Help! Courtyard with no garden at all!

[Tel]

Hello there new to this forum!
My hubby and I are busy house hunting and have found what we think is the perfect house except for...........no garden at all!
The front of the house has no garden as it is on the pathway, and the back only has a very large courtyard, even though neither of us actually have green fingers I am sure we will miss not having a garden!
There is a large area in the courtyard that has paving slabs down and we wondered if it would be possible to lift them and make a more garden looking area?
We have even thought of putting decking down so that we have a raised seating and eating area, then we could put lots of plants and small shrubs around so that it at least looks green!! We would also need to make sure we have a good sort of herb garden.
Oh! By the way the house was built in 1913 and its about 10 mins walk from the beach! How perfect is that!
If anyone could give me some ideas about this problem I would love to hear from them.
Thanks
Tel [/b][/b]

[Grey]

I can't give you any ideas on specific plants as I do not really know what plants grow well in Scotland, but I can help otherwise!

You could get raised beds of an interesting concrete material, say, four square ones, one for each corner, then one long one (or maybe a water feature?) to go along the back wall, between the two back corner squre containers - just narrower to keep the interesting shape. Something growing tall and narrow comes to mind, like horsetail (which has to be contained) or bamboo (likewise, for the most part) for that back, narrow bed.

Or have the garden area be u-shaped around the courtyard (say you dug out some of those stones) - so two long beds leading you to a seating area in the back, which has yet another long bed going along the back.

You can change these up with large pots. I'd say, put very low-maintenance but pretty, and sort of tall, plants in the larger beds and along the back, and then grow your herbs and flowers that you like to change out with the seasons in pots.

Hope that helps! If the house is perfect, a yard is lots of fun to change, and is doable. Some people really prefer a blank slate... but it takes a lot of imagination. Try going to a bookstore for an afternoon on an inclimate day and looking through all the gardening books. It's my favorite thing to do on a yucky day, and here we have places that let you drink coffee while you peruse their books (why won't libraries do that?).