My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Gardening

Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?

27 replies

Sooperswooper · 29/06/2014 19:03

Just that really. We moved in Feb and have finally started thinking that we need to get on and get it sorted. Sadly, both me & dh are lacking in garden imagination. All pinterest etc seem to throw up are sleek, highly impractical paved over spaces which won't work as we need a grassed area for ds. We'll be getting rid of the shed so discount that, and probably that ivy/ tree too and will need new fencing as starters. Plus new turf. The patio bit I think we'll make pretty by putting herbs on the wall in little buckets, some nice lighting and some outside furniture, but it's the rest of it! We could just whack in some standard fencing and some new turf, but I kind of feel that's a bit lacking in imagination. I'd love a pizza oven/BBQ/ veg patch, herbs, pretty flowers, an area that ds can roam (within a m2) and have as his to put his water tray and things in, etc but that's probably in a few houses ( never ) time..

Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?
Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?
Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?
OP posts:
Report
PigletJohn · 29/06/2014 19:17

which way is South?

Report
LaurieFairyCake · 29/06/2014 19:19

Can I just quickly suggest to go onto Iplayer and watch Gardeners world from Friday - bbc2 at 8.30/9 - as they featured a small London garden - a very worthwhile 7 minutes to watch - I got 'use triangles' from it to blur the edges and have plants across Grin

Report
Sooperswooper · 29/06/2014 19:29

Laurie, oooo will do that shortly. Didn't even think of Gardeners World for inspiration Blush Pigletjohn- it's a south facing garden. Lots of sun!

OP posts:
Report
Aethelfleda · 29/06/2014 19:35

What's the tree? Don't chop it down too quickly, it looks quite mature, and breaks up the view of the garden end quite nicely without actually taking up much space: removing it may make the garden feel more overlooked and more stark. When we moved we took out a leilandii type pine (actually our neighbour's but was v close to our house border so we paid to get it removed so it wouldn't cause subsidance issues) and instantly felt much more overlooked by our neighbours.

Report
ClariceBeanthatsme · 29/06/2014 19:37

Kind of similar size to ours, what about a barked area across the bottom of the garden for sand pit/ trampoline/playhouse etc then you can keep the patio for a nice table and chairs and plant pots? And all ds toys at the bottom of the garden with maybe stepping stones from the patio to the barked area that way you wont lose too much grass as you would with a wide path.

Report
Liara · 29/06/2014 19:43

I concur on the use triangles, though I haven't seen the gardener's world.

The best garden I ever saw of this type was in a hampton court flower show garden, and it had a lawn that was square, but off the axis, iyswim, so it made triangular beds with the patio and the far fence. They actually had two square lawns like that, but I don't think you have room for that.

Report
Sooperswooper · 29/06/2014 19:47

The tree.. i did think we needed to get rid, but apparently we just need to cut it all back massively because it overhangs next door so much. Which does make it a little easier in terms of being overlooked aethelfleda. Our neighbour to the back i think is keen on building a brick wall (at his cost) but i'm just not sure whether that might make it all look a bit too hemmed in and boxy.. Which i guess would take out any issues with ds's "bit" being at that end of the garden though. Liara, I will have to try to find that and down-size it!

OP posts:
Report
PigletJohn · 29/06/2014 22:57

the outbuildings with rising damp probably belong to someone else, so you can't put vine eyes in and trellis or pea netting, but you could have cane tripods and grow something tall against them like sweet peas or a grapevine. Edible gardening is good. Look for somewhere sunny to grow tomatoes. In the ground, otherwise you will be constantly watering.

You will need a good washing line. Don't fix it to a fence, which it will pull over, or a small tree. Vine eyes screwed to a wall should be in a wall which is parallel to the line, so that the pull is sideways on the eyes and they will not pull out.

You can grow quick pots on the paving, preferably big ones. For speed, this year you can get small bedding plants from Aldi. Next year you can grow border dahlias, if you like them, or fuschias, for fast but lasting colour.

Report
Sooperswooper · 30/06/2014 15:53

Oooooo sweet peas! And edible gardening. Brilliant idea. I watched the Gardeners World snap and love the idea of bigger things, rather than lots of small, although I do think that the diagonals might just make the garden here look a bit like a jungle, so it would have to be a scaled back version. Hmm. Bought Homes & Gardens for some inspiration but it just made me want a stately home!

OP posts:
Report
traviata · 30/06/2014 16:02

i really like John Brooks' books about small garden design. This one for example is just 75p used plus p&p Small Gardens . Full of good ideas and tips.

Report
Provencalroseparadox · 30/06/2014 16:05

I've just had my garden done. It's about 60 feet so a bit bigger than yours I think. Would post pics but don't know how.

We have a patio area with pots, built in raised beds, a lawn, a work area with shed and tree, decking at the top (we're on a river).

We've had lights installed all up the sides of the garden and power sockets at the bottom, top and in the shed. Plants are all in pots. We're using the patio near the house for eating and entertaining and the decking at the top for lounging.

Colour scheme is grey and white but we've painted the shed a lovely bright blue and I intend to paint some old garden chairs lime green.

Not sure if any of this helps with ideas!

Report
PetulaGordino · 30/06/2014 16:06

yes, gardener's world was good on friday:

  • use diagonals, be generous with borders
  • buy lots of a few plants that you love, rather than a small number of lots of different plants (likely also cheaper as you will probably get deals on larger quantities of the same plants)
  • get some variance in height (the tree and trellis that you already have will be good for that)
  • leave some patches for annuals and/or pots that you can change each year
Report
PintOfWine · 30/06/2014 16:27

To add, vertical fence grey/black actually makes the garden look bigger.

Or completely different type of look, I saw a tiny garden (from my train) that was closed off by brick wall and they painted it like this.. It looked so lovely and cheerful and instantly reminded you of a being on a holiday in greece.

Report
PintOfWine · 30/06/2014 16:30

Depending on where you live, I would also look for nurseries that supply professionals (there's one by gatwick airport I can recommend called architectural plants) and buy their larger plants. They retail at 20-25 quid rather than 5-7 quid but the plants are mature. It's much harder to kill a mature plant if you're a novice and you will not overplant/buy too much, because they will already be quite big, and many will double in size in a year.

Report
Provencalroseparadox · 30/06/2014 16:34

PintofWine my shed is painted that colour. It is lovely.

Report
Provencalroseparadox · 30/06/2014 16:41

Oooh here.

Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?
Anyone fancy helping me redesign my (teeny, tiny) garden?
Report
PintOfWine · 30/06/2014 17:01

ah, that's lovely provencalrose...i love blue/brown combination a well, so I like the way it makes your fence colour pop.

Report
Provencalroseparadox · 30/06/2014 17:49

Thank you. DH mostly designed but I accessorised! I love it. It was nice before - lovely and mature - but we're already finding it much more useable and the DCs love it.

Report
Sooperswooper · 30/06/2014 18:36

provencalrose, I love it!! Great colour choices. Have added that to my "gardening ideas" folder! The greek island look I love too, but am a fan of the bricks, and it wouldn't quite work here I don't think.

Pintofwine, that's great- am not too far from Gatwick so I'll look into that. Also need to do the front patch of about 2ft x 6ft so things from there might work too.

On another note, just googling small garden images (i feel I might be slightly obsessed at the moment) and came across this. WHY??! WHY!!!

gaby.fachrul.com/img/smlbackyardlanscaping/small-garden-design-backyard-landscaping/unique-small-garden-design-100x100-unique-plan-of-small-garden-designs500-x-354-83-kb-jpeg-x.jpg

OP posts:
Report
littlewoollypervert · 30/06/2014 18:43

For your herbs you could lift a few random patio slabs & plant low growing fragrant things, it would break up the space, the water from the patio will run off onto them (less watering), if you step on them you'll release the fragrance, and they'd be closer to the house/kitchen than a border beside the grass.

Report
Sooperswooper · 30/06/2014 18:50

I love that idea and think it would look great. Not sure how easy it is going to be to lift the patio stones as they are concreted in (i hate the un-uniform nature of the sloping paving slabs as it is so I was keen to get rid of some!) but I'll ask once I find someone to come and give a quote to do things to the garden.

OP posts:
Report
Provencalroseparadox · 30/06/2014 19:04

You could use some colours for accessorising. I've also got a bright red table and some blue and orange pots. I like the flashes of colour thing.

The paving stone idea sounds lovely. I love fragrant herbs and have a few although I managed to kill my lemon thyme.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

TheBitterBoy · 30/06/2014 19:11

That head is actually in the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall and is massive. Hardly for a small garden! Weird that should come up when you google small garden ideas.

Report
funnyperson · 30/06/2014 20:11

I love it that your little garden is south facing. This means you will get lots of flowers and fruit.
I'm a hopeless garden designer, however from a practical point of view it makes sense to start with the boundaries and work forwards. ie sort out the fencing, shed, position of washing line, paths, and where you would like to sit first.
Against the walls/fences you can have little fruit trees such as apple or pear, climbers such as honeysuckle and roses. Its nice to have scented climbers nearer the house and seating area, and plant fruit trees away from the house. In the midrange think of some evergreen plants and flowering shrubs and forward in your beds think of grasses and other pretty flowering perennials and bulbs, so that the forward bit is the bit you can change your planting from season to season if you want.
The RHS website has a plant search tool. You can search for plants suitable for sun.
Having a raised vegetable bed is both trendy and fun, as is a herb bed or wheel.
Carol Klein from gardeners world is also taking a young couple through creating a small garden, look at past episodes!

Report
funnyperson · 30/06/2014 20:13

Oh and think about what bit of the garden you can see from the house and how your eye will be led towards plants or some ornament

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.