ᐅ One private plot of land with house construction and fully personalized landscaping
Created on: 12 Apr 2020 18:40
L
Lisa24
Hello everyone,
Since we are moving into our new build this year, we are starting to think about the garden design. We are beginners when it comes to gardening—we are Lisa, 27 years old, and Udo, 31 years old—but as they say, you grow with your tasks. Since not everything will be there from the start, we are confident we can manage it.
Our plot and how the house, garage + passageway are arranged:
Explanation of the plot:
- We have a rectangular plot that narrows to a long point at the rear.
- The street runs in front of the house and isn’t very busy. Our garage is located to the left of the house, with a covered passageway 2.50m (8 feet) wide between the house and garage. The garage and passage share the same roof structure and roofing. Both connect directly to the house.
- A paved driveway will be in front of the garage, and the passageway will also be paved from the property boundary to the end of the passageway (towards the garden) using the same paving as the driveway.
- We need to be able to drive a tractor between neighbor 2’s property and the garage for garden work. At the moment, we can also access the property through neighbor 3’s land, but it’s uncertain if this will always be possible, so we want to keep this option open.
- Directly adjacent to the house in the garden there will be a terrace made of Jura limestone or concrete patio slabs.
- At the back right corner of the garage, near the passageway, is our cistern in the garden, which we want to design with a fountain on top.
- We would like to place curved lawn edging stones around the different areas; this will make it easier for the robotic lawn mower and will also cover bare soil with bark mulch. (See: lawn edging stones + bark mulch)
- Where would you place all these must-haves, preferably with drawings, considering a possible future pool so we don’t have to cut down a tree for it later?
- Areas where people spend longer periods, such as the fire pit, should not be too close to the neighbors. We like our neighbors, but we also want privacy when we are with friends.
Must haves / What we definitely want:
- Raise an earth mound around the entire property (except along the street side) and then install a fence on top.
- Welded wire mesh fence to neighbors 1, 2, 3, and 4/lawn area.
- Aluminum fence facing the street (see: aluminum fence).
- Initially create paths with gravel or bark mulch, possibly paving them later.
- Build a fountain over the cistern (see: fountain).
- Fire pit (see: fire pit).
- Herb garden/herb spiral, preferably the spiral because it requires less space (see: herb spiral).
- Beds for vegetables and fruits, ideally as a separate area if the garden isn’t too small (see: vegetable bed).
- Trees (fruit)
- Shrubs (fruit)
- Beds and shrubs possibly as a “snacking corner” (fruit)?
- Children’s area (swing, slide, paddling pool, sandbox)
Nice to have / What we’d like to do someday:
- Possibly a patio roof cover, though for now other things are more important.
- Pool about 6x4m (size not yet finalized), earliest in 6–10 years!
Questions:
- How large would you make the terrace to fit a 1.80m (6 feet) long table with 6 chairs, a grill, a parasol, and still leave room for walking and moving around? About 5x4m (16x13 feet)?
- Would you recommend building the earth mound so the fence can be lower? It would increase overall height to keep out unwanted guests/animals (dogs) from the garden, and reduce fence costs since the fence could be shorter.
- Would you start by creating paths with gravel or bark mulch first to save costs and add paving later?
- I want to pick herbs directly from the kitchen window, but there is no countertop in front of the window. How would you solve this? I generally prefer an herb spiral for the look.
- Would you create distinct areas? For example, a vegetable bed/garden and a snacking corner.
Have we forgotten anything important? How would you fit everything in if possible?
As you can see, we are beginners, eager to learn, and look forward to your experience.
Best regards and happy Easter,
Lisa & Udo
Since we are moving into our new build this year, we are starting to think about the garden design. We are beginners when it comes to gardening—we are Lisa, 27 years old, and Udo, 31 years old—but as they say, you grow with your tasks. Since not everything will be there from the start, we are confident we can manage it.
Our plot and how the house, garage + passageway are arranged:
Explanation of the plot:
- We have a rectangular plot that narrows to a long point at the rear.
- The street runs in front of the house and isn’t very busy. Our garage is located to the left of the house, with a covered passageway 2.50m (8 feet) wide between the house and garage. The garage and passage share the same roof structure and roofing. Both connect directly to the house.
- A paved driveway will be in front of the garage, and the passageway will also be paved from the property boundary to the end of the passageway (towards the garden) using the same paving as the driveway.
- We need to be able to drive a tractor between neighbor 2’s property and the garage for garden work. At the moment, we can also access the property through neighbor 3’s land, but it’s uncertain if this will always be possible, so we want to keep this option open.
- Directly adjacent to the house in the garden there will be a terrace made of Jura limestone or concrete patio slabs.
- At the back right corner of the garage, near the passageway, is our cistern in the garden, which we want to design with a fountain on top.
- We would like to place curved lawn edging stones around the different areas; this will make it easier for the robotic lawn mower and will also cover bare soil with bark mulch. (See: lawn edging stones + bark mulch)
- Where would you place all these must-haves, preferably with drawings, considering a possible future pool so we don’t have to cut down a tree for it later?
- Areas where people spend longer periods, such as the fire pit, should not be too close to the neighbors. We like our neighbors, but we also want privacy when we are with friends.
Must haves / What we definitely want:
- Raise an earth mound around the entire property (except along the street side) and then install a fence on top.
- Welded wire mesh fence to neighbors 1, 2, 3, and 4/lawn area.
- Aluminum fence facing the street (see: aluminum fence).
- Initially create paths with gravel or bark mulch, possibly paving them later.
- Build a fountain over the cistern (see: fountain).
- Fire pit (see: fire pit).
- Herb garden/herb spiral, preferably the spiral because it requires less space (see: herb spiral).
- Beds for vegetables and fruits, ideally as a separate area if the garden isn’t too small (see: vegetable bed).
- Trees (fruit)
- Shrubs (fruit)
- Beds and shrubs possibly as a “snacking corner” (fruit)?
- Children’s area (swing, slide, paddling pool, sandbox)
Nice to have / What we’d like to do someday:
- Possibly a patio roof cover, though for now other things are more important.
- Pool about 6x4m (size not yet finalized), earliest in 6–10 years!
Questions:
- How large would you make the terrace to fit a 1.80m (6 feet) long table with 6 chairs, a grill, a parasol, and still leave room for walking and moving around? About 5x4m (16x13 feet)?
- Would you recommend building the earth mound so the fence can be lower? It would increase overall height to keep out unwanted guests/animals (dogs) from the garden, and reduce fence costs since the fence could be shorter.
- Would you start by creating paths with gravel or bark mulch first to save costs and add paving later?
- I want to pick herbs directly from the kitchen window, but there is no countertop in front of the window. How would you solve this? I generally prefer an herb spiral for the look.
- Would you create distinct areas? For example, a vegetable bed/garden and a snacking corner.
Have we forgotten anything important? How would you fit everything in if possible?
As you can see, we are beginners, eager to learn, and look forward to your experience.
Best regards and happy Easter,
Lisa & Udo
Curly schrieb:
You can really only build a pool once the children can swim confidently; otherwise, you can’t take your eyes off them for a second.
Best regards,
SabineWe had already mentioned the earliest would be in 6–10 years, exactly for that reason.
But thank you for pointing out again how important that is.
Regards
11ant schrieb:
In my opinion, a beautiful garden requires a budget where the time invested always outweighs the money spent; otherwise, the balance feels off. Also, with a beautiful garden, the journey is the goal, so the ongoing nature of the “construction site” is not a flaw but a feature.
Wire mesh panel fences can look quite nice without woven bands. Sorry, what do you mean about the balance? That you should consider how much time you can invest in the garden and then check if the money is enough for that?
I already mentioned that the garden will take longer until it looks the way we want it to, a garden is never really finished.
Regarding the wire mesh panel fences, if we use them, it would be with bands because it should serve as privacy screening, as I mentioned before.
I think having both a wire mesh panel fence and a hedge is too much, especially considering the budget. Of course, you could install the fence first and plant the hedge later, but primarily we want the privacy screening “now.”
Best regards
Müllerin schrieb:
yes, if they are only about 1.2 meters high (4 feet) and you let them root in.
@haydee I would almost want to nominate you for an award for this post See my reply to haydee
Regards
A hedge is definitely necessary. Ours has been in place for 12 months now.
For certain areas, you can use alternatives as privacy screens, such as sun sails, fast-growing plants like Chinese silver grass, sweet peas, sunflowers, hollyhocks, etc. They are not expensive, but they are not fully privacy-proof. I’m still experimenting with this.
Once a hedge
Once a prairie garden with plants that grow between 1.5 and 1.8 meters (5 to 6 feet) tall. We only planted it in autumn.
For certain areas, you can use alternatives as privacy screens, such as sun sails, fast-growing plants like Chinese silver grass, sweet peas, sunflowers, hollyhocks, etc. They are not expensive, but they are not fully privacy-proof. I’m still experimenting with this.
Once a hedge
Once a prairie garden with plants that grow between 1.5 and 1.8 meters (5 to 6 feet) tall. We only planted it in autumn.
haydee schrieb:
A hedge is definitely needed. Ours has been there for 12 months now.
For certain areas, you can use sun sails or fast-growing plants like Chinese silvergrass, sweet peas, sunflowers, hollyhocks, etc. as privacy screens. They’re not expensive but not fully opaque.
I’m still experimenting with that.
1x the hedge
1x prairie garden with plants that grow 1.5 to 1.8 m (5 to 6 feet) tall. We just planted it last autumn.That’s exactly what we don’t want, maybe later we’ll plant something to cover the fence (although I just said I don’t want that ).
We definitely want privacy screening for most of the garden.
What exactly is a prairie garden? And what is that wood-and-soil tower? It looks great.
The tower is a type of raised bed and is known as a potato pyramid. However, you don’t have to plant potatoes in it. It’s not finished yet. I still need more soil.
A prairie garden is a mix of perennials and grasses that tolerate heat and frost. It is heavily mulched with gravel. (Still need more of that as well.) In about 2 years, everything should have grown in. Maintenance is very low. Flowers and food for insects are available almost year-round. Let’s see how it works out in practice.
Go to the library (when it’s open again) and pick up a stack of gardening books to get inspired. My garden is too small. I still need about 5000 m² (about 1.2 acres). And we’re far from finished.
A prairie garden is a mix of perennials and grasses that tolerate heat and frost. It is heavily mulched with gravel. (Still need more of that as well.) In about 2 years, everything should have grown in. Maintenance is very low. Flowers and food for insects are available almost year-round. Let’s see how it works out in practice.
Go to the library (when it’s open again) and pick up a stack of gardening books to get inspired. My garden is too small. I still need about 5000 m² (about 1.2 acres). And we’re far from finished.
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