calling all garden designers

Hi sticki, we had the same problem as you, where the garden slopes down towards the house. There were huge slabs at the botton which acted as a retaining wall. OH took the slabs away and dug out a bit more of the lawn, he found loads of large stones and boulders where he had been digging and used them to make a lovely wall. If you look at my pictures you will see it.
Your setup looks much the same as ours was but on a smaller scale. You wouldn't need so many boulders, good luck with your project.

thanks skillen that sounds a lovely idea ~ i will certainly look, and study!

Hi again lol, i've just looked through the pics and theres only 2 on page 5 and 1 on page 3, none of them show the wall and step very well as there are things in front. I'll take some better ones of just the wall and step for you.

Hi Sticki

I had a garden like this a few years ago, only not the same as it was in two levels the other way ie away from the back of the house.

If you are able to relocate the plants, you could radically transform your garden. What you may wish to do is what I did, use the natural two tiers for a split level pond. If you take the flagstones upended further up the lawn, they can be the top end of the lower pond.

You could run pond liner down under these upended stones and into the excavated bed as the bottom pond. Then just dig out the top one and put the liner into that hole. You then can cascade the water over a shelf for the whole width of the pond into the lower one with the liner ensuring none can be lost into the ground.

So over to you Sticki

Scott

Nice to be able to see the garden from your lounge :o)

Hi ST you have a pretty garden and when you clear the leaves it will cheer you? I did mine over the last 2 days and it looks heaps better for it.
Do the paving stones need cleaning? or how about replacing them with a warmer Cotswold type paving and perhaps planting with Heuchera for winter colour?

Great minds ... I was going to suggesst a collection of hostas as well. Different coloured leaves all year and maybe leave a couple of gaps for primulas in spring and busy lizzies in the summer

you have all been very helpful ~ im really grateful, its given me some good ideas ~ many many thanks
skillen ~ more pictures would be great ~ thank you ~ i do appreciate it!
Scott ~ i would love a pond but im not sure it will be happening just yet ~ bit too expensive for one thing and the other problem is the back and side of the garden have very tall oak trees along the boundary so we get an awful lot of leaves. i would really like to have some sort of water near the house but not sure what at this stage?
Hywel ~ thank you! not very good photos but i took them through the windows!
Drc ~ yes im sure it will look better when the leaves are tidied, heuchera would look good so i think i shall be off to the garden centre this week! further over in the garden we have had some paving and a little wall built out of rustic devon slate which is really nice ~ when we can afford it the paving stones will hopefully be replaced with the same stone as in the wall ~ one day????
Andrew ~ hostas would be great ~ they do well here and i like them altho maybe smaller ones for this bit? i like those candelabra primulas

thank you to all of you ~ great help!

Until you can replace with the stones you have in the wall I think I would just straighten up and clean the slabs - then concentrate on new planting - it all looks very natural and lovely to me as it is.
Decissions, Decissions !!

thanks stroller. we had a small conservatory that didnt quite work and we couldnt see the garden from the lounge. hopefully we shall now have a nice view of it ~ conservatory is now almost pulled down and i can already see more of the trees behind the garden which is great!
it does mean i shall have to keep on top of the weeding and tidying though!!

did your conserv. not over look the garden then .... we had our on side of house so we cud look at garden . we live init all year . but your garden is allready pretty so i wud just add to it here and there . x

the conservatory did look over the garden but it made the lounge dark, wasnt big enough for us to sit in and was cold so we are hoping to get a better view from a comfortable lighter lounge?
thanks for the nice things you said
didnt sweep up any leaves after all ~ its rained all day and the builders were in!

may as well leave em then hun x

:o)

No problem Sticki, i'll post some pictures at the weekend as its dark by the time i get home through the week. :~)).

many thanks, my conservatory will have gone by then and i shall be able to see better how the garden looks so i shall also post a photo

You could buy some nice bricks from wickes, B&Q somewhere like that and make another step cementing slabs on top of bricks - having two steps to garden ? It is a lovely garden and not too much of a slope so should be okay :)

thank you! another step would be a good idea ~ and perhaps if i give the builders [who are doing the extension] an extra cup of tea they would just put in a step for me!
the step that is there is certainly too deep to be comfortable and it would open up the garden a little which would be better. thanks for the compliment ~ it needs tidying but its a pretty garden and i like it ~ not big but thats about right for me
thanks again

My house is at the bottom of a gentle slope. The garden slopes towards the house. It wasn't a problem until the flooding in 2007 when we had a waterfall in the back garden.... I had to divert it around the side of the house and onto the land I was buying, so it could continue its journey onto the road! I have put in plenty of drainage and increased the soil/planted areas just in case...
Anyway, I have used the wooden sleepers from a very well known DIY store to edge off my borders and give them some height. At the front of the grass area (towards the house and french doors) I built my raised beds to accomodate my alpines. This has meant that I can level off the grass area so that it dosen't slope as much.
It was difficult trying to have lunch on the grass as everything slid off the table!

Oh yes, I forgot to add that some of my geraniums grow in between the sleepers (they are 2 sleepers high) giving a nice effect when they flower.

i like the idea of the alpines growing near to the house ~ it would be nice to see something from the window that doesnt obscure the rest of the garden.
sloping picnic table not so good ~ would end up in the lounge ~ we would have the same problem but there is a flat area nearer to the house and behind the kitchen area ~ not so much sun tho so dont have many picnics.
thank you for your comments and help. been trying to tidy it up a bit today ~ sweeping up the leaves ~ the moon was out before i had finished ~ dont think ive worked by the light of the moon before ~ im sure its cos i was thinking all those beautiful gardens on GoY will think mine is a mess ~ i'd better clear it up!!

If you have a look at some of my photos, you can see my sleepers and the raised beds.

I once cut the grass at 3am as I couldn't sleep! I ended up doing some pruning, a bit of weeding and by around 6am was having breakfast in the garden much to the amusement of next door! In summer, I will stay out till about midnight pottering about and chatting with next door: its our chance to put the world to rights.

i admire you! i have cooked and read in the middle of the night [and worked] but never cut the grass! nice to have a good neighbour!
i worked for hours clearing up leaves yesterday ~ they've all come back today!!

I have just got home from work and there are still no leaves to clear up! Yippee!! But with the forecast of strong winds and the trees across the road looking very dodgy, there may well be branches down overnight.
The middle of the night/early hours is great for reading. I cant go to sleep without having read a chapter or 2 of a book. My best sleeps are when I have left my MP3 player on, listening to music.

did you send your leaves down to me?
i agree about the reading before sleeping, i do like that! have also read in the middle of the night ~ much better than lying awake ~ can you recommend any good books?

I read a lot of Stephen King (his Dark Tower series at the moment). I am also reading the Kenneth Williams Diaries as well. It is brilliant! The book shows just how complex Kenny was. I also read sherlock holmes stories.
But if you want a laugh, I can recommend the Grunty and Grouch stories. I read these to my twins at bedtime (they are childrens books) and they are hilarious!

thanks for the book list ~ i used to read quite a lot of sherlock holmes, i may have a look at kenneth williams, he used to make me laugh and certainly a look at grunty and grouch ~ never heard of those! stephen king is too scary for me!