Water feature or planter?

andrewf75

Farway wrote: »

I'd agree with that, in large fancy pots

Maybe a bit limited choice due to pot grown, oaks for instance may not be a good idea;)

But something both ornamental & possible fruitful, apple or cherry maybe? Both have beautiful blossom around early summer

Or scented shrubs in tubs?

Looks like there is space for something like a birch in the ground

Farway

andrewf75 wrote: »

Looks like there is space for something like a birch in the ground

You're right, but I was thinking of something that could be moved around as OP mentioned "but the main aim is a nice space for socialising." and movable would give more options than fixed forever tree

WeAreGhosts

Someone recommended Amelanchier to me when I was after a few small trees. I bought two (and a silver birch) and they're interesting all year round.

DD265

Apologies, it has been The. Week. From. Hell. Work-wise this week.

We do have a baby conifer and there are some Bay saplings which seem to have survived the winter but will need to be re-potted and grown up I guess.

I love blossoms - there's a beautiful one over the road - but the petals drive me bonkers so maybe that's not the best bet. Still, I'll have a look at apple, cherry and Amelanchier, as well as maybe plum, and see what can grow in pots. I did want to get a couple of standards (probably privet laurel) but I'm not sure whether that's still on the cards.

We think we might remove/replace the decking as suggested, but probably won't be able to afford to do it this year. For now, we're going to clean the decking up so it's a bit safer, and I'll plant the bits either side of the bridge so we have some colour. A water feature has gone on the back burner. Hopefully we can build the beds on the lawn this year, and improve the lawn too, but at the very least we'll do a few more pots.

tori.k

Is the maintenance worth it on that size lawn, would you actually use it for anything, maybe give thought to lawn alternative like thyme, pratia or leptinella gruveri, there are a lot of walkable ground cover plants.

DD265

tori.k wrote: »

Is the maintenance worth it on that size lawn, would you actually use it for anything, maybe give thought to lawn alternative like thyme, pratia or leptinella gruveri, there are a lot of walkable ground cover plants.

I'd never even realised there were alternatives (with the exclusion of going artificial or paved etc) so will definitely look into that! Totally getting rid of that green space didn't feel like an option but I would be perfectly happy with a lower maintenance version.

The brick BBQ is pretty much gone - down to the level with the border brickwork. Mostly to discourage the cats from climbing. The plan is to clean the bricks up then probably keep them for a while to see if we want/need them.

PLAGUEANGEL

I would go for a water feature personally as I love them!


I have Iris's (the yellow kind) growing in pretty shallow water but they also grow in the soil so you could use those to make a nice green divider and also enjoy them when they bloom.
You could also put some marginal aquatic plants in there too.
Given the depth you're going for fish are probably out but at least you may attract some other pretty wildlife such as Mayflies, frogs & toads


As someone else said evaporation may be an issue but it's not too hard to top it up when you're watering you garden.
Also if you use iris's then they are pretty low maintenance, I only cut mine back once a year.

I can't upload/link to images as I'm new at the moment but I have sent you a link to an image I've created using one of yours to show you what I mean

DD265

After the good advice first time round, I thought I'd come back to update.

The dead bay tree is still there but I've got the pots to retrieve the saplings and I'm going to have a go at growing them into standards. I've gotten a hanging basket up next to the house window - just a black simple birdcage affair with plain ivy in it, but it looks fab and exactly how I wanted. We've spent the money on the bigger stuff so I haven't bought any more plants but I'm going to keep an eye on FB/at car boots and see what I can do cheap.

The lawn is gone - got a tonne of topsoil coming at some point and then we're going to turf or seed it. OH is insisting on grass so grass it is. In the mean time, one of our (white) cats is enjoying rolling in the soil and coming in filthy.

The BBQ is gone and the raised beds are half the height; I'm arguing for taking them up completely before grassing the lawn as whilst we want to put new raised beds in, it's a way off due to money. I also need to decide between sleepers or 'just wood'.

The patio is going to be extended right up to the house (next to the conservatory) and the railings/bridge are coming down. Again this is a way off but we're hoping to get some quotes soon. The more I think about doing this the more excited I am about how it'll look/work for us!

That leaves us with the decking in front of and alongside the conservatory (another job for a later day). We are thinking of replacing it with composite decking; appreciate that there's an initial outlay, but hopefully it wouldn't get as slippery/would be easier to maintain. Alternatives were stepping stones in the grass, or stepping stones in gravel, or just gravel, but I can't picture those in my head. Thoughts?

ETA - the water feature idea has currently been discarded entirely!