Landscaping my backyard

[Nemo30]

We recently landscaped most of our backyard (PPOR).

Pics below before, during and after. My son and I pulled down the brick archway, however had professionals in to do the paving.

Our initial plan was to pave most of it (with the intention of eventually putting a roof over this area) and grass the rest with a small strip of plants down the side boundary.

However I'm having second thoughts over the grassed area. The pavers have quite a bit of sun glare and I was thinking it would be nice to have some medium sized trees for shade. (There are no large trees anywhere around us).

So now thinking about having a small circular patch of lawn surrounded by cottage garden type plants (roses, lavender, geraniums etc) and some larger trees (maybe silver birches) along near the fence. We have a couple of meters outside the back fence we can plant some large trees on as well - I was thinking perhaps some ornamental pears. The land over the back fence is about a metre higher (no neighbours at the back). We also have a 1m high retaining wall inside along the back fence with space for plants - not sure whether to leave the photinias there or plant something different.

The area is quite small - The paved area is roughly 6m x 6m and the proposed grassed area is roughly 4 x 6.5 I like gardening so dont mind that it isn't maintenance free.

Any thoughts on what to do with the proposed grassed area? Would you grass the whole area?

 

[Nemo30]

This is the proposed grass area

 

[BayView]

Well done; looks good.

I reckon grass the whole area; it's not overly large and will soften the look of lots of paving.

Yo can add some tree-type vegetation with potted versions and maybe larger shrub type plants in them.

 

[Aaron Sice]

stick a pair of established fruit trees or olives in the middle of that space, and put some natural sculpture around them, like large moss rocks, embedded railway sleepers (like totems) and some lower shrubs/groundcover (dianellas, flax lily etc) to soften the edges.

its a very horizontal space, so some vertical elements will break that up and provide a visual interest to the space.

 

[Nemo30]

Thanks guys, appreciate your input.

Its so hard to choose - I want it to be beautiful.

Really wish I had more space. I'm hoping that by planting trees over the back fence and hiding the fence behind plants on the inside it will give the feeling of more space.

Aaron - I think I know what you mean. One of my neighbours has something similar with a weeping cherry, mossy rocks and sleepers.

 

[Nemo30]

I've marked out lots of different options this weekend, whilst doing so I found my husband's wedding ring he lost 3 years ago. I was really lucky to find it, because we've dug nearly everything up over the last few months. It was literally sitting on top of the dirt.

Anyway - I think I have come up with a solution.

I have a couple of meters on the other side of the path to the back gate - this is currently my vegie garden.

Thinking about Aaron's suggestion to add a vertical element, I'm now thinking of having an arbour from the back gate to the house (6 meters) with room for a garden bed to run parallel each side. Then have a small rectangular lawn area surrounded on three sides by garden bed.

Thanks guys!