How to design a North-Facing home?
John & Tellu
6 years ago
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Mark Bischak, Architect
6 years agoCLC
6 years agoRelated Discussions
North facing house.
Comments (7)Close up of shrimp plant flowers. Note the protruding petals that look like shrimp tails. This bed consists of three plants started from cuttings. If anyone wants cuttings I would be happy to share....See MoreNorth lot so Front of home will face south, help
Comments (34)A little tough for me to follow Jeff Whyte's thoughts but there's a reason here why I rarely use the term "architect" and instead use "person of talent". I've said here before I know architects personally (yes, the ones with all the education, credentials and 15 letters after their names), I wouldn't trust to design a house for my dog. We're no different than any other profession, there are great architects out there as well as poor ones, education not withstanding. And back before I semi retired and had my big firm of 16 people including 6 architects, we had a guy who started out as the office boy when he was in high school and then went full time after graduation. Very creative guy with just a lot of raw design talent. By 25 he was one of our two lead designers. We always encouraged him to go to school but no interest. He's a "person of talent". And as far as formal education vs. experience, like we encouraged the person above to get some formal design education because it is of significant value, at the same time there's nothing like experience. I think a colleague of mine, Bob Borson in Dallas summed it up well.... "Architecture is not a trade, it's a craft, and to get any good at it you're going to have to get it wrong for a while". And while I'm waiting for the Sun to come up to go out for a run, let me forward to you a thought about the key ingredient needed in your relationship with a person of talent. And that ingredient is trust. In lieu of a massive retype, I wrote about how critical it is here, (scroll down to my 5/13/16 post, my second one) http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3887104/what-should-i-expect-from-my-architect-long?n=22 And good luck with your project! An exciting adventure lies ahead!...See MoreNeed help with landscape design for smaller, north-facing front yard
Comments (4)Check out this video by Rosalin Creasy, the queen of edible landscaping. She also has a Web site. Then follow any links from there. You'll find a lot of inspirational photos and resources online. Yaardvark's basic design can be followed, you just need to figure out edible plants with the shapes he has drawn that thrive in your zone. I'm not that up on edible weeping plants, but lots of big shrub-shaped edible fruits and there are also fruit trees that have a columnar shape (column shape) such as sentinel apple trees. Raspberries and blackberry tend to get droopy and weepy-ish shaped (fountain shaped). There are edible easy to maintain groundcovers too, like lingonberry, although they need acid soil to thrive so you may have to amend. I grew bearberry which also goes by the name kinnikinnick as a groundcover. It is not really "edible" so much as medicinal, where it goes by the name Uva ursi. Lots of herb ground covers like thyme and chamomile and some low growing mints. There's also wintergreen but that needs shade and can be fussy. Not too much in the way of edible evergreens although you can grow balsam or fraser fir in some zones and collect the needles for their scent and oil. With juniper you can harvest the berries and make gin. Some junipers are columnar. Some make good groundcover, a fairly common low maintenance option for small yards. Edited to add that you're going to have to be thoughtful about planting your front yard since most edible plants like sun or partial sun, and your sun is going to be filtered at best. Try not to plant things in the shade of other things, so watch where the shadows fall during a whole day at different times....See MoreNewbie help for a small north facing dark house with many obstacles.
Comments (14)Thank you all, @YardVark Thanks again for the drawing that looks very nice. Im sorry, i didn't mean to imply that i was asking for specific plants. I was more asking to understand your vision. To me it looks like the hedge is fighting for attention when you have that sweeping bed go in front of it. Thats the first time if seen that so maybe its just odd to me. (Any other pictures of something like this) This is our hedge but we originally wanted to keep it there to block the neighbors car. Maybee this thing needs to go also. If anyone has a better idea then the hedge to hide the neighbors car incorporated in Yard and DigDugs pictures Im all ears/eyes. @lacyvail: Bay Area San Francisco. Redwoods, maples, these shrubs, etc are like weeds around here. (In a good way) @NhBabs Thanks, we were going to paint small trim etc to lighting it up. Not just the entire place though. However, there has to be something said for the power of perspective. "When two people are the same size, a person wearing a horizontal-striped dress appears to be the thinner of the two. In order for the them to appear to be the same size, the person wearing the horizontal stripes would have to be six percent wider than the person dressed in vertically-striped clothing" Even though we are happy with embracing the cottage feel, the perspective of the tall bush in the front magnifies the shortness in a negative way or maybee just hides to much of the house. I was curious if there is a landscape rule that matches the fashion world. @DigDug Thank you, That is great also. Would you remove the shrubs in the back and on the right side. Like in YardVarks I'm not sure why i have a problem with putting stuff in front of that hedge that separates the two properties. Maybe I need to remove that thing and figure out some other type of privacy barrier. Im very grateful for all input!...See Morejust_janni
6 years agojust_janni
6 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
6 years agoKristin S
6 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
6 years agoJohn & Tellu
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agomushcreek
6 years agobuilding2017
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoJohn & Tellu
6 years agomushcreek
6 years agoJohn & Tellu
6 years agojust_janni
6 years agobuilding2017
6 years agomushcreek
6 years agozippity1
6 years agoJohn & Tellu
6 years agoCSKI 13
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