The garden today

I switched the blogging tool just now.

I was using Blogpress on the iPad but it just kept quitting. I'd write 300 words of sheer genius and it would spit it out into the vapour in disgust, never to be seen again. You know how you can never repeat something as well second time around? I wonder if that is a metaphor for garden design? Anyway, this time I'm using Blogsy. Cute eh?

According to legend, the garden is about 1,400 square meters. That is about one third of an acre apparently, or, if you need a proper frame of reference, a quarter of the size of the pitch at Upton Park, or for those of you on the other side of the pond, 20% of a block in an eastern US city (according to Onlineconversion.com). That's probably about three small diners next to each other.

The garden is a rough north-south diamond shape with the house towards the top end facing the south corner.

The garden slopes up to the house, and the large terrace.

See? Large isn't it?

Sounds idyllic doesn't it? Well, it is. There are a few things that need dealing with in the new design to make it even better. For example, notice the apartment block in the West overlooking the terrace in the image above? There are also some in the south, separating us from the view of the Alps. That might account for the biggest anomaly in the garden, a row of 15 trees about 2.5 meters from the fence. I think they are the evil Leylandii.

There are a lot of trees! Everyone who has seen the garden agrees, but hardly anyone recommends that I cut them down. (Future plans in a future post.) The lawn has a lot of moss. The hedges to the West are about  2.5 meters high, but seem thin. They look like another kind of middle class suburban uniform evil. The hedge to the East is lower and looks more lush, but again... You guessed it... Urgh! There are dead bits every couple of meters, and gaps down the middle. Apparently caused by heavy snow. At least they provide some privacy.

Above is the house from the West.

This is the view towards the southeast. Note the trees, and try to ignore the weird bloke.

The front of the house faces north and has the smallest plot of garden space I front of it. There is a tarmacced    area the size of a large car, and there is gravel. It's a bit cold and gloomy in winter. Not the best welcome.

I do love the space and think we can do more with it to liven it up. Next I'll try to explain what I want to achieve.