Creating a garden
 

Hello!

We've recently moved back to England and now have a new garden to think
about!

There is lots to do and lots of problems to contend with. It's quite a
small space (about 1.25 acres) and slopes away in two directions - down
from the house, but also side to side on a camber. At the moment there's
a large terrace near the house, but almost all the rest is effectively a
wild flower meadow (it doesn't look horribly uncared for, so I think the
previous owners deliberately kept it "natural").

Anyway, we want to clear all that away and make a proper garden! We're
thinking of making the terrace smaller and adding a big square lawn with
herbacious borders around it. Then we want to plant up a lot of box
hedges to make four mini-gardens with hedge-lined walkways between them:
a kitchen garden (obviously!), a shrubbery/rockery garden, an eye-
catching cut flower / flashy annuals garden, and a traditional cottage
garden.

Finally, we'll have a woodland area separate from the hedged gardens,
with a few trees, alpines giving ground cover, and maybe a pond. Also
tuck away the compost heap somewhere here!

Well.... when you write it down it looks like an overwhelming amount of
work!! If anyone has any good ideas for where to start, what to get done
first to make an early difference, that would be great! What we're most
worried about is how to deal with the slopes when planting the box
hedges: should we plant them off-straight to get the perspective right?
That sounds quite hard. I guess we have a 2-3 year timescale in mind to
get the basics set up (obviously new trees and shrubs will take much
longer than that to come to full size). Is that realistic?

Also any thoughts on planting schemes etc. Exciting times for us, please
chip in!!

} Marie-Lou {

Creating a garden
 

On May 20, 9:48*pm, Marie-Louise wrote:
Hello!

We've recently moved back to England and now have a new garden to think
about!

There is lots to do and lots of problems to contend with. It's quite a
small space (about 1.25 acres) and slopes away in two directions - down
from the house, but also side to side on a camber. At the moment there's
a large terrace near the house, but almost all the rest is effectively a
wild flower meadow (it doesn't look horribly uncared for, so I think the
previous owners deliberately kept it "natural").

Anyway, we want to clear all that away and make a proper garden! We're
thinking of making the terrace smaller and adding a big square lawn with
herbacious borders around it. Then we want to plant up a lot of box
hedges to make four mini-gardens with hedge-lined walkways between them:
a kitchen garden (obviously!), a shrubbery/rockery garden, an eye-
catching cut flower / flashy annuals garden, and a traditional cottage
garden.

Finally, we'll have a woodland area separate from the hedged gardens,
with a few trees, alpines giving ground cover, and maybe a pond. Also
tuck away the compost heap somewhere here!

Well.... when you write it down it looks like an overwhelming amount of
work!! If anyone has any good ideas for where to start, what to get done
first to make an early difference, that would be great! What we're most
worried about is how to deal with the slopes when planting the box
hedges: should we plant them off-straight to get the perspective right?
That sounds quite hard. I guess we have a 2-3 year timescale in mind to
get the basics set up (obviously new trees and shrubs will take much
longer than that to come to full size). Is that realistic?

Also any thoughts on planting schemes etc. Exciting times for us, please
chip in!!



} Marie-Lou {- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It's up to you mate! :-) I have about an acre and a half. I have
planted trees for firewood (coppice) and only cultivate a small
vegetable patch aside from immediately round the house. I have ceated
a wildlife pond too.
I run it as a snake sanctuary as we seem to have a few.

That makes it more than 6 times the size of mine, and mine is a large garden by most people's standards!

Hi Mary Lou,
I have had a similar experience I have moved to a house two years ago and had to start from scratch.
Here are a few ideas

Look at the space. Peer out the window, ans stare at it what view do you want? Do you want some hidden area? What about seclusion and neighbours

I started with a greenhouse (and some raised beds) I am real glad I have the greenhouse as I can raise my perrenials and veg from seed.

To a certain extent a Garden evolves by itself, but if you plant a tree think about its eventual height and how long it takes to reach this height.

All gardens benefit from established plants, dont dig these out unless you really must - they add a different timescale to a garden . There is little worse than the look of a bed where you can see the garden centre potted plans surrounded by bare soil. Think about using fast annuals to fill gaps.

As you walk and drive around look at other peoples gardens and think about what you want.

Have you thought about a water feature, a summer house, a barbecue area?

Maybe statues?

Visit garden centres. If you are near Enfield crews hill has a lot in one spot.

To plant a whole garden with perrenials takes a lot of money. If you were to buy sopme seeds now, and plan into plots they would be ready for next year.
Garden centres dont stock a big range of good seeds and concentrate on the usuals, use the internet, I recommend ebay (cheap and often rare seeds). Thomspon and morgan are pricey.

Plan for next year not this one - a big project takes a while.