Sue's teeny garden...progress

[SueW]

Well it's been a while but finally I have started to get the back garden the way I want it. It's a very small space, typical terrace garden really, as you can tell from the photos but in a way I'm glad because I couldn't afford to redesign and plant a large garden. This is our little Cornish paradise... or it will be by summer hopefully!

The bad news is that the plot is to the north-east of the house and it's a windy spot too. The high fences do help to shelter. Because of the aspect and that bleddy gurt ash tree next door that casts a fair bit of shade, we have to chase the sun if we want to sit out. Mostly we end up right at the far end, when the sun moves the tree shadow away.

Anyway, I had a little play on my computer ages ago and came up with this design:

And recently sourced some nice raised beds to create a more curved path, which would help widen the garden visually and give me a little height here and there. So here is a very rough layout with the beds. The gravel board is coming out and the straight path will meander. The bamboo sticks on the left side of the garden show where the border will be widened. I spent ages shifting everything here and there, as the whirlygig washing line has to fit in and we need to use the path without being scalped when it's in use. It has forced a slight adjustment to the original design but it seems to work.

Any comments/thoughts/ideas welcome

[The Codfather]

looks great.....

[lulak10]

Love the design!

You have the same 'issue' as me with a long narrow North East facing garden!! I struggle trying to work out what to plant on the right hand shady side of my garden

[kata]

Good beginning Sue,

You have the amount of garden I have at the front in length, but mine is only a quarter. Before I came here three years ago apparently they could choose if to keep the lawn, they chose to get rid....Idiots... now its just a length reaching next door but she kept a very long border as well accross from it from gate to door.

The back garden is wider than yours but shorter with borders.

[SueW]

Hubby's keen to get rid of the grass. I'd keep it, but it keeps going very patchy at the end and round the edges and looks awful. When the big tree's in leaf it gets little sunshine and I think that's the biggest problem. (I was sort of hoping these storms would take the tree out- or even the lowest hanging branch, but no luck! )

Lulak, yes I'm trying to find things that will enjoy a bit of shade. At least in the raised beds the drainage will be better; in the soil at the end under the tree it gets shady and wet. I've lost a few bits to waterlogging this winter.

[The Codfather]

I love lawns....

[Chad]

Hi Sue,

With the Ash tree next door likely to die in the next few years from Chalara you should look forward to a bit more sun.

Big leaves and wind are our main challenge down here [I'm in Praze just south of you]. Musa basjoo spends most of the year in taters here. Musa 'Tibet' looks similar and is as hardy, but spends a bit more of the year with leaves rather than tatters. Ensete ventricosum is much better at holding its leaves, and doesn't spread [Basjoo and Tibet are great for clumping up, but unless you keep them under control down here they want to occupy a space that would be half your garden!]. Ensete does need wrapping to get through the winter though, the others just take their chances here.

Do you know Tremenheere? although it is a garden at the other end of the size range Neil has plants of most things grown to full size which works as a text book for the rest of us.

Given your shade, have you considered a Sonchus fruticosus? It is hardy here apart from the occasional unusual winter.

Chad.

[lulak10]

Sue I have one very boggy area in mine too. Am trying to improve the soil at the moment by digging loads of matter, but given the topography -am near enough at the bottom of a slope so the garden slopes towards the house and it also slopes across the garden from right to left - I wonder if I am just wasting my time! I have planted out a gunnera nearby as I have the space for it. At the moment it's tiny.