Fitting it all in - Sarah and Derek Niemann

The Niemann garden

We moved into our house 11 years ago. It’s rather ordinary really, a typical 1970s semi with a patch of garden, on a quiet estate, but we love it.

A few years ago, we agreed that the back garden was ripe for a wildlife makeover. It’s not particularly big, and it consisted mainly of ragged lawn and two quite large areas of brick-sett patio. It soon became obvious that our ideas were much bigger than the garden itself, and we both wanted rather a lot from the space. We needed a plan!

Taking shape

I had spent months dreaming about what style of garden it could be – formal, cottage-style, fantasy, urban – all can be great for wildlife. 

Flicking through all the garden magazines and books I could lay hands on was time well spent, and I kept magazine pages of gardens or garden elements that appealed in a big folder.

After a while, the garden started to take a vague form in my mind. I wanted to create a circular lawn, edged in re-used brick from the patios, which we’d agreed were too large for the garden. Derek was adamant that he wanted a pond. And so on….

A perfect fit

Wondering how to make it all fit together, we sat down, and made two lists. On one, we put all the things we could possibly think of that we’d like in the garden, and on the other, all the activities that we thought we’d like to undertake, such as eating outside, watching the pond we’d create, and growing herbs for the kitchen. We noted which ones really mattered to each of us, and which were just a nice idea if space allowed.

'It really wasn’t difficult to put together, and it meant we’re both very happy with what we have.' 

One cold, wet afternoon, I cut out a ‘lawn’, a ‘pond’, a ’shed’ and so on from pieces of paper, and juggled them around on a scale diagram of the garden, on which I’d marked the existing features that we were keeping.  All the ideas I’d gathered were a really useful aid.

Then suddenly – there it was. I’d found a way to fit in everything that was really important to us, and I thought it could look great. I could even use our plan to imagine what the view would be like from different points of the garden. And all that was left was the hard work of putting it all into operation.

Was the planning worth it? Yes!  I’m amazed at how well all the various elements fit together, and we couldn’t have achieved so much without having a plan. It really wasn’t difficult to put together, and it meant we’re both very happy with what we have. The garden is bringing us a lot of pleasure, lots of wildlife has moved in, and there is always something of interest to see. Not a big space, but somehow so much more than the sum of its parts.

Factfile

  • Location: Sandy, Bedfordshire
  • Period of managing the garden: 11 years
  • Habitat surrounding garden: other, mature gardens, a few with mature trees. The River Ivel is 200 m away as the crow flies, with flood meadows and woodland nearby.
  • Size/orientation: back garden of semi-detached house, faces north-east. 18 metres long by 15 metres wide.
  • Type of boundary: fence with climbers, neighbours’ clipped leylandii hedge to back.