On 24/06/2012 14:55, aquachimp wrote:
On Jun 24, 12:29 pm, David Hill wrote:
On 24/06/2012 11:13, aquachimp wrote:









On Jun 23, 5:15 pm, jumanji
wrote:
Hi,

I have an area at the end of my garden that is north facing. If you look
at the attached photo you will see the area from the shed to the fence
needs some gardening work.

I was thinking of planting a blossom tree where the brick work is and
then something next to that (ignore the destroyed rosemary bush!).

Any ideas on what I could plant here? As it is what you will see from
the kitchen window I wanted to plant something colourful and big to
cover the fence and potentially provide some cover too.

I look forward to any ideas people have, thanks.

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jumanji

I'm curious about a couple of points.

When you say "north facing", am I right in thinking that when you
stand facing the house, with the fence behind you, you would be facing
north... or did you mean the garden is north facing?

You say a blossom tree, what's that... a flowering cherry?

That border along the fence... around 45cm deep? This would mean that
if you planted a tree, it would later be constantly encroaching into
the neighbours garden space.
To the left and that ivy from the other neighbour will give pester it
a bit.

You also say you want to cover the fence, but it looks well
maintained, i.e. regularly painted. There is a small piece of chicken
mesh type wire against the fence on the right, whilst that's not a big
job to undo to paint, the fence you speak of would be a much larger
project to undo and then re-do.

Those brick... a BBQ?

Why is there a path running from the shed to the ivy'd fence .. the
path would be just, what, 4 metres long?

Here's what I would suggest.

Starting with that path going from the house (I'll assume that) to the
shed.
Dig out the left hand row to as far as where the gravel is and
reposition to the right of the row now on the right.
The lawn currently to the right of the path is around 1.5meter deep to
the shrubs... hardly worth keeping.

Yes, I know, it leads directly straight to the shed door, and so
you'll have to turn left to arrive at the shed door, but it's what,
about 6 metres long, it's not like you're having to go cross country.
And the double row of slabs will still be in front of the door, should
you need to have the sense of uninterrupted access to put something
really big in there. Shift the pots.

Remove the path crossing the garden at the back and reposition it
within that grassed area. Anywhere there that you like (even extend
gravel area if you like) Now you'll have a "social" area, giving the
garden a dimension it doesn't now seem to have, therefore increasing
its sense of spaciousness. You could even transfer the BBQ there by
way of emphasising it social focus. You'll also have an extended
planting area for some nice seasonal bedding plants.

Having removed the path across the bottom, you'll probably have a
border of around 90cm deep to play with.
You could try a climbing rose over an arch, and some ordinary one
along the new, extended back fence border.
North facing...but clearly well lit... I think roses can hack it.

By the sound of that advice it might be easier to just move house.

I once had to move house 5 times in one year. If you think moving
house is easier than a bit of extra effort to spruce up a garden, then
quite frankly, you're clueless.

Besides, if you look closely, just about the entire paved areas are
either in need of repair anyway, or they were just laid down on bare
earth.

By shifting the house-shed path to the right, the lawn to the left
will be bigger.

I've just noticed that the rear path is actually 2 rows deep, (except
where the bricks are) and so, it looks like there would be enough
slabs for current right hand side grassed area to be paved over
entirely.

So there would be a bigger lawn and a more functional patio area.

Oh, and the arch would provide the flowering height the OP seems to
want, without having to get a "tree".

Thank you so much for being so rudely pointing out the problems moving
house,esp if you are not all that able.
As one who has moved house over 20 times through my lifetime I do have
some experience of it, having been in the position where we had our own
Tea chests for many years, I am now down to just 3 of them.
In all those years we have only had 3 professional moves, One was from
Newcastle to the Llyn peninsula when I was 4 years of age, one from the
Llyn Peninsula to Hastings in Sussex when I was 9 and the last from
Hastings to South Wales, all other have been done by ourselves or with
the help of friends, now at almost 70 I don't expect many more moves.
If you are thinking of the problems of a young family then one move was
done with an Ex laundry van and with a wife and 2 young children, one 10
months old the other 3 as well as a cat and a dog, but that move was
only from Hastings to Henley on Thames.
If you really want a really moving experience then try moving both house
and a Plant nursery.
David @ the now sunny end of Swansea Bay