Brand new house & new garden!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Right, I've just moved in to a brand new house :j: and it has a rather small garden. I think the original intention was to make it as much like a Victorian house as possible without forsaking modern comforts, as it's in a conservation area.

At a rough guess, the garden's about 15 X 15ft. Part is covered by a small shed. There is a 8ft patio at one end of the 15ft square, with a rainwater butt and my mini plastic greenhouse brought from my 4ft x 3ft balcony.

The builders, in their infinite wisdom, gave me an outdoor tap as well.

The entire garden is surrounded by a wall which should absorb a lot of heat over time.

Now, the downsides. It's north facing and doesn't get a great deal of sunshine at ground level. It's also following the course of an underground river, so is theoretically prone to groundwater welling up - assuming that it isn't 9 inches of turf on top of concrete. The house itself is built 1m above the level of the garden so I don't get floodwater - and the locals reckon that they've only flooded once in 30 years.


The grass is incredibly lush (and contains psylocybin mushrooms, but we won't mention that to anyone, as I wouldn't want anyone picking them and making themselves ill).


The front garden is about 8 foot of block paved slope ended by a brick wall, as it disguises the flood defence block it's built on whilst remaining accessible for wheelchairs.

I have some ideas - I'm leaning towards the cottage garden idea, together with a bung-it-in-and-see-what-happens school of gardening - but I'd love to hear other people's suggestions for the gardens. I love perfumes and climbers and fruit and veg, but I still need to be able to dry the washing and sit out there with a cuppa in the morning.


What sort of things would you do?

olly300

If the mushrooms are a problem get rid of the lawn.

North facing gardens make me think of Hostas and ferns but also of slugs.

valk_scot

The usual advice is to give it a year to see what's happening with the seasons/sun/drainage etc, plus find out if there's anything unexpected growing there. In your case this last is unlikely to be anything but weeds but the concept is sound otherwise. I would start thinking of things in tubs and big movable planters though. Better drainage, can be moved around to get the best of the light and anyway, the soil in new build gardens is usually pretty poor quality. Think 2" of topsoil over a layer of rubble, usually.

tim_n

I concur with valk_scot - rubble is a feature of new builds. It's likely areas of your newly laid lawn will drop dead in the first year due to this rubble so if you can bear it wait. Probably aids drainage in your case however!

My parents moved into a new build in 2000, since then several of the neighbours have had their lawns entirely dug up, new top soil put on and relaid the lawn - it was that bad and they were with a 'quality' housebuilder. If you're looking to do veg, container planting is the way to go as it'll raise them up a bit giving them a bit more light. Things like squash will probably do quite well as they climb given proper support and the flowers look quite pretty. Similarly you ought to be fine with beans straight in the ground, they love water and are good climbers, just make sure you don't get the bush varieties. Similarly tomatoes will grow well in the sunnier area, but don't plant all the way along your sunny spots because you'll need to rotate to cut down the risk of disease unless you're doing it in pots or grow bags.

If you can do raised beds round the edges of the garden - think sleepers or scaffolding boards and raise the soil up you'll get the plants out of your light (& water!) well and it'll encourage tap roots on carrots, beets etc to go down deeper, though you'll probably still need to water during the summer.

If you've got a particularly sunny spot try a pepino plant in a pot. Bit like a cross between melon & mango, very tasty and easy to grow.

Most important, have fun

lostinrates

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I have some ideas - I'm leaning towards the cottage garden idea, together with a bung-it-in-and-see-what-happens school of gardening - but I'd love to hear other people's suggestions for the gardens. I love perfumes and climbers and fruit and veg, but I still need to be able to dry the washing and sit out there with a cuppa in the morning.


What sort of things would you do?

Well, I'm looking at climbers too ATM, including for difficult north walls...inevitably I'm starting with the roses. Felicite e Perpetue is one I know does well on a north wall....it covers the north wall of parents house. I'm going to try ''The Generous Gardener'' here too. Both the Peter Beales website and the David Austin one have suggestions for shady areas and north walls.:D

Thriftkitten

Hi I have also been in my new build for almost a year, and also have a north facing garden which Im very sad about as dailyI just get brief sunshine in the morning up until about lunchtime, (whilst I'm at work D'oh), my garden isn't as big as op's, about 7ft by 7ft and I took out the rotary line stuck in the middle and planted a willow umbrella style tree,,
My grass is completely dead and needs digging up,and the neighbour has now errected a7 ft seagrass fence so I get absolutely NO sunshine on the grass all day, only a small portion until lunch on the lower level paved shed area.
This has caused me much upset because I love to sit in the garden for some quiet time (single mum),
am really at a loss as to what to do with it and have also considered exchanging my rental with another housing association person, which I really would prefer not to do.... Also any tips would be greatly received.
Another thing is I can NEVER dry my washing on self made line by the shed, Grrrrrr!!!

amcluesent

I'd lose the lawn. Silly wee thing in a garden that size. That will let you have some raised beds out from the wall to get the sun there is and you can control the drainage better and get good soil brought in.

TBH I'd say a cottage garden really needs a South/West aspect to get the sun. You'll need to adapt to have plants for semi-shade but can think of tree ferns etc. Getting climbers for the wall will be easy enough, plenty do well in shade.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Thank you for your ideas - I shall go back to reading and planning!