[Casey76]

Hi everyone, I'm so useless when it comes to things like this, I really need your help planning me garden layout.

I have a decent enough space - about 11m x 11m (33x33 ft), with one side being cut off in a slight angle, but I have no idea how to plan  where to put some permanent features like soft fruit, or even a dwarf fruit tree or two.

This is basically it so far


The rectangles and squares are the beds I had thought about doing this year, but I'm so indecisive that I really don't know.

For a bit of orientation at the top of the pic is the boundary to the field next door, the sloping side has a beech hedge and a stream the other two sides are contiguous with the rest of my garden. Along the left side is a fence.  All other structures are currently just planned, and currently the space is completely barren (apart from weeds, which I'm digging up)

The greenhouse should be arriving in a couple of weeks, and is 3.9 x 1.8m (12' x 6').  At the moment I's planned to put the greenhouse along side the fence, so it is in the "corner" of the garden, closest to the house.

What I would really like some guidance on would be to put a row of raspberries, 2x black currant, 2x red currant and 2 x gooseberry.  I had planned on growing a blueberry bush in a container sunk into the ground too.

The garden is oriented with north being the stream side, so it gets a lot of sun in the afternoon.

Thanks for any advice or thoughts.

[Norfolkgrey]

I would be inclined to lose the long bed near the stream and turn that into a soft fruit patch and I would also consider training the gooseberries and running a fence along the path but that is purely my opinion as I am only now starting to establish my fruit.

Just one other suggestion if you are using your greenhouse for seedlings is a coldframe or more sheltered spot near the greenhouse for hardening things off 

[Trikidiki]

The only thing that strikes me is that your greenhouse may shadow your first bed. Without knowing the exact layout (height of the beech hedge etc), I would have gone for the greenhouse on the northern side as close to the border as possible while maintaining access behind, into what would now be a small triangle. I would use that space behind the greenhouse for compost, pot storage etc.  However, your priority may be to have the greenhouse close to the house, services etc.

It is difficult to see the width of your beds and paths, I would make the beds 1.2m (gives a good bed to path ratio) and the paths at least 500mm (mine are 500mm and I wish I had made them 600mm to give a bit more manoeuvrability. If you have a bit left over which isn't a full bed you could put it alongside the greenhouse which would gain you the width of one of your paths, as long as it isn't more than 600mm you will be able to reach from the one side. For the odd occasion when you need to get close to the glass for cleaning etc you could use boards.
Alternatively if you leave the greenhouse as you have it, the odd width could go at the north side, the resulting triangle I would use for some of your fruit bushes.

I grow my gooseberries and redcurrants as fans which I find makes picking easier. It looks like you have enough room for two long 600mm beds where you have the square beds. One bordering the path with a 500 or 600mm path between the two. They would be orientated North/South which is good. However you plan your fruit you might want to consider at this stage any protection you may use. I have built a wooden framed fruit cage and the corner posts double up as corner posts for the beds.

Personally I would lengthen the beds slightly so they line up with the end of the greenhouse because I'm slightly CDO (that's OCD with the letters in the right order).

[Casey76]

OK, trying this again...

Here is the schematic:


And this is "real thing" (above the path only)


At the moment I have three compost bins where are not n the area of the plan, and also a tumbler which is also not in the area of the plan.  Pots and bags of compost are kept in the wood store, which is (again) not in the area of the plan.

Putting the green house in the opposite corner has a couple of pros and cons...
*More out of sight of the public

*Access more difficult
*Access difficult to trim the hedges
*in the shade of the yew bush in the corner

I'm sorry but I don't know if you were referring to the first option or second

[Trikidiki]

The first option was what I was thinking, again my OCD likes keeping things square on the vegetable plot. The close proximity to the road may be an issue depending on the footfall along it. I wouldn't be too worried about the yew hedge unless you have plans to let it grow rampantly, it will only cast shade in the late summer evenings if you kept it trimmed to about waist height it would be fine.

You could get a 600mm path next to your southerly hedge, four 1200mm beds with 600mm paths between and a 500 mm path next to the greenhouse. If you reduced the paths to 500mm you could put a narrow 400mm bed alongside the greenhouse. I have one like that with dwarf daffs in at the moment, to be replaced with calendula later. I am thinking about putting posts and wires at gutter height and training a grape along it. You could fit a dwarf apple in the triangle or maybe replace the beech with espalier fruit.

Next to your path you can just squeeze in the two l 7500mm x 600mm beds I suggested with a 500mm path between.

[Trikidiki]

What layout did you go for in the end?