Fancy helping me design my front garden?
Discussion
Right then folks, house work is done, now it's onto the gardens. Rear is being done next year, due to time & funds, so this year it's the front garden and driveway. Now the front is not horrendous by any means, but we don't like it, I'll let the photos do the talking:
Excuse the lad, he can't not be in a photo (and yes, the driveway needs cleaning). The area is around 6m x 6m.
Things we don't like:
Grass is dead, and the soil underneath is lumpy as hell
Pampas grass, hate it
Plant by the driveway, overgrown and difficult to trim
The matting under the gravel has failed in several places
Being a 70's build there's also a nice slab of concrete under the front window
I really struggle to envisage things, so struggling to come up with ideas for it. Anyone with a bit more experience got any ideas?
Excuse the lad, he can't not be in a photo (and yes, the driveway needs cleaning). The area is around 6m x 6m.
Things we don't like:
Grass is dead, and the soil underneath is lumpy as hell
Pampas grass, hate it
Plant by the driveway, overgrown and difficult to trim
The matting under the gravel has failed in several places
Being a 70's build there's also a nice slab of concrete under the front window
I really struggle to envisage things, so struggling to come up with ideas for it. Anyone with a bit more experience got any ideas?
Drive is getting cleaned after the front garden is done, ideally I'd have a whole new driveway, but it goes down the side of the house too and is around 60m2, so $$$$. We need to keep a gravel strip down the side of the lawned area next to the driveway, as its a bit of a squeeze getting the kids into the car without walking all over the grass. Other than that I'm considering getting a mate down with his mini digger and ripping the lot out. The missus floated the idea of a rockery with plants dotted about, do people still have rockeries?
We're in Derby.
Back garden is a mix of 70's concrete paths & sloping lawn. We're going to have a large patio area by the house, and use that ground to level out the lawned area, using large sleepers as a retaining wall. The rest if just dressing, raised flower beds made from sleepers, new fencing etc.
Anyway, front lawn. I think extending the driveway rather than gravel is a good shout, the drive has sunk in places so needs some repair work anyway, could all be done at the same time. That way I'll get my slightly larger driveway, and will have less garden to sort out. Once that's done, to save on complexity, turfing the rest is probably the best idea. The driveway only needs to be slightly bigger, it's just about ok for now, but if either of us got a larger car we'd struggle.
Also, the houses over the road, yes I know! Every single person that comes to visit comments on them, they're all down the street too so we have to look at them out the front window. 70's builds though, brick shortage, hence the rather fetching tiling on the front of mine.
Back garden is a mix of 70's concrete paths & sloping lawn. We're going to have a large patio area by the house, and use that ground to level out the lawned area, using large sleepers as a retaining wall. The rest if just dressing, raised flower beds made from sleepers, new fencing etc.
Anyway, front lawn. I think extending the driveway rather than gravel is a good shout, the drive has sunk in places so needs some repair work anyway, could all be done at the same time. That way I'll get my slightly larger driveway, and will have less garden to sort out. Once that's done, to save on complexity, turfing the rest is probably the best idea. The driveway only needs to be slightly bigger, it's just about ok for now, but if either of us got a larger car we'd struggle.
Also, the houses over the road, yes I know! Every single person that comes to visit comments on them, they're all down the street too so we have to look at them out the front window. 70's builds though, brick shortage, hence the rather fetching tiling on the front of mine.
Well we've done stage 1, problem is we haven't fully decided on what stage 2 is!
Mr Driveway man is coming round next week to quote to re-do existing drive, and to extend into the garden area, probably by 1m. If the quote is reasonable we'll do that, if not we'll keep the garden the size it is. But we think the plan is:
Raised bedding area next to the house. The garden slopes left to right infront of the house, 4 bricks from one side to the other, so going with a raised area using sleepers to level this off and create a 'feature'. Along the front of the garden by the pavement, gravelled area, with some small plants and bushes, then turf between the 2. At least we think that's what we've decided on.
Mr Driveway man is coming round next week to quote to re-do existing drive, and to extend into the garden area, probably by 1m. If the quote is reasonable we'll do that, if not we'll keep the garden the size it is. But we think the plan is:
Raised bedding area next to the house. The garden slopes left to right infront of the house, 4 bricks from one side to the other, so going with a raised area using sleepers to level this off and create a 'feature'. Along the front of the garden by the pavement, gravelled area, with some small plants and bushes, then turf between the 2. At least we think that's what we've decided on.
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