Great space - maybe some of our gardening/landscape professionals can get involved and offer you some starter points! What does everyone think?

Hi Kirsty, would you be able to provide some more images maybe from a few angles so I can give you some ideas how to best utilise this space?

Hope this helps.

I hope this helps a little more. x

Really interesting space! I really like the two levels. I think the main priority should be creating a way of joining these two levels whether that's with steps or a sloping ramp depends on your preference. If it was a sloping ramp I'd like to see that be installed at the far end near the rock wall so it can curve round whilst changing levels and lead into the new garden you're going to create. As for the upper level you could install some limestone paving with a tasteful thick double rope fence running along the edge and add some raised planters near the house (same colour as the wooden fence posts) and use pots to provide greenery along the awkward shape of the rock wall. Hope this gives you some idea which you can tie in with your landscaping tastes and budget.

The wall is our boundary, the other piece of land is owned by someone else, who is going to build a nice wall. So we can't use that good idea unfortunately. The land at the back of the property is ours. Approx 1 acres, but that is rustic land, so we can't do anything with that. We did think of putting a palm tree in the corner by the rock with an uplighter, but not too sure if that is too tacky?

Hello Kirsty,

I think you first need to decide what overall feel you want for your garden. Do you want it neat and manicured or more natural and easy going? Do you want more green or more plant colour throughout the year? Do you like gardening or do you want it be as maintenance free as possible? Do you need any functional areas for example seating, BBQ, screening, shelter from the sun etc.

Where do you live? It looks hot so any use plants native to your area as others will need a lot of extra care and extra water.

Try investigating "hot arid gardens" for some ideas on plants, form, colours and shape. Also start investigating what your local garden centres offer. You will get an idea of then of budget too.

I think we would like more plant colour, but don't like cactus plants, so that limits us even more. Not too sure on whether we would like natural or easy going, it just depends on several designs. It needs to be as maintenance free as possible as we haven't moved into the property just yet. The property is located in Lanzarote, so quite windy. We don't need any functional areas, it's purely garden. I'll have a look at "hot arid gardens". Our budget is quite flexible, so we can go creative or plain.

have you gathered allot of inspiration from this post on what you'd like to place in your garden? If you give me an idea, you can use my free app, to position plants, garden products etc in your garden. Ill add the garden products to the app. here is an example with a garden room

Wow, thank you.

I have had quite a few bits of inspiration and some from searching the web. Here goes my list:

Mimosa, Cordyline, Halimium lasiantlium, banboo, jasminum, passiflora, marigolds, blue rock bindweed, cosmea, nigella damascena and aloe vera and finally a palm tree. I hope that hasn't exhausted you, lol.

Many thanks again. Regards Kirsty

sleeper stairs to get up onto the tiered land in your last two photos?

No, stairs for the top of the rock.

Hello again Kirsty,

I really like the plants you have chosen. The only one that rings alarm bells is the bamboo as it is very difficult to keep in check. Bamboo plants with rhizomes spread quite uncontrollably and then it can end up taking over large areas of land and can pop up in most unwanted areas. If you really want bamboo I would suggest you investigate how to keep it under control and see whether this is viable for you. This might be useful - http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier%20installation.htm 

First job is to work out where you want you stairs to go and how big they will be. I imagine from the height of the land at the rear they will take up quite a lot of space. Get them built first as you will have to work around them.

Once you have your plant wish list think about heights of plants, colour combinations and what the plants needs are. Usually the taller plants will be at the back. Buy plants in lots of 3's or 5's - then you can have a good splash of colour and if you find a plant doesn't like a certain area of your garden for any reason you can move them and have more chance of keeping some alive.

I would draw out a scaled plan of the garden from above then work out rough dimensions of plants - draw an outline of them on a separate piece of paper, cut them out and play with the layout. Don't forget that the palm will provide a lot of shade a different times of day - so you need to think about where that shade will be so that other plants are not deprived of light.

I hope this helps,

kind regards

To here? Roughly what's the height of the rock? There's some great design advice in this post my app will help visualise - real team work effort. I can Put the palm tree in too

I would say roughly 5ft, and thank you once again :-)

INsitu app for "How do I design my garden?" post · More Info

Hi Kirsty ive managed to get a palm tree in, though not quite sure its in the right location. you want it here?

INsitu app for "How do I design my garden?" post · More Info

this is where the steps start too?

We can't have the tree there unfortunately, as it's not our land. Our land starts over the wall. :-(

What is the app please?

Its

http://insitu-app.com/insitu-landscaping-web-app.html

when it opens just close the window of all the sheds and you'll see the palm tree (It looks a bit playmobile-ish at the minute, but ill improve on that later lol)

click the move icon (top middle) for instructions on how to use. Then click the camera button to upload your original photo

let me know if you get stuck, this video will help too

Thanks for this, it's great to mess around with the tree. Do you have any other plants or trees that I could mess around with?

At the minute, we dont have any more plants, but as you require its on our todo list, and i'll get my developer to look at it asap. This is great feedback, we weren't aware people wanted trees until now.

we do however, have some more gardeny type items here:

http://insitu-app.com/index-tim-hd-web-app.html

moving forward, it would be great to see your results - please put them in the idea book.

cheers

ive had a look at at the 3d warehouse, but I don't know how to upload it to my picture to play around with? It says it's an skp file which is not supported. How did you manage to get it onto the picture?

Hi Kirsty, sorry i should have explained - were a bootstrapped startup, not really "pro" but maybe one day, so there's little automation at the minute. Please could you post the links to the models you like? and ill upload them for you

cheers