Our Contemporary Garden Design

Having recently shared our project plans for 2013 with you (you can read about them here) we decided it was about time to also start planning our outside space.

We have been struggling with it for quite a while and keep putting any final decision off. In case you’ve not already guessed, we are completely clueless when it comes down to garden design, plant choices and just general garden stuff. There is just so much choice and so much to consider – interest throughout the seasons, companion planting, vegetables or ornamental flowers, seating areas, aspect, type of earth and if the position is sheltered or not. The list seems endless and for two complete garden novices, it seems like an almost impossible task to get right.

This is the “garden” at the moment.

Not a pretty site, is it? Most of it is covered in tarmac or old paving stones. A while ago we added some turf, just to have some green around. (You can read about it here).

That’s pretty much all we’ve done so far. It’s really not looking good is it?

We’ve tried working on a design for the garden lots of times, but never seem to get anywhere.

There is just too much choice!

In general we’d like a contemporary garden design which is low maintenance with a peaceful and calm feel – nothing too fussy or formal. We’d love a nice area for entertaining and also somewhere to plant our seasonal fruit and veg.

This is what we have come up with so far.

It may look like there’s not much to it, but to even get this far has taken forever. We plan to have raised decking directly near the house with some seating as well as planters on either side. The blue areas in the drawing represent some kind of planting. In front of the garage we will have a second seating area with some outdoor lounge chairs and a vertical wall of planting. The vertical wall will hopefully add some height and texture as will the pergola (although it will probably be much smaller than in the drawing). Hopefully my little sketch (looking towards the garage) will give you a better idea of what we are planning to do.

Looking towards the house this is (very roughly) what the garden will look like (for a better overview, I’ve not drawn the pergola).

Our main area of concern is the empty space in front of the pergola. We’re just not sure what to do there. Just grass seems a bit boring, but we also don’t want too much to be going on either. Decisions, decisions.

For now, we have a basic plan that gives us a rough guide to work to. We now need to start working out what plants we would like. We’ve already chosen the tree, which will be a ‘Amelanchier lamarckii’, but everything else is undecided.

Have you also designed your own garden? Are we the only ones that feel completely out of their depth? Do you have any planting ideas? Or an idea of what to do with the area in front of the pergola? We’d love any advice or suggestions!