Fancy designing my new garden?

Paths? - ah I had not thought about that!

A wending path rather than a straight one would be nice

Luckygirl

The back garden faces West - it is in sun most of the day after it has come over the house and it sets behind the end of the garden slightly off to the right. Good sunsets - I have visited at different times of the day, and the back garden is in sun for most of the day.

Our garden faces west and we have a natural hedge at the back.
What Not To Do:
The mistake I made when we first moved in was to make a shrub border in front of the hedge (which we did have trimmed to about 10ft). Everything in that border leaned forwards looking for light.

I do think raised beds would be worth investigating before you start planting anything. We have a friend who uses a wheelchair and enjoys gardening and they are ideal or her.

In your planning mode?look up square foot gardening on google. You can download a chart that tells you spacing etc.

We have just bought a couple of Trugs. Not cheap, but absolutely ideal for as you get older and find your joints complain when bending.

Failing that raised beds are good.

We are also following the square foot gardening method. Which would be ideal for one lucky So each trug in approx 6x2’ 6” so that’s about 15 squares. 30 squares in total.

So far we have growing salad onions, winter lettuce, lambs lettuce, spinach, oriental mix, salad mix, carrots, Chard, French beans, onion sets for next year, garlic to go in for next year, 6 winter cabbages ( they need a square each)

That just an idea of what we are growing, but it is incredible fun to do and if you plan it right and keep replenishing your soil you should have something to pick all year around. We have a cloche to protect stuff when it gets cold.

How about the fruit trees in the wild flower area, like an orchard%?

I would like to grow a small amount of produce. I had in mind a pop-up raised bed somewhere towards the back of the garden. I have friends who are planning to give me seedlings to nurture.

Paths? - ah I had not thought about that!

I also wonder whether there might be some (cheap!) tall structure like an arch?

Me too WWW. I had some major dental work yesterday and just took my mind out of the chair and into planning the garden? The dentist finished before I did!

I think first you have to decide what you want from your garden.

So do you want to grow any produce or keep it simply as. somewhere to enjoy.

Next how much time you are willing or able to put into it.

Then think about the hard landscape, paths etc.

You’ve got all winter really to sit dream and plan and save!!

Then look at the sort of beds you want. If you go into Crocus, they have bed plans so you can browse through the them and see if there is any that take your fancy.

I love planning, I spend my life planning the garden?

I agree that a large pond near the house is a good idea unless you are worried about grandchildren falling in. If you dug a large pond the soil you dig out could be used for raised beds.

Wow LuckyGirl what a super space, a lovely blank canvas. Can you afford to involve Charley Dimmock and the Rich brothers? They seem capable of creating just what you want for budgets from about £2000 upwards all in a day. Their labour is free apparently.

Wow, you are lucky! My garden is less than half the size of that. I also was going to say Garden Rescue would have some good ideas, and if you had some raised beds close to the house you wouldn't have to do too much bending.

Wow, what a brief for someone inventive, not me I'm afraid .
I do wish you well with the design, and how lovely to begin from scratch.
I have been enjoying Garden Rescue recently and some of the raised beds that have appeared , have had seats incorporated, which is a good idea.
You"ll have to keep a photo diary and keep us updated as it goes on.

It looks lovely. One thing I will say is that we dug a biggish pond and sited it not far from our big sliding doors at the back which is great as it's always in our sights. We have the pleasure of watching the birds drink and bathe from it. And this year several dragonflies laid eggs on the pond plants. My only real advice is to bring a lot of the garden near to the house where you can enjoy it year-round. Definitely use a lot of native planting to attract insects and birds. Be careful of feeding the birds as we had a rat! I'd keep the bit at the far end wild and hopefully you may get a hedgehog and slow worms. Oh how I envy you starting such a wonderful project. If you look at the website Houzz and click on gardens, there are loads of ideas. Good luck.

The back garden faces West - it is in sun most of the day after it has come over the house and it sets behind the end of the garden slightly off to the right. Good sunsets - I have visited at different times of the day, and the back garden is in sun for most of the day.

Which direction does the garden face?