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Front garden From scratch

I've recently been rennovating a friends garden, would love to get some feedback.

We've sourced materials as cheaply as possible, and settled on a design that's both achievable and desired by the garden owner.

I've taken these photo's and will write what I was doing:

http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/101.jpg

 


The onriginal garden

 Essentially what you see is how the garden started, with a low rockery wall where you see the dip. The whole garden is layered in bark chip, weed supressent matting, and heavy clay soil.

http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/110.jpg

 


The design

After deciding on a practical and desirable design I drew it out with string and stakes. This helped me gauge the amount of earth works required. The bottom left is a pond, middle right is a seating area, and the lines represent new rockery walls, running through the middle of pond and seating is a walk way.

 

 

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Posts

  • Miss BecksMiss Becks Posts: 3,468

    Keep us posted with new pics of progress. I am currently on a project with my back garden. Haven't even thought about the front yet, so I'll be looking for ideas. image

  • higgy50higgy50 Posts: 184

    Yes always interested to see a project develop!

    I am also at the 'Must do something about the front garden' stage!!....

    Higgy

    http://higgysgardenproject.blogspot.co.uk/

  • weejennyweejenny Posts: 386

    very exciting I'll be back to look at the progress

  • http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/121.jpg

    The hard bit

    Building up the main rockery wall layer by layer, I back filled with the heavy clay in the pond area. Digging small amounts of the pond as I made the rockery seemed to make the work alot easier.

    I made the 3 planting areas and also dug the middle out slightly, not only to provide more earth to back fill, but also to allow compost to be added, and to create a tiered effect amongst them.

    http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/190.jpg
    Rockery planting

     I aimed the planting around aroma, appearance, and also the ability to screen the seating area from the road. I used many herbs, and plants with interesting foliage and tall flowers, as well as a tall plant in each section to prove the screen.

    The bulk of the aggregates was Mellow Cotswold, creating an area that both blended with the sandstone but also stood out from it. Using moonstone (small gravel coloured white, black, and the odd one or two in red and dark blue), I edged the sandstone to make the definition of Mellow Cotswold and Sandstone clearer.         Also on the right of the main planting area I added logs and branches where the ground was concrete, and "golden gravel" on the small planting area.

     

  • weejennyweejenny Posts: 386

    Its looking great I'm loving the stages. What work you've done

  • http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/199.jpg

    Seating area

    As there were some old bags of green slate lying around, it only made sense to use this as the surface of the seating area. Using green slate for the bulk of the seating area, I also used a mix of plum slate, and blue slate to create some definition.

    Planted adjacent to the walkway leading to the house is a mixture of trailing herbs, the shown will hopefully entwine with the logs and brances. As you may have noticed there are various querky "ornaments" dotted around the garden which seemed a useful way of adding instant impact (considering the use of young plants), as well as being unique points of interest.

    http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/200.jpg

    http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/w443/El_Chaffinch/minecraft/garden%20design/landscaping%20and%20planting/210.jpg
    Current state

     

     

     This is how the garden currently looks overall, as you can see the pond will be raised, meaning I need to lay some foundations and begin building the wall before doing anything else with the pond.

    Once the wall is at least partially built (side closes to the seating) I can create the path running through to garden. Seems like a handy use of time whilst waiting for the concrete to dry.

     

  • weejenny wrote (see)

    Its looking great I'm loving the stages. What work you've done

    Thanks Jenny, I thought it might be useful for others looking to do similar projects if i did a walkthrough. Feedback is one thing, but inspiring is another all together image

  • higgy50higgy50 Posts: 184

    Good work!! Doing it in stages and keeping a photographic record is exactly what I have done, I then post it on my blog! It's amazing how many people have written in to say how this format really helps them to visualise each stage and then try similar projects in their own garden! Therefore keep up the good work and of course posting it on here, I'm certainly enjoying it and always looking for different ideas!

    Best

    Higgy

    http://higgysgardenproject.blogspot.co.uk/

  • Miss BecksMiss Becks Posts: 3,468

    It doesn't look that steep when you are looking at it from above does it! But from the side views, it's quite a drop! That must have made it awkward to work on. It's looking good though. image

  • chelliechellie Posts: 37

    looking so good image ive just uploaded our back garden that we are in the middle of doing love seeing all the different stages and how things begin to take shape looking forward too seeing the end result image welldone x

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