Fancy designing my new garden?

I would also buy some cheap 'starter' shrubs from nurseries or garden centres. They can be planted in lightweight plastic pots to begin with then as they grow they can either be planted out or potted on.

The only thing I would add to all the lively ideas here is stay away from pyracantha. Yes, it's evergreen, has lovely blossom in spring and red or orange berries later but it grows like a triffid, upwards and outwards and is a constant chore trying to keep it tidy and within bounds, and it's covered in vicious thorns. I had mine removed last year and gained an extra border eight feet wide!

The House and Garden website has some good ideas and also Pinterest if you search garden ideas on there, best to save ideas you like and work from there, I only have a small courtyard garden but you have the space to create something quite dramatic, budget allowing.

Ah yes - budget! Small I think would describe it!

Thank you for all these lovey ideas, which I will follow up. It is both exciting and daunting.

I am wondering if I might get a section of low double wall built round part of the patio, as we did here - it is about 5/6 bricks high and I planted it up with alpines and creeping herbs and it looks lovely all year round. I have poached some bits from the alpines and potted them up to take with me.

merlot - you mentioned the "borrowed" garden from the back there - one of the reasons I chose this house was because the trees at the back are lovely - one even has a tree house in it! - the GC are entranced with it, but it is just out of reach and on someone else's land of course!

What a lovely blank canvas you have.

Definitely fruit bushes - blueberry, blackcurrant, red currant, raspberry (they do spread so need slightly more attention).

These are great fresh or for your freezer and preserves. Kids will love picking them along with strawberries.

As for trees it will depend on the aspect as they will provide shade so you need to position carefully. Don't put them too close to the house.

I would tend to divide the area into rooms say allowing to sit in different parts of the garden at different times of the day, thus enjoying different aspects to look at the property and surrounds.

Get a piece of paper and sketch ideas and sizes to give you some idea. You could also cut out pictures of things you like and make a mood board to ponder ideas.

I would also suggest when you have plants you definitely want in the garden place them in situ in the pots first to take in how they look and then you can move them around to suit, bearing in mind soil and shade that is suitable for the plant.

I hope this helps.

Good luck

Lots of lovely new ideas. I had not thought of fruit bushes - great idea.

One word of caution. I love having a lawn but they are very high maintenance. Its not just the mowing its keeping the edges neat. Also, remember pots need a lot of attention including watering nearly every evening and sometimes twice in really hot weather so they are certainly not an easy option, as I have discovered.

My garden is over 100 feet long with quite wide borders along the edges, two lawns divided by a flower bed with a huge magnolia and then at the end what was a vegetable garden, but which is now smothered in weeds. This was my husband's territory! I love my garden so as the years have taken their toll I have employed a gardener for a year or two but he is very unreliable so I am now looking for a landscape gardener to redesign the whole thing and hopefully save me work.

Good luck with your project, I'm sure it will give you a lot of pleasure.

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Scruffy is my style! Hence not worrying too much about lawn edging etc. And my desire to have a wildflower/wildlife area.

I am happy mowing lawns - I regard it as good exercise!

Focal point is a great idea - maybe the biodigester teatray!! No, perhaps not. I plan to put a bench in front of that as there is little else that I can do about it.

Go on Freecycle and request plants and even pots. You will find people are very willing to share. I got my beautiful pond plants from there and they have been amazing. Also a lovely clump of Kaffir Lilies. Gardeners usually have plants to spare.

That is a great idea! I have been doing a lot of freecycling in the other direction, so maybe time I put in a wanted notice.

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I think the best idea would be to thing to think about is what sort of gardens do you admire?

Do you enjoy messy wild English cottage gardens (my favourite) or more formal gardens. If it were me with that lovely big space I’d be thinking how to break up the open square feel and create organic lines and hidden areas. But that’s me, you might enjoy something more open.

Another thing to think about is your dgc, are they active and likely to want to play ball games? If so raised beds and leaving the space quite open maybe best while they are young.

Water features are lovely to enjoy, both of my children enjoyed their grannies pond with a water fall immensely.

You can also plant with attracting insects/birds in mind. I’ve planted to attract butterfly’s and bees and have bird feeders dotted about.

Wonder why these old threads are popping up again.

dragonfly46 that’s so annoying, I wonder why that’s happening atm. You spend time writing a reply (not quick for me not being a natural writer) to find the thread is old and redundant