Major backyard renovation turned my soil upside down
caitlin622
2 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (30)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 years agocaitlin622
2 years agoRelated Discussions
Creating a plan for my backyard--where to begin?
Comments (9)Tuchina- I'm not a professional designer, just a professional dreamer. With your situation--student, limited funds, existing trees, soil, and other constraints--a great deal depends on who you are and what brings you joy. For me, I love research, asking questions, gaining know-how, envisioning possibilities (even financially impossible possibilities). I love being outside in the garden as much as possible, so spring and fall clean up, bed prep, plant transplanting, as well as creating places I like to eat, sit, meditate, and read are important. Working to create these spaces is something that I find entertaining. And I don't mind very slow progress. I purposely set my annual garden goal very low: Is it better this year than last year? And, though it's been slow, I am getting there. I agree that creating a sort of master plan may help you move forward. But it's okay to plan to take the trees down in your master plan, even if you can't do this for a couple of years. That question, of course, may also depend on how long you will live in this house and whether completing your schooling will mean you will be trying to sell. If you plan to work in the same city / town where you are now in school and this will be your home for the next 10 years, then consider a master plan strongly geared toward what you would really love this place to be. On the front end, don't limit your dreaming perspective. It will, after all, potentially be your back yard for a good chunk of your existence. If your time frame is considerably les, then moderate the master plan toward the objective of good stewardship of the yard and home and doing what you decide will give you best value when you need to sell. Once that's out of the way I second Bahia's advice about books, gardens in the neighborhood, gardens and parks in your city, botanical gardens. Go on a picture safari this spring. Take garden tours in your town or region. Lots of notes. Keep a garden journal, especially describing vignettes (little created scenes and settings in a landscape) that, perhaps for some as yet unknown reason, seem to stop your heart. Do the same with garden pictures in magazines and seed catalogs. If you can cut out the pictures, then put them in the garden journal. Later on, you will have to deal with the fact that some of these photos are touched up like runway models, but, nevertheless, if the picture seems to speak to your heart, it's worth beginning to ask yourself "Why?" Now, much of what you capture this way will have nothing to do with your current backyard. I told you I was a professional dreamer! But it is still very much worth learning what it is that you love in the garden, don't you think? Apparently, you found something wonderful about having a fig tree, right? My mom planted one a few years ago and it's a lovely thing ... Back to planning process. You also need to ask yourself a lot of questions about what you want to be able to do in your backyard. You've mentioned that there is no patio -- Would you like one? Do you want a place to drink a cup of coffee in the morning? A table and chairs for friends to sit outside and talk deep thoughts past midnight? A place to groom the pups? You've mentioned a back fence that the neighbor put up but does not maintain. You've put up a second fence ... I think to keep the pups in the yard. Not sure. So this brings up some things you need or want: Enclosure adequate to keep dogs in the yard, and A way to mitigate the ugliness of the neighbor's fence. Now, remember, at this stage you're still just playing. So you can write anything in the whole wide world down as a "I'd love to have ...". Nobody needs to see your list. do you want a fountain or water feature? Do you really wish you had adequate sun for a vegie or herb garden? Do you want to teach your pups dog agility? (Don't laugh! That's what's in my brother's back yard. All these wonderful fun things for his dogs.) Or, maybe you'd just like a nice patio area, maybe some containers of flowers spilling over, and a real lawn dotted with much smaller (younger) ornamental trees and shrubs? Information about what you want and what you need comes first. And I'd even say it comes before you limit the discussion with budget. Trust me, mine is miniscule, but I am working to save up for a major change. I know what I want because I worked on my "master plan". I'm hoping something in this is helpful. If it were me, I'd try to sketch out your main design, I would (and did) get a consultation with a designer (oh, meant to ask, are there any landscape design schools around? You can sometimes get help through a student looking for experience), and then I'd focus on one small area. For me, I'd be planning to nix the trees, so I'd check out the cost. Then that might be all that I could do this year. Or I'd get myself a patio so I could sit sipping a glass of wine, contemplating the possibilities ......See MoreAny Design Ideas for My Sloping Backyard ? (Pictures)
Comments (30)Planning the flower bed plantings etc. is definitely the fun part. Most people skip to that step because it is the part of the landscape you see- and the most enjoyable part to think about. It's a classic mistake to do so because you will pay a long term price for all the seemingly little details you skip in the beginning. I take it that the advice of a good engineer feels out of the budget for you? Drainage issues are the boring stuff but it's already obvious you're going to have a significant drainage concern. Trenching and piping are okay but eventually trenches can fill with sediment and no longer work. You really, really need to have an engineering consult to determine if what the builder proposes will be adequate. It shouldn't cost more than a couple hundred bucks at most. Perhaps some other neighbors will pitch in since you'll all need the same thing? I used to be a City Planner. I've seen developers pull a lot of crap. Sometimes, they are well-intended but the data they based their information on was faulty. Other times- they're just out to make a buck as quickly and cheaply as possible. At an absolute minimum, call your City offices and see if someone from the City engineering Dept. can advise you on appropriate methods to handle the drainage. In theory, they've already required the developer to deal with this but sometimes really different to say it will work on paper and to see it once everything is going in. Building codes are the 'minium acceptable standard', they are intended to set the bottom threshold. Something can be up to 'code' but not necessarily be a great solution. Also, ask them what level of storm they design for. Sometimes they require them to design the drainage to handle the runoff from a 10, 50, or 100 year storm. You'll want to know which they planned for in your case as it will give you a better idea of what it will handle. As for your other issues- a patio will be much lower maintenance over time than a deck and will certainly last longer. I would also make sure to have a 2' high by at least 3' deep berm for flowers and shrubs against the house as sort of a 'back up' in case your drainage system clogs or is overwhelmed....See MoreA stroll through my backyard (Image heavy)
Comments (46)My goodness, it was very interesting to look back and see what's here and what's now gone. Yesterday I dug out the overgrown spiderworts and replaced them with echinaceas. I always have loads of echinaceas reseeding so they're a big fill in when I'm ripping out. The bed with the yuccas is full of some weeds--it must get a major redo this fall. For the most part it all looks the same except things have filled in and gotten bigger. I probably have two dozen crepe myrtles here, all grown from seed I traded for on the forums. I took seeds from all around the country and mixed them together. The seeds were WS (probably in late January) and they germinated well in mid spring. The seedlings were kept in a holding be their first year--I was surprise to see some lavender blooms. The second year they were transferred to a back fence border where they were another year, after that I started moving them about the garden. I now have two crepe myrtle hedges and some extras still in the back fence border. Crepe Myrtles have a varied hardiness, usually to zone seven but some species can do zone six quite well. If you want to increase your crepe myrtles then trade for seeds from around the country and WS them all together. After a couple of years you will know which of them are hardy for your garden. It's three years time between sowing and seeing a blooming and prunable hedge from your crepe myrtle seeds--for me it was a grand experiment to see if I could succesfully germinate them with WS here in zone seven; I am absolutely delighted with my crepes. They're just about to start blooming too so that's really nice to see. T Here is a link that might be useful: Crepe Myrtle Seeds (nice hardiness data)...See MoreI want to enjoy my backyard again. HELP!!!!
Comments (5)Thanks y'all. I actually started with the cleaning process this morning and wound up in throat tightening tears that were completely unexpected. In the process of cleaning off the patio I saw all of Cleo's hair that I didn't even know was there. I just watched them wash away in jets of water and felt like I was washing her away. I have a feeling this will be a lot more painful then I expected but hope to get great therapy from it in the long run. It did give me an idea in talking to my mother about making a memorial area somewhere in the yard just for her with a marker of some sorts. Of course nothing could compare to the beauty and happiness that she brought to our lives for so long. There is a small swag on the bottom of the slope that turns into a river when it rains. I do eventually want to build it up with some river rock or something but that will be on the bottom of my priority list (need to think cheep right now). I've even thought that maybe one day I'd do a waterfall down the hill to a pond of some sort, but again, I don't even know if we'll be in the house for as long as that would take. Can anybody tell from the pictures where the best place to put the swingset would be? I want to put plants around the patio and I think they would get in the way of the slide if I don't move it. Where would you put the sweetshrub?...See MoreJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
2 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yeardchall_san_antonio
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yearcaitlin622
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yeararmoured
last yeartoxcrusadr
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yearcaitlin622
last yearcaitlin622
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yeardchall_san_antonio
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yearcaitlin622
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last yearJohn D Zn6a PIT Pa
last yeardchall_san_antonio
last yearcaitlin622
last yearcaitlin622
last yearsubk3
last yearlast modified: last yeartoxcrusadr
last yeargardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
Related Stories
HOMES AROUND THE WORLDHouzz Tour: House on a Slope Goes Upside Down to Let In Light
The living areas in this contemporary Australian home move to the top floor, with the bedrooms down below
Full StoryHOUZZ TOURSUpside-Down Plan Brings Light Into a Home’s Living Spaces
An architect raises the roof and adds a third-story addition to an Edwardian house in San Francisco
Full StoryBEFORE AND AFTERSHouzz Tour: A Georgia Foreclosure Gets a Major Overhaul
Gutting and redesigning turn a mishmash 1925 home into a unified haven with better flow
Full StoryMY HOUZZ TVMy Houzz: Neil Patrick Harris Gives His Brother a New Backyard
The actor works with designers to create an inviting deck and pollinator garden, as well as a renovated family room
Full StoryGARDENING GUIDESHouzz Call: Show Us Your Backyard Rain Barrel
As we head into the cooler months, our thoughts turn to rain — and rainwater collection
Full StoryLANDSCAPE DESIGNWhere to Invest Your Budget in a Landscape Renovation
Pros weigh in on where to put your money for long-lasting benefits and cost savings down the line in a landscape redo
Full StoryDECLUTTERING8 Times in Your Life to Take Advantage of a Major Declutter
A new house, job or baby — these and other turning points offer a chance to discard stuff you don’t need or love
Full StoryHOUZZ TOURSHouzz Tour: Major Changes Open Up a Seattle Waterfront Home
Taken down to the shell, this Tudor-Craftsman blend now maximizes island views, flow and outdoor connections
Full StoryLIFESlow Living 101: Tips for Turning Off the Chaos
It may feel as though you're too busy to slow down and enjoy life. But even little changes can have a big effect
Full StoryINSIDE HOUZZThere’s a Party in the Backyard, Says a Houzz Landscaping Survey
Entertaining, growing edibles and solving problems are goals for homeowners planning to revamp their yards
Full Story
dchall_san_antonio