Topic: New Garden

[northener]

Hello. Recently moved to a new house with a small lawned rear garden. It has fence alway round and looks really tidgey. Any tips on making it look bigger.

[Garden Manager]

Only thing i can think of is to use circles in the design. i think using circles focuses the attention on the 'inner space' of tthe garden and away from the boundaries. Using small sized materials, such as small paver blocks instead of large paving slabs, also makes an area look bigger.

Hope this helps.

[manicscousers]

got any pics, northener, might give someone some ideas ? :)

[beejay]

Tricky to try & explain but you need to avoid straight lines that go right to the bottom of the garden. This can be done with curves & circles but in a small garden may be easier with straight lines at an angle I have done an extremely poor scribble http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c273/beejaytee/Bits%20and%20Pieces/?action=view&current=untitled.jpg to try & illustrate what I mean. Grow plants on the fences or in front of them so they blend in with greenery outside your garden (borrowed landscape). I actually think big paving slabs are better, being less fussy & be bold with any planting: big clumps of things rather than lots of liitle bits!

Hope that might make some sense!

[Si]

I don't really like grass so have extended my borders right over and the garden feels bigger.

The trick is to get passage through your garden, so you have to walk around it more to get where you are going. Lawns are just too straight unless your happy to distort and bend them.

I don't want to be too controversial but wouldn't it be cool to remove fence panels and have back the view.

[Garden Manager]

I don't want to be too controversial but wouldn't it be cool to remove fence panels and have back the view.

That IS contraversial in my opinion. Unless you are really best buddies with your neighbours, and dont mind being able to see into each others gardens all the time, then keep the fence! Howevr if you have nasty interwoven panels (stained a nice orange colour) then either replace them with something nicer, paint them a neutral colour or hide them with plants, bearing in mind they dont last that long, so you might have to move the plants when it needs replacing.

The other problem with removing panels is security. It aint exacly a nice world out there!

[gardenqueen]

I would definately say curves and circles. I have done the same on my rather large lawn!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Even if you have the world's best neighbour, they might be replaced at some point by the world's worst. Best to be careful!

[Tulipa]

Use small plants in your planting scheme, and plants with small leaves.  I have a friend with the smallest garden I know and it is so interesting because there is such variety of plants, lots of interest that takes the eye from the boundary.  Also plants getting smaller and leaves smaller the further away from the house gives an illusion of depth.  The same with colour, bright colours close to and paler colours further away will add depth.  A path leading down in an 'S' shape too adds the feeling of a journey.  Good luck, enjoy your planning...

[Bluejane]

If you're feeling arty you could try doing some trompe l'oeil-type designs (spelling?) on the dreaded fence (eg a picture of an archway surrounding a fake view etc). Might be totally off the wall, though (so to speak). Mirrors might be good, too - if your garden's reasonably sheltered ...  Also a good idea to organise your planting/hard landscaping/whatever so that some areas are hidden or semi-hidden - makes it feel as though you're wandering through a much bigger landscape.