An interim design for the new back garden

Work has completed on the back garden and I thought I should introduce the design and how it all looks now. The design for the back garden is not yet fully formed, but like with the front garden, I'd really like to get plants out of pots and into the ground to reduce the amount of watering I'm doing, which has been taking a toll on my very limited energy. So here's what the garden looked like when we moved in:

We got rid of the sheds immediately on Freegle, as we have a large garage that is basically my garden shed, so didn't need these. They were taking up growing space. Of course, once they were removed, this is what was behind them:

Ignore the beehive shaped items, they are my compost bins, but otherwise, quite the mess*, and you can see how much the conifers were trying to take over. Even as all this was being done, I was thinking about my interim new layout, which I now present:

Note that the three trees in the top right are the conifers which have been removed.

Originally I was going to have one long bed on the right-hand side, next to the beech hedge. But then we realised it would make trimming the hedge very difficult. So I changed this to the three beds you now see. The spacing allows you to both access the hedge more easily, but also walk around the beds to view the plants from different positions. It's a much better and more interesting layout too. These beds are north-facing, but still get a lot of sun. So they will be for ornamentals only, including some that like a shadier spot. The shade will develop over time as the Acers I'm planting** grow and provide dappled light.

Alongside the hard standing on the left are two beds with my arch in the middle. Because I have acid soil, I'm unable to plant my clematis direct to the soil, so I will be putting them on each side of the arch. These two beds get sun all year around, and will be a mix of herbs, some vegetables and some ornamentals.

The L-shaped bed will be for vegetables. I'm not growing a lot of vegetables at the moment, as they require more attention and energy than I can give nor have. So it will be for easy to grow veg, like my garlic, sorrel and salads.

Finally, the old dilapidated fencing has been replaced. I'm still trying to work out exactly what I'm going to do with this area. There will be a border along the fence, and probably where the pergola is going, but ideas are still whirling around in my head.

All this, along with the Raspberry border, completes the work for now. I have plans for the rest of the garden, including a pond and the pergola, but they are for next year. I also know that there is an issue with some standing water over parts of the grass, when we get lots of rain, and I need to work out how to manage that.

This interim design allows me to get plants into the ground, and the raised beds will make things easier on my back and my energy levels. I can now start gardening whilst I still work out what to do with the rest of the garden. Plus, time to save for the next round of work.

Now that the landscaping has been completed, next up is the planting - the best bit!

* * * * *
My landscaper was Mark Spence, John and Jordan, of Spences Landscapes, Sheffield. They did a fine job and I definitely recommend them.


*I blogged about this in my original new garden blogpost, so I'll not repeat myself here.
**I'll talk about the actual plants once they start going in the ground.

New design for the front garden

I'm in a bit of a bind. I want to follow permaculture principals and take time before making major decisions about my new garden. But I am also in an odd situation where I have exactly the same layout of our previous garden (not the one-year rental but the one before that). In fact, it's not just an East-West layout, we are sharing the same side party wall and therefore having the sun and shadows fall the same way as the last garden.

These facts are also coming up against me needing to reduce the amount of plants I have in pots, for as the recent warm weather has shown, it's been a lot of work maintaining them. And I just don't have the health to keep managing this sustainably from an ME perspective.

Current front garden

So I've decided to take the plunge and go with the ideas I have for the front garden. To be honest, they aren't new ideas. I had them for the last garden, I just never got a chance to implement them. And that idea, is to have a 'hot garden'. By hot garden, I mean, hot colours. Reds, oranges, yellows. The hot colours will tempered by a few cooler blues and purples as well as the grasses. I'm choosing hardy perennials, really hardy ones, that I plan to leave to fend for themselves once they have been watered in.

The hedge along the driveway will be removed

You can see the plan at the top of this post. The driveway and current paths are grey. I'm getting the hedge alongside the driveway removed. This is to give us a bit more space, particularly when the car is parked and I need to get past it with my mobility scooter. But I'm also adding a bin store (the yellow rectangle bottom left) for, well, the bins. I've chosen one that's made of wood, which should be reasonably attractive, as these things go. Eventually plants should help it blend in better.

The hedge shared with the neighbour will be reduced by c. 50cms

The hedge along the footpath will be reduced by half, to let in more light, and also because it's currently out of control. And the beech hedge I share with the neighbour will be cut by about 50cms (I've already oked it with her). I don't want to reduce it too much. I love the beech hedge but would like it to be just a little less high.

Geum Totally Tangerine

All the grass is going and I'm putting in a path, that is wide enough near the driveway to make it easy for me to turn my scooter around, and then leads to a central circle bed, which is where I'll be planting my Quince tree. Yes, I'm trying a Quince again. I'm thinking of trying the variety 'meech's prolific', as it should produce fruit a little sooner than other varieties, and is, well, meant to be prolific!

The reds will include Dianthus cruentus

My plant list includes Heleniums such as Dunkle Pract and Waltraut, Crocosmias including Irish Dawn and Coleton Fishacre and Geums, Totally Tangerine and Mrs J. Bradshaw. I'm going to finally grow a plant I've admired for several years, Kirengeshoma palmata, and the shadier side, next to the beech hedge.

Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Irish Dawn'

Grasses will include Stipa gigantea and Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. And a cutting of a cutting of a cutting (times a couple more), of the first plant I ever brought in the UK, 20 years ago. It's something a little 'boring' in that it's so common, but it captured my heart 20 years ago, and it captures the hearts of bees on a daily basis. The plant is Hypericum 'hidcote' - yes good old St John's Wort.

I'll also add some purples for contrast, such as Verbena bonariensis.

These will all be under planted with bulbs, from Galanthus and Crocus to Tulips and Alliums. My aim, is to have a explosion of colour all year around. Ok, I'm still working on the winter bit. If you can recommend any bulbs that flower in December, let me know. But you get the idea.

Grass will be removed and borders and paths added. Plus a quince tree.

This also sounds like a lot of work, right? Yep, it is. And to actually do the work, I'm getting in landscapers to do the landscaping, then Andrea to do the planting. I'll be using my limited energy wisely, making tea.

The new garden

At the end of March, Kevin & I finally moved into our new, and hopefully long-term, home and garden. Yay!

So this is a bit of an introduction to the new garden. It isn't much now, but it has potential. Lots of potential. I'm rather excited!

The house/garden follows an East-West layout, with the front garden being predominantly West-facing, and the back garden being in part East-facing, but with the left hand side getting quite a lot of Southerly sun throughout the year.

Front garden

Currently this is an approximate square, with mixed hedging, lawn, a driveway and concrete next to the house. I share a deciduous beech hedge with my neighbour, of which I'm hoping to reduce the height, but being deciduous, it still allows light through even in the winter months.

I'm going to reduce the height of the mixed hedge, by at least half, if not more, to let in lots more light. Part of me wants to take the whole thing out, because hedges need maintaining. But I'm not going to make any quick decisions just yet. Following permaculture principles, I'm going to observe the space for up to a year before I make that kind of decision.

Being West-facing, the front garden should get quite a lot of light all year around. I've decided to make the front garden my 'hot garden'. By that I mean, I'm going to go with hot colours, reds, yellows and oranges, with some blues and purples, including grasses, to contrast. So lots of bright coloured bulbs in Spring, hardy perennials such as Heleniums and Rudbeckias in summer and autumn, with grasses to give structure all year around. I will also be including a Quince tree in the layout, and possible a bin store.

I'll be getting rid of the grass and having either gravel or shale paths. All plants will need to be hardy and needing limited attention from me.

Back garden

The back garden is approximately 9m x 14 metres. Although the ground it looks flat, it is on a bit of a slope, from the top North-West down to the bottom South-East. I've discovered that the ground near the beech hedge and up to the current path gets quite saturated, so I need add working out drainage into my plan.

I have what looks like a plum tree. I'm going to wait until I taste the fruit before deciding whether it gets to stay. I also have a couple of rhubarb patches. More than I need, so one is going to go. There also seem to be raspberry canes, so again, I'm going to wait to see how they taste before deciding whether to keep them or not.

And then there is the weird vertical apple tree (right), which I've blogged about separately.

The previous people had rabbits and hamsters and have left a pile of straw and droppings under the conifers and on top of what looks like tomato grow bags and interspersed with some tree branches. Ugh. I've looked up rabbit & hamster droppings online and thankfully I can compost them. So though it's a pain to have to sort through this, there will be some upsides. There are also a stack of bricks and  paving stones that, whilst looking messy now, will, I'm sure, come in use in the future, such as building the base for the bin store. There is also a pile of wood (not in picture) that needs sorting. Some of it is useless, but others might be useful for raised beds.

As for the conifers. I'm not madly keen on conifers. There are some I like, but these trees aren't it. They block out lots of light and even the birds don't seem to go into them. So these are going. Yes, a big decision before I even have spent much time observing the garden, but some things you just know. I'm going to re-purpose the trunks into what I'm going to call my 'Acer-Fernery-Stumpery'. Say what, you say? More on that in another blog post :) And though I'll be removing the conifers, I'll be putting in new trees, one I love, such as Acers, and Amelanchier and a couple more fruit trees, as well as adding shrubs and hardy perennials.

The area that might stand out most is the hard standing concrete area on the left, South-facing area of the garden. What might look like a nightmare to some is actually a blessing to me. It's perfect for my eventual greenhouse! Until then, it's going to be filled with pots.

I have lots of ideas for the back garden. Not just the greenhouse, but getting rid of all grass and have a gravel garden and paths, putting in a pergola upon which to grow wisteria and other climbers, putting in raised beds for growing some veg. The soil is good old Sheffield acid-clay. Hence the need for raised beds for growing any vegetables. I'm also going to look at growing more perennial vegetables, sorrel, asparagus, soft fruits, which require less energy to manage.

I also want the garden to be wildlife-friendly, and definitely will be putting in a pond. As the theme in the front will be a 'hot garden', the ornamentals in the back garden will run on a chilling-out pink-purple theme.

Musings
The most important thing for both the front and back garden, is designing around my chronic illness (ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis), and the fact it might even get worse. This means I need to make it as low maintenance as possible (hence gravel garden/paths), but at the same time making an attractive space to be in, to relax, as well as potter when I'm well enough.

Managing my illness has to come first, and this was a mistake I made in the last garden. I designed that around assuming I would get well, soonish. As I now better understand the 'chronic' in chronic illness, and seeing how in the last few years the ME has got progressively worse, the garden must be designed with ongoing ill health front and centre.

I think the gardens have lots of potential. I'm quite excited about the ideas I currently have (I have a long list). But I'm tempering my excitement by going back to basic permaculture principles, such as: use small and slow solutions, use edges and value the margins, observe and interact, and of course, design from patterns to details. These should help ground my design around my health, as well as being a smart way to design.

So, excitement and so much potential. Welcome to my new garden.