If you read my recent post about clearing an overgrown garden, you know a back garden redesign has been in the works for some time now. Our South facing garden has so much more potential for planting, playing and socialising if the layout and planting scheme is reworked. While the official build of the redesign has been put on the back burner while we renovate the house, a lot has happened already to begin the transformation.
One of the first things we did was clear out all of the overgrown hedging and plants that had taken over the garden. We also pulled out a lot of planting on the other side of the outbuilding to make room for a log store and compost heap. The quaint out building needed a bit of breathing room, and it's actually one of my favourite parts of the garden now. With the hedging alongside the boarder, you still feel like you're walking through an enchanted garden when exploring outside. You can read more about how to clear out overgrown planting here.
After the overgrown planting was removed, we replaced the fence at the back border with a black feather edge fence (step by step guide coming soon!). I'll bet there's some of you reading this who might think a black fence in a garden is a bit harsh, but actually the black colour really makes it sort of disappear. My favourite part about the black fence is the way the planting in front of it really pops.
Throughout all of this, we also have been taking note of where the sun hits the garden at various times of the year. Lucky for us, we have a South facing garden so for the majority of the day the sun is right outside our back door. We started to think about what kind of plants would be best suited for different areas of the garden, what style of plants, and what would cope in a wet Scottish climate. These books below are some of my go to books for researching planting schemes. Another tip is to go to a garden centre where all of the plants are actually grown locally. A lot of plants that are grown down in England and are brought up North won't survive here. My favourite nursery to go to is McClarens.
Once we had an idea of where we wanted to have different zones in the garden, I started sketching. I did a survey of the garden to get the size and shape as accurately as I could. I used various techniques to play around with the layout, just by sketching with tracing paper and also using the architectural plans and cut large pieces of paper to easily move around the composition.
After spending a lot of time sketching out options, we also started to mock up the different areas of the garden to scale using scrap bits of wood we had laying around. This really helped give us a feel for what each area of the garden would be like size wise. Some must have's for us was maintaining a good connection to the garden from the kitchen sliding doors for outdoor entertainment.
We have these big beautiful windows so the last thing we wanted to see was a barbecue or rattan sofa right outside as they tend to be a bit of an eye sore. When you look through the windows I wanted to be able to see beautiful planting schemes through the windows.
With strategic plant placement, we are hoping to be able to hide some of the garden accessories with planting. This also encourages the visitor to meander throughout the garden, taking a moment to stop and pause in nature while exploring.
For planting schemes, I have a wish list of plants I definitely want to incorporate. I want to find a balance between a contemporary garden but also quite a naturalistic style. I also want the garden to look good for most of the year. There is something very beautiful about seed heads and grasses with frost on them in the winter. Hakonechloa Macra, Echinacea Purpurea, Yew Balls, Aster and Achillea are all on my wish list and will add seasonal interest to the garden.
These renderings are still very much a work in progress. Since we haven't been living in the house the last few months, we haven't had a chance to work on finalising plans but will in due course. With Summer a few months away, we still have some time to make some decisions on planting. Stay tuned!
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