiller in one.
Personally I just use SBK, which kills weeds but doesn't harm grass. I expect there are better ones for lawns though.
I use a bog standard weed and feed for my grass - usually Scott's or whatever is available. Most of them seem pretty decent. Applying at the right time and dosage is important though.
Borrowed view is the expression for what you could do with the end of the garden Devine. It's exactly what it says on the tin
An alternative trick is to grow a high hedge and cut windows in it to see the view beyond, but that really works best in large gardens. A few carefully placed large shrubs will give a good effect.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My garden has much in common with yours Devine although the field at the end is arable - beans this year and there's a deep ditch between my garden and the field. I have a big patio immediately outside the back door and then a step down to a lawn, mostly weeds. I have a flower bed at the end, then the ditch, then the field.
A picture of what it was like when I moved in 3 years ago.
As you can see, there was a hedge my side of the ditch and almost the first thing I did was get the grandson with a chain saw to get rid of that!
Since then, with the permission of the farmer obviously, I've had a bridge built across the ditch and done quite a bit of work on the flower bed, mostly getting rid of bindweed, thistles etc. Keeping them down is an ongoing job but now that I can get to the other side of the ditch, I can also strim the bit of grass between me and the crop and that helps.
Pictures of how it looks this evening
and another one including some of the patio
If money were no object I'd get rid of a lot of the grass and maybe have a pond but I'm still waiting for the lottery win
Pinterest is a great place for garden design ideas, I could spend hours browsing on there.
Sadly though I don't have much time working the hours I do