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Landscape Design

Landscape privacy trees around shurbs, help

8 years ago

I'll try to make this short as I tend to write novels. I live below the street and I have 2 retaining walls in front of my house that are not connected. Clay soil, full, hot sun all day. It does slope a bit as we live in a steep hill. I want to plant green giant arborvitae trees there for privacy as we are stared at by people walking by. Also, mowing is horrible. I just want most of that area filled so I don't have to mow.

Pics 1&2- Right retaining wall. 60'W 20' D in the middle. It tapers off as you get to the ends, which is 13'. The magnolia is in the middle 6'H about 12x12 around. You cannot see, but I staggered 4 Rose of Sharon's, 2 on either side of magnolia. They are from seedling from my big 'ROS' which is by the camper in the very right hand corner of the picture. He's very big. Since the Arborvitae I wish to plant are 20'W upon maturity, I was going to take 2 ROS out. SO one on each side. I have sad Weeping Norfolk on the outer corner of the area as well. I will take them out to place elsewhere as I've zero luck with them in this soil. I have better conditions elsewhere. I would like to stagger 4- 2 on each side, green giant arborvitae near outer corner.

Pic 3 is my stairs going down to the house. They have to be widened as they are way to narrow to carry groceries down. Whole space if 15' wide. The grass area on either side of the stairs is so steep you loose your shoes walking up. I'm putting a creeping juniper all there so no mowing, and no walking there.

Pic 4- left retaining wall. 25.5'W X17'D. There was a large Magnolia here but it died very quickly last year due to some kind of bugs. I wish to replace it in the middle- symmetry. And use same green giants and Rose of Sharon set up as in the Right retaining wall.

Pic 5 is my sad rendering of what it could look like. I messed up and added the 2 rose of Sharon's I was going to take out. so ignore that.

I feel the shapes and positions will look okay together- the symmetry, foliage types, flowering of the shrubs. I'm just looking for someone with a good eye for things. Thank you!

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Comments (4)

PRO
Yardvaark
8 years ago
You state a few goals, one of which is screening for privacy. I think the solutions you are proposing are contrived and lacking in effectiveness, and you're trying to squeeze too much "interest" into the mix, which would ultimately create the opposite effect. It seems to me that you would create a visually stronger artistic statement and more effective screen if you were to vastly simplify the solution. I would also create a faux entrance at the street level so that the arrival experience had some convenience and architectural interest. The floor space there ought to be more like 6' x 8' or 8' x 10'. My drawing has just a simple arbor, but it could be any number of things and even include a waist-height shelf so you have a place to set packages temporarily. This is a place to start brainstorming...
libraqueen81
Original Author
8 years ago
That makes sense. I think I thought of it in that way because I didn't want to uproot another Magnolia. I want to make it work into the mix. The larger space is actually where I need more of the privacy. I thought it would look strange with large trees on one side and not the other.
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Don't paint yourself into a corner! Since you gave us no detail or even a photo of the house, my depiction of it on the lot was one big guess. How did I get so close? Modern lots almost never have a front building setback less than 25ft. And a developer will resist increasing the setback on 75 by 133ft lots as the backyard gets squeezed and the longer driveway cost goes up with length. Normal construction on lots with some cross slope is to put the drive on the high side. The house is normally set near the setback to minimize the drive cost and the shape of the front of this lot works better with a house with a protruding garage. Starting from the back with the 50ft given to the house, adding my guess as to house depth and a guess of the garage protrusion, I have a bit of extra space to the setback. It made me wonder if the 50ft back yard was a measured dimension or a guess. So now I have the whole lot and the first thing I look at is the drainage. In the backyard I'm guessing the water now flows across the yard over a wide area as sheet flow without any problems of erosion. Regardless of what you do in the backyard, water will have to continue to cross the back yard. Consider the outcome if you start planting trees. Suppose in the future you build a nice patio and take up a good part of the 50ft yard. In the profile below note that the grade from the patio will have to slant down and if the trees are planted on a downslope from the property line, then you have concentrated all the drainage to a much smaller area. This could result in wet spots or erosion. You would be faced with the lesser of two evils; live with the problem or tear out the trees and regrade. It's better to consider the whole of the backyard and any future uses. Make sure the grade and drainage support your long range plans before you start planting grass and trees.
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If that's the case, look at the first and second picture again and ask "what value are they?" They make it look as if there is 6" to 12" between pool deck and fence!!! Leylands are for when someone needs massive height. (They have their downside.) Is great height what you need? Arbs would be a better choice for common height. Other things good for even less height.
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Wow, if that were my property and I had access to the water, I'd definitely be marking it as my own. Does your neighborhood association allow you to plant right down near the water? I'd be tempted to take that bed with the two palms surrounded by hedges right down the side of your house to the water with an interesting mixed planting, native grasses, local waterfront plants, etc. Would be a big project but you could tackle it over a few years. Even just getting a bed laid out and mulched might signal a boundary line that warns people off. I'd also plant some stuff directly outside your pool fence on the side that faces front on with the water. Even some bougainvillea or something on the fence would give you a bit of privacy. And then another bed or planting that runs down the side of your house on the neighbor side to keep folks from coming in from the waterfront on that side. Given the long swathes of grass that seem to be between all the houses and the water, though, I suspect there may be some restrictions about what you're allowed to do.
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"... Goldspire Ginkgo, very columnar variety that is yellow in the fall and should mature to 14' - 16 tall and 5' - 6' wide." Oooh ... I don't think that's gonna happen. It will become much larger. Whenever size information comes from selling sources, it's 100% of the time going to be wrong. And they're stating a size after only a few years of growth, where the tree will not stop. Figure at least double size of whatever you're told. A fat clump of lilac in the tree form sounds like a great solution to the back right bed. You need some groundcover there, too. consider lily of the valley (so long as there's shade.) It does great there. Gotta be some Hosta somewhere, too. And daylilies in the sun. (From DeKalb originally.)
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PRO
Yardvaark
8 years ago
When the magnolia is large/mature, how is its shape and size going to work with arborvitae and rose of sharon?
libraqueen81
Original Author
8 years ago
To my knowledge this magnolia is 7yrs old. I been pruning more on the bottom, as he was weird and leggy. I don't want to move him. I figure he is a centerpiece.
If the rose of sharon doesn't work, they can be moved. They are seedlings.

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