New to gardening, need help!

Ragtimeplayer

Hi, I have just bought a piece of land which backs onto my house and concrete yard and for the first time in 20 years,will be able to have a proper garden.

At the moment, it is being "scraped" by a digger I have hired as it was part of a farmers field and had crops growing on it (Wheat).

I am not a creative person unfortunately so am struggling for ideas on what to do with it. I know I could go down the route of just seeding it for lawn and planting a few bushes and plants around the edges but would like to do much more as its a good size.

I probably need the help of a garden designer but funds are very limited due to the original outlay for the land.

It is approx 273sq meters altogether but a small portion of that is going to be used as hardstanding for the car.

Can anyone give me any pointers on where to start

~Chameleon~

That sounds like a decent sized piece of land. My initial thoughts are to decide exactly what features you'd like to incorporate and what you want to use this land for i.e. childrens play area, summerhouse, seating/relaxation area for friends/family (plus BBQ?), water feature/pond, greenhouse, vegetable plot, flower beds, fruit trees etc etc (you already mention hardstanding for car so presumably there is good access to the land which makes life easy for landscaping purposes!)

Then look at what amenities you already have, such as water and electric, and are they easily accessible and/or can they be extended relatively cheaply to parts of the land you might need them? - you will certainly want a supply of water nearby if growing veggies and have a greenhouse, and running long lengths of hosing is ok but I find the water pressure drops over distance.

Next job is to draw up plans, not forgetting to take note of where the sun rises and sets, although I'm assuming there are currently no shady spots if this was an open field so you won't have to check for sunny/shady spots during the day.

Once you have a plan of action then it's time to get to work, begging, stealing and borrowing any materials and tools you might need :rotfl:

Freecycle is a great source so keep an eye on there too. And finally, have fun, it sounds an exciting project!

Ragtimeplayer

Hi Chameleon, what a helpful post!

My children are almost grown up now so mostly I want to be able to have a nice lawn and lots of pretty features.

I have been watching a few episodes of Groundforce and they have been very interesting. I think I need to see some model gardens really to give me some inspiration.

I don't think I will be planting any veg as the one and only time I tried that with cabbages, we came home from holiday to find only stalks left!

I do want plenty of plants and trees and maybe a nice windy path as a feature. Open to ideas

Heres a pic from Google maps, its not very good as you can't really see the real size of it but as I said before, its roughly 273 sq metres.

WestonDave

For today I'd go with your instinct and seed it for lawn - the reason being that after the scrape you will have bare soil which will soon revert to weeds if something isn't planted in it. I don't think you have time to get it all planned before that happens so I'd put grass seed in, and use that as cover while you decide what else to do. If nothing else regular mowing will help limit the weeds and may help you see what the ground is like in terms of drainage aspect etc. I'd probably not rush to start putting expensive shrubs into recently intensively farmed land as there may be chemical residues that could cause them to suffer. Grass will be fine while the ground has a chance to settle.

There is a website which was advertised on here growveg.com which is has a subscription after a free trial - that allows you to create some garden plans (albeit mainly aimed at veg growers - for a free trial you could probably go someway to making some plans). There are also other software packages around that you could try that will cost less than a professional designer.

Is there a college nearby that covers garden design or landscape management etc that you might be able to get one of the students to help you for a limited fee in return for something to put on their CV?

I would however definitely aim to do it a bit at a time and enjoy creating your own space to enjoy in your way - trying to do it all in one go will be very hard work and gives little room for making mistakes. One of the best parts of gardening is sitting in a chair with a glass of something making plans - don't miss out!

Edited to add - just found this as well on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/virtualgarden_index.shtml

Ragtimeplayer

Once again, a very helpful post!
I usually frequent a different part of Mse but I am glad I dropped in today to ask my question, thank you very much for your advice

That link looks exactly what I need.