ᐅ Garden Planning: Lawn, Vegetable Garden, and Shrubs?

Hello dear fellow home builders...

Now we are in the house and the weather is nice, so we’re focusing on the garden first rather than dealing with the leftover tasks inside. :p
Here is our current plan for the garden.

1. What do you think of it overall? Is it laid out and planned sensibly, or does something seem completely out of place?
2. First, we want to sow grass seed this weekend. The soil has already been fully tilled, and right now I’m clearing it of weeds, stones, etc. What ground surface should I choose for the play area? Is grass the best option there, or would bark mulch be better? What are the pros and cons?
3. We plan to border the play area with berry bushes next. What should I keep in mind when planting raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, and gooseberries? Can they be planted next to each other? Do they all tolerate full sun well? The spot gets almost full sun all day.
4. In the vegetable garden, I’d like to create a strawberry bed this year. What are some nice options? I don’t like it when beds simply end in bare soil. Is there a way to create a nice border or edging?

I would really appreciate lots of comments and ideas. 🙂

Best regards

By the way, we will only be working on the back area for now—so grass and the play area this year. The rest will follow next year… The plan is for it to look like this eventually….

Is your south-facing side along the street? And is it a sloped plot? Is the north garden flat?

We only have play areas in the garden. I prefer regular turf for these areas. I find it more comfortable to walk barefoot on than bark mulch.

We had our garden initially prepared by a landscaping contractor up to the grass seeding stage.
The lawn was sown very sparsely by the landscaper, with the explanation that the grass plants would then spread better. Although the neighbors were initially quite skeptical, the lawn actually grew denser than others (almost like a carpet). Apparently, good-quality and durable grass seed was also used.

1. Others are welcome to judge. I am just glad that I managed to get our garden sorted out reasonably well.
Before starting, we marked the areas with strings to define the size of flower beds and so on.

2. I wouldn’t recommend using bark mulch in the play area. Children run from the slide to the climbing area, and in my opinion, that shifts the mulch around.
A tough, durable lawn is better for that purpose.

3. Since we recently planted raspberries, I know they need sunny to partially sunny conditions. I assume it’s similar for other berries.

4. We just bordered our flower beds with rounded lawn edging stones because, like your play area, we designed the bed with a somewhat rounded shape. With a bit of sand under the edging stones and a rubber mallet, installation went quite quickly. To prevent weeds, we applied weed control fabric and bark mulch on the beds.

milkie schrieb:
Is the south side facing the street for you? And is it a sloped lot? Is the north garden flat?

Yes, exactly, the south side faces the street. Both the south and north gardens are flat. The slope is bridged on the sides of the house. Although, you can't really call the north garden a typical north garden. Look, I just took this photo. Most of the “north garden” gets sun all day long.

Wastl schrieb:
We only have play areas in the garden. I prefer regular turf grass for this area. I find it more comfortable to walk barefoot on than bark mulch.

Oh, quite a few people have told me that already. We also bought durable sports turf for the entire garden. But somehow, when I visit friends, the area around the climbing frame, slide, and swing always seems so muddy... Hmm... Are there any other alternatives?

Musketier schrieb:
We had our garden initially laid out by a landscaping contractor up to the grass seeding stage.
The lawn was seeded very sparingly by the landscaper, with the note that the grass plants would then spread better. Even though the neighbors were initially very skeptical, the lawn turned out denser than others (almost like a carpet). Apparently, good quality and durable grass was also used.

1. Others can judge that, but I’m just glad we managed to design ours reasonably well. Before starting, we marked out the areas with strings to define the size of flower beds, etc.

2. I wouldn’t use bark mulch in the play area. Kids run from the slide back to the climbing frame, which I think shifts the mulch around. A durable lawn is better for this.

3. Since we recently planted raspberries, I know the label said they like sunny to partially sunny spots. I assume the other berries have similar requirements.

4. We recently bordered flower beds with rounded lawn edging stones, because, like your play area, we made the bed edges slightly curved. With some sand underneath and a rubber mallet, they were pretty quick to install. For weed control, we placed some landscape fabric and bark mulch on the beds.

Okay, I’ll remember the tip about using less seed. We’re currently clearing the garden and preparing it. The seed is supposed to go down this weekend. The soil was just leveled and filled here since November. We did the landscaping work ourselves with a rented excavator... 😉 My husband had a blast. 🙂 But as many here have noticed, we’re do-it-yourselfers anyway... We like trying everything ourselves. It’s kind of a matter of “honor.” 😀

We seeded our lawn in mid-September last year, and I mowed it twice before the end of the year. I think you should plan for about a month without the little ones running over it too much. However, it might grow faster in spring. Just make sure to water it regularly, especially in the beginning.