What to do with hard standing?

[Stravaig]

Our garden leaves in lot to be desired in some ways. It's big but it's not exactly good for growing stuff. The previous owner had some kind of car repair business, so if you want a small car park (bigger than some I've seen) our place is ideal. However, we only have one car and the occasional visitor, eg tradespeople, so it's plenty more than enough parrking spaces for us.

Digging out the concrete (or whatever it is) isn't really an option so I thought we could grow herbs and edible plants at the back near the kitchen door and other plants as decoration at the front. The idea was they'd all be in containers. Well, we've made a start but it looks kinda sad. There are a couple of lavender shrubs and a couple of pots of heather - all thriving in this climate but they seem like a small drop in colour in a vast ocean of grey concrete. At the back we have a few scawny trees which we bought, again in containers. Plus the usual herbs. I keep the exotics inside.

Short of spending a load of money on buy hundreds of plants to decorate this big empty space what can I do? I could have an outdoor kitchen at the back - seating, BBQ, etc, but that still leaves the Sahara at the front.

I was thinking of maybe containers of daffodils to add some colour. What else would be cheap and cheerful?

The good news is there is actually a small bit of green - about the size of a postage stamp right at the very back, but at least it's a garden in the usual sense of the word.

What would you to cheer up this barren space?

Thanks in advance.

[retropants]

Maybe you could ask your efficient builders that just worked for you to make a couple of wooden troughs out of decking or similar for some small shrubs or whatever you fancy.

[Stravaig]

Thanks, yeah, or I could maybe get some cheap ones from the garden centre. It's such a large area, the pots I have are just kinda lost there. I suppose a couple of raised troughs along the front of the house would be a good place to start.

We got a job lot of bulbs last year. We could start by excavating them from the shed... I don't expect they'd take long to plant and then we'd maybe get a show of colour later in the year. I only do edibles at the back but don't mind what at the front.