garden layout - blank canvas

Wow... clever you, making the plan...
gives a good idea of your space...

I find that if I don't make accurate or near-accurate plans, my thinking goes all over the place. *s* when I viewed this flat, once I was away from it I started to think of it as bigger than it was and it was a shock to come back and get my ideas rapidly downsized!

What I try to do is print out a scale plan, then work out dimensions of items on the same scale, then i can print them out, cut out each piece and lay them out to see how they fit - easier to do this with bits of paper than with the actual articles!

and once a piece has been fixed, I can add it to the plan, and it then becomes a fixture - at least until I or someone else comes up wiht something better

I admire you for being so organised ..
I'm inclined to make up my designs as I go along ... :o)

smiles, I don't have the experience to wing it - I need to keep both feet nailed to the floor, otherwise I'll end up over tha rainbow on wild flights of fantasy!

Start by thinking about which parts of the garden get shade... and at which times of the day.... maybe more sun in summer than in winter ?

Remember with any plants you choose, check which type of soil they prefer...

...For instance I have Pieris Little Heath in a pot (pic on my blog ...http://www.growsonyou.com/terratoonie/blog/14446-conker-invites-you-along-to-see-his-front-garden) .... but that shrub must have ericaceous compost (acid) not alkaline soil..

the block is sited exactly north-south (one of the first things I checked after moving in, so as to know which way to align my bed!) and so the garden faces exactly east.

The plants must get a lot of indirect light, butthe flats beyond the trees would block most early-morning sun and the trees themselves would block most mid-morning sun, even if the tenant before me hadn't wired boards to the fences all round for privacy. So, basically, apart from a couple of hours around noon, the whole garden is in light shade the wall side gets the sun first but of course loses it first.

Because of the trees, I think there'd be more direct sun in winter - no foliage to block it (though the poor trees were really confused last winter; they regrew their leaves twice before finally deciding that it was winter, after all). I didn't think of checking what time I got direct sunshine, and I hope you'll understand my wish that I don't get the chance to find that out for a while yet!

I keep forgetting about soil type: as I use general-purpose compost I had thought it to be "neutral", though it's never a good idea to assume.

I know [or think I do] that heathers and rhododenrons [or is it azeleas? or both?] need special soil, and if I'm not sure about other plants I'll write the name down and check online.

That's one advantage of container gardening, that one can grow two plants side by side that have opposing soil needs, but I'm trying to get ordinary-soil plants for now - that'll be complicated enough *s*

lol I usually am, and it takes me three times as long to undo the mess! this once, I thought I'd like at least to know what space I had available, set my boundaries, sort of thing