Garden plan. Where to start?

kexkez · Jun 21, 2008 7:25 pm

After 3 months and many non returned calls I've finally been advised that the rose cuttings I'd given to a rose nursery last December have taken beautifully and there are lots of plants from it.20+ The plant is one I specifically wanted to bring with me from my last garden for sentimental reasons. When we bought our first house it was planted in the garden and so when we built our last house I planted a number of them again because I was so taken with the colour.
The rose in question " Scarlet Queen Elizabeth" is not available in WA and hasn't been for a number of years.
I have no idea what I'm going to do with the plants yet. My original idea was to keep 5 of it and have a feature area as the rose is very vigorous and will need a lot of pruning. Luckily it is also very tough. My last bush of this rose out lived all the other roses I've had that I had mistreated.. etc. so Can anyone give me some basic suggestions on how to start planning my garden layout? The garden is not planned to be a specifically formal garden. These roses will be pretty much the only plants that will need regular pruning apart from some of the native plants i will put in that could benefit from an occasional pruning to stop them being scraggly.

I'm not looking so much for plant advice as a suggest about who to go about setting out a layout. Should I do a scale drawing on grid paper? or otherwise?

Does anyone have any links to pics of mass plantings of a single rose bush. Where it has been used as a feature. I'm up for getting 5-10 of this specific plant. I don't think I really want more. I would have been happy to have gotten 3 from the cuttings and so am delighted to get the opportunity to buy more of them. I would perhaps like to consider getting some other different ones later. Should I consider planting them alternatively with a different one? Or keep them together away from other roses? In a line, or feature spot?

Judie · Jun 21, 2008 10:11 pm

Do you have a copy of your plan showing the yard space? Also, what style is your house (contemporary, bungalow etc.)? That will give a good idea of what style your garden should be, and for advice on how to plant the roses.

Judie

kexkez · Jun 21, 2008 11:33 pm

Judie atm the yard area we have to plant them in is massive. sloping down towards the road we have an area in front of the house of 20 m depth by 40 m.

There's nothing in it atm. I'm not looking for someeno to give me a design rahter jsut some suggestions on howm to go about it. With perhaps comments and URL links on ways they've seen roses plants used. these are standard HT roses and I do not wish to train them over anything.
As for the house design. It's a brick and colorbond house. No render. The house is very wide.
I'll have to scan in a drawing of the front view of the house. can't do that atm.

Yak_Chat · Jun 22, 2008 12:26 am

It depends on if you're a spatial type person or not -
ie can you visual things as they will be - or do you need to see it first?

I'd suggest you grab some graph paper and draw the house and land on it to scale

Then photo copy it and then start playing around drawing paths plants and the like how you think it would look.

Also goto the block and sit down and draw some more, then walk it to see how it feels - and take it from there.

That's what I do.
Hope this helps.
Steve

to_do_list · Jun 22, 2008 12:38 am

kk

Not saying it's the right way or the wrong way to start but here's my first attempt at the garden plan.....

https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6300

I grabbed the site plan for the house, liquid papered all the superfluous stuff off except the house, easements, and major dimensions, photocopied it about 20 times, got the color pencils and highlighter out and went for it......it's fun.....and doesn't cost anything....yet!

Edit: Oops missed YakChat's response.....he said basically the same thing.... :oops:

kexkez · Jun 22, 2008 9:31 am

Thanks Guys, That was what I figured I'd do. Yeah I have no problems visualizing. DH just doesn't get it at all.

He finds it really impossible to do.

In our last house I had the brilliant idea of knocking out the wall between the W.C that was off the laundry and the main bathroom. He couldn't visualize it at all. Luckily the plumber friend who was to do the re-plumbing of the vanity and who also did all the reno work, plastering, new brickwork etc was as good at visualizing as me and was able to convince him it would be a fabulous idea.

the original house we were planning to build is not on display anywhere but the builder did have another house with some similar feature. Then , luckily we found one being built down here near one of their displays so DH was able to walk through one at almost lockup stage. This gave him some sort of feel for the house. Unfortunately then our chosen builder decided they were not going to build here so we then had to find a new builder and a new design. Our new build is not on display anywhere and we've changed it so much from the original design it would be difficult to pick. It has a number of similar features to the original house we had planned to build and is also very similar to our last house. DH has had to "go with it" on faith.

So anyone got any suggestions as to what to do with these 5+ roses? Pictures?

newbie74 · Jun 24, 2008 1:34 am

I usually flick through mags for ideas and pick out bits and pieces that grab me.

If it was me and i was really into these roses, i would make them a feature by sticking them in a semi circle with a rock border around the outside, small bark chips and a reflecting pond in the middle.

maggie · Jun 24, 2008 6:47 pm

Have a look at Vita Sackville-West Garden

, go to the rose garden.

I would use them as newbie suggested, all in the same bed, uneven numbers!!!, 7 0r 9 bushes or even more if you have space, I would put a small hedge around their ugly legs to hide them. That way yoiu only see the beautifull blooms. You can use whatever plants you like for hedging, either high maintenance like korean box (not English in our climate) or dianellas for no maintenance.

Never use bark as mulch in rose beds, lucerne hay, manure, pea straw. Roses are hungry plants and any wood material on the soil will rob them from nutrients.

If you are spatial as you say you are you can do your "drawing" on site as I did, I just levelled the ground and drew what I wanted on the ground

. I had my garden designed before I had my floorcoverings

.

Good luck and have fun

Maggie

maggie · Jun 24, 2008 6:48 pm

http://www.invectis.co.uk/sissing/ :oops:

kexkez · Jun 24, 2008 8:19 pm

Thanks everyone for your comments. We won't have any problem with space. Hmm I might go 7 of them then.

Will have to bring them down here in several trips. Oh well I've got 10 months to get them here.

I'm leaning towards them in a curved line with a border plant of some kind atm.

Judie · Jun 25, 2008 12:04 am

Love Vita Sackville-West's work. Sissinghurst looks glorious. I actually read a book about her quite a while ago. All her work is great.

kexkez - a curved line of your roses will look fabulous. I always think one plant grouped together rather than dotted around looks the best.

Judie

maggie · Jun 25, 2008 8:32 am

Kexkez,

I have a Q, please. What is the nursery that propagated your rare rose? I am a collector and as this appears to be a rare rose here, Scarlet QE sounds fascinating, I would get one of them if it is OK with you??? Does it have a fragrance???

Maggie

kexkez · Jun 25, 2008 8:35 am

I might consider getting some other roses at a later stage though only a couple and only if I find something I really like. Since this will be a feature, ( whether I want it to or not) as they are all the same rose, I guess I'd better figure out where to put the feature within a garden bed. I'm not too keen on a clump of them in a circular area together. Makes me think of council parks from the 60's.

Since our front garden will be very large and have a main curved side garden bed area I guess put them somewhere in that. Hmm Starting to get an image in my head now of how it might look. Thanks everyone. Will pull out some graphing paper this weekend and "get stuck in".