Landscaping front yard -- small & sloping toward house

13 years ago

Hello fellow gardeners! I was wondering if I could get some ideas for my front yard landscaping from you ...

It is a difficult area to landscape. First of all, the front yard is not very deep -- about 25 feet from front porch out to street. Secondly, it slopes downward towards our house -- about 3-3.5 foot drop from street level. Thirdly, we have full SW sun exposure with very little tree shading (secondary to neighborhood being clear-cut for new construction).

I have attached some photos to show the yard to you ...

There are 2 areas that I want to plant up further.

1) Next to sidewalk: There is already a Natchez crape myrtle in place. I would like to plant another tree adjacent to sidewalk so as to further screen our front porch and yard from sidewalk.

2) Behind mailbox (next to driveway): This strip of our property is somewhat narrow (10 feet max), most severely sloping and with the greatest exposure to winds cutting through, esp in wintertime. I would like to consider an evergreen as we would like to create privacy -- cars drive downhill and the road angles diagonally toward our house such that there is little privacy during the daytime and the headlights show up inside our house at nighttime.

My husband and I have been thinking about these areas for several months, but not sure about the best solutions to create privacy for us, yet not have the plantings overwhelming our house (mostly due to the downward slope).

Thanks so much for any ideas!!

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Comments (5)

gardening_in_nc
Original Author
13 years ago
I am so sorry. I thought that I could attach photos right before posting, but I guess not. Will continue to try to figure this out ASAP, or please advise if you have done this before (I am a newbie!). Thanks :)
karinl
13 years ago
Sounds like a perfect setting for two things - retaining walls, and conifers.

Special conifer cultivars might be very useful, restricted size and profile, offering a variety of shape and colour, so something nice for you to look at while blocking views in and wind. They love sun, as long as there is adequate water, so they are perfect for protecting you from it. A deciduous canopy tree might also be good to block sun from overhead in summer. But it sounds like you need something evergreen to the ground to block those headlights year-round.

To post photos, upload them to a free photohosting site like Photobucket, and then copy the html code from the photo to the body of the message here in GW. The photos should show up when you preview the message. Alternatively, look into putting a photo on the gallery side of this forum, but that doesn't get much traffic and will require an extra click from this thread.

KarinL
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The plan and sketchup perspective are helpful. It was the deck along the side that I wanted to know about. If you limit the width of the swale to only about 4', you may not be able to achieve enough capacity to hold all the water during a torrential storm. I'd widen the swale to about half the distance between house and fence. Making it wider is fine, but the wider it is, the larger the retaining wall must be. Though I said I'd avoid creating the swale below the deck, I will now eat my words. Often, in a remodel situation--especially with limited space and where everything around is already built up--one cannot do everything in the perfectly ideal manner. But in creating it under the deck, I'd make sure it's wide enough to have sufficient capacity. In the sketch, I'm showing the deck using the wall as a support, but whether you could do that, or not, depends on how things shake out in the relationship of finish floor elevation (ffe) to existing grade. You seem like the kind of guy who would have a nice laser level, or need an excuse to buy one. You might some evening use one to mark the ffe directly on the grade (with paint) so you can get a nice visual of what you're dealing with. Depending, you may be able to create a secondary swale at the top of the wall and disperse the water before it goes into the primary swale. But because of grade and roots, that might not work out. You also might build the wall higher than I show and connect the deck to its side. Or, the deck may be independent of the the wall. Hopefully, you can understand the sketch of the drainage scheme. The arrows indicate that you must drain water away from your house at ALL sides. Near the back, it collects in the swale and is moved around the house to lower elevations on its way toward the front. I would not be much concerned about the tree roots. The prior disturbances are long ago and trees have nothing better to do than grow replacement roots, so they've long ago been re-established. The rear-most tree will maintain more than 3/4 of it's roots in spite of your building a wall in its vicinity. Near the front-most tree, if you end the wall aiming directly at the trunk, as I've shown, you will have little need to remove many large roots. It can recover from other excavation you do in the vicinity. (See the part of the sketch, in red and black, floating above the deck.)
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If that photo is representative of the area in question, then I'd reconsider using this extremely tight space for "outdoor living". And unless I am missing something, that slope is not very severe. Even if leveled, I doubt this area would be congenial to lounging outdoors or utilizing as a patio, etc. Too exposed and too restrictive and without sufficient space to develop any kind of green privacy screening. I'd consider just a mixed shrub buffer between you and the neighboring property, perhaps with a meandering pathway connecting it to more usable areas of your property. Unless that photo doesn't reveal the true slope of the area, I'd say no terracing or retaining walls are necessary or even practical. Can you post photos of other areas of your garden that may be more conducive to outdoor living/entertaining? I still think this is a situation where engaging a professional for an hour or two can be helpful - it is difficult even from the photo to get a good visual and a true sense of exactly what you are dealing with.
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That's what I've been leaning towards, but the other thing I forgot to mention is that there's a big pecan tree about 10-15 feet diagonally from the corner of the house. The deck/patio would get within 5-10 feet of it, and I'd like to avoid disturbing its root system as much as possible. (No, removing the pecan tree is not an option!!!)
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Doug, wow! Your illustration is so detailed and helps to give me a better idea of how to add some depth and dimension in the front. I'm really keen on the symmetry of your first sketch, with what I believe to be liriope? I honestly never thought about extending the retaining wall to the front elevation or adding steps. Thanks for taking the time to sketch up those concepts. This is likely the direction we will go as the stone from the existing retaining wall is also used for the pathway the leads from the driveway to the back patio and around the entire back of the house. In evaluating ground cover, Pachysandra is one I seemed to have overlooked. We have two huge maple trees at the very bottom of the front yard and don't want to plant anything that will pose a threat to them. Great suggestion there. What is a reasonable range to expect for a project of this scope? I understand every region and professional is different, among many other countless factors. Just wondering if this is $8k-$10k vs. $15k-$20k job.
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ronbre
13 years ago
you said the property slopes toward the house..if so..the most important thing for you to do before anything else is to make sure there is drainage to take water away from your homes foundation.

you can put in a french drain that will route water around your house.

after that then think about the landscaping..
firsttimer_gardener
13 years ago
Hello there! 25Â feet sounds like a lot of space to take care of your slope with some rocks or a decorative retaining wall. Check out this site I just saw. They use large boulders. http://www.rockstructures.com/index.php?o=walls

IÂd also illuminate that much yard if itÂs sloping towards your home with some solar accent lights (being on SW side) to bring some life at night. Check out these guys: http://www.yoursolarlink.com/solar-accent-lights

Good luck with your design! Sounds like a fun project. :-)
wellspring
13 years ago
Sort of repeating what others are saying here, but wonder how you feel about retaining walls? Also, how aware are you of the drainage issues? It sounds like this might be a new home? What has the builder done to insure that water flowing down that slope won't be a problem for your home?

Also, I disagree with Ronbre. Not about the drainage concern, but about just handling that before you think about landscaping. Heavens, that is a part of the whole landscaping process. If you throw in a French drain and then decide you need the retaining wallÂ Well, itÂs a classic example of why one needs to make a careful comprehensive plan for your property before you put in an fd or go out looking for plants.

The spacing seems problematic to me, but I can imagine a higher and lower tier to your property, divided by a retaining wall. Such a wall can be extremely lovely, but if it were designed in your space, it would be more important for its function of protecting your home. Each "tier" of your yard that the retaining wall would create would be more or less level. The lower level -- though virtually flat -- would be properly graded with a slope away from the foundation. If possible, this wall would follow the contours of your property or would be designed to look as though it does. Steps would need to be designed to allow for access to the sidewalk / mailbox.

The frentch drain Â which, by the way, is a sort of artificial underground stream bed, often not visible at the surface -- would be at the base of the retaining wall some 10 to 12 feet ? from your foundation.

Cost? Not cheap. I have no clue if thatÂs what your situation needs, but addressing the significant negative slope toward your home is at least as high a priority as screening for privacy and planting for shade.

ThatÂs where doing tons of background research on the landscape design process is needed to help make sure you arenÂt missing something. The cool thing is that once you are clear about what has to be achieved in your front yard design in order for you to be happy, certain solutions will start working together. If, after youÂve considered the worse gully washer that could happen, you decide that some sort of drainage work needs to be done, then whatever choice you make about it could also work with other objectives. I can imagine, for instance, a retaining wall enhancing the sense of shelter.

Paying for it? Ah, thereÂs the rub. But if you know what your dream front yard needs to be, then you might be able to work toward achieving it.

Hope so.

Wellspring

Landscaping front yard -- small & sloping toward house

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gardening_in_nc
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karinl

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Landscaping front yard -- small & sloping toward house

Comments (5)

gardening_in_ncOriginal Author

karinl

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ronbre

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wellspring

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gardening_in_nc
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