Definitely do not do gravel, or lava rock. I think what I would consider is large flat square sandstone or blue stone slabs set in a sand bed and between each one fill in with mossy green plants. That way no need to try to match the brick. Do you have any sandstone on your house, I know there are lots of that combination in the area. That would allow weedeating right along the outer edge of the stones and be a nice flat surface for planters and a hammock stand. The green mossy plants can be real live or they make a very believable fake.

Kind of along these lines.

Was the grass ever doing well? It looks like you have at most a few hours of midday sun. If you're going from full shade to intense Texas sun for a few hours, I don't think most groundcovers will like those conditions.

I really like the looks of those large slabs with moss growing between them. DH mentioned some kind of flat stones when we discussed this last, so I'll have to show him the pics that have been shared here. We do have a sandstone-looking stone (not sure what it really is) on the front of the house. We had some flagstone stepping stones in a large flowerbed at our old house, but were disappointed in how easily they broke; perhaps we just didn't choose the right kind to be walked on?

Even more suggestions now to not use gravel. Since DH seems dead-set against it, I think we probably will heed that advice.

We don't need grass for a dog, but would like to try to have a bit of turf - at least for now. Last year we had some work done that included removing the Bermuda grass that the builder had planted (portions of the lawn do get full sun, but that Bermuda was a nightmare from day 1), and had it replaced with Zeon Zoysia which took off and did beautifully - except perhaps for that area right by the patio. It's still in the process of coming back after the yard was torn up yet again to install the French drain. (New sod was laid where the trench had to be dug.) Don't need a place for a grill. Just mainly want to create as pretty and enjoyable an outdoor space as possible, but it has to be low maintenance to keep DH happy.

I do like the idea of a natural-looking stone that does not necessarily "match" the brick, but creates more of an organic bridge between the small lawn and the hard surfaces.

I also rather like the thought of doing something that curves outward. To that end, I give you the most pitiful "drawing" ever:

If you know you can't match the brick, I'd pick a new hardscape material. There are so many beautiful choices. You can get concrete pavers that almost look like wood planks, you can get tile, you can get flagstone, you can get "fake" flagstone made out of concrete. I agree with you that I would do a design more flowing like your half circle idea, rather than just a linear strip. :)

Honestly, with your neighbor's house that close and nothing to look at but a brick wall and your HVAC equipment, I would probably make that whole area a landscape bed -- plant some taller evergreen things on the neighbor's side for privacy and some lower, prettier, flowering things in front for you to look at while on the patio. If you absolutely need lawn access, I'd make a small stepping stone path through the bushes, but otherwise, I would plant that whole thing up. It would be like a beautiful secret little courtyard that you could only see from inside the house. You'd have to select things carefully for the amount of light you get there, and if you have a sprinkler system, I'd make sure it covered the bed so as to make it as low-maintenance as possible but that's just because I can be very lazy where outdoor plants are concerned! But I would imagine that even if you got a landscaper to design and plant it for you, it would still be cheaper than (or about the same cost as) extending the patio. Around here, many plant nurseries will come out and give you a free design if you buy the plants from them and let them install them.

Good luck!

It would be like a beautiful secret little courtyard that you could only see from inside the house.

Ah, now this greatly appeals to me! We could see it while indoors from three sides - the bedroom, the dining/kitchen space, and from the living room. It would definitely have to be low-to-no maintenance, however (DH has a complete aversion to gardening and I don't have ample time to devote to it), and xeriscape is about the only thing I can think of that would fit the bill - although I think that generally needs a lot of sun, and even it will require some maintenance. We do have a sprinkler system. Since there is turf that we'd want to keep where the arrows are shown below, I wonder how we could plant the whole area and still easily get a mower from one side to the other (knowing that the lawn crew probably isn't going to care what they trample over). Maybe leaving a narrow strip of grass open right in front of the neighbors' glass block window would be the thing to do?

Oh ... and I still want room for that hammock. ;-)

I agree with lkplatow. To be honest, I couldn't deal with a neighbor (or their window LOL) that close, so hiding that would be of priority to me. You could do shrub type plants (think some bushes that bloom) which would still be low maintenance but pretty.

A secret courtyard! I'd put maybe a decorative metal gate in front of the AC, put abstract pavers down, have a bistro table, lattice or metal screen at the back, a bistro table, and pots. Low maintenance. Just plop plastic pots from the garden center in at the beginning of the season, then swap them out for the new season. You could still have grass off behind the, is that a bedroom?

Something along the lines of but much more charming than my cut-and-paste of this:

If you can erect some kind of a screen at the back, you could hang plants from it while training a climber to grow up it. Faster than trees. I recall from Dallas the beautiful Carolina Jessamine, I think it was, beautiful cascades of yellow. But it was pretty ubiquitous in the 80s, so it's probably out of fashion now?

I like that arbor. My sister has her hammock under an arbor and it's very inviting.

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The grass in the bottom picture is a great screen, I think it's called Karl Forster. You cut it down in the early spring and by May it's over 3' tall but never towers. And it's not invasive! It stays in its clump. It moves prettily in a breeze.

Actually, all kinds of grasses make good ground cover for a narrow space. There's one called, I think little blue Elijah? that mounds nicely, has a bluish-teal cast to it that looks nice with brick. The grasses and hostas aren't invasive and are so easy care, all you have to do is cut them down once a year. Vinca is a slow-growing ground cover, you won't have to worry about it taking over anything.

With all of the brick you already have from that vantage point, I think either plant material or wood (such as justerrilynn's suggestion) would help soften and balance out the hardscaping nicely. I love the arbor idea for your hammock (and to support vines). You might also check out Plant Driven Design, by Lauren and Scott Ogden, for plant ideas and inspiration. I know they garden in Texas as well as in my neck of the woods. Looks like it could be a fun project!

P.S. The fake mulch might look nice in the marketing photos, but in real life I think it's gross and very fake looking. And it would travel just like the pea gravel (only look worse as it ages).

Thanks so much for all of the very clever, helpful, and inspirational ideas! I love the arbor, but don't know that there's truly room for such a structure. I'm also concerned about how the French drain will be impacted by anything we plant in this area; I think we'll need to be careful not to dig up and plant in the trench, or plant anything that's going to sink roots down into the trench - right?

I spent a little time doing a mockup of my own, thinking along the lines of planting in an arc just off the patio, and leaving a strip of turf at the back to make both sides of lawn easily accessible with a mower. (I went a little overboard with the ground cover - LOL!)

Actually, the more I look at the arbors, the more I like that idea. Again - not sure how practical it would be as far as fitting it in this space, but that's something I'll bring up with DH and we'll at least consider.

I live with and maintain a raised bed garden paved in pea gravel. No, just no. Constant upkeep and pebble creep. No two ways about it. I recommend a low wood deck for a quickie solution. I have seen a couple and they are very groovy and match with brick. Or go with concrete pebbly pavers, which would also match. Or flagstone, as some have suggested, but the pavers are quick and a low wood deck is quicker.

After looking at all the ideas and photos, I have to say I am leaning toward jterrilynn's idea as being the best solution. Now that you've shown us the neighbor's window and how close it is, you could add a wooden screen/trellis on one side of the wood deck and even perhaps mount your hammock to that side. Or even turn it into an arbor on that side and put planters on each end for some additional seasonal color. You could use Trex or one of the compositie materials. Pricey at first but you wouldn't have to worry about stain or paint. They do get hot, but then so does brick where we live in the south.

Either way I like the idea of making a curved end to the new addition if possible. And the addition of some large pots would do a lot to soften both the transition of materials and the edges.

Jen, the gravel flying and hitting windows is a real concern. In our precious house, even with a 15 feet deep and large frontage, our yard nan's mower sent a gravel rock from the landscape area close to the front porch all the way to the street and broke our housekeeper's passenger window. She ended up with class all around the inside of her car. I felt bad for both of them, and the yard man had to write her a check. The area you're showing is too close and is guaranteed to do damage to your windows if you out gravel. My two cents.

I am seconding (thirding?) Ikplatow's and bpathome's suggestions about the secret courtyard. It would give you some privacy and someplace peaceful and beautiful for your hammock.

I greatly appreciate all of the input re pea gravel. Definitely taking that off our consideration list.

I can already tell you that DH is going to balk at the idea of an arbor. We had an old white painted one at our previous home, and by the time we put the place up for sale it was a rotted mess that was a giant pain in the butt to tear down. I do love the look of a nice cedar arbor, though. I just worry that something like that will remain cost-prohibitive for some time to come. My ex and I had a cedar and stone gazebo built a number of years ago, and it was gorgeous but pricey. Not gonna be able to do anything remotely close to that here.

::sigh::

I do like having so many options to consider though!

Arbors come in all different sizes, I think that's really beautiful

The mr. built an arbor just off the edge of our patio. It's been there for quite a few years, still looks good. It is pressure treated. It would depend on what you build it out of. We are actually going to take ours down, only because we are having a new area come out off the patio leading to and surrounding the fire pit.

In my former, micro-yard, i struggled for years trying to figure out how to add something for my patio swing to sit on and would be easy to install to compliment my existing grey brick patio. In the end, necessity dictated how it evolved. It was just grass, cool grass. We string trimmed around the legs. In fact, the yard was so small SO often string trimmed the whole thing. Here's a photo. You can also see the small wooden walkway we installed leading to the compost bin that is encased in lattice. Behind the swing are my raspberry bushes against cheapo plastic trellises. You could do something similar, because most of my planting was to screen close neighbors. Of course you would have to adjust to your low light conditions. Also had pots and a small fountain. It was great. Miss it. Have a new home and new yard to begin to shape . . .

Cute yard, pinkmountain! There is something to be said for having a small space to work with. Your grass was so nice and green. Actually, just since I posted this topic, our grass has greened up due to warmer days and a bit of rain. It's even starting to look a little bit better closer towards the patio, although I know it'll never be lush there and we are going to have to do something with that part of the yard. I do like a nice, soft grass to walk on, though. I have a feeling I'll start being a bit more appreciative of our yard in its current state as the grass begins to thrive.

Back when EDS had that big campus on, I think it was Forest? they had the lawn sprayed green! There's a thought!

seriously, though, after reading your topic on cars parking on street, you need a refuge back there. Maybe find some pictures of New Orleans or Southwest courtyards (I think there's a name for the Southwestern-style ones). I think you definitely need a water feature.

Well, ya gotta have a grass variety that is adapted to shade, and frankly maybe bop it with fertilizer. (Following directions and application instructions, of course!). The nice thing about having a small yard is you can tend to the grass much like a garden. I basically carved out little islands of health by sprinkling down compost and then reseeding over and over again. I was lazy, I just reseeded, didn't water or anything, figured something would sprout and "survival of the fittest" would take care of the rest. I had a mix of grass and clover. I had to continually weed out plantain, which was not fun to walk on.

In my current yard I have a little bench on an island of red-dyed lava rock. I'm not sure why that wouldn't be an option. Or cedar wood chips. With such low light conditions you're going to have a heck of a time getting ground covers to grow. Save up for the nice hardscaping, that's your best bet, sculptural elements with pops of color provided by a few things that can survive back there.

I finally broke down and got artificial turf...Love it ...So do the dogs !!

4boys - that's "faux"? It looks very real! What happens when your cute little ones piddle or poo on it though? (Or do they?) How do you clean it, just generally speaking?

Wow! That artificial turf is so realistic - I never would've guessed it's not real grass!

This is what I would do all the length of the neighbors house and windows, get long narrow planter boxes or get some made of cedar. Plant in them miniature leafy bamboo. It needs to be in a planter because it can spread so you need to contain it. If you want it to be as tall as their house get regular tall bamboo. Either one will do and make it a very zen environment. Like a living fence of beautiful green. Pretty to see through your windows when looking out.

If you want an arbor in that small space this is the way to go. Totally impervious to the weather and no maintenance at all needed and it looks great. You can get this one and other sizes at Lowe's. Vinyl arbors.

https://m.lowes.com/pd/New-England-Arbors-57-in-W-x-87-75-in-H-White-Garden-Arbor/50207737?cm_mmc=SCE_PLA_ONLY--SeasonalOutdoorLiving--SosOutdoorFashions-_-50207737:New_England_Arbors&CAWELAID=&kpid=50207737&CAGPSPN=pla&k_clickID=1533b9fb-6071-4ecf-9059-b04bda3259b1

Are the mowers employed by the HOA or someone you hire? If the HOA, I think I'd want to eliminate the lawn completely, as it would make me crazy to have them show up just whenever. Like when I was on the patio reading or snoozing in the hammock, etc. Can they see into your house when they are back there?

Anyway, for me it would be some combo of all these great ideas, and possibly the fake turf to eliminate mowers altogether.

DH would literally murder me if I brought home bamboo. I love the look of it, but he fought it until he just couldn't fight it anymore at our previous house. At some point, some genius had decided to plant it in their yard, and it spread like wildfire - all along the backyards of a number of houses on two different streets. Those rhizomes traveled all over our backyard, and sprouted up overnight in the oddest places. It was a constant battle, and because of the way that stuff has dug in, it will never be eradicated in that neighborhood unless extremely drastic measures are taken by everyone who has it in their yard. (Sorry for the rant, but bamboo is called DAMNboo at our house, and for good cause.) I appreciate the idea for creating a screen, though, and may end up trying this with something else. (Anything else but DAMNboo. LOL!)

Oly, the mowers are employed by the HOA but are on a schedule. We know exactly when they're coming. We keep our gate locked at all other times.

Dear 4boys2, Please send me your dogs. They don't look at all happy.

I don't know what the regulations are with a zero lot line. Are you prohibited from planting anything that might grow tall enough to block your neighbor's windows? Even though it is glass block it does allow light to pass through. If you just want a small, decorative arbor you can always buy a wrought iron one - although I think they are really powder coated metal. We have one behind the spa with clematis growing on it that is probably 20 years old. You can also get a vinyl one.

Bamboo - you need to pick the right kind, the "clumping" variety instead of the "running" variety.

We are very happy with ours, we used it to block our neighbors houses. We went to a "Bamboo farm" with live/old specimens to be able to see how they look when mature, to make sure we picked the right variety

4boys, you really shouldn't let the dogs smoke cigars.

;-)

Yes,it is faux ! When they piddle it just goes down-They gave an enzyme to spray it with but with all the rain I haven't needed it yet .Sometimes if it's a loose poop I might use a wet wipe to clean it up.I'm in the process of making a separate potty area ...

As much as I love bamboo(even when contained to not spread ) I find that bamboo sheds too much.

Delilah~ They are both rescues .The blond one is mine (Charlie) The darker one (Tootsie ) I sit for now and again...My oldest son seems to think that I love the dog more than him.

bpathome~ I say that if they are going to smoke they have to go outside.. That's so funny that we see the same thing.

I have a relative that was telling me about putting turf in the back courtyard of their Vegas home. The front yard was sand/rock and cactus. Being an East Coaster I could only think of the rolls of ugly turf "carpet" that people would put on their porches. When I saw it in person I was amazed. Beautiful, no maintenance and a really nice foot feel. Their kids loved to run and roll around on it. I can't remember what part of the country you live in and I doubt it is as accessible in some areas but it was the norm in their gated, guarded, upscale community. Not sure how zero lot lines work as they are pretty rare in my area, although there are becoming more z-lot homes which I think is sort of the same thing in the much more urban areas around me.

What about stained concrete? No upkeep and you could coordinate the color to one in your brick.

The arbor would have to support a hammock so it would have to be wood and sunk into the ground--probably not possible with the French drain. I had one with a metal stand and wouldn't recommend it for your small patio. They also take up a lot of storage space, even when disassembled. I don't think they have a "garden retreat" look, though I see you can buy wooden stands that are really nice.

I have this one..Very cozy but YES large.

Why attach the hammock to the arbor? You won't be able to walk through it then. I have a nice hammock with it's own metal stand easily moves around and totally easy to take apart and store.

I have thought about this. This weekend one of my kids created a garden area on our property (Nothing like yours, Old, Old farmhouse and a farm property with no farm but very farm adjacent). Would you research the turf so the HOA mowers don't have to come back to that area? Is that all "your" lawn in the zero lot thing? I think it might work. My big issue with the kiddo *an adult but my kid* was can the tractor/mower easily get around it while it still is better than the gardens we have had

I grew up on a farm....no rules, after college I bought a condo, loved it because of the rules and a gate to not let people in who shouldn't be there. Then a Townhouse with HOA, my most beautiful house inside but the HOA didn't enforce anything and I con't want cars on the neighbors lawn. Then to a farm home and another....I miss the farm...now we live between farms on a big property and our house is ancient and always needs work but I feel very comfortable here

There was fake turf on the playground at a school where my kids attended at one point, and there is maintenance involved with it (replenishing/leveling the infill material). I'm sure it's more frequent at a school where it gets heavy use vs. at a residence. I have a neighbor who has it in the backyard and they have dogs. She said she uses Simple Green to clean up dog messes :-/ Athletes who play and practice on artificial turf have brought up health concerns, so there's controversy around that (without a lot of research), so that's also something to consider for those with young kids and/or pets.

I tend toward the other extreme (shying away from chemical fertilizers and pesticides) even it if means not having grass look perfect and green all the time and sharing my landscape with creatures who leave unsightly holes in leaves, etc. I think artificial turf has its place and looks (and functions) great in the right application, but it would really bum me out to go out in my own yard and be walking on plastic.