Wow, I love this thread (if anyone wants to swing by mine please feel free ;o)

Can Helena and MissE please come and help me with my garden? I don't have a clue where to start!! Helena I am in LOVE with those maples!! I've always wanted some but I didn't know they were shade loving!!

Dani, your garden is going to look amazing! I'm so jealous of you having a big, south facing garden. I can only dream of that living in this country! Can't wait to see the pics and to be honest it sounds as if your ideas will work great. BTW, cry for you about the before and after pics xx

funnily enough Dani, I have jotted something down and it does include an apple and a pear tree
Although the back foliage I was thinking of was strangely enough Helena's Red Robin ( photinia)
I ordered my apple tree from J Parker Bulbs online. If you google them, they have an online catalogue and they'll send you one too.
My old garden was a South facer too ... I haven't got the compass out on this one.. I am just watching what the sun does

Thanks that you're liking my Japanese garden Pidge, and two years down the line it's coming on a treat, although of course, being winter, the trees are only in bud, but I'll post up when everything's in full bloom, it really is a picture, especially my gleditsia tree. Dani, that is a fantastic tree, sooo much better than a eucalyptus which my neighbour has right outside their front window and it's got very tall but very thin and scraggy, it won't give privacy and it won't give wind break, it won't give anything really, except that it looks kinda nice, I like them! Be VERY careful of willows, their roots apparently are horrendous for the house, or so I heard and that's why I steered clear and went for the Japanese cherry (the one with the branches to the ground hanging down?) as it's sort of similar but less aggressive. Round the side I have a lovely Mountain Ash which is really lovely, spready, and in the autumn produces bunches of orange berries and I love that tree. Don't go for a silver birch whatever you do coz again the roots can pull your house down if it's within 30 feet of it!

You can mix those red robins (photinia) with italian laurel and that will give fantastic wind break, privacy, whatever, and I think they're pretty sturdy you don't have to nuture them, well I won't be with mine! I think they can grow up to about 15 ft which is what I want down the bottom to match my side hedge. I will post up a piccy of those tomorrow. I bought them online from a great nursery up north but they deliver anywhere and they're very good, everything was very healthy and as it said on the tin! Grass as much as possible, and don't bother with seed you'll be watching paint dry, shop around and find out the cheapest turf you can get. This latest lot that my chap got for me was £2.40 a strip (normal size) but it was winter and there was none around, but I got 50 strips just to do about 1/8 of the lawn for £100 so that wasn't bad was it and like I said, he just slapped it on top of all the muddy grass and it's doing a treat, better than the original quite honestly! I paid about the same as you originally, coz I too have a massive area for turfing but it was well worth it. Don't bother with any of this flower bed rubbish, you'll be forever on your hands and knees weeding it, bruno will be in there digging it for you bringing all the mud in and so will Luca by the looks of him the other day!! Grass, trees and bamboo like I've got, it all takes care of itself! I know the bamboo is expensive £99 usually for one big pot, BUT, I went just about everywhere and found them in the sale, some for £39 and some for £50 but I saved almost half coz I've now got about 17 of them front and back and they rustle in the breeze, they look good, especially the BLACK which half of mine are, and they're quite stunning. You can always chop them in half when you buy, split them, so you get a bogof and they'll soon spread. I will take a piccy for you tomorrow to show you how much those bamboo's have grown in 2 years, but I will emphasize that my gleditsia tree is a MUST if you want to splash out, it's fantastic all summer long, it goes from bright yellow, then lime green, then another shade of yellow and finally orange and I love it! Google one and see! I also have a Canadian red maple which doesn't seem to be doing much but when it grows big it will be quite spectacular with it's autumn orange and red, although at the moment 2 years on, it's only given me about 15 leaves! Lol! Get those drawings done then, and if the budget's a bit tight, shop around like I did, there's loads of sales at garden centres most of the time you just gotta find them!

I just took a piccy for you coz I wanted you to see how good the photinia looks mixed with laurel, and this little lot cost me about £540, I've got 10 of them there, and they were bought as you see them coz they've only been in there about a month! I'm sure the place I got them is the cheapest on the net and probably the best for big healthy plants. You can always spread them out more than I have or even buy them less tall but I wanted instant privacy, you don't!

brilliant girls,

I love eucalytpus, my auntie has a beautiful type in her garden which isnt spindly so must ask her what kind it is,

I am not keen on anything that involves much pruning, as i just wont do it, our neighbour has a birch hedge which has gone mental and is trying to push its way through our fence so i am trying to avoid anything that will do that.

Helena I like the photinia and had seen that in the garden centre however not sure if it needs much pruning does it?

I dont like bedding type plants, i love heathers, lavenders, hebe and other such things that can take a little trampling from both paws and little feet. I want a decent barked area to put climbing frames etc on, and i want a good bit of lawn so that he can play ball etc.

the decking will inevitably be where i will end up sitting sunnign myself...


i want all this on a teeny budget too, its going to be very much do what we can when we can afford it.

There's lavender in my jottings too, Dani
I can't imagine not having flowers, but I'm not keen on tons of work, so I usually plant perennials - come up every year and if one year they get damaged by footballs or doggies its no big deal
How's my drawing coming on?

its not coming presently - what format should i do it in? Just tried to do it in paint but its a bit pants !! lol

will try it this way and see if it will work....
mmnn think i can probably post it straight on to this page... ok be back !!

pen or pencil on a bit of paper is fine, as long as you do the shape and say this is 5 foot, this is 20 foot , this is 200 foot.. so I can see the shape and size..

Dani did you lay the turf yourself? May be worth thinking of doing that instead...seeding takes such a long time..to be honest you would be lucky to let them on it for a decent play this year.
You can pick up turf quite cheap if you are prpepared to lay it yourself. We did ours right at the back and it didn't take long. Had Alan Titchmarsh's book at our side and off we went....
We have reseeded bits and its taken an age for it to be play worthy.

You have a lovely size/shape of garden!

Have to admit weput chipped bark down for a climbing frame etc when my son was a bit younger and it was an absolute pain. The dogs tried to eat it, weeds came through the stuff after a while and my son hated walking on it, he is like his mum and doesn't really like shoes! I'm not convinced it provided a much softer landing either.....

Magnolias are sooooooo lovely, I also love lavenders....
We don't have time to do a lot in the garden but have adopted a bit of a wildlife approach. One persons weed is another persons wildflower!

Someone told me ages ago that a perfect kids garden should include some water (to encourage birds etc), somewhere for the children to grow something to eat, somewhere for insect attracting plants, somewhere for birds/animals, some sort of shelter to play in and of course a grassed area (I'm sure thats what they said!!!!!!) Made sense anyway.

It is hard doing a kid and dog friendly garden, we have tried so many things...have almost given up now though as my son and Cosmo have taken to playing football.....still at least it means at the moment I always have a vase of freshly stomped upon (sorry 'cut') daffodils!!!!!! I would love a beautiful garden.......I shall watch this thread with real interest.


Blimey I've gone on....can you tell the sunshine has been inspiring me?!!!!!!!!

cant scan it in though as no scanner, ok still trying to do it on PC .... lol

Take a photo of it Dani????