guess the question you have to ask yourself is whats your budget and do you like or enjoy gardening or do you see it as a chore or don't have time to maintain it, if the latter then keep it simple and maintenance free as much as possible. Also do you entertain in the garden? so think of a decent sized patio or decking.
I'm not a fan of gardening at all, so much so i actually have someone to come and cut the little grass that's there!
I do actually like the look of grass though and wouldn't mind keeping a little bit.
First thing I did was take the lawn up as more bother than its worth and put down some matting and gravelled it front and rear. With the rear I went mostly for evergreens and use pots for flowers etc. Things like the shed, greehouse etc are tucked away at the back of the trees so out of sight. Trees again stuck motsly with evergreens to cut down on leaf fall in the Autumn and heavily mulched the borders with coloured bark to match the gravel although have just gravelled the borders to keep weeds down.
Front garden again gravelled and yorkstone paved and again stick mostly with shrubs which can easily be pruned once a year.
Its not a large garden but easy to manage, we do have a large beech hendge at the side of the house so tend to get someone once a year to come and prune the hedge and shape the conifers and job done
Tim.
