This year, as ever, my garden has been left to do its own thing and now looks rubbish. From May onwards as I get busier with work the garden gets more and more neglected and left to its own devices. Some things are looking fab, like the Erigeron and the roses, but everything else either gets eaten by slugs or damaged in a storm. Thugs such as the comfrey also end up a bit out of hand! As I’m always on the lookout for new ideas for my garden, here are my north east facing garden ideas for this year.
I’ve got plans for the top lawn (the area near the bottom of the picture) next year. Inspired by our visit to Alnwick Garden I plan to get rid of most of the lawn and put in some big flower beds edged with box. I’ve started taking cuttings from my box plants, as I think I’ll need a lot to make hedges! I’m thinking a symmetrical pattern with four beds around a central thing, whether it be a large planted urn or a bird bath or fountain – something fancy! This is an image I’ve found via Pinterest which I adore.
I can then continue the beds down onto the middle lawn and have some kind of symmetry thing going on. In my head it looks lovely, but whether it will in real life is another matter.
I’ll be using low maintenance plants that enjoy a bit of shade, as even in summer this area doesn’t get much sun from around 1.30pm. I’m going for plants that already thrive in the bed in front of the house, so hydrangeas, astrantia, astilbe, some white roses and some Japanese anemones. I’ll pop some alliums and tulips in for spring colour too. The Nigellas seem to self seed all over, so I’ll let them pop up if they want.
Fingers crossed this time next year I’ll have something a bit nicer to look at out of the window!
UPDATE: For an update on this sloping hillside garden, including some major changes, and more north east facing garden ideas, head to this post! For more garden inspiration, come follow me on Pinterest or Instagram where I share my garden progress on Stories.
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