What to do with our Back Garden?!

Princess_nola1

Hi All,

Me & DH bought our first house in 2011, and last spring/summer saw my DH get rid of all the shillies/gravel that was in the back garden and fill the most of it with grass seed which has now turned into a lawn.

However, I need some ideas as to what would work best...

The garden gets little sun, it does get some first thing in the morning, but come lunch time it's in full shade.

From the rear of the house, we have a small concrete path running along the back of the house, then up the small extended part of the house which is our utility room/shed. Behind the shed (which gets sun until lunchtime) to the left of the path is a small area of bramble bushes. To the right of the path is the large lawn. The lawn doesn't reach the small concrete path that runs along side the back of the house, however, as this area gets almost no sun - so we saw it pointless trying to grass if it were just going to die.

Any ideas what to do with this back piece of ungrassed clayey soil? DH wanted to put decking down, but i think this is a bit of a waste as we'd never be able to sit out as it would be in shade constantly. I'm wondering maybe paving slabs?

Also, the piece of land covered in bramble bushes, I'm think of getting rid of them all and possible paving one section to keep the wheelie bins on, then having a raised veg/flower bed maybe? How would we go about installing one of these?

Is there any herbs/veg that will grow in this sort of climate? We live in the North of England so it's often cold and wet!

Any comments appreciated. PS - we have a 19 month old DS so needs to be as child friendly as possible - hence getting rid of all the gravel!!

Many Thanks
Nola x

SailorSam

There's some design software on here.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/garden/software/index.php

naddie

HI
The back piece of ungrassed clayey soil could be replaced with som beautiful decorative stones?

Kyrae

We made a bog garden in our shady area! We put in a pond liner, surrounded the edge with reclaimed old mossy rocks, planted pyracantha to give some height, and planted lots of lovely ferns outside the boggy bit. In the bog we have creeping jenny and bugle and meadowsweet and a few other plants. Lots of lovely flowers over the summer and insects love it!

P.S. The bog garden is solid soil and not very squishy at all, so no problem with child safety!