I took some pictures and uploaded them to Photobucket. I will also upload a sketch with what is currently in our yard and some ideas we have for possible changes. I have a sketch with exact measurements and locations of trees, etc., but it's too big to scan in so I'll have to do a basic sketch on some smaller paper as soon as I get a chance. The dimensions of the backyard are almost exactly 80' wide by 80' deep. It appears to be deeper than it is wide, but maybe that's because the veggie garden (which is 15' wide by 47' deep) takes up a good chunk of the east side of the yard. I really like the idea of going to some favorite nurseries and collecting business cards from designers. I was trying Google searches and met with one company whose work looked nice, but it turns out that they don't do design work without being locked into a contract with them to do the bulk of the landscaping work. We'd have to sign a contract (telling them our budget range) and they would draw up plans within that range and do most of the work, subbing out stuff they don't do themselves, with the design being part of the package deal. I think I'd rather work with someone who has more flexibility in allowing us to do parts of the work ourselves without being penalized for it. lazygardens and butterflygardening: Thanks for the helpful links- I am reading through them! alygal- We love the idea of raising chickens (or ducks!), but unfortunately our city doesn't allow them in residential areas. Some of the towns around us havejust recently started allowing them, so maybe it will be a possibility in the future! Here are some of our current ideas for making our yard more attractive and usable in the ways we'd like to use it. - Possibly ditch the sandbox, although I am torn because the kids do use it when it's nice outside. The problem is that it's so close to the house that they always come in still covered with sand, AND it's location really limits the width of the planting bed around the breakfast nook. If we keep the sandbox, I think I'd at least make the flagstone path along it more narrow to allow for a slightly wider bed there. - Widen pretty much all of the beds to allow more layered planting (to increase attractiveness and privacy in the yard). I would also like to have a nice bed along the patio and around where the sandbox is, so basically be left with an area of the grass in the middle of the yard. - Possibly add a slight berm along the garden fence and plant a variety of shrubs and small trees to make the garden less prominent since it's not much too look at most of the year. - Make the patio more usable by extending it a little deeper (it's now 20' wide by 10' deep). - Add something to get more shade on the patio. It gets shade starting in the mid-afternoon and through the evening from our neighbors house to the west, so I don't really want to add a hard cover (my husband's idea) because I think it would detract from the look of the house. I am thinking a well placed tree would eventually have the right effect (and I'm content to use a patio umbrella as needed until then). - Add a screened in gazebo (about 12' x 12') south of the patio area toward the south side of the yard for dinners and entertaining. My husband is a mosquito magnet so he really wants this for enjoying the yard in the evenings. - Add a structure toward the southeast corner of the yard (about 8' x 10') to be used as a playhouse/garden retreat. I picture it looking like a little cottage style potting shed more than a mini playhouse, so that even after the kids outgrow it, I can still enjoy it as a garden retreat. - Revise current pathways through the yard and add pathways as needed to new structures, to the veggie garden/shed, etc. Would like to maybe use some reddish flagstone in addition to the buff ones we currently have and mix them up a bit as the buff looks so bland to me against our house. - Possibly cover the patio with flagstone to make it more attractive and more cohesive with pathways. Thanks for any advice or suggestions you may have. Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard Pictures

If you start now you might get rid of the stumps in 2 years by natural processes. The only trick is to get just the right amount of moisture on the stumps to get the fungus started. For that I suggest a misting nozzle like this one. I had a stump that was 15 years old. I buried it under compost thinking the compost would rot it away. Instead of rotting it away it preserved it. Why? Because the fungus that rots wood must have full access to the air. The compost cut off the air. I got the idea for the misting nozzle and it worked great. The nozzle ran continuously for 2 weeks until I noticed a fungus growing on the wood. Then I turned off the nozzle for a week or so and turned it back on. Guess what I'm saying is play this by ear. I watched carefully as the fungus spread, mushrooms formed, the surface of the wood softened, more and more softened. After about 18 months the stump was completely rotten. Stepping on it left a foot print. Still there was plenty more to rot away but it was obvious Nature was working a lot better than anything else I had tried. I talked to some people who suggested that once the stump had softened that much, that I should let it dry out, pour a little diesel on it, and burn it the rest of the way. I didn't do that. Haven't checked on it recently. That should take you up to the time when you buy the house. You are right about the issues with planting anything on top of a ground up stump. If the wood is near the surface, that fungus will steal nitrogen from any source including all the fertilizer you apply. Usually you see yellow spots in the lawn over the stump. You might have him grind the stumps and then you proceed with the wood rotting method using the misting nozzles. That might shave some months off the decomposition process.

I'd keep the maple, daylilies, the Sedum and the daffodils behind the Sedum in your last pic. There's another little Sedum behind the hose. Directly in front of the big Sedum is either a Rudbeckia or Echinacea, some would save that one and since there is only one in all your pics you might want to save that one, I wouldn't though. I noticed the dog strangling vine in one picture but there is also vinca growing under everything in that picture as well, you'll probably have to dig that out because it doesn't respond very well to Roundup. The dog strangling vine doesn't either. I think if I was just getting started gardening here, I'd leave this spot for last and just weed whack it for now, lol. Unless it's in a prominent spot. It looks like the gardener before you took most of the good stuff, luckily the beds look fertile, just give them a thorough weeding and they should be good to go. Can't wait to see the rest of your pics.

Do check out the irrigation system -- it would make more sense to irrigate the top of the slope and leave the bottom to live on runoff. I do that with several of my beds on our very sloped property (not only front to back, but side to side!) and it works quite well. I watered in everything once a week for the first few months, and after that let the lower beds survive on their own. They have thrived, even through the recent 2-week heat wave. I did improve the soil in most beds,and I have found that the beds I did NOT do this, the plants have not done as well. The clay has been exhaused by trees, weeds and unwanted shrubs for decades, and is no longer good quality soil unless very heavily amended. Replacement was actually easier than amending, BTW. I mulch heavily. I water (mostly soaker hoses, some hand watering) once every 2-3 weeks. If it's extremely, viciously hot, then once a week. Most of my beds are partial shade beds and it is surprising how much will grow in CA under these conditions. Our light is so bright that even under trees (or at least at the edges of the canopy) one can grow all kinds of things. And you're in a warmer zone than I am; I have had some trouble with winter chill damaging some frost-tender plants. I'm way north of you in the SF Bay Area, but in our sloped and rather shady backyard (a huge walnut and an enthusiastic silver maple that threatens to engulf fully half our large backyard), we still get enough bright shade overall to grow a surprising number of plants that are supposedly full sun. These include: -erysimum -canna -oleander -helichrysum -senecio -lantana -Meyer lemon -variegated euonymus -pelargoniums -shrub roses, rugosas, and miniature roses -New Zealand flax (phormium) I even got snapdragons to flower and return in one of the shadiest spots right at the foot of the silver maple. Although it probably helped to have a soaker hose in the bed -- the maple sucks up so much water that even weeds won't grow next to it. And of course, star jasmine grows like a weed, but it needs so much room I'm thinking of taking both of mine out. They are really uncontrollable! I'm not big on natives. They're nice, but spend half the year dormant or ratty. I want flowers, interesting foliage, and variety - all year round, even in January. OK, I'm a cottage gardener, I admit, LOL. Anyway, here's some pix of our backyard, and also the narrow north-facing sideyard, which is divided into two parts: the top half irrigated with soaker, the bottom lives on runoff. Looking upwards towards the house from the very bottom of our lot, from the backyard. Walnut to the right, silver maple dead ahead. Date: May 2006 for these pix Looking sideways at the bed around the walnut, towards my neighbor's yard Looking at the bottom of that bed, with the fence marking our lot boundary on your RH side. This side gets east-facing sun for about three hours before the walnut shades it all. Now the north-facing side yard: Top (Front) of the bed looking downwards - this is irrigated with soaker hose. The 'Emperor One' Japanese maple is a new variety and vastly superior to the old 'Bloodgood'. It grows in sun or shade; even windy conditions don't bother it. The bottom of the top bed, looking upwards (reverse of the photo above) The lower bed that lives on runoff. Contains star jasmine growing up a pillar, variegated aucuba, hellebores, bearded iris, liriope, and ferns.