Struggling with My Garden Layout. Need Advice

[stevemesmith]

I’m trying to redesign my garden, but I’m stuck on how to make the most of the space. It’s a medium-sized yard, and I’d like to include a mix of flower beds, a small seating area, and maybe even a water feature.

The problem is, I’m not sure how to balance everything without making it look cluttered. Should I focus on symmetry, or is a more natural, organic layout better?

If anyone has tips or examples of how they planned their garden layout, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sean Regan]

You have to decide what you want.
Make a plan of the whole garden.
Don't try to do it all at once. Start with the bit nearest the house that you can see from your window. This will encourage you to do more.
What you don't want to do is have to do things twice.
The size of your garden should determine what you include.

We've a small garden. It's about 85ft long, 18ft wide for a third because we have a garage and a shed in it. The last third is 30ft wide.
We aren't into vegetables, bedding plants or hanging baskets.


This is how it was for thirty years, as it included a 3000 gallon koi pool.

My wife said to me when I built it. "What will you do if you get fed up with the pool?"

I said, "I have a plan B"

Five years ago, I wasn't fed up with it, but the pool developed a leak. I knew it would happen one day, liners don't last much more than 20 years. It would have meant a lot of work to change the liner. I was 79 at the time and didn't fancy the work.
So "plan B" came in. The fish went to a good home, two doors down.

A few at a time.

I had it filled in and paved over. The only thing done in the garden that I didn't do myself, on my own. My wife couldn't help as she is disabled, but she can make tea.
So this is how it looked last year. The fountain was the only thing I haven't made myself.

The box on the patio is the hedgehog feeder I made. We have three hedgehog houses around the garden and a "door" in the side fence so they can come and go. Two trail cameras record their activity.

I hope this can give you a few ideas.

 

[Meadowlark]

Welcome! Answers to your question in many respects comes down to personal choice.

Do what you like since you are the one probably most likely to be looking at it.

For me, I like the natural organic layouts and do not enjoy human made symmetry so much.

 

[Meadowlark]

... I had it filled in and paved over. The only thing done in the garden that I didn't do myself, on my own.

Facing a similar situation...koi pond leaking and I'm tiring of the continuous maintenance. Haven't gone to "plan B" yet but getting closer every day. My new tractor with front-end loader can make very short work of it.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It seems a common idea to make the garden into 'rooms', so you go from one theme to another, so I have an area next to the house which is lawn, pond and flowers, at the end of this is a curve in the path with a strip of hedge, and the back of the flower bed around the pond is a bay tree, these separate it from an ancient apple tree and a bit I am encouraging as a meadow, behind that is the vegetable plots and greenhouses, and right at the end a part that is much more wild, kept down a bit by the large oak tree in the middle. It's not fully developed as yet, we have not been here that long, but maybe you can see what I mean about 'different rooms' rather than mixing it all up.