The Basic Back-Garden Design
The Basic Back-Garden Design
The basic design of the back-garden has taken me quite a few weeks to come up with but I’m pretty pleased with it. I garnered some very helpful information from Grandad because I want this to be a no-mess, no-fuss garden…i.e. a low maintenance garden for The Reluctant Gardener?
A bit of background: We moved into our new place a couple of months ago. I was quite put off by the garden initially until I realised that I had a ‘blank canvas’ on my hands. How often do you get to design and create your own outdoor space the way you want it?
Apart from creating a gorgeous outdoor space, this garden will need to satisfy two massive gripes for it to work:
- To hide the buildings in the background by planting Rhododendrums along the fence, thereby giving us an almost uninterrupted view of the hills in the distance (currently covered by clouds). There is such a beautiful view from our back door but it’s marred by the roof pitches in the foreground (picture below).
- There is a massive concrete slab leading from the back door to the verge of the grass. I want more grass and less concrete. ?
I’m no gardener…in fact, when it comes to gardening, I’m a lazy, plant-killing GIT…and that’s with rose-tinted glasses on. What I know about gardening and plants is both laughable and dangerous but what I do have going for me is an appreciation for natural beauty oh, and I’m feeling inspired. So, without further ado or any firm grasp of scale and/or accuracy, here is the basic design complete with a ‘map key’:
My ideal is to create an enclosed space that you access through a rose archway. The front border will contain delphiniums, lupins and aubretia/aubrieta. Because the aubretia/aubrieta are cascading flowers I will create a raised garden for them which should look really lovely.
My favourite flowers are roses and tulips and I’ve incorporated both into this design. A dense, lush rose garden will ‘hide’ the shed and create a natural boundary between the path and the garden and should attract a fair number of bees, as will the tulips, and with the birds nests I have planned for the two corners I’m hoping it will be a very busy garden…??
The groundwork for my masterpiece will begin around the middle of April by eradicating the moss. The grass is very spongy, full of broad-leaf weeds and, frankly, not very nice. Whilst the moss-killer is doing its magic, I will mark out the borders for the rhododendrums and try and source some raised plant beds.
If you have any comments, suggestions and/or ideas, I’d love to hear them! Until then,
HAPPY GARDENING! ??
