How to design a front/side garden to grow fruit and veg but also look nice

TallGirl

Dear lovely fellow MSE's I love gardening and after 5 years in the big smoke I've finally got a garden again. The back garden is a Mediterranean split level affair mostly paved with big planters with grasses. Done by a professional and I all the drawings. Not an inch of soil however the front and back is where my garden will be. The used to be a huge protected tree shading the garden from the west but it is actually south facing. The tree got chopped down so now full sun. It is on a slope with walls around it. It has an established boarder which I'm slowly trimming back. 

The drive needs redoing and I am keen not to have veg next to a car obviously. I just feel it's such a big outlay to get a load of raised beds built and then looks like a veg patch and not a nice garden. I was thinking fruit trees along the garden wall and then some fruit bushes on the left along the drive. The raised beds can really only go in front of where the car. I want to keep some lawn but needs some kind of shape to it. 

Any ideas and pictures for inspirations please. Thinking of buying these  https://www.diy.com/departments/verve-large-raised-bed-kit-0-96m/1889037_BQ.prdfor raised beds just to get going as we moved in well over a year and I want to grow this year. 

Love to hear what you think please. 

RAS

Hi
Unless you have difficulty bending down, raised beds are just slug magnets that are in vogue, particularly with the companies that sell them.

And unless you pay a small fortune on buying in soil, you end up with low beds surrounded with rotting timber. Look at lasagne bedding, using cardboard and whatever you can gather in from outside to make one decent bed this year, and expand from there.

Make sure the lawn is as coherent a shape as possible for mowing and agree the location before you start planting anything else. And work out where to place the sitting, eating, outside work space before you start as well. If you lasagne bed, you don't need compost bins. Also think about making somewhere to walk to, and possibly even a "hidden corner" leading to the borrowed view (the trees on the left IMO).

Ask around you may get given either fruit bushes or cuttings that you can establish (do you have an allotment or gardening society or local Facebook or whatsapp group, as they are good sources of free stuff. If you end up with two beds this year, the newer one would be a good place for squashes, pumpkin, courgettes and possibly cucumbers. Start small and extend over time.

Farway

I would avoid fruit trees adjacent to what looks like a foot path to a field, ideal for scrumping IMO

TallGirl

Thank you @RAS for such a comprehensive answer really appreciate it. I agree about raised beds and slugs unfortunately the people who owned the house before us were not gardeners and used the front to park a massive motorhome. The "soil" is mainly stones with a thin layer of grass to take the weight of the camper I'm guessing. The shed has a drain pipe that runs into the garden and it's eroded a lot of soil over time. 

The lasagne bed looks good I'm just worried being on a hillside and with the drainpipe it might erode.  I was thinking raised beds would be a good start until I know where I want the actual beds just to get started this year but take your point. 

@Farway you are right there is a path used by dog walkers to the field next door. There is a low wall so hopefully not too many scrumpers. It got me thinking could I nick a bit of land outside the wall for some fruit bushes there is a mixture out there now obviously the big tree is gone.  

Final question if I may the corner of the garden is actually full of bulbs giant lilies, native bluebells Lilly of the Valley. Now the tree is gone will they survive without the kind of woodland cover? Can I do anything to protect them or will nature take it cause. It was a huge tree so obviously not able to recreate that. Here is a pictures of what it looked like in summer 

Thank you so much all so much to think about and very exciting to get back growing again. 

theoretica

What is your aim growing food?  To maximise production and feed yourselves as much as possible or an added bonus with less concern for efficiency?  Turning poor soil into beds is a lot of hard work digging, but I found it worth it.

RAS

A couple of quick comments.

I'm not much cop at ornamental plants, so ask Davesnave. 

Appreciate the photo explaining the gradient. As a starting point, you need to build the beds across the contour, You may benefit from a boundary on the lower side of the bed at least in the short term. You may also need to sit with the garden for a couple of years to understand how the drainpipe affects it.

Do you know what the plans are for the field, as it appear to be mown but open access?

twopenny

I was faced with this dilemna and jsut started digging out lawn to get stuff in. The joy of gardens is you can change you mind and move the bed at will to something that better suits.

The one thing I found was that I had to move the seating area. Summers are so hot now that I had to move it to shade. Also to get a better view which only occoured to me after using the garden for a year.

The very first impression I got was of the wonderful landscape behind. I'd try and borrow that so your garden blends in with it so almost as one. That would mean one seating area facing it. Some permenant plants along the far edge so you still get the long view.

I like to grow soft fruit near the seating area so breakfast cuppa and a few raspberries or strawberries straight off the plant.

I'd also be inclined to plant against the wall to 'raise' the boundary. That pretty wall and little fence is too easy for people to climb over and scrump your produce.

If you work both those out then you fit the veg beds in to suit. You could use grow bags and potato bags to begin then put the waste on any new beds at the end of the season to enhance the soil. And it's moveable if you find you could've made a better decision. A lot will depend on sun and shade.

Also think do you want to make a feature of the unusual shape or disguise it. It looks ideal for a wandering path through fruit trees and taller growth so you don't see it all at once. A secret shaded seating areat at the end.

TallGirl

Thanks for the comments great in terms of getting ideas and also just going with it. I do want to grow beg but just the ones that a nice such as french beans, pick again lettuces courgettes (we eat lots) etc not mass production just for fun as I enjoy it.  I did have a lovely veg patch before and I grew in bags so ordered some for potatoes as definitely want some of those again. I might just order one set of raised beds and then extent the existing boarder and sneak in a few veg plants. 

The field next door is open to all residents and won't be built on as it's very sloppy and poor access. They do cut the grass once a year but along my wall is a pampas grass a rose and some self seeded stuff so no one would notice a few fruit bushes or maybe a rhubarb we have clay soil. 

Lots to think about I'll update as I progress if people don't mind.