So, Where Do We start

With such a large space at the rear of the house we really needed to start to plan how we were going to use it. It was obvious that we could not do all of what we wanted to in one year and certainly not immediately.

A Rough Sketch
The starting point for the design was to split the garden into three equally sized parts:

• Recreational space nearest to the house
• Orchard / fruit cage
• Vegetable plot

Three plots about 25m long should allow plenty of space for each project. So what are we expecting in each space?

Recreational Area
This area needs to contain a lot when you consider it's size. The area currently contains a border down the right hand side running it's full length. On the left we have the garage and another border with a paved seating area. There is also a garden shed which has seen better days. The end of this area is marked by the rowan, holly and rhododendron. When we have finally finished with this space it will need to contain:

• Garage extensionDecking
• Ornamental fish pond
• Pergola
• Lawned area
• Patio in front of the house
• House extension (possibly)

As well as all of this it will need to be functional. This is rather a large demand and all of a sudden 25m x 10m looks small.

Orchard
This space should be the easiest to get start and finish. In this space we want to plant a variety of fruit trees which will provide us with fruit from early summer through to late autumn. Our initial thoughts included:

• Apples
• Pears
• Plums
• Cherries (possibly)

Vegetable Plot
From the start we knew that this area was going to be the most work. Not only in long term upkeep but also to get the ground prepared and the major structural components in place. The whole garden from the house to the very end is both uneven and prone to water logging

If we were going to succeed here we were going to have to solve both problems to some degree. Whilst some plants are more than happy to have their roots under water, there are just as many which do not like it. This was bound to make our life difficult in this area. The solution we decided upon was to use raised beds for planting. This would allow us to provide a reasonably well drained environment for the vegetables. It would also have the side effect of dividing this area into manageable areas.

Of course no self respecting vegetable gardener would be without a greenhouse. This was also an essential as both Karen and I love tomatoes. In order to get any reasonable crop in the UK a greenhouse would be required.

Who, When and How?
So now we know what we want we simply need to work out how to achieve this. It was always known that this would take a while to implement. In fact I expected about five years from start to finish. At the time of writing we are currently two years down the road. Looking at what we have left to complete this seems to be a reasonable estimate.

From the start of this I have always maintained that my knowledge of gardening extends to recognising when it is hot enough to sit out in it (with a Gin and Tonic of course). This does limit the options for me in the flower and planting department. One thing that I can contribute is the ability to dig holes - sometimes without putting the pointy thing (garden fork - Karen) through my boots. With this in mind the division of labour was obvious; I would be responsible for building things and getting the vegetable plots ready for use whilst Karen would look after the borders and stop me from digging up her precious plants.

Wildlife
One of our objectives is to encourage as much natural life into the garden as possible. Now we know that this can mean pests but we would also like to make sure that the garden is more friendly to the pest killers than the pests. With this in mind we also decided to allow for wildlife havens throughout the whole garden.

And Finally...
One thing we have not touched upon so far is that we wanted the garden to be organic as far as possible. We realised that we would ave to use some chemicals to get going. Let's face it, 250 sq metres of grass is a devil to remove without using weedkiller. We are not saying it cannot be done but we also have to keep on with the day jobs
Mark