"sacha" wrote in message
But if he does start with paved over, *attractive* (mega important word
there) stones, cobbles, (I *love* cobbles and long to use them somewhere,
sometime) or even different types of paving/stone/cobbles to add interest,
plus pots with plants of their choice, this could be a *fantastic* small
and
above all, enjoyed, garden. THIS garden will be all about design, textures
and harmony of *natural* materials but above all, enjoyable use. Stone
slabs, bricks, terracotta pots, water, carefully chosen plants in those
pots
etc. etc. It wouldn't be all about unwanted, grudgingly mown lawn and
rigidly kept to the side, depressed borders.
I would so much rather buy a house with a garden like that which had been
thought about and looked after to its minimal requirements, than a house
with an unloved, unkempt garden, because I would immediately wonder if
that
attitude reflected on the house itself. (No offence to the OP, BTW, I'm
speaking very broadly here!)
--
When I designed my sister-in-laws garden, a very small patch of tatty grass
originally, I basically paved it with pavers and built two 1 m square and
2ft high flower/plant and pond troughs from brick either side offset from
one another, this makes the garden look bigger as there is effectively an S
shaped path between the planters not a straight line(difficult to describe).
Also designed some smaller double walls with soil between 1ft high as plant
troughs along part of each side coming off the larger troughs.
She can cope with the 1m square pond and planting out the similar flower bed
and smaller ones with summer bedding to the extent that she has purchased
some nice pots and plants them too, looks very pretty in the summer and is
easy to keep clean despite her dogs as it's very easy to hose down.

--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.