Planning to build a new home takes all ones' physical and mental energy, time and money. When the house shell is actually assembled and the dream is fast becoming a reality, ie you have only a busy building site to sit down and have your outdoor coffee break, no grass (if there was any in the first place?), all the bushes are damaged, trees are tilting to the angle the excavator last passed by, it's then you begin planning the garden.
It's not totally strange that many new houses are just surrounded by grass and nothing else. In one way it feels as if it's the only thing to do. However, instead of being in a hurry at this stage, just have a little patience and live with the sand and clay coming into the house at the beginning. You must give yourself time to think where you are going to place the different things and most of all, where the heart of the garden should be.
After we had decided where to place the house on the site, we then decided where our patios and other outdoor eating areas should be. In spite of these decisions we did hesitate now and again….how wide the patios should be, height over the ground level, should there be one step from the inside floor level, or should it be on the same level?... Lots of questions circulated between us, but it was good to take the time beforehand to decide roughly how it should be. We decided early on to have a swimming pool in the garden and have wooden decking outside the kitchen and living rom. The wooden decking surrounding the pool should connect to this other decking, thus avoid walking on the lawn, when we use the pool. In our case this was easily planned and we are happy with the result.
We chose to have two car spaces, partly because the site loaned itself to such and partly for the benefit of visitors. Besides that we have a trailer needing space. The area for these spaces were obvious from the outset. We now see that it was a correct decision. Concrete cobble stones were our chosen surface, to look like a stone surface from an old castle courtyard. The stones were well grouted, preventing weeds from growing between them.
The next decision was how we should plan the pathways around the house. We were rather sure that we wanted curving paths. Straight lines were nothing for us. We chose to do the paths in old street cobbles. It gives an old fashion look and feels soft and vibrant.
Second hand street cobble stones are easiest fond on the internet (blocket.se in Sweden!). However you must be prepared to collect them yourself. We travelled around a lot and collected these stones, during the first summer. Then we employed a tradesman to do the job. Not easy to lay them yourself, if you want smooth curves and level surfaces.
Then we came to the fun part. Planning our vegetable patch, herb garden, rose and flower beds, the Japanese corner etc….A full lawn was never an alternative for us.
In any case there was quite a lot of lawn, as we rolled it out, (pre grown elsewhere). We chose the pre grown lawn rolls for two reasons. Partly because we were so very tired of all the dust and soil floating around the site and partly because it was quick to lay. At the same time you avoid a lot of weeds the first year.
Somewhere in this whole process we had to decide how to fence in the site. I believe it's important to look carefully at the natural surroundings in the area. Walls and high fences don't suit in all cases. An attractive looking standard wooden fence can look particularly out of place, in a modern residential area. A common privet hedge can look well in an area of straight lines and tidy streets, but can be totally wrong in another environment. That which doesn't fit in (and this is a personal opinion) is the thuja bush or equivalent. I have never seen them in a suitable environment….not yet, but maybe in the future!
We chose to fence in the site with two totally different types of fencing. Bordering our neighbour and a cycle path we chose "Danish pinnar", a type of tall narrow trees, trimmed and cut to size, placed tight together. As we live in an area of pine trees, this fencing fitted perfectly into the local environment.
Bordering the two streets, we fitted a normal standard Swedish wooden fence... Unfortunately I can't show any photographs just yet, because as I write they aren't finished, in fact not even started!...However this photo shows how it will look.
I have a dream of having a wild area in the garden, with lots of mysterious tunnels and secret corners. I want to have flower bloom, relieving each other for a whole season and leafy bushes creating shady areas. I am fully aware that that this is a long road to travel, but if you give it careful thought and plan well at the very outset, you have already covered a good distance. A result should not be expected for at least five years.
The road to the dream garden is twisted, hard work and fun. Mosty fun.
