"Landscaper" (JPA Landscape &Construction) topped all our street trees
grizzlysean_z9b
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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viper114
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
New construction with 2 drainage easements....HELP with landscape
Comments (9)Find out exactly what you can and cannot do in the easement. As pinkmountain suggested, can you put a privacy fence along the chain link fence? Perhaps with open trellis along the top to give more height. Looks like a good area to have a dog and the trees will provide some privacy in the spring and summer. You will have room for a patio within the usable area of the yard. Which window are you meaning when you say "next to the porch"? For the bed in front of the porch you need something that will stay low--you don't want to block the window or have to be pruning all the time. For the other side of the front door, I would create a curving bed that will extend to the corner of the house and maybe around the corner depending on how the easement works. Does the drainage go underground? and they just need access to it? If so you could have stepping stones in mulch that could be easily taken up if work is necessary. Plant a small ornamental tree such as a cherry or serviceberry in the bed at least 10 to 15 feet from the house. This will provide interest and keep people away from that window, You want to give the tree plenty of room so read up on the mature size of whatever you select. Good luck!...See MoreNew construction - landscape help.
Comments (12)Evidently, no one has ever planted a shrub or a tree in a place that another person thought it was too close, too large, or would require regular pruning. This is when landscape stuff gets interesting...there's a challenge. Solve the problem. or throw your hands up in surrender. I too agree that ultimately, in order to fully maximize the landscape for a house like this appears to be, you're going to want to play with bed configurations on the outside of the walk...but that's not the question you asked, is it? Beside the smaller gable, I see something vertical on either side of the window. This could be accomplished by a structure, such as lattice or a pergola, and allowing something to climb...roses, or honeysuckle, or go to a nursery and find something else. Or it could be found by using fastigate plants...Sun Sprite Magnolia, for instance, fine line buckthorn, arbs or juniper. Something a bit larger on the corner by the garage, I'm always partial to either Acer griseum or stewartia pseudocamelia. Something paired on either side of the front door. Narrow beds, lots of brick...something is going to be wanted here that is not a groundcover...you'll want the groundcover too, but that's always wanted. Viburnum or yew, and yes, perhaps some regular trimming, as much as I am a believer as choosing plants for the space rather than making them fit. ivy growing up the wall? Always a classic choice, and always one that masons don't exactly appreciate. What I see when I look at the pictures is a house that has a front door because we are used to thinking of houses in this way, but not a door that is going to see a lot of regular use. So you're planting this for curb appeal. you don't really have any issues to solve or desires to reach, you just want this to look right from the street. So you are probably going to be looking at a couple of trees and a range of shrubs. How much of each is always up to you. I live in a forest. My mother-in-law insists I should cut every tree down within 150'. I think her house looks barren. Right? Wrong? Perception? Any time you can plant something that will grow to the size you want it, things are easier to take care of. narrow bed, narrow plants. or you prune them to fit. or go with plants that are undersized for the scale. My suggestion would be to drive around. Find places that have houses with a similar layout to yours, and see what kind of landscaping they have. You'll find some that are austere, some that are landscaped to the nines, and all ranges in between. Find what you like, and go from there. If you're like most people I know, you're going to want this to be cheap...but cheap is relative. If you allow yourself to spend 10% of the value of the house on the landscape, it's money that will be returned in increased value. I'd also suggest you take a little time...it's going to take time to figure out what you truly want, or you're going to have to hire someone to draw up a plan. And what you truly want may not be apparent right away. any plans for lighting?...See MoreNeed help - New construction Landscaping
Comments (6)I agree with all the advice given so far by my colleagues. In order to help work out a walk to the entrance, you'd need to provide, as Kentc mentioned, a PLAN view of some sort that shows the footprint of your house and drive on the property. (The aerial view is not a suitable substitute.) It could be from some of your construction documents, or you could draw it. It must be to a measured scale. I'm including an example at the bottom of the picture so you can see roughly what we're talking about. Since you've offered a picture that includes just the house and what's in front of it, I'm presuming it is the FOUNDATION PLANTING that your are concerned with in this thread ...? Even if that's the case, you need to also show space at the ends of the house. A landscape wraps around the house in order to create its setting. Even if we're dealing with just the front of the house, the front landscaping will extend beyond the house ends. In addition, your picture was taken from quite far away ... so far in fact that we can't see enough detail of the space to be planted. Below is an illustration that explains roughly where you should stand to take pictures of the front of the house ... about on the red spot that I've placed in the picture where you are lined up with the center of the scene you are photographing. When you move closer in like that, obviously, you cannot capture all the house and space at the ends in a single picture. Simply pivot the camera, shooting from right to left capturing slightly overlapping pictures. Do not move the camera location between pictures or it will totally mess up re-assembly of the pictures. Do not make a panorama out of them because it will shrink all the detail. If you provide good pictures, it will make your property more easily understood by us, and act as a vehicle for providing feedback to you....See MoreNeighbors asking us to landscape our property that borders theirs
Comments (18)I probably would have had a similar emotional reaction to being asked to share expenses of yet another project. Your outrage / irritation is understandable. But when I re-read what you said was in the letter, I can see a different side. He has an odd property on a hillside where you also share a section (the bottom of the hill?). You don't live there yet so he probably doesn't know how to reach you other than by mail. Maybe he was inspired by all of the work on your property so far and he has decided to landscape his hillside. Judging by your drawing it looks like your strange sliver directly relates to his property and your landscaping focus has been on the square section not the sliver. He is asking if you would like to go in together on a cohesive landscape that would make his odd lot and your sliver work well together. And if you are not interested in that option, he is wondering if you would consider selling him the sliver to make the lot more cohesive. All of that said, I would reach out to him and have a conversation. Be honest about not wanting to sell your property sliver. (That's ok! You don't have to sell. No one is going to make you.) Listen to his proposal on the landscape. Maybe what he's asking is not an expensive hard-scape but maybe just planting consistent plants across the hillside to make it all work together. Come to the conversation with your budget limitations. Be honest and let him know that you appreciate the idea of a cohesive landscape but that your budget is already stretched with the landscaping you have already done to your lot. Stand firm, but be polite. You will be stuck living next to this guy. See if you can come to some kind of middle ground where you keep ownership of your lot and you work together to make the properties look good without breaking your budget. My own story: My last home shared a property line with a really nice family. We both had rather boring mailboxes right next to each other. The neighborhood had a rash of basic mailboxes getting knocked over and so our neighbor proposed that we go in together on some kind of masonry style mailbox. We said we thought it was a good idea. Well one day we came home and there was a new double mailbox being built without us having any input on the design or materials. As soon as the mailbox was done, the neighbor let us know how much we owed them for the mailbox. Initially we were really irritated. They should have consulted us about the design and cost up front, but unfortunately they didn't. Honestly I don't think they even considered the possibility that we might not share the same style. Oh well. We gave them the money and enjoyed having a nice mailbox that wasn't quite our style. It was a frustrating situation and I wish we could have worked on a design together, but keeping the relationship friendly was important....See More
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7