Paver patio with ground cover between in warm climate zone 9
Alison Madrey
5 years ago
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Alison Madrey
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
micro climate patio
Comments (52)Just wonderful! Looks like you are alls et for the, can smell the fragrance all year round, not worry about freeze, room, or space, and can sit back and relax...Good for you! Mine are still on my porch at the same temps as yours actually on a 30 degree day or night.. When it got down to about 19 degrees the other night, the porch was still about 45 degrees..Yahoo..lol...See MoreLooking to redo front yard garden, zone 9
Comments (6)One of the things in the list of things-that-look-bad, is 'fake retaining walls'. If that's what you mean by an "... 8 - 10" paver stone wall," I would say don't do it. Since changes to the walkway and mowing strip was brought up, I think that's what whitewatervol was referring to by "hardscape." (... any work that's not planting) Now that I see how the porch and walk interface, I'd definitely make some improvements. The simplest, most effective thing you could do is to substantially widen the walk as it approaches the porch, so that it is really inviting. Now, especially with the raised edging, which makes the walk look sunken, it looks a bit like a section of obstacle course. Another thing that is disagreeable about the walk is how there is a 3" riser and 6" riser at the porch. This should be constructed so there is a single step ... or no step at all, if the grade of yard would permit it. I would definitely rebuild the last several feet of walk in order to fix this. (To eliminate the step all together, it would require rebuilding more feet of the walk.) I live in the hot South, too, and do not worry much about planting during the summer. We have irrigation and many of the plants that grow here like heat to grow. With a little extra water during the first month or so, most things do pretty well. Plus, once the rainy season starts, we usually get out of having to water for a few weeks. It's a visual idea ... not a plan and not immune to altering according to conditions and needs....See MoreLandscape Design Help / Advice in Northeast Florida (Zone 9A)
Comments (24)Yes, I understand that the immediate intention for the play area is not to install a play set. But it's coming eventually and do you want the planting scheme to do dual duty by working now and also be ready for the future without any major alterations? Or do you want to subject yourself to the possibility of making a lot of changes when a play set is installed? A year is NOT a long time. As the play area develops, it is divided from the planting area with a bed line. The bed line is something to be figured out now, on the plan (as information about the play set/area becomes known.) The bed line divides places where people could possibly walk ("floors": lawn, low groundcover, mulch-only) from places where they couldn't ("walls" & "furniture": shrubs, perennials and tall groundcovers.) Trees ("ceilings") could be located in either areas Another possibility with the pitts is to cut them down and do a total rejuvenation -- where you control/shape their re-growth (which will happen very quickly since they already have developed root systems) -- and trim them so as NOT to reach way out into the yard. Let them grow as a much narrower hedge which is later trimmed into tree forms and reaches and screens above the fence. Based on some of the prior discussion, I'm going to speculate that one potential problem that could come up is not devoting enough depth to the planting beds (that are likely to surround most of the yard.) In general terms, this bed(s) ought to be allowed 6' depth as an average minimum. There are usually instances where it can easily be deeper, and possibly some instances where it can be shrunk to 4' when sacrifices must be made. Plants require space and trying to maintain a bed that is too skinny/shallow is not only difficult & more demanding of maintenance, but it doesn't look very good either. That's something to be mindful of....See MorePlease help me find a ground cover solution for our patio!
Comments (44)We finally decided on white pea gravel, and while it took quite a while to find a supplier (all garden stores nearby were sold out), we're delighted with how it turned out. When weeds pop through we can dig them out (decided on no landscaping fabric), and the kids have decided that gravel is almost as much fun as sand to play with (not to mention it doesn't get tracked in the house as easily.) On dark or rainy days - quite common here - the white reflects some light into the house, unlike the old bricks which just got darker and felt gloomy. We left the brick pathway to the door for now, as well as enough to be a border and hold the gravel in place, so we still have solid walkways and aren't worried the gravel will wash away. The curve of the brick path and the uneven border of old bricks means the patio is an odd shape, which I'm not sure about but my husband likes. The gravel is not as soft as grass, but isn't too painful for walking across barefoot to the table and chairs. I had planned to just do the main patio, and see about the rest of the space later, but we ordered so much my husband got inspired and cleared out the mud and brick pit near the door. That's now a play place for the kids; they love having their own little space and we love that they're happy and that the toys don't get scattered everywhere! For anyone who's interested, we ordered 8-16mm size gravel, at a weight of 600kg (more than 1200lbs), and it cost under 140 euros, including delivery. For convenience we had it delivered in a pallet of 20kg bags instead of the cheaper bulk bags since our back yard is hard to access. That amount covered the lower part of our garden nicely with plenty left over, so I may use that in the the back muddy area, which is currently just hosting ivy and old kids' toys. We layered the gravel at about 1-2 inches deep, but if that's not enough (or if it shifts too much) we may add more or try using the honeycomb-shaped gravel stabilizer grids. So far the amount seems fine for light traffic and playing, and hasn't been too wobbly for our patio furniture. It took months to figure out what we wanted and where to buy it, but in the end it ticked all the boxes: low maintenance, child friendly, not exorbitant, practical for walking on. And as as bonus, every time I look outside it reminds me of an Italian or French garden, which makes me want to brew a cappuccino and go enjoy some sunshine. Thank you to everyone for the input and ideas; may all your design dilemmas have happy endings....See MoreYardvaark
5 years agoAlison Madrey
5 years ago
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