Period Garden inspiration

[Seanie_230]

Hello all, I'm in dire need of some help.
My garden is shown below and I have always hated it. I though I knew what I wanted so I photoshopped some pictures together and it does not look right for the age of my house at all, I have a square bay window edwardian house, I want to cover the entire garden, I looked at London properties online and just went for a drive but I cannot find anything half decent that is tidy and looks right without getting old Gray slabs.

Has anyone got some idea's of any kind as its driving me mad

Garden now

Photoshop

 

[Zebra]

Now I'm no gardener, definately don't have green hooves, and my garden is currently the mess associated with a house that isn't finished, ie a dumping ground for building materials and waste, with a gangplank up to the front door. Nevertheless, to my mind there are two problems with your design. One is surface water, and the other is simply the monotony of the design.
As far as surface water is concerned, there is the question of where it will all run off to, if it can't soak in to the ground. It may be that it will all run into the bushes and therefore be fine. But if it ends up running out onto the pavement through the gap then it could freeze in winter making scary ice patches, and could also make your stones go green. I've no doubt you've probably thought of all these things. Also, there is also the risk if you pave right up to the house, that rain will splash up against the wall of the house, causing damp in the wall. I see that there is concrete currently against the house, so perhaps this won't be any worse than currently. But even for my new built extension, the builder said I should not pave right up to the house but should have a gravel strip against the house.
And just to pave the whole thing is a bit, well, dull. Wouldn't they have done something a bit more decorative in the era from which your house originates? Not that you have to be authentic in this regard. I would favour some shingle or gravel areas with stones in between. You could put driveway fabric under the gravel to stop weeds, and it would help with the drainage too. Then a few bushes in pots perhaps to help break it up a bit.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'd gravel it and then plant a geometric scheme in box, with a nice terracotta planter in the middle, containing a good mass of lavender or just a nice box ball. I'll try to find some pictures, but if you google knot garden in an image search you may be able to take one geometric element of that.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Hello Seanie, I also have a square bay Edwardian house, and Luckily I have the original path which is blue brick pavers. I really like the look of these and they give the house a practical path which looks in keeping with the property. Your house looks a bit more grand than mine, and it may have had a black and red quarry tiles path. I really think if you want to cover the whole front garden with something so that you don't need to tend to, then it would still look better to have a traditional path with some edging going up to the door and then something else on the rest of the garden like woodchip or slate chips or whatever does the job (I'm no expert). My front garden is similar to yours but a bit longer in front of the house, and I am planning to put in a little lawn as I think it will look nice, but admittedly will need a bit of maintenance.

 

[Seanie_230]

Hi there, thanks all, plastic pigeon you provoked a new google search and I found some yorkstone slabs laid diagonally with blue pavers cut around leaving a box in the middle or around the edge for plants.
This looks like it might be practical and pretty at the same time

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Quarry tiles?

 

[Moo]

That's an intriguing picture, Gareth. We're planning to reinstate something similar in our tiny front garden - there are still some houses around here with the original paths, and we break a commandment every time we pass them.
In this part of south east London they are invariably black-and-white, with defined borders, and the tiles are very small (about 2"). Higher status houses have more elaborate multi-coloured paths but we're pretty near the bottom of the pecking order, hence the b/w scheme.
I was interested to see you describe them as quarry tiles. Do you think it would be appropriate for us to use them instead of the little ones? It would certainly be much cheaper!

 

[Juju]

I agree with the others - don't pave the whole thing. Do a nice paved path up to the door and plant the rectangle of earth with either tumbly rambly plants or go geometric with box planting. I've probably gone mad and mixing you up with someone else but aren't you in north Milton Keynes? - there are still lots of original paths for the Victorian houses in that neck of the woods. My old street had a few but unfortunately not my old house where someone had paved the whole thing with modern red bricks. Yuk. I dug up the rectangle in front of the house and planted various shrubs etc. Never got round to reinstating the path though. Anyway, I think Gareth's piccy is the right way to go in terms of paving for Victorian terraces.
Juju

 

[worms]

Yes, Gareth's picture looks best, with the rope-edged edging and the clean, raked gravel. It will be a b****r for the postie on icy mornings, though!

 

[Seanie_230]

Hi all, I have a picture from a site that shows a garden that next door and I love, we will mirror each others garden.
Am I allowed to post a picture from another site for advice on what the materials used are or could I sent it to someone to indentify.

Cheers all