A New Home / Blank Yard

16 years ago

I need ideas for landscaping a yard around a 1925 farm house. I had to down size considerably due to relocating due to work. There is nothing in yard except a few mature pecan trees and 1 azeala and one overgrown shrub and a horrid stump where a large shrub was cut down - trying to regrow. I had a vast collection of daylilies at my former home and knowing the move was coming I dug numerous favorites and brought them along. They are growing in large 3 to 5 gallon landscape pots. I managed to keep my garden markers with them with their names (somehow!)

I plan on growing other flowers as well in the spring In the past I had my daylilies lined out but now considering beds. I'm at a standstill on how to arrange them thought about just maybe making beds from landscape timbers for Daylilies seperately. I plan on continuing to hybridize, have lots of seeds in fridge. I would like to enhance the country farm look I would like suggestions Thanks

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Comments (7)

calypsogirl
16 years ago
Hi Jim--What a great though daunting project. I have a 1880 Maine Farmhouse and over the years have built a number of gardens. I found I had the best ideas while mowing the lawn! As I went around and around the various obstacles (a huge white pine, number of apple trees and a rock wall) the shape of the beds evolved. This took some time--I am a slow thinker. I started with a classic design--an allee of 6 apple trees as this seemed to fit the house and from there made a number of curveous beds as this seemed to fit the informal nature of the dls. I added some late summer hydrangeas, Rosy Glow Barberries, Rosa rubifolia, for height. I didn't overthink the daylily placement but tried to put 3 to 5 plants of the same variety to make more of an impact. I surrounded the garden with a plain post and rail fence painted a dark green to black--makes a great contrast! The grassy area is slowly shrinking--its much quicker mowing the lawn these days! Good luck with the new gardens!
lilynut
16 years ago
Take a look at our garden photos. Maybe they can help ya.
A blank canvas is much better than trying to change someone
elses work.

We used water hoses as outlines while planning the different beds.
Just cut the sod with an edger after you get the shape you want.

Good Luck and Happy Digging!

Here is a link that might be useful: Briarhill Daylilies
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Those pictures work. As I've mentioned previously, I would definitely do a return leg on the retaining wall, such that the grade no longer created an open end, inviting washing and erosion from behind the wall. Exactly how the layout goes would be something to figure out in plan view. From the front angle it doesn't looks as much like it's necessary to add a separate second wall above the first. An on site evaluation could determine just what's needed, but I wouldn't be adding retaining walls unless they were necessary. While it's commonplace as all get out, I consider it a shame when a nice house has a majorly underwhelming entrance area. Here, the steps are undersized. They ought to be at least as wide as the doorway assembly including the side lights. They would be dramatically upgraded if they were flanked by a blocky pair of cheekwalls that correlated with the column configuration. That necessitates widening the walk as it approaches the steps. But I think all the fuss and bother is worth it for elevating the entrance status and creating a dramatically more inviting one. In my planting scheme I'm suggesting only two shrubs (one per window), two small trees, the rest being perennials, with annuals flanking the steps, and groundcover linking everything up. If you wanted to busy up the planting scheme a little there's generally room for a little of that without making a mess of things, but subdividing and adding more is something that you'd figure out on a PLAN. I can only draw so much before too many things become covered up. I would imagine there is a high likelihood that two street trees (and maybe one at the left side of the drive if there's room) would be useful, but that would be determined from a picture taken at a distance that shows everything from the curb and back.
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To start figuring out what you're going to do, you need to put the yard in the form of a plan, as all the long, skinny spaces are hard to understand any other way. It must be to scale and be accurate if it is to be useful. Start with a base plan -- which shows everything existing that will remain, which is mainly house footprint, patio and fence. Then, figure out the patio that you are adding. (We know next to nothing about it.) After that, figure out the plants. Put the crape myrtle on hold. Don't buy any more plants until AFTER the plan is figured out.
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joann95118
16 years ago
lilynut
I am not sure that your rodent control is really very enthusiastic about his or her job classification.

JoAnn
mikeandbarb
16 years ago
Jim you could do a beautiful country cottage type garden with daylilies spaced out and then in some areas put a row of daylilies in other places.

Here is what I have mixed with my daylilies society garlic, roses, lark spur, coneflowers, poppies, salvias the small low growing type like black and blue salvia, mealy sage, snap dragons, Summer Phlox, Purselane, Blue daze, even herbs look great with them, I plan on having chive mixed in with mine next year.
There is a thread somewhere on here that people have posted pictures of their mixed gardens and they are quite the wow factor.

Also don't forget you can plant bulbs of tulips and spider lilies aka school house lilies = red spider lilies and other spring bulb flowers to have something growing all the time.

I expanded a bed just a few weeks ago and I'm looking forward to next spring like a kid waiting on christmas :) I'm hoping it turns out great. In the area I have in the back ground crape myrtle, turks cap, large leafed spider lily and will be planting dwarf cannas. In front I have somewhere around 20 daylilies with smaller plants in between to fill out the blank spots.

Happy gardening Barb
lilynut
16 years ago
JoAnn,

She just likes her belly rubbed when she sees us! LOL

Trust me she killer at heart. Nothing lives long within 300 yds. of
our house and many are in mortal danger beyond that. Best cat we've
owned in years.

Cheers,
Bruce and Tanya
jkunkel
16 years ago
Check out Charlotte's daylily diary website, and click on the "my daylily collection and photos" link. She has some really nice ones planted with other perenials. There are a few good pics of how she has her beds layed out around her yard. That may give you some ideas! Don't know how much room your working with, but hope this helps! I especially like the look of Allium, lilies, and liatris planted with my daylilies. allium works really well because the foliage tends to look nasty by the time the flower is blooming and the foliage from the daylilies hides all that uglyness. I just like some tall stuff poking out from the mounds of my DL foliage. Its all personal preferance, but I hope you have fun planting your gardens! -Jessica
jkunkel
16 years ago

The top two are great cause you can see how she has the gardens bordering her whole yard. I just like the color and plant combo's in the other pics, oh and of course the daylilies are gorgeous too! Enjoy! -Jessica

A New Home / Blank Yard

Comments (7)

calypsogirl

lilynut

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