crl, I'm in Sonoma County so I know the water/landscaping issues. In 2011 I had my lawn taken out and my front yard redone with drought-resistant plants and a completely new irrigation system. I had 1) landscaping designer, 2) hardscaping (new path, dry creek bed, berming, small boulders), 3) plants and irrigation. My yard is about 50 x 30 (ish). Small suburban front yard.

I think everything listed above cost $8-10K (sorry, can't remember off the top of my head). The landscape plans cost about $450 but it was good to have a plan and plants. The biggest expense was #2, particularly the path. Without that it would have been much less expensive. They dug out my lawn and then laid down lots and lots of cardboard. Four years later I occasionally get a spear of grass poking up, but they're easy to pull out.

Do not skip berming/contouring your yard!!! Lots of people in my town are taking out their lawns and doing what you want to do. A flat yard lacks a lot of interest. Just a little contouring makes such a difference.

You can do this for less. I did none of the work myself.

I'll dig up some before/after shots. I love my yard. It's the best money I've ever spent on home improvements.

I feel you! Texas here, and although this year we got some relief, we just came off the worst drought in history. It was brutal.

That's a valid concern about mulch. I have two beds that border the street and driveway, and have had an issue with the height.

I can't really say about your specific area, except that Xeriscaping is a great idea, and can look lush and beautiful. Once it's established, upkeep will be minimal. I'd add in some large boulder type rocks for interest, birdbath(s), maybe a path, too, to break it all up.

I'm sure you'll get great advice on these boards, but I'd also go to a local, established nursery and ask them for ideas and advice. It's free, and they know your exact area best.

Thank you for your thoughts and encouragement.

Here's the yard.

And here's a snapshot of the plan I have worked up. (We are thinking we would leave the area for the new walkway unplanted, just mulched, until we can afford to have that hardscapping done).

The he big square sort of in the center is likely a chaste tree. The remainder of the plants are mostly CA natives. I can buy the plants at retail for under 1k locally.

I think I remember when Linelle posted her yard "after" photos. It was spectacular!

Can you confer with a local master gardener group to get some advice on how to proceed and which portions of the work you should be able to manage?

I'm in the same boat in southern Cali. To make matters worse, I'm in the mountains at about 6k' elevation and snowy Winters. I have NO idea what to do with my yard :(

Thank you all for the commiseration and great ideas. Linelle, do you remember how far down they dug to remove your grass?

Before:

After:

2011:

2012:

It keeps growing and morphing. I took out two of the phormiums because they got HUGE. Add/subtract. It's fun. I putter about a bit, but there's not too much maintenance. My drip system is all programmable and even has a rain sensor.

Just beautiful!

The poppies are my favorite thing. They are working their way around the neighborhood.

Thank you so much for the encouragement and suggestions!

I have a quirky dislike for orange and/or yellow flowers in my yard. We do have some lavender on the side of the house which has done well with total neglect, which was the main reason I included some in this plan. I'll see if I can find the variety you suggest. Thank you!

We aren't as far out as Livermore so not as hot. I think solarization would have worked if we had started this summer, especially as hot as it was this year. But I think it is probably too late for us to do it now.

Dh and were talking and I think we will see what our former yard crew (mow and blow twice a month when we still had grass) would charge to dig out the grass and mulch on top of cardboard and rock the strips we want rocked. Do you think digging out the grass would be bad? We are just concerned about raising the level of the yard and creating a problem with the mulch washing out. Otherwise, we'd just spread cardboard and mulch this weekend.

The yard crew previously dug out some stumps for us and mulched garden beds very reasonably in the past. If we can afford to have them do that work, then I should be able to manage buying and planting myself. I think I should shoot for planting at the end of October or beginning of November to hopefully catch the winter rains.

Here's a mood board I had previously put together showing plant choices.

Wow, Linelle! Your yard is gorgeous! I would love to have something like that here.

Thanks all. This yard pretty much takes care of itself. Once a year I have the gal who did the drip lines check the system and do any repairs if necessary. I putter around, deadheading mostly.

When the creek bed went in I thought it looked dorky as hell. But now I love it, with stuff growing up and around the sides. When I'm in there I feel like I'm in a tiny bit of nature. The bees are crazy for my yard.

crl, your house is adorable, cute as a button. I also have colors I don't like in my yard. As much as I adore the color red for clothes and interiors, I don't want it in my yard. And anything coral or tropical looking is out of the question. I originally had all whites, purples and magentas. But I realized it needed a pop of...yellow/gold. Hence the poppies. It makes all the purples and lavenders look so much better. But that's me.

They didn't dig down that deep to remove the lawn, sorta what rolls of turf look like.

My next door neighbors have a similar type of yard and the two have sort of merged.

Here's the sad yard in the rain with all the lawn gone and just the new path. It seemed way too huge. They told me it needed to be wide enough for a new fridge. :)

Yes, I think if we need more color, I'd try red. I'm neutral on red in the garden. I have a very quirky negative personal association with yellow flowers in my space. In other people's yards I think, oh pretty. Weird. I know.

heres the mood board with some red yarrow added. I had previously considered it and I like the addition of red, and I like yarrow in some situations but it seems to sprawl a bit? And looks better if it's not at the front of the border? So I couldn't quite find a satisfactory way to work it in.

I have removed grass by renting a sod cutter. It cuts under the grass and enables you to roll up the grass in sections ( like sod). It's a big machine to manage, but makes fast work. Your house is lovely. I look forward to the end results.

I like the idea of some annuals to fill in and to possibly reseed in the future. So pretty in Linelle's yard and cottage-y which I think suits the house very well.

I found there are aome white and red varieties of California poppies. And I found Larner seeds via google which seems to have a variety of CA native annuals available by seed. Any additional particular suggestions or seeds to avoid would be appreciated!

Are you taking out the tree by the street?

I love everything except the Vitex...it is going to completely block out your house. The house is ADoR aBLE, and needs to be framed, not blocked.

my Vitex in Texas required constant maintenance, too, but that may be different in N.CA...

I'm thinking maybe these four annuals from seed.

Calandrinia ciliata Red Maids

Eschscholzia californica 'Moonglow' White form of the California poppy

Gilia tricolor Bird's Eye Gilia

Clarkia rubicunda Ruby Chalice Clarkia

I cannot take out the tree by the street. Street trees here are owned/governed by the city and only removed by the city with posted notice if diseased or somehow hazardous. Also very nearly our whole street has the same tree. They are lovely in the fall when the leaves all turn.

The huge front window on our house feels a lot like a shop window. I feel like I'm on display when I sit in the living room with the front drapes open--so much so that I often pull the drapes when I am in the room. (I do not want to change the window coverings.). I really want something that offers a bit of screening from the street, without creating a scary/ overgrown look. So I looked at a lot of small trees/large shrubs. I placed it slightly off center and several feet from the house hoping to create a balance there. I'm definitely willing to consider alternatives that would accomplish this goal, but I do really want something to give at least some illusion of screening.

Reports are that chaste trees need some pruning to shape at the beginning, but not much other care. What kind of maintenance did you find necessary?

I once rented a hand sod cutter by the day for under $20 to take out sod. I'm not sure I would want to attempt to use it in your situation. I have an electric Mantis tiller ($300) that, used on its low tine setting, tills 2-3 inches of soil. You could cover sections of the lawn with black plastic or a large tarp for a few days prior to kill the grass, then go in with the tiller to loosen the soil and then manually remove the plants and roots.

I haven't found Vitex to need much in the way of maintenance here, beyond taking out the occasional senesced branch. They take to pruning fairly well, anyway. I have one shaped as a multi-branched tree and the rest have been left as shrubs to grow as they wish. They are deciduous, but twiggy enough to still make a screen for your "fishbowl" window in the winter I think. One thing I really like about them in the winter are the racemes of seed capsules, which are quite decorative (the kind of thing that people might pick and even spray with gold paint or such for dried flower arrangements). I planted my group of 3 of them with just that winter effect in mind.

You can get gigantic packets of the white-flowered form of CA poppy at Home Depot. It is my favorite color of the poppy, actually (the gold color clashes badly with my house color).

There are Mimulus aurantiacus (bifidus) cultivars in a variety of red shades, too (derived from a subspecies that occurs naturally in southern California) that would be more manageable, and more tidy, than most yarrows. (There are a few yellow yarrows that don't run at the root much, but most other colors are crazy and rampant in my experience).

I don't know if the white/red poppies have the same vigor as the golden ones, but be sure you want them before you plant them. Ask me how I know. :) The good thing is, you can pull them up by their roots or cut them right down with the ground, depending on where you do or don't want them. Mine bloom up to 3 times/year.

If you decide to scatter poppy seed, first mix them in a large bucket of outdoor potting mix. It helps distribute all those teensy seeds. Then grab handfuls of soil/seed and go to town.

Hmm, should I ask my next door neighbors before I plant poppies? I know one of them is driven crazy by the morning glories planted by a previous owner. I wouldn't want to create another problem for her.

First off listen to Catspa!

Second, You could get a rock company to drop off a "basket" of smaller sized rocks you can lift yourself and dig enough in to hold them in place. I would hire the gardeners to remove the grass for a 3-4 foot bed around the yard and then remove the grass and soil a bit deeper behind the bed toward the house but to slope it so rain will flow toward your street side beds. The beds should act as a berm to trap some rain for the plants and hold back the thick layer of free woodchips I would contact the local tree guys to drop off. Make sure there is a spot in the berm to allow excess water to run off with out flooding your house or your neighbors. Not sure how much rain you might get, but I think I would rather have several inches of wood chips than a thinner layer and cardboard. If you decide at a later time to use stone for a new walk, you should have some good soil to use for beds and in the mean time it would be walk able and should come in way less than your budget and be a couple of weekends project (other than the digging) for you.

Linelle, your yard is gorgeous! What a transformation.

CRL, I would suggest investing in a professional site plan/design. Through design, they can come up with easy ways to get past (what we see as) hurdles. Then, with your budget in mind, you might be able to pull off what Linelle has if you invested a lot of time and energy in being your own GC. Gathering all the materials and equipment and hiring "yard guys" to do the work. Make sure the designer knows your plan of self-gcing. Your sweet house is screaming for a yard like Linelle's.

The designer I talked to said it would be at least 3k in design fees. That's my whole budget. I just can't make that happen in the foreseeable future.

Linelle got a plan for $450. That's much more in keeping with what I have found. $3k for a tiny front yard? That's beyond ridiculous! If you and Linelle are in the same area, perhaps she could recommend her designer?

We have a local nursery that will come to your house and draw up a design for less than $100. Of course, they hope you will pay them to install or at the very least purchase your plants from them. I realize you are in CA, but we are outside DC which is also an expensive area. Your yard is small and those design and install prices are beyond absurd. Do it yourself (except the creek bed which is not an amateur job unless you have done huge amounts of landscaping involving earth moving and drainage). I would just use the lasagne method to get rid of the grass. Easy and yard will be ready to plant come spring. I have done that here on several beds.

Good luck. Love your house, btw!

So many replies to this, I did not have time to read them all thoroughly, so apologies if it's already been mentioned, but RE: the concern about mulch washing away, you could create a barrier of rocks or edging to limit 'migration'.

And roots will hold soil/mulch in place, so plant your 'anchor' items ASAP - & aren't you guys having a drought anyway?

Alas, if crl is around Livermore, we live in separate parts of the Bay Area. My designer is a landscape architect. She designed my next door neighbors' yard which I've always loved, so it was a no-brainer for me. We discussed what I wanted, colors I like. She came up with a variety of plants that work. I was sad at first to get rid of my two flowering pear trees. But they were all wrong for my small yard, their roots were cracking my driveway and they shrouded my yard in shade all summer. I miss that on the 100+ days but I craved sun and sun-loving plants. I have a bed that runs along the north side of my forward garage that has some shade-tolerant plants. If you love hydrangeas, consider an oakleaf variety. Very non-diva, doesn't wilt on the hottest day.

As for poppies or anything else escaping the confines of your yard. Well, nature happens. Birds eat/carry/poop seeds and that's how it goes. My neighbors on both sides have privet, which I loathe, and it frequently pops up in my yard. I deal with it and don't blame them.

Anyway, designer's fees. I live in a pricey area. $450 in 2011. Might have gone up another $100 or so, but so worth it. I have real architect plans, not just the plants, but she designed a new walk and a creek bed. She shows where boulders go and how to mound the soil. You can tell the difference between my yard and the DIY across the street that did no contouring. Same plants. My yard looks natural and there's is just a flat square. Given the size of your front yard $3K is an outrageous amount for a plan. Keep looking, talk to people in your neighborhood who have yards you like.

So far I have gotten one nursery who will come out in a couple of weeks and give me an estimate. One place that has a 10k min. One person who said 13k. Several places that have not gotten back to me at all.

I'm in the east bay, closer in than Livermore. Demand for all contractors is extraordinarily high right now. My kitchen gc says it is a once in a lifetime level of demand.

We live in a very flat place There are some nearby yards that have had slopes artifically created They look a little fake to me in this context By contrast I really like some of the nearby flat yards

I won't deny that a designer would be able to do something more special. But I am okay with my design. It's the execution that's more problematic. Especially the lawn prep part. I think I have a handle on how to approach that now.

Thank you all!

"once in a lifetime level of demand"

I can only imagine, with everyone ready to get rid of their lawns, this is quite the demand.

I'll bet the all-inclusive deals are what's running so high. Your lawn area is half the size of mine, so I don't get it. Are you planning to keep your existing tree? I forgot to mention that out of my total I had to pay for two large tree removals.

The biggest expense I had was the lawn removal + contour + new path + creek bed. I paid my designer's wholesale price for the plants. The planting and new drip line were done by a local gal who's an arborist and runs her own planting and yard upkeep business, one of those great souls who knows her stuff, is fair and honest. She charges me $30 an hour. $30 an hour!!! I tell her she doesn't charge enough and give her more. I would be leery of a package deal, esp. with those prices. I guess in my situation I was the GC and subbed everything else out, but I had leads from neighbors and my designer.

The tree stays. It is the city's.

10k was an all-included package type place. Nursery that is coming will be also. 13k was 3k for design fees and 10k estimated for work, not by her. Others are simply not getting back to me at all. I have asked around and looked at yelp. I don't have very many more resources for referrals/suggestions.

I am fine with my plan. An I don't mind buying plants and planting. If my former yard crew can do the prep work, I think I can mange the rest.

Find a master gardener! My experience has been that they work for free or for a donation.

Crl, yes, this is what master gardeners can help you with. I'm sure they're in demand as much as landscapers are for the very same reasons. But here is a link with contact information and a brief description of their services. I think this one is for your area:

http://smsf-mastergardeners.ucanr.org/

Btw, your house is adorable and Linelle, fantastic job on your landscape!

editing to add a better link.

I texted the head of our yard crew this morning and he was going to be on our street working this afternoon anyway so he came by. He is interested in the work and will get back to me towards the end of the week with pictures of rock possibilities and a price for the job. He seemed interested in the work and he has done work for us in the past at a very reasonable price. So I'm hopeful that this will work out.

My plan now is for him to take care of digging out what's left of the old lawn, mulch over cardboard, and rock the two strips I want rocked. Then in late October/early November, I will buy plants and plant them myself. I'm thinking I should plan on spreading that work out some so I don't end up over-extending myself and leaving plants in their nursery pots for weeks on end.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, advice and encouragement!

I live on three acres and it would not cost me half what you are WILLING to spend...sorry but that is INSANE.

I got rid of my grass "slowly". With a plan in mind, used the lasagna method right over the grass during fall. By spring there was wonderful mulch to plant in and the grass never did come back. The method did not make hills, any grass underneath mulched itself and had nice flat areas where all was. Now my yard is a cottage garden with a dry creek and paths going through the flowers. All drought resistant. Every fall I deadhead and spread the seeds among areas of the yard.

This year there was so many flowers the seeds are heading to my backyard. So easy to take care of through the spring summer. Fall does require some work to hang on to the seeding going on. I wouldn't look back having a lawn.

I had no clue the price of landscaping is what you were bid. Maybe they are taking advantage of the drought. You might want to find someone who is on an internship and work with them. Or as mentioned before, a master gardener. Usually your area will have a web site to work from for planting guides and interaction. I think they are university based.

crl, I'm glad to hear you've got some budget-friendlier options. What about drip irrigation? I got a new control box installed for under $200 and it's totally programmable, plus has a rain sensor. Also, check with your city's water dept. as mine offers up to $300 rebates for removing lawns and replacing with drought-tolerant plants and drip.

Linelle, there's some indication that drip irrigation isn't the best match for natives. I believe someone posted a link on this above and I had found similar advice previously. I have tried hard to go with plants that say they require no summer water as opposed to low summer water. Hopefully we really will get rain this winter and that will go a long way to establishing them. I'm planning to supplement via soaker hoses (also maybe not the best choice for natives) or a regular sprinkler through the first summer and as needed afterwards. If I change my mind, I gather drip can be installed above ground and mulched over so it could be added later.

I will double check with the local water supplier, but as I recall reading their website before their program requires doing the entire yard to receive a rebate. We have a much bigger and more expensive project in mind for the back (an existing structure needs to be demoed and we'd like a lot of hardscaping added and a pergola). We can't pull off the backyard at this point.

For years I struggled with my tiny yard and posted and posted on the landscape forum. I got some help, but mostly what worked was my own trial and error. I made the HUGE mistake of hiring a landscape designer for a plan, she met with me, drew up a plan, and it was pretty much useless and the whole project cost me 3K, and she did a bait and switch on me and said that was just for the "first phase." So I ended up with a patio design that I didn't really want but it was all I could "afford." If I had to do it again, I would have done it in phases, and worked with a patio installer directly instead of a landscape designer. As for plant selection, get some books and use Google, you'll do just as well as a professional if you put your mind to it and are reasonably intelligent.

First of all, for keeping in the mulch, you need some type of raised bed/garden wall border. Not something terribly tall, but something. My designers said no, just mounding the mulch would be fine. Poppycock! I used bricks and treated lumber for my bed lining, but you could use rocks or whatever you like. Does not have to be terribly high to be effective. My yard was dead flat, and 6 inch bricks were fine. Would be different if you yard was hilly, they you would need a retaining wall. Get a good landscaping book, should have instructions on how to do either option, and online videos too. Rocks can give you a natural look but are heavy to move around.

As for plants, bear in mind that you can move them around just like you do furniture, and tear out something if it doesn't work out. My garden evolved over time. Get SMALL plants. They are much cheaper and will do better in the long run, they can acclimate and will surpass the growth of more expensive larger plants in a very short period of time. Here's an example of a three year's time "before and after" of my yard. I-kid-you-not that it is three years time elapsed. Note the ugly brick that I didn't want and hated and the white brick borders that I also didn't like or want, but were cheap and easily available and something I had to add after the fact. The shape was not very elegant and I fault the designer for that. I paid her specifically to help me figure out how to design a patio and walkway that elegantly went from one angle where the back door was to another angle where you had to walk along the garage to the entrance. What I got was not what I wanted, but I made it work with plantings to disguise its awkwardness. But I didn't get my 3k's worth my any means! The fireglow maple died sadly, and I took out the little Silverbell tree in front of it (in a vain attempt to favor the maple) but thankfully at the end the Musclewood tree on the other side had grown up to provide some shade. The lattice work covered my compost bin, to keep out mice and other critters. The dates on the photos are 2006, 2009, 2013. It's not very elegant, IMHO, and I paid a designer 3K for the work and it ended up being exactly what I pretty much had to do on my own, other than lay the poorly designed patio and walkway. I should have messed around with string and spray paint and I probably would have done better than what I got. I climbed to the second floor and was able to take a picture of the whole yard and print it out and draw on it to get layout ideas.

crl, I don't know about the drip vs no drip with natives issue. Drip was simply a part of my project. I probably have plants that aren't native, who knows. I know that my city dismissed my oak leaf hydrangea as not being drought tolerant, but that baby just eats up the heat and dry conditions.

Yes, you can add drip and then cover with mulch. That's how mine was done and you really want the lines and emitters being accessible for checking and repair. I'm glad for my drip. You can turn the thing off, but it's there if you need it.

crl, my first disclaimer is that I don't know anything about plants that grow well in your zone. But I don't understand why drip irrigation wouldn't work for natives (or anything else) in your plan. It would seem like a prudent and relatively inexpensive addition for anything newly planted, especially if you are considering hydrangeas. In our zone (7), native or any hydrangeas need a lot of water to get established, but once established, which takes about a year, they are pretty maintenance free unless a real dry spell happens. You have a really nice looking house and I think you are headed in the right direction to attempt this yourself.

In my opinion, you could definitely use a bit more color and quite possibly year-round texture. Look for shrubs with differing size leaves and color to play off & complement each other. The mostly-lavender perennials could use some help, but then, I have a very colorful garden that I use to attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. Pinkmountain & Linelle illustrate perfectly the 3-year cycle of 'first year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps', so you can save $$ by buying small and nurturing your smaller plants along with enriched soil, a little water, mulch & tlc that first year.

Linelle, I really love your transformed landscape. Yours too Pink.

Love these landscape photos! I sympathize with the large quotes for landscaping tasks. Our back yard is tiny and the quotes to remove a gravel pool pad and install a *small* 10x12 patio were beyond the beyond! I think part of it was the 'I don't want this job' factor as heavy equipment couldn't get in to our small urban backyard.

pinkmountain - it's funny because I was just thinking I really liked your walkway!

I have almost entirely purple in my front yard, not by choice - it's all shade and shade plants just seem to have that hue in common. My husband asks sadly when we can get more colors in the garden. But I do think a monotone garden (let's say all purples and whites) can look very beautiful and sophisticated.

The hardscaping was done by the previous owners and I find it harsh...but way too annoying to take out. I've been trying to encourage stuff to creep over the walls if only to hide the weeds in the sidewalk cracks.

2015

2014

2013

Watering is a vicious cycleWe do not recommend drip irrigation. Avoid drip if at all possible. .

Most drought tolerant plants do not like wet feet nor the way drip irrigation delivers the water (some trees have root systems that are mostly horizontal, while drip irrigation delivers the water vertically). The ecology of drip irrigation is a pond or lake. It's like planting the plant into a pond, for as long as the drip is on. If you water for four hours once per week with drip, picture the plant up to its leaves in a pond for four hours, every week. If you can move the emitters out away from the plants drip line as the plant grows that is acceptable for riparian and ruderal-type plants. Black polyethylene drip line is only good in towns and cities. In rural areas it is a chew toy for the rodents, see the critter section.

Link to paragraph pasted above and more on CA natives.

Sorry the formatting got a little wonky in my cut and paste above. I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but this is what I'm seeing about drip irrigation and CA native plants. Basically drought tolerant natives are not used to receiving water in that form--water comes from above in their native habitat.

I think some of the color choices are a matter of taste? I'm hearing differing opinions that I have two different colors of foliage going on and they will clash but then I'm hearing there is too much sameness in foliage color. I have tried to pay attention to different heights and textures of foliage. That's one of the reasons I added pacific iris to the plan, to get some spiky foliage in there. There actually aren't that many plants with lavender colored flowers. The mood board doesn't show the ratios accurately. There are actually at least as many white and pink colored flowers as lavender. I have to admit that I tend to like monochromatic decorating and landscaping. So to me, adding purple, blue and pink to the white seems like a lot of color.

As for color, you can "try out" color combos at the nursery by moving pots around. Better nurseries will have plant arrangements on display as examples. But some of it is rather subjective, there are general rules of color like for inside the house, but ways to get around them that look good as well. Some people like a riot of color, some don't. I stuck to a palette similar to yours, not much orange and yellow, but also contrasting foliage shapes and textures helps a lot since everything won't be in bloom all at once. Best to have a "bones" set of plants that look good together no matter what the season. You can always punch it up with pots or random annuals, that's what we did.

Robo the walkway was OK but it just seemed rather stark and unnatural the way it was curved vs. the square patio. I wanted something staggered kind-of, and a less rigidly geometric patio, but couldn't figure out the spacing/design which was why I hired a landscape designer. With the tiny patio area available, there was a traffic flow problem getting to the back part of the yard when my picnic table was set up near the back kitchen door for outdoor dining, which we loved to do. When we got a grill, that really congested the patio, which was why we went with the big bland square--maximum usable space. I also would not have picked a solid, flat paver but again, costs. Had I stayed longer I would have gotten a cool outdoor rug to lay over the grey brick.

In the end, my landscape designer said what I got was all I could afford. Hmmmm. I feel like I could have gotten more bang for my buck just consulting with a paver installer directly. I just couldn't find good people to work with. Because as many have mentioned, mine was a small (read practically micro) job. I also realized I could have walked around the neighborhood and taken pictures of patios I liked and taken them to the paving company, or even sought out photos in books or online. Since I have trouble envisioning things, that helps me immensely.

I did myself no favors on a small job by using a landscape designer as a middle person. That's the agony of the small landscaping job, you spend a lot of time fiddling with it yourself. I ended up getting into a relationship with the most WONDERFUL man who was a carpenter and also liked doing yardwork. For us, the fiddling was a labor of love and when it was done we got a lot of enjoyment out of it. But a lot of things were kind of trial and error and like I said, I ended up having to tear things out and replace them, etc. Just FINDING some of the plants I wanted was a struggle. I gradually sussed out some reliable plant nurseries to work with. One was over an hour away, but so fabulous it was worth the trip.

My best advice to you CRL is to break up the big job into actionable baby steps, and enjoy yourself along the journey!