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Nice deck, I'm surprised the previous poster didn't notice it :)
Let me guess... you'll be spending time on the deck when you're outside, and the rest of the garden will mainly function as a View - correct me if I'm wrong; are there other uses for the space?
Sounds like your grandma immunized you against the Gardening Bug - that would be reason enough to keep the lawn; however, if you happen to catch the bug, the space seems small enough to replace the lawn with lush vegetation.
There are folks here who can give you better advice on how to deal with the drainage (and deal with it you have to) - but one option would be to collect and save that water for times of drought. I'm linking to an image from a garden I visited recently - the water is directed from the roof via pipes into the pool.
How do you prune the snowball (viburnum? hawthorn?) - do you keep it low? I think I'd rather remove the lower branches, and let the top grow naturally - but I've only seen the photo, not how it feels in reality.
Good luck and hope you get more comments.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:46308}}

Not that you have to do this, but there are many, many evergreens that do not need any pruning AT ALL. They are the epitome of low maintenance. And they may do well in your CO climate. I'm not suggesting you plant them if they bring back horrible childhood memories, but I would suggest that you could find no-trim/prune varieties so as to not limit your whole scheme. The next thing to ask yourself is, What do you want from this space?

That non-flowering green plant might be lilies...? Euphorbia? Wait and see what it does.

And thanks for mentioning the East Deck, as it makes me think you labelled the views incorrectly? Not that it matters... south facing is what matters.

Drainage... from what I think is the west (front?) fence line it looks like the ground is deliberately sloped so that the dividing fence line is a swale between your house and the neighbour's to carry off rainwater. So you obviously don't want to reverse or stop that, but you could put some steps into the flow to slow it down. The thing is that whatever you have there is in danger of washing away as the grass's base is doing. Where is the water coming from?

Anyone who wants to give you useful advice (unlike the first responder, who just wants to play with pretty pictures) will need to know who you are as a gardener - because maintenance follows installation! From the hardscape side it sounds like you're a reasonably handy individual. But do you really want much in the way of plants? Also, do you move through this space much, requiring pathways to anywhere?

KarinL

It appears that the snowball shrub was planted there strategically - to hide the shed.

Though I like the look of trimming shrubs up like multi stemmed trees, I'm not sure I'd do that here unless you want to emphasize the shed. And, I don't know how feasible it would be to move that shrub, if I'm understanding you correctly - it looks like it could have a pretty extensive root system and you'd probably end up killing it in the process. It's a pretty shrub.

Aside from a little pruning for shape, I'd keep it - you can plant clematis to grow up on it for visual interest. Check out the clematis forum if you are interested. Viticella type clematis are wilt resistant, and will give repeat blooms if you trim it back by 1/2 after the intial flush, but there's a wide variety to choose from.

Is your gardening style more formal or informal?

Do you like to garden every day, or do you like low maintenance plantings?

You have a nice size yard to work with. I'm envious of your taller fenceline. We're only allowed a 4 1/2 foot height where I live, and it doesn't allow for a lot of privacy from neighbors on our small lots. I suppose, everyone wants what they don't have, right?

I think you can take that picture and tweak it to your style and how you'll use the yard. I do like the idea of berming it up on the side opposite the deck to counter the drainage issue. I'd also suggest some fragrant roses or flowers (lilies) near the deck.

Don't knock evergreens. There are plenty of dwarf varieties that could help to hide the fence. Dwarf Alberta spruce comes to my mind.

I'd make two beds. One against the deck, and one alongside the fence. As for grass, forget it. I have the same bad karma for lawns as you have for evergreens. That stone in ne of your photos looks just fine to me. But I am lazy, I admit it.

Take care

I meant to say that the third picture was from the fence, facing North, I'm not sure why I said East.

I don't really have a drainage problem, I have a problem with the water not soaking into the soil. The current water is coming from the sprinkler head near the whiskey barrel. The water isn't washing the grass away, it just simply isn't sinking in due to the clay soil. Coupled with the all day sun, the grass is doing terrible. As the slope levels out a little towards the middle, the water is able to soak in better.

I agree that the drainage is a good thing, as most of the heavy rain runoff will go from the NorthWest portion of my lawn, down to the South next to the fence. Trying to get the grass to grow well is difficult, so I figured I'd just get rid of it.

The area probably won't be used for much of anything other than a place to look nice and remove grass. I am also contemplating adding steps to the deck next to the roses, and maybe making a little sitting area. However, I don't anticipate using it very often, what with the giant deck and all.

I'm new to gardening and keeping plants alive, but don't mind the weeding/pruning/watering aspect, although I don't have enough time to spend hours each day on it. Learning how to maintain every other aspect of a house is rather time consuming. I imagine I would be an informal gardener, to the poster who asked. The heartier the plants, the better. Perennials would probably be the best idea, especially since the previous owner placed a lot of them in the front yard.

Dwarf evergreens sound like an acceptable choice. If they stay small, I doubt they would bring up any horrible memories.

I do need a walkway through there, at least large enough for the lawn mower and wheelbarrow to get through.

My concern with the snowball bush, is it's getting rather large, and I'd rather not have it much larger than the shed it's hiding. I've been reading up on that, so I don't think it will be too much of an issue. I also think once I move the shed back towards the fence, it will leave a strange open spot. The flowering vines are a good idea.

Making the two beds was one of the ideas I had come up with as well. I was concerned with the one next to the fence, since that is where any drainage would be. I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to simply place any sort of dirt or mulch there with plants located throughout. I contemplated putting in raised beds, but the drainage issue comes into play again. Building it up with rocks, and having a type of rock garden next to the fence crossed my mind.

And, once it has been decided what to plant, I was wondering with how to edge it up to my lawn. Having grass and then a hard border into the plant/walkway area seemed abrupt. Maybe having a flagstone type walkway through the planting area, and "breaking up" once it meets the lawn portion of my backyard.

The ideas thus far are helpful. I'm very open to any others. While bizarrely over the top, the first poster did give me an idea or two. Thanks for the help!

The yard looks like a older mature landscape with lots of shade. Hostas are an extremely easy plant to grow and no pruning needed. Hostas will take the shade and provide some needed color in the shadier areas.

For some reason when I look at these views, I see alcoves that would look great with some garden statuary. Maybe it's the mature or aged apperance of the landscape that makes me think of that, but statues have winter appeal and little maintenance.

Personally I found a brick edging is the greatest. Lay them flat and lengthwise the 4X8 way. They are the easist to istall, a little at a time. You'd be surprised how fast they go. And they'll last forever, and can be easily moved when you change your mind (as you most certainly will.)

Good luck.

The particular area I'm working on is only from the whiskey barrel to the fence, and then back to the shed/snowball bush. It gets sunlight all day long. However, I am looking for something to grow between the maples, so I'll check out hostas.

For some reason, a post I made about any online or literary information is gone. If anyone knows of any reading I could check out, please point me in the right direction. I'll probably stop by the Botanical Gardens in the next few weeks, and speak with them.

Since you have such bad soil, have you considered any raised beds? That would eliminate the soil and drainage issue. That way the raised beds could be filled with well ammended soil. I also agree that there are a lot of no maintenance evergreens out there that you might want to consider.

I will try to work something up with my landscape program to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I will make sure mine is much more in scale with your picture then the other one.

Books and magazines are a great way to start zeroing in on what you like, which is really the most important thing to do here.

I suspect you would be able to grow lawn, and stay with the basic layout that is already there, if you could level out the surface. There are different ways to do this, if growing lawn, or partial lawn, is what you want to do.

I've linked below to a recent thread in which a poster has a grass pathway between two beds. As I said in the thread it isn't always my favourite look, but it might work for your needs. The other option would be to lay a paver or flagstone pathway and put a slight retaining edge going up from the path to make a level surface back to the deck for growing grass, or anything else for that matter.

Anyway, your pathway is likely the root decision to make. And the rest might flow from there.

You should probably sit on the deck and think about exactly what parts of this side yard ground you can see from there. If you plant around the edge of the deck, it actually won't be a bed that you can see from the deck unless you use tall plants.

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: Side yard thread

Good point on not being able to see anything close to the deck, unless I'm actually in the area. Of course, planting something tall then cuts out the view from the deck to anything planted lower, forcing me into that area to see much of anything once again.

This leads me in the direction of taking out the railing next to the roses and putting in steps. This could lead down to a flagstone walk, and maybe a concrete bench or statue of some sort. The flagstone heading East, towards the shed/gate, could be densely placed, while going West could start to break apart a bit going into the lawn. In between and around the sparsely placed flagstones, some sort of hardy ground cover. Hopefully something that can withstand a lawnmower being wheeled over it once a week. I think this would help transition from the backyard lawn to the landscaped area, instead of an abrupt border of some sort.

Next to the steps, a couple of the dwarf evergreens. Around the statue/bench and flagstone path, some perennials in slightly raised beds, with spaces allowing for any torrential downpour drainage. Across the fence, some climbing vine of some sort. Not sure what to put in the junk/dog run area, but that shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

This would allow a way for the people to be drawn to the area, without being forced into the backyard and looking dead on, or looking directly down on it from the deck.

Once again, thanks for all of the help. Your ideas are propelling me towards a plan much quicker than I anticipated, and I hope to repay the community at some point in the future.

Landscapedesignchina
I like that photo!! Can you give me ideas on mine also a few posts after this post!!!!

For this yard I like the idea of pink knockouts!!!They would look nice with the white and blue trim on the house...

That's the fastest I've ever seen someone go from clueless to decisive! Congrats on finding your momentum. The idea of opening up the deck strikes me as an excellent one.

The thread linked below is an older one where the "after" picture at the end of the thread may offer some help with your mental modeling (the picture's wide, so scroll sideways too). The original problem was different, but it was the only one I could recall that had a side-opening raised deck.

Good luck, and pay us back by coming back to visit and keeping us posted!

KarinL

Here is a link that might be useful: useful photo?

Oh absolutely you will not regret opening up the deck, if you like to garden and want to garden to give yourself pretty things to look at, which to me is a prime reason why I garden. I did the same thing with my back yard--I had a big railing all around my deck and I would go out there and felt like I was in jail. And my only view was the tops of my neighbors cars! Now I have a patio and the garden around it is designed to look nice from various sitting views. It's still not finished yet, but I go out there a lot and sit and contemplate what I want to look at, and how it will look from various angles. Here's a "before and after" of my yard. I cannot tell you what a huge differnce it makes to go out and sit on my patio now and look at pretty foliage!! I've also planted things in front of the ugly fence to hide it somewhat. Before I was like "captain of the neighborhood" and my friends joked that I should install a ships steering wheel "on deck."

Before
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After
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(Yes I know the white edging is dorky! It's temporary and all the plants are much bigger now.)