Landscaping ideas/help
I bought my first home last year and finally have the inside done to the point where I’m thinking about the outside.
I’m in desperate need of some landscaping, but I don‘t want to fire off in the wrong direction and end up with a mix-matched yard. There is already a planting area in the front covered by the black landscaping material. Im not against removing the sidewalk and doing something different because it is concrete covered with nature stone and it is all coming off and looks awful.
I’d like to have a plan on paper. I‘d love to have a professional design it to go with the house, possibly mid-century style? I’m a newbie so I’m very open to ideas.
I’ve also thought about and had suggestions to replace the outsides of the driveway with a different material to make it appear thinner but still have the utility of parking vehicles on it when needed. I was thinking brick or stone pavers or some other permiable surface on the outside and leave the asphalt in the middle about the width of the garage door.
I haven’t had much luck finding a designer locally so if it can be done with photos I can provide as many as are needed. Thanks for the help!
Comments (12)
houssaon
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoDo you need all that parking? Because if you don't instead of replacing the asphalt with some other hard material, I'd replace what is not needed with grass and plantings.
Since you have to do the walkway, concrete pavers surrounded by river rock would look contemporary.
Modern San Francisco Living · More Info
What zone and part of the country are you?Someone has suggested contacting a local nursery to get their ideas and maybe they can give you a rough layout.
grimace27 thanked houssaonRelated Discussions
Landscape foundation ideas, help!
Comments (9)As a practical matter, to level the right side, you'd need any large "planter" or retaining wall to be 4-sided; to be impervious to moisture and to keep the soil from falling through the lattice into the storage area as well as preventing the rotting out of the stairway arrangement. Many plants are zone dependent, and you didn't note yours. If barberry isn't an invasive where you are, the green tinged with red is a good color choice. Prickly yes, but very largely deer proof. Deer might taste ninebarks, but they're vigorous growers and can outpace a nibbling. Our winter has been hard on the deer - and I usually get plenty of them - the last I saw them a couple of weeks ago, they were trying to eat spruce. So they're desperate now with 3-4 feet of snow cover and natural food scarce. With such a grade as you have, it might be difficult to make up for it with plantings - but maybe an island away from the house with an arrangement of conifers would move the eye away from all the lattice on the right side. Spruce is "normally" reliably deer-proof, same for any conifer with short spikey needles. A smaller island on the right with a focal point conifer or shrub with perennials - deer won't touch (even if starving) the salvias, Russian sages, nepetas , peonies....See MoreNew home landscaping ideas/help
Comments (1)First, let me say that I wish everyone who offered a picture of their property would start out with a picture such as you have used. It shows the wide view. It's reasonably sharp and decently lit so details can be seen. While other pictures might be needed as the thread goes on, this is the headline picture that best explains to the person who's never been there what the property is about. So good job on that! With landscaping, things generally look good when first they make functional sense. A quick way to make things look odd is to impose things in the landscape that seem to serve no genuine purpose ... like retaining walls where there is no reason to retain additional earth. If you really want a nice landscape, I think it is setting out on the wrong foot to say you like this or that without first thinking of what the house and property is saying it needs and wants. The front door sits low to the ground. Is there any reason to raise the elevation anywhere in front of the house? To me, it looks like there is not, and that has me believing that anything like a raised garden bed with rock walls in front of the house will seem like a bad idea. It looks like you have a swale at the right side with the grade falling off and an existing retaining wall at a level that makes sense. Retaining the earth against the house allow you to level out the base which is holding up the building and give the house a setting that looks more stable than a slope would provide. But the planting space this retained area creates seems pinched and far from able to provide a luxuriant looking setting. If you want to display and feature something (like the face of your house) then don't use plantings to pinch and smother it. Use vegetation AROUND AND OUTSIDE OF IT to help make sure that the house remains the center of attention. Let those plantings guide (as like a [wide] funnel) one's view to the house. You could rebuild the retained area in a larger configuration, or leave it alone and add plantings outside of it in a larger configuration. You should say where you're located if you want people to also give you actual plant suggestions....See MoreLandscaping Idea Help
Comments (4)There are many very good "new" cultivars of weigela out there now. The dance series with names like Rumba, Polka, etc. have larger flowers and are more floriferous than old cultivars. But you still need at least half a day of sun for them to bloom satisfactorily. Viburnums don't rebloom like weigelas, but they do have showy and useful fruit. And there are always shrub roses. Clove currant is a favorite once blooming small shrub. I just love that strong clove scent from the showy drooping racemes of yellow flowers. Good for dappled shade too. You could also try Carolina Allspice(Calycanthus floridulus). Not edible, infact poisonous though. Really, once blooming with just a few now and then in summer, but good for high shade or part shade, or sun. Rick Calycanthus floridulus, flowers just opening...See MoreLandscaping ideas help please.
Comments (2)It's a cute house that could look a lot cuter. "Last year I temporarily made a two tier landscape layout" How temporary is it? Its lines, details, character and quality of construction do not go with the house in the slightest. I think it diminishes the look and, consequently, the value of the house. I'm not trying to be purposely harsh, but honest. Of the plantings, the only thing that looks keepable to me is the yew at the far left, which I guess is what you're calling "the hedge." But you do need to learn how to trim it properly. All of its sides must slope inward as they go upward. You have it slightly to the reverse of this which will cause it to lose lower foliage and become a shrub on "stilts." Every thought about widening the steps? Doing so would make your house look overall better and worth more. I would suggest a look with fewer different little things, more like this ......See More
PROgrimace27 thanked Celery. Visualization, Rendering imagesgrimace27
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoK Laurence
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
Judy Mishkin
5 years agothe biggest feature i see of your yard is an acre of asphalt. i get that its useful sometimes... any chance to change the extra width on the right to pavers with grass in them? they wouldnt be harmed by the occasional car parked there and really change the look of your yard.
PROYardvaark
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoCould you return with better photos? The first picture helps with driveway issue, but it is too far away for dealing with foundation planting. For that, we don't need to see as much sky or lawn, but need to see farther right and farther left from a closer view point, lined up with the center of the house. While keeping at the camera location, pivot it and take slightly overlapping shots.
grimace27 thanked Yardvaarkgrimace27
5 years ago
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