Ideas for starting from scratch?
 

I'm hoping for some help/inspiration in creating a new garden. At the
moment we have a patio outside the house and a 15.5m x 8.5m garden below it.
At the far end is an asbestos garage that we're getting rid of. This will
leave a large, flat concreted area (2.4m x 4.3m) that I hope to put to use
rather than breaking up and removing.

We're replacing the broken (and soon to have a garage shaped gap!) back wall
with a fence with a gate in it. There's currently a very ugly straight
concrete path down the one side of the garden to the side of the garage. I
can't think of much to do with it other than remove it and make a new,
probably winding one. The garden slopes gently away from the house.

My idea currently is to scrape up all turf and roots (we had some trees
chopped so it's a pretty tough job). Once that's done I was thinking of
creating a border 2/3 of the way down and laying a new lawn above that
(after leaving the new soil to settle and kill weeds for a bit). Then
putting down a large paved feature where the garage floor remains (something
like http://www.stonemarket.co.uk/millsto...ures.htm#aztec) and
having that line up with a gate in the rear fence and a winding path through
the grass. Either bark chippings or ornate gravel to fill the rest with pot
plants/shrubs filling space - maybe a pond on the shadier side. I'd
probably put flowerbeds either side of the lawn part too.

Anyone any more suggestions or comments on the above? The garden falls to
the NW (i.e.. it's a SE facing rear wall!!) if that helps.



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