http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/buyanewhouse/vwp?.dir=/Outside+Pictures&.dnm=DSC00635.jpg&.src=gr&.view=t Thanks for the feedback. If you have a Yahoo account, check out the "before pics" in this Yahoo group I made in 2003 to share pics. The pics were taken a week or so before the old owners moved out, so try to ignore the ugly furnishings and mess in the yard! Although I love the traditional southern bushes you suggested, I'm a little afraid to plant a lot of shrubs at the lower end of the yard because of all the developed honeysuckle and virginia creeper. Before long they'd be covered. The vines have been growing for MANY years and are probably the only thing holding up the fence by now! I do want to incorporate some shrubs into certain areas. My first Priority though- I need to think of preventing grass seeds from taking root when they blow from the neighbors' yards and also about killing the grass I have now. I COULD just mulch heavily- but I'm not sure that would do it. The areas I have mulched and planted in the front parts of the yard have helped reduce my weed issues, and I want to fix the back yard to be just as low-maintanance. Sometimes I can turn around twice and find a Weed as tall as I am staring back from the back yard! I say prevent them from starting in the first place! I hear you - when you mention the slide of mulch and landscape fabric- I was concerned about the same thing. However, I know that I personally cannot create flat areas in the back yard or make concrete paths. The concrete also seems to present a "planned" look. I want it to look at natural as possible, since I have cut down all the "typical shrubbery" in the front of the house and gone softer with Butterfly Garden plants. I think it better combines with all the english ivy in the front yard. I heavily pruned the shrubs around the deck and they have grown back nicely. I planted 6 inch Mimosa trees in the back yard 1/2 yrs. ago which have grown into 18 foot tall trees in three corners of the back yard. There is a new 18X6 Red Block Patio between the deck and the house which reaches to the AC unit. The patio blocks will be extended out in the "forward" backyard to border a new garden pond to allow for entertaining. A new large flower bed begins at the other side of the AC unit and continues beyond several feet of the fence. My thought was to use some of the same blocks in a more scattered pattern, to access the back section of yard. Nobody will be walking back there except during emergencies. I mentioned I have lots of ankle pain- I won't be dragging stuff up the hill- I can barely walk it. There is a huge shaded area for the dogs underneath the deck and either side, depending on sun direction- but they don't stay out long enough to suffer- I'm a woose who spoils them to AC since they both get overheated in our summers. The rest of the backyard bakes in direct sun until the trees develop more branches. After seeing the pics- would you possibly have any other suggestions? I don't mean to be obstinate- I am just trying to work with limited mobility and hoping for the most natural looking and low-maintainance yard possible. Priority one: I want to get rid of the grass and weeds without making the yard slick or dangerous to walk on. Oh- and I have clay soil which has developed nice earthworms and a darker color than most of my neighbors here in Charlotte. Thanks! Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard prior to any changes

If cars not parked in garage, what is garage used for? Oh, the usual embarrassing things. Mostly storage and clutter, but also my de facto workshop (table saw, workbench, miter saw…). Every so often I say “This is ridiculous!” and try to clean it out. But wait, I need that pile of snow tires, I still need my large tile saw until I finish the backsplash, can’t do without a lawnmower, where else can we put the bicycles, etc., etc. Very frustrating. Even if you don't really NEED privacy, I think it would make a better looking, more comfortable space to have some plantings/structures that create a SENSE of privacy, [snip]. Oh, me too! I did not mean to imply that privacy was not desirable. The way you describe the possibilities sounds fabulous and attractive! What kind of garden is the one between walk and fence? And you wish to continue with that activity? I wish I could say that the gardens are treated with benign neglect, but I am afraid it doesn’t quite rise to the level of “benign.” ;) It was along that fence that we had a stand of gray dogwoods from a previous owner. As I mentioned, they were very unruly, and we did not even like them that much, and our neighbors complained bitterly about the suckers. So I took them out over the last two years, and there is essentially nothing but weeds there now, except for one French lilac. If we decide to put anything there, it should be something low maintenance. I do not feel strongly in favor (or disfavor!) of putting something there — whatever makes sense! You didn’t ask, but, at present, there are the following well-established plantings. Along the side of the house is a bed of hostas. Along the back of the house there are ferns. Along the property line with the white house, there is a dense bed of tiger lilies abutting a dense bed of daylilies, with a couple of cute interlopers (clematis, bleeding hearts). All of these were there before we moved in nearly 20 years ago, and have survived under our shameful neglect! I am not tied to any of them. If you are an inexperienced bobcat operator, it will be likely that you will create much more damage to the grading operation (and maybe some other things!) than you will be likely to accomplish or fix. A word to the wise is sufficient! I will heed your advice on this. I will look forward to getting a grading plan done by someone who knows what he or she is doing! The space to the right of garage as you're looking from the house ... how is that used now? Great question! That is indeed our space, but it “feels like” our neighbors’ space. About 10 years ago, I planted a row of dwarf Korean lilacs. I am not married to these, so if you can see a better option, I am open to it! (Parenthetically, in a fairer universe, the wedge next to my garage would belong to the eastern neighbors, and the wedge next to the western neighbors’ garage would belong to me, but it was not to be…. The western neighbors do not use their wedge, so I did ask if they would be interested in selling that area to us (or leasing or selling an easement), but they decided not to pursue this idea.) Thanks again for your time, Yardvaark.

Where are you?? For any sort of meaningful suggestions we need to know that :-)) The conifers are Leyland cypress and they look not too bad for being only 5 years old. The ones not growing as fast are probably not receiving as much water. But these can grow very large under good conditions - 60+ feet tall and 25' wide at the base and can dwarf a smallish backyard, although yours looks generous enough to accommodate these if you don't mind losing some lawn area. They are a very fast growing privacy screening tree, as long as not taken down by one of the diseases that can affect them in the southeastern part of the country or if not affected by a compromised root system, which is also common with these trees. I agree that your space is large enough and your ideas nebulous enough that you would very likely benefit from the input of a landscape designer. Otherwise, you can just ad lib and do whatever suits your fancy.........many folks do just that :-)) ps. I know of NO designer that will buy plants from a client's garden....unless it may be something rather more unique and valuable like a Japanese maple. Certainly not a leyland cypress!!

The fence will keep your kids away from the poison ivy and be grateful your neighbors are not spraying weed killer near your growing family and blasting your ears out with leaf blowers. Looks like you have a nice deck where guests will be picking up their drinks, and if you took that picture from your living room, maybe you would like to be looking down toward guest gathering area near the fence, with the trees behind, and your kids swing set could be tucked on the opposite side of the yard, not in the line of sight. Do you want something like a fire pit or lounge furniture? A structure like a gazebo or a pergola? What are the bare patches on the lawn?