Plan feedback for farmhouse landscape

7 years ago

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the landscape forums, but have posted a lot during our build in the house forums. We built a white farmhouse in a field last year. We are zone 6b, and I'd like the landscaping to fit the traditional feel of the house. I like flowering plants, bulbs, and structure but it can feel a little "wild". This part of the yard should be low to moderate maintenance and plantings that are deer/critter resistant.

Ive met with a few pros in our area to help with the design. The challenge is that they all do the design part for free, and basically use the same types of plants in all designs. Most of the homes in our area are brick subdivisions, so those designs don't fit well with what I'm hoping to achieve here. I'm working with the landscaper we selected to try and get a little closer in the plan, but I'm not sure we are there yet. I have no idea what to tell him to change though. I'm a little overwhelmed starting from scratch, and don't know much about evergreens. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks so much!

House from top of driveway

Front door faces west, long side of porch faces north

We just had a big storm, that colorful plastic is the kids slip and slide that is covering the steps, they are 8ft long

current modified landscape plan. I love Japanese maples, but I'm not sure they are a good fit for the house style? I don't know what to replace them with.

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Yardvaark

7 years ago

The conversation can become confusing when it's all over the map as to what part of the yard we're talking about. It works better if a thread is limited to a specific area, front yard/entrance for example. Consider splitting it up into multiple threads, each one focused on a given area.

People think that the essence of landscaping is the specific plant types. While they contribute, they are not as important as layout, arrangement and form, honoring the plants with enough space to prosper, maintenance, and some other considerations. One could have a quite stylish and handsome landscape comprised of one type of tree, shrub, groundcover, seasonal color and turf. One could also have a landscape that totally sucks while using variety to their hearts desire, confining plants unnecessarily, creating unflattering bedlines, ignoring architectural features. My impression of your plan is that is making several of those mistakes. For starters, you've got a wide open expanse of space around the house, but the vast majority of the bed is tightly wrapped around the house like a hungry python on lambykins. If you like shrubbery solidly plastered around a house so that almost none of the lower house part shows, where, where it will all grow into a burgeoning conglomeration of mass that soon overwhelms the lower level, I think you're striking pay dirt. It you want something more fitting to the house's potential, I think you need to take a second look.

The wavy narrow walk seems substantially out of place relative to the character of the house. The house could use a more important looking approach(s).

You haven't said much about your objectives/expectations for the outdoor space insofar as living there.?

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Comments (6)

laceyvail 6A, WV
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
The first thing I'd want to do is planning a way to keep the house cool in summer-- that would be planting large trees to the west/southwest. They'd be some distance from the house, of course, with perhaps some smaller understory trees between them and the house. That planning is so important for me, that everything else would be minor.

In ten years, you'll be soooo grateful you did it.
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Here are some suggestions compared to an artist's interpretation of your plan. The bed lines are yellow to make how they would be, clearer. Some of my criticisms of the plan are: the snakey bed line and that everything is plastered flat against the building. It looks pinched and the larger plants, especially, are going to grow leaning outward from the wall. The larger the plant is, the more this would be the case. It calls for permanently exposed mulch, which requires annual topdressing of same. I don't think the large shrub at the corner makes sense when there are windows also very near the corner. The annuals are in stringy lines. It would be better to move the small tree out from the building where it can grow larger. Keep in mind that there is space between it and the building so when viewed from the side, it is not smothering the building. If the tree came out of a surround base of perennials it would look more important and sumptuous. Instead of shrubs uniformly marching across the wall face, it would be better to fit them to the windows. Color in larger blocks, instead of lines would look better with the scale of the building. I think it works better to limit annuals (higher maintenance) to nearer the entrance and place perennials, for color, at other areas.. I cannot see the value of rocks, especially placed in a line ... behind another line, of plants. They would be lost. It would be better, if one had to have rocks, to have a single large boulder.
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I'm not an architect, but it seems like some of the mid-roofline awkwardness (roofs above main floor areas) could be solved by extending the porch across the length of the front elevation. You could do a similar thing in the back that extends the roofline currently above the living room area bumpout to both sides and create smaller covered areas off dining and master bedroom, this potentially connecting the hipped rooflines on the sides (note the left side elevation roofline is currently not drawn correctly per the 'hip' shown) to covered porch areas in front/back. If done right, this could give a more cohesive/ unified 'wraparound porch' feel that would also have more of a true farmhouse feel to boot. Otherwise the layout seems nice and functional to me- good luck!
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farmdrmer
Original Author
7 years ago
Laceyveil - thanks, you are right. Right now the other side of the drive is still farmed so we can't plant there yet. In the next year we plan to build a barn which will let us take back some land for personal use in that direction and add some trees. I will add that to consider in this plan. In between drive and house I'm not sure if there is enough space for a big tree. Just beyond parking area to the north of the porch is our cisterns and septic, so we can't plant any trees there unfortunately.
farmdrmer
Original Author
7 years ago
Yardvaark- thanks for the feedback. Are you recommending I do three separate posts (one for each area of the plan)? I didn't know if that many posts would be ok, I know each board has its own etiquette. I'm happy to do that if it's helpful.

The area to north of the wrap porch houses our cistern and septic. It's one of our largest flat spots. We can't plant anything with major roots here due to that, so we plan on using it for a play area and adding play set next year. We have two young children. We currently eat on the covered porch and just relax there often.

I totally agree about the walk. The day they poured concrete they showed up 10 minutes before I had to leave. They were supposed to connect the walk with a slow curve to the parking area. This is what I ended up with. Yikes. Not sure how to fix it and hoping the landscaping helps it disappear a little bit.
farmdrmer
Original Author
7 years ago
Yard - I'm happy to take as many looks as needed. I'm stuck as to where to go from here. As mentioned the design pros in my area are who have come up with this plan. I feel like I'm going to have to lead the way for improvement but not sure where to start. Is there a book or online resources you would recommend for photos I could show him? I haven't had much luck on houzz with landscape photos.
PRO
Yardvaark
7 years ago
Farmdrmer, you are in the right place to get help so just need to proceed with organizing the request. It is fine to have multiple simultaneous threads running, with each one relating to a specific area. If we talk about all areas of your yard in a single thread, it will become unduly long and likely be confusing and one would always need to mention what area they are talking about.

When taking pictures to let people here see what now only you can see, it is best to square up with a house face and then take slightly overlapping pictures that pan the scene from far left to far right. You need to be close enough to the house so that detail can be seen, but far enough that everything will fit in the pictures without massive distortion. For the front yard, that is probably anywhere from 25' to 40' from the house, usually, in line with the front door. If the front door is far off center, then stand in line with the center of the house. All pictures for a single scene would be taken from exactly the same position while merely pivoting the camera. You must include space beyond the ends of the house. If the house and flanking space is long, it may need to be broken into two scenes. In addition to the aforementioned pictures, you should include a picture taken from a distance away, as one would approach the house, to show the approach and how the house sets in its surroundings.

Again, it would be helpful for you to talk a little about your goals and expectations for the yard. You just mentioned cistern/septic/children/dining on porch/shade ... all those kinds of things are helpful information. What else is important to you?

Online resources and books may be helpful for inspiration, but the difficult part for most people is transferring that information to one's specific needs. That's where the forum is most helpful.

Plan feedback for farmhouse landscape

Yardvaark

Comments (6)

laceyvail 6A, WV

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Plan feedback for farmhouse landscape

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laceyvail 6A, WV

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