Garden Design Help Needed!

4 months ago

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to redesign my garden and could really use some advice! We’re aiming for a low-maintenance layout but still want to include a mix of plants and vegetables.

Here's the plan so far:

Plant & Vegetable Area: We’ve built raised beds with sleepers and would like to plant a mix of flowers and vegetables inside. Any suggestions for easy-to-grow, low-maintenance plants or veggies that will thrive in these beds?
Horizontal Hanging Basket: I’d love to add a horizontal hanging basket on the opposite fence. I’m looking for trailing plants or flowers that are easy to care for but still look vibrant.
Privacy Ideas for a Grey Fence: We have a grey fence in the garden that I’d like to make more private and aesthetically pleasing. Any creative ideas to add privacy, maybe with climbing plants or something else?
Play Area: We also have a swing and slide set for the kids, which will be there for a few more years. How can we incorporate this play area into the garden design while keeping it practical and kid-friendly?

Any tips or design ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much! 😊

Featured Answer

Metal Garden Screen

2 months ago

Regarding planters, we offer a variety of colours and sizes. Planters can also be attached to a metal screen. Then regarding privacy Screens can be mounted directly onto the grey fence to provide more privacy while adding a decorative touch. You can check the collections here. Feel free to contact us for a free quote and design consultancy https://metalgardenscreen.co.uk/

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Comments (7)

Isla Cherry
4 months ago
Flowers and vegetables require weeding, feeding and watering. I wouldn't call them low maintenance. A few tall shrubs are probably as low maintenance as you are going to achieve. Even established gardens had to be watered when first planted and flowers need constant watering in our hot dry summers. Think of the climate as you make your choices. It's also soil dependent. Test your soil, check the path of the sun, things like wind and then do some reading up on smart choices. Your local garden centre could probably advise you better. I would plant for structure first i.e. the tall items and then you can fill in with appropriate smaller plants. Do you have a water butt? You may be able to install one next to the house or wherever your downpipes are. This would help with summer watering.
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P Crozer
4 months ago
What aspect are we talking about here? That will have a big impact on choice of plants. A climbing hydrangea on a shady section of fence could be a good option as they are self-clinging so won't need any intervention from yourself, and basically just look after themselves as long as you keep it well watered as it is getting established. Re fruit and veg in the raised beds you've built, they don't look very wide for vegetable growing. Not sure how much in the way of veg you'd get in there (though you could grow tomatoes in the summer months), but a fan-trained fruit tree on a sunny section could work well. Fruit bushes such as gooseberry and blackcurrant are also very low-maintenance, just requiring a winter prune. A thornless blackberry could be trained against the fence, which again is fairly low maintenance. You could grow strawberries under the larger fruit bushes. They are fairly tolerant of various light levels. And don't forget herbs. Rosemary and sage are very low maintenance, and thyme and oregano will spread and provide ground cover.
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Hi ! I think this house will benefit from from plenty of toy storage in the main family living space ( assuming this will be in the extension at rear ) as while little ones are so small they need to be in view - so perhaps you could design with this in mind and add a dedicated laundry room near the WC perhaps ? The current play room could maybe be used as a different function ? Do you need a guest room /study perhaps ? For when family members come to stay ? If so maybe the wc could be upgraded to a shower room ? There's lots of things you can do to make this work for you - just write a list of what could make your life easier now and for the next 5-10 years or so ... Some things will evolve or be ready to change by then - so being clever with your designing and planning now should put you in a good place further down the line too !! If this is something you need help with - hiring in a pro might be a good way of dealing with it - or alternatively put your wish list on here and see if you can get some fab ideas from the helpful Houzzers !!!
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P Crozer
4 months ago
For privacy screening, NON-INVASIVE bamboo could work as they grow quickly and again are low maintenance as long as you give them lots of water. I'm not sure I'd ever dare plant out a bamboo, though, having seen the havoc they have wrecked in some gardens around here. We grew massive ones in half-barrel containers in our old house, and they provided lots of screening and they give good season-round structural interest.

Another against the fence idea could be honeysuckle. They grow quickly and spread, some are more vigorous than others. You would have to tie it in, though, and keep watered, but they give amazing fragrance when in flower.
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P Crozer
4 months ago
Re the hanging basket, you can't keep plants in a basket longterm without repotting and a certain level of care. There are a myriad of trailing plants such as petunias, fuschias etc available in the summer as plugs that will grow rapidly and provide a spectacular show of colour. They will need replacing in late autumn however, so if you want to keep it as fuss-free as possible it might be a better idea to go for year-round foliage plants, such as this collection:

https://www.jparkers.co.uk/6-evergreen-foliage-plants-1008956c?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAnpy9BhAkEiwA-P8N4hcY-76FstBb-uFzFfhv--8O9yqEDqsY7o3-nKkHZn9QjPIUD3xHShoCXXkQAvD_BwE
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P Crozer
4 months ago
I think you might just have to put up with the swing set as a blight on the view for a couple of years more! By the time you had grown a useful screen around it, hopefully it would be "moving on" anyway. We've had a hideous trampoline in our garden for a few years now, and I've stopped seeing it. I had to just accept that if I wanted the children to be in the garden and enjoying it too, I was going to have to compromise on aesthetics (for now...)!!
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Betty Boo
4 months ago
Lots of ideas for plants from the Houzzers but I’m thinking if you have a young family you may not have as much time for gardening as you’d like so something to bear in mind. I’d also think about the sunniest spots in the garden and keep those for seating whilst the shadier areas will be better for plants. We have recently taken down a trampoline after 15 years only to realise it was hogging the sunniest, most sheltered spot in the whole garden!

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Garden Design Help Needed!

Metal Garden Screen

Comments (7)

Isla Cherry

P Crozer

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