Jet wash the patio and then some hypochlorite on it or a propriatery patio cleaner that mentiosn black spot.. Jet wash the fences (gently) , let them dry and paint. Same for the shed.
Wait til spring to see what bulbs are there. A small tree in the bottom right hand corner maybe but choose wisely. One that will stay small.
DeepStatic
My wife’s a gardener, but she let me design our garden as I’d never done it before. This is what I did:
I got a sketchbook and a pencil and eraser, made a good coffee, put on some nice relaxing music, and sketched out some ideas. When I settled on an idea I transferred that design over to a 3d model (SketchUp or Blender) to make sure it made sense with the exact dimensions of the space, but if you don’t have that skillset you can skip that step (or learn it – there are loads of easy tutorials online and the software’s free!)
This allowed me to sense-check everything for scale, and walk through the space digitally and look at it from different angles. I made a few adjustments and worked through a few iterations with my wife who gave some great input with regards to plants, shade, and practicality.
I then physically marked out the main features with string and tent pegs and walked around it.
I then sourced almost everything I needed on Facebook Marketplace for free. A pallet of mismatched bricks, a few half-tonne bags of sand, some old bricklaying tools, old decking boards to make into planters, etc.
As soon as I had enough materials to complete an element of the design, I got to work and completed that part. I made sure to take it slow and enjoy the process and turned it into a journey. I didn’t try to make everything perfect unless it needed to be so for structural reasons. I used lots of soft curving lines because they’re more forgiving. I rescued plants from garden centre skips (with permission) and bought them cheap from displays at the end of RHS flower shows.
My garden isn’t perfect, but it’s unique, and was developed slowly and naturally. Lots of the original design was changed as I built it.
But most importantly, it’s mine. It looks like you have no issues with drainage or anything that would *require* expert guidance, so I’d say just go for it and design your own. It’s not that difficult and it’s incredibly rewarding.
nonibet
My garden is about this size and the best thing I’ve ever done is get rid of the grass entirely. I now have woodchip paths in a kind of wonky figure of 8 with two spurs off each side, and the rest of the space is beds for planting. YMMV if you have kids or dogs, but for our adult-only cat-only household, it’s been amazing. No more unfulfilling (to me) lawn care, just all planting all the time.
Significant_Fail3713
Keep the grass. Improve the raised bed on the left hand side. Defo keep the rhubarb. Do you want a vegetable garden? Trellis around the fence and plant some climbers.
JadeMaxChez
Clean patio. Paint fences a nice colour. Remove shed. Plant lots of plants all around the outside. Put some high growing plants (like bamboo but don’t remove it pot) by that window in the background
RuudVanNistelrooney
Plant some screening shrubs like laurel or privet in front of the shed to hide it but still allow access, use sleepers to raise the bed on the right which will give some structured aspect to the garden. You have a lot of fence space which can be softened by clematis or even something like a Victoria plum tree which you can grow along a trellis.
6 Comments
Jet wash the patio and then some hypochlorite on it or a propriatery patio cleaner that mentiosn black spot.. Jet wash the fences (gently) , let them dry and paint. Same for the shed.
Wait til spring to see what bulbs are there. A small tree in the bottom right hand corner maybe but choose wisely. One that will stay small.
My wife’s a gardener, but she let me design our garden as I’d never done it before. This is what I did:
I got a sketchbook and a pencil and eraser, made a good coffee, put on some nice relaxing music, and sketched out some ideas. When I settled on an idea I transferred that design over to a 3d model (SketchUp or Blender) to make sure it made sense with the exact dimensions of the space, but if you don’t have that skillset you can skip that step (or learn it – there are loads of easy tutorials online and the software’s free!)
This allowed me to sense-check everything for scale, and walk through the space digitally and look at it from different angles. I made a few adjustments and worked through a few iterations with my wife who gave some great input with regards to plants, shade, and practicality.
I then physically marked out the main features with string and tent pegs and walked around it.
I then sourced almost everything I needed on Facebook Marketplace for free. A pallet of mismatched bricks, a few half-tonne bags of sand, some old bricklaying tools, old decking boards to make into planters, etc.
As soon as I had enough materials to complete an element of the design, I got to work and completed that part. I made sure to take it slow and enjoy the process and turned it into a journey. I didn’t try to make everything perfect unless it needed to be so for structural reasons. I used lots of soft curving lines because they’re more forgiving. I rescued plants from garden centre skips (with permission) and bought them cheap from displays at the end of RHS flower shows.
My garden isn’t perfect, but it’s unique, and was developed slowly and naturally. Lots of the original design was changed as I built it.
But most importantly, it’s mine. It looks like you have no issues with drainage or anything that would *require* expert guidance, so I’d say just go for it and design your own. It’s not that difficult and it’s incredibly rewarding.
My garden is about this size and the best thing I’ve ever done is get rid of the grass entirely. I now have woodchip paths in a kind of wonky figure of 8 with two spurs off each side, and the rest of the space is beds for planting. YMMV if you have kids or dogs, but for our adult-only cat-only household, it’s been amazing. No more unfulfilling (to me) lawn care, just all planting all the time.
Keep the grass.
Improve the raised bed on the left hand side.
Defo keep the rhubarb.
Do you want a vegetable garden?
Trellis around the fence and plant some climbers.
Clean patio. Paint fences a nice colour. Remove shed. Plant lots of plants all around the outside. Put some high growing plants (like bamboo but don’t remove it pot) by that window in the background
Plant some screening shrubs like laurel or privet in front of the shed to hide it but still allow access, use sleepers to raise the bed on the right which will give some structured aspect to the garden. You have a lot of fence space which can be softened by clematis or even something like a Victoria plum tree which you can grow along a trellis.