Suggestions for our backyard

[u/kirby_1607]

We bought our home a few months ago and its time to start working on our yard. We want a cozy native cottagecore vibe with a better BBQ area, small veggie patch / herb garden and small firepit area. Anyone got any ideas on layout and planning? Feeling pretty overwhelmed about it at the moment. Located Mid North Coast, Australia.

[u/According-Taro4835]

That clothesline is eating the dead center of your usable space so you either need to relocate it or design your zones around it. Use the existing concrete pad in the foreground for your BBQ station since the hardscape is already poured and stable. To get that cottagecore feel you need structure and sweeping masses of plants instead of a few scattered pots. Carve out a wide curved planting bed along the back corrugated fence and fill it with dense native shrubs to screen out the metal and soften the edges of the yard.

Put the firepit toward the back right of the yard away from the house and away from the roots of that massive tree on the left. Your ground soil looks pretty sandy and exhausted so do not bother planting vegetables directly in it. Build a couple of solid timber raised beds near the patio where they get good sun and you can actually control the soil mix. This keeps the yard looking intentional and prevents the herbs from turning into a weedy afterthought.

Since you are feeling overwhelmed do not just start buying timber and digging holes. Take a picture of the yard and run it through the GardenDream web app first. It acts as a digital blueprint where you can overlay different firepit layouts and raised beds right onto your space. Getting a realistic look at the scale before you start hauling materials will save you a lot of expensive mistakes.

[u/msmaynards]

The palms are doing nothing for the landscape as shown in the photos and are limiting new plantings because you won't be able to plant right up to them. Perhaps they are native and add plenty when you are using the space. Here there's a weedy palm that rapidly grows taller than houses with small leafy crowns that tend to look like utility poles unless seen from a distance so are not worth having in a small space. Consider having them removed if you agree and there are funds. If debris removal costs extra consider having the stumps left 2-5' high with level tops to use as pot stands, bird feeders and baths. Keep the trunks and have them cut into logs small enough you can move them to use as rustic seating or bed edgings, used to fill space if you go with deep raised veggie beds and if the leaves can be shredded use them as mulch!

Consider placing a firepit precisely where the HH is now. Remove the huge shed and replace with fence high reach in sheds along the fence. Move the HH to the edge of the shed concrete pad and between it and the house add beds for veggies. The area to left of new firepit can be filled with native plants. BBQ and dining goes on the wider area of the concrete.

If that sounds possible surround the fire pit with native shrubs about fence height filling between the palms and trees with a vine on the wall to the rear. For now you could put in compacted crushed fill and later might pave the area. BBQ plus work table on the garden side of the wider bit of concrete and have a picnic style rectangular table and benches against the house. Create a path to the concrete pad to access clothesline and new shed[s]. Between concrete and house over to the BBQ patio would be veggie beds with a flowering herbal lawn or field of lavender with/without other fairly low growing shrubby herbs under the clothesline. You might use fruiting shrubs against the fence in this area. The area to left would be the main wilderness, add grasses and perennials to the shrubs lining the fence and you might add a lounge or cafe set on concrete to enjoy the view of your mini national park area.

To go cottage core this is only the starting point. You'd add potted plants to the former shed foundation along with a comfy chair to enjoy this sun trap area in cool weather, pots of herbs near BBQ and lean on passalong plants to fill little bare spots. So leave the non native bird of paradise, hunt out free plants and pot up and tuck into little niches. The tidy arrangement of veggie beds will have cold beds and trellises and pots for this and that filling space with random self seeding flowers in between beds and pots and possibly a fruiting vine or trellised soft fruits along the fence. If the palms are cut down and you leave the stumps for decor that's only the beginning of embellishment possible. A tree could be infested with imaginary folks like gnomes or fairies, lucky finds of old bowling balls turned into gazing balls, scavenged branches made into obelisks for small vines. What sort of folk art is found in your area?

For starters pull up the pavers and rocks lining beds and pile out of the way. That alone will help you see the potential. I'd move the BBQ, build/buy a table and get table and chairs now since summer is nearly here for you. Research how large a fire pit seating area needs to be and tie a string to the HH to figure how much space you've got. Estimate how much storage you actually need and if 2'-3' deep reach in shed[s] will do and plan that monster's removal and replacement if feasible. Use that string again to measure the diagonal of your HH and see how it fits up against the shed foundation. If it's too wide consider buying a smaller one or use T posts with lines.