Design overview

 

The different elements that need to be included in this design:

Wormery - Water Collection - Raised Beds - Trellis - Seating Area - Compost Area - Goji Hedge - Table & Chairs - Grow Shelters - Bird Feeders - Bench - Leaf-mould Cage - Council Rubbish Bin – Storage Bins

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the original design had to be rethought and designed again taking other considerations into account that had been overlooked.  

 

The vision

 

To have a garden free of clutter, space to grow lots of food, have multiple compost systems, harvest water from the roof, enough room to have a table and chairs, a place to relax and read, and the garden needs to look amazing.

 

 

Plan One

In this first design, I plan to add a small bike store to the garden so I can store all the equipment that I had previously been hiding under tarps. This would be a great solution to keeping the garden tidy and having everything on hand where I spend most of my time.

Levelling the lower side of the garden, putting a stepped area down into the lower part where I can have all my composting systems along with a raised bed with the council bins at the far end next to the beech hedge.

On the higher side of the garden, I would keep the main growing bed using a couple of sleepers to lift the bottom corner to level the slope preventing the soil from falling onto the path. Keeping on this higher side of the garden, I will add a trellis for the goji to grow next to and over. This will provide some privacy for a gravelled area nearest to the house where I would place a table and chairs. This is also the area where the outside tap is giving me easy access to it. The gravelled area will also act as a workspace for potting etc.

I never got as far as a final detailed plan of this design because my neighbour complained about where I planned to locate a small bike store, stating it was illegal. Technically she was correct. Your shed should not be positioned forward of a wall that forms the principal elevation of the property. So, I had to find a new location for the small bike store which I had already bought. My only option was to move it to the back of the property. So it goes.

 

A redesign that soon ended

I started planning again when the neighbour said she was going to raise the fence because she could see the top my council rubbish bin from her kitchen window. Due to my garden being much higher than hers the fence would have increased in height to around 7 feet. A 7ft fence would have removed the natural sunlight from half of my garden.

Time to scrap the whole design and start again. So it goes.

 

Plan two

 

Using the original design as a guide along with what I had now learned about my neighbours needs regarding my garden design. I spent a weekend taking my time, with the help of lots of thinking and mind changing, constantly walking into the garden then back inside the house to work on the design on the computer, visioning how things would look. After much thought, I put together a new design placing the same elements except for the bike store, in a way to optimize the space and so the neighbour could no longer see the top of my bin.

To help plan the physical creation of the design I will split it into four phases.

 

Phase One

 

Section one

The garden path runs on a slope from the front door down to the bottom of the garden. I will use sleepers in both sections one and two adjacent to the path with the gap levelled with gravel between the paving slabs and sleepers. I will also place sleepers along the fence side to allow me to level the ground out between both sets of sleepers giving me a flat area.

In section one, the newly levelled area will allow me to set up a water harvesting system next to the downpipe from the house roof. The wormery will go next to the water butt using the shade from the fence to keep the worm’s cooler during the summer. I will also place a raised bed next to the sleeper nearest the path and use large plant pots along the fence to grow other crops.

Section two

Here I will dig down, lowering the garden so that I can place the council bin level with the top of the fence so that it cannot be seen from my neighbour’s kitchen window. For accessibility, I will use paving slabs in the area where the bins will stand. Due to the lower height, a sleeper will divide section two with section three. The sleeper next to the path side I will add a raised bed.

Section three

I will use pathing slabs from the fence to the path adjacent to section two this will allow the bin to be wheeled out easier. Using paving slabs here will also make more sense as this area will also be composting location.
Against the fence will go the large plastic compost bin, the shade from the fence will reduce the heat from the sun on the heap. The pallet riser compost heap will fit between the path and the plastic compost bin providing a tidy solution with easy access.

 

Phase Two

 

 

I will use sleepers to level the bottom growing bed (bed 1) at the lowest sides. On the other two sides of the bed, I will use galvanized steel garden edging roll to hold the soil in the bed, I’ll use the same edging around the top growing bed (bed 2).

Using sleepers, I will create a new raised bed (bed 3) where an existing bed was, this will also allow me to level the slight slope on this section of the garden. A trellis will be built at the side of this raised bed to allow for plants to be grown up and to give the goji berry hedge support.

From this trellis, I will run a top rail along the path side to the end of the sleeper at the far end of the grow bed (bed 1) where I will erect a post giving another section of height to the garden for growing up.

The leaf-mould cage will be in the top corner of this section allowing good access in autumn when gathering leaves.  

 

Phase Three

 

With the help of the raised bed, the addition of a 4x4 timber will be used as a separating barrier between where I will gravel this section and the growing area. I will also use the same timber to hold back the gravel from flowing onto the garden path, this will give a small step allowing a level area where the seating will go.

In this section the grow shelters will go, along with a bench, table, and chairs.

 

Phase Four

 

With all the hard work now complete I will focus on prepping the growing beds and planting out. I will also give the whole garden a once-over tweaking anything that has been overlooked or left unfinished.