Advice and Web Site

Pinky123

Can anyone direct me to a free web site that I can do a basic garden design. Site is 1.8 acres and its very overwhelming but if I can put some sort of plan together to work towards it might be more manageable. Also any advice on types of planting would be greatly appreciated. Am trying to keep it fairly country in style.

looksee

On a site that size you will probably get bogged down with trying to do a garden design on a website. Do you have plans for the house? Could you trace off the shape of the plot, or even go on to http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,591271,743300,0
go to max resolution and see if you can get an idea of the shape of your plot in relation to the house, then just do a drawing and photocopy it off so that you can sketch ideas on it.

Do you want to turn it all into garden or will some of it be paddock or similar?
What kind of land is it - is it pasture, reasonable soil, hilly,
do you get wind/weather from one direction (for example if you are at the coast or near mountains).
Do you want easy care, or do you want to create something amazing.
How much are you prepared to spend on it.
If (as I assume) you are in the country, is it fenced and do you have a cattle grid. There is nothing more disheartening than to have a flock of sheep or half a dozen bullocks rampaging over your hard-won lawn.
Do you want a flat area for kids to play football or tennis on?

Decide how much you are prepared to mow, and whether the existing cover could be mowed to create 'lawn'. Select another area, say a curved off corner and either plant with local trees to create a small woodland where grass can be allowed to grow long, or create an orchard (that could be a good bit of work to look after). Select an area near the house that you can make into a domestic garden, and do your serious planning on that for the moment.

You really need to decide all this kind of stuff, then we can give you planting ideas.

Pinky123

Thanks for that looksee,
We are gonna put a paddock at the back for a couple of sheep or pigs
( whichever is gonna be tastier in the freezer ).
We have just ploughed the whole site and reseeded it so am waiting for the grass to come up.
My hope is to section the rest off into different areas, veg garden, orchard with a chicken coup , fenced garden for the kids and lawn to the front of house. Ground is a fairly mixed bag of very rocky area and then some good soil. We had to plant boundary trees for our planning so we put in some bare root trees about 4 years ago and they are coming on nicely and there is an existing ditch to the front and back with mature trees. Prevailing wind is from the east and we are fairly high up so the wind can be very strong in the winter months.
Really like the idea of planting a bit of woodland but not sure what kind of trees would work and how far apart to plant them.
Garden will have to be fairly easy to maintain as I have small kids and they take up most of my time and the budget is small so it will be a long term project. My hope is to try to get cuttings from as many people as possible and try to bring on plants from seeds.
A couple of plants/trees that I would like to include are Peony Rose Trees, Wisteria and Magnolia. Would really like to make the garden as coluorful as possible. Also I want to create a little butterfly garden in memory of my son which will have a tree ( can't for the life of me think of what its call but it has white flowers in April/May ) as its center piece.
All advice is much appreciated

jezko

( can't for the life of me think of what its call but it has white flowers in April/May ) as its center piece.
All advice is much appreciated[/QUOTE]

Are you thinking of a White Cherry blossom.. "Prunus speciosa"

I envy you with your Project... best of luck

looksee

Pinky123 wrote: »

Thanks for that looksee,
We are gonna put a paddock at the back for a couple of sheep or pigs
( whichever is gonna be tastier in the freezer ).
We have just ploughed the whole site and reseeded it so am waiting for the grass to come up.
My hope is to section the rest off into different areas, veg garden, orchard with a chicken coup , fenced garden for the kids and lawn to the front of house. Ground is a fairly mixed bag of very rocky area and then some good soil. We had to plant boundary trees for our planning so we put in some bare root trees about 4 years ago and they are coming on nicely and there is an existing ditch to the front and back with mature trees. Prevailing wind is from the east and we are fairly high up so the wind can be very strong in the winter months.
Really like the idea of planting a bit of woodland but not sure what kind of trees would work and how far apart to plant them.
Garden will have to be fairly easy to maintain as I have small kids and they take up most of my time and the budget is small so it will be a long term project. My hope is to try to get cuttings from as many people as possible and try to bring on plants from seeds.
A couple of plants/trees that I would like to include are Peony Rose Trees, Wisteria and Magnolia. Would really like to make the garden as coluorful as possible. Also I want to create a little butterfly garden in memory of my son which will have a tree ( can't for the life of me think of what its call but it has white flowers in April/May ) as its center piece.
All advice is much appreciated

A birch grove would look lovely and is open enough that you can grow woodland flowers/bulbs in a wild garden underneath them. Silver birch would be nice but any of them would make a good grove. A few holly bushes around the place, Ash, Rowan, beech (gets big but you have room for a specimen), sycamore grows like a weed and will produce seedlings all over the place (in the lawn they will disappear as they get mowed) but its a nice (big) tree, suitable for a boundary. Horse chestnut for conkers!

Tree peonies might not like an exposed site, and they are a bit expensive, but peony rose plants are fine. Wisteria is gorgeous, you need to start with a biggish plant as they take 6 or 7 years to flower first time, on the other hand they are not very happy about being moved. You need a strong structure for it to grow up. Magnolia again lovely but has a very short flowering season, still you have room to accommodate a couple as other things will be in flower when the magnolias are finished.

My personal choice would be to keep exotic plants near the house and grow indigenous trees in other areas. Get a couple of basic garden design and plant books, the internet is good, but books are better . Wonderful project, good luck with it.

Sorry, I can't resist - I love the idea of a chicken coup in the orchard, little machine guns and all!

Pinky123

The chickens can be very militant in this area