EDITED Need landscape advice! Privacy while keeping sun for edibles?
LE R
last year
last modified: last year
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Need serious landscaping advice...blank slate...
Comments (20)Tibs has the most poignant advice : Green Giant Thuga will get taller than 8 - 10'. Check with your community's zoning, you might be limited on how close you can plant to the road and how high for driver's visability. Even if it is within code to plant that high on a busy street corner I would advice not to. It is very dangerous for your community. Drivers need to be able to see around the corner. I don't understand the rational for removing the short stone retaining wall. It provides you with a low barrier set off the street which is great in regards to winter plowing / snow removal , provides an off street walking or car pull off area and allows the upper grade some flatness. I think that a walk around the Arnold Arboretum will give you some ideas about how to pull together a vignette/ composition of shrubs as well as inform you ( most all the plants are labeled ) of the various plant names. - - If the Arnold Arboretum is not within close distance then try one of the local well maintained museum properties like DeCordova in Lincoln or the old Case Estates in Weston. Another option is Allen Haskells old nursery or Weston nursery - - Otherwise a consultation with a landscape designer would greatly benefit you and would most likely save you $$$ in the long run and you will receive a good base plan to work off of ....See MoreEdible landscape
Comments (9)I agree with the comments of the others. It also is important to study your sunlight patterns at different parts of the year to understand which areas adjacent to structures are shaded at which times of the year. In some cases, you can use that shading to your advantage. As a rural resident, I want to add that every living creature of every kind will enjoy every edible plant (and many that we human consider merely ornamentals) you have, so don't plant too much too soon without fencing and other protection because, if you do, you may find that the deer, rabbits and other creatures are devouring your plants just about as quickly as you can plant them. I cannot grow much of anything that is not fenced in so that deer and rabbits cannot get to it, and there's lots of other hungry animals and insects (and birds) that will devour every edible thing you plant, so have a plan in place. You might want to grow your lettuce in containers in the beginning, in order to have it high enough above the ground that the rabbits can't eat it. I grow some lettuce near the house in containers that are about 2' tall, and grow the rest in the fenced-in garden, which is a combination of vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers protected by an 8' tall fence. In our early years here we had a shorter fence and too many creatures found ways over it or under it and devoured both ornamental and edible plantings. While edible landscaping is wonderful, when you are rural or semi-rural it can be very hard to do it unless you have adquate measures in place to exclude wildlife, the neighbors' cows or goats that get loose, neighbors' dogs or cats (as well as your own pets) that like to dig, etc. I protect your fruit trees with tomato cages their first year or two to keep the deer from eating them or beating them to death and use hardware cloth or plastic tree protectors to keep rabbits from nibbling the bark and girdling the young fruit trees before they get a chance to grow. My advice is to go slow and figure out if the wild critters expect to come eat everything you plant. I finally had to largely give up on the idea of having any sort of edible landscaping around the house and just focus on the fenced garden. Otherwise, everything I plant just turns into Deer Chow and Rabbit Chow. I now have two very large fenced-in garden plots with ugly 8' tall fences and grow most everything within them. The actual landscaping around the house itself is just mostly shrubs, trees and groundcovers, with just a few flowering plants that the wildlife generally do not feed upon (but in drought years, they will even eat plants that they normally leave alone). For the most part, ignore those lists entitled "Plants that deer won't eat" or whatever. The deer do not read those lists and I have learned they will eat almost anything if they are hungry enough (and they often are indeed hungry enough). The battle to protect fruit trees (and peaches in particular) from hungry squirrels is an ongoing saga here. My fruit trees largely are not inside the fenced garden (though I am starting to plant more fruit trees inside fenced areas) and I have to fight the birds, squirrels and deer for every piece of fruit we harvest. Bird netting helps, but it is not even bird proof and certainly not squirrel and deer proof....See MoreWhat's the biggest lesson you learned while landscaping?
Comments (96)My main lesson is: Know when you need help and do not be ashamed to ask for it. I admit, initially I found having to hire someone to be a bit demoralizing. As someone who takes great pride in doing all of my own gardening and landscaping, it took a bit out of me to realize I could not transform my front yard 100% on my own. Due to my status as a single working mother of three, a super busy schedule the month I wanted to tackle my landscaping, and a physical ailment that restricts my free movement at times, calling in back up was the right thing to do. By doing so, I knew I’d get my flower bed looking the way I wanted quickly and with less mental stress and possible physical ailment. best regard bestezy...See MoreEdible privacy needed ASAP! Bananas?!?
Comments (30)A way to combine the two approaches would be to espalier evergreen fruit-bearing trees to a fence or framework. But yes Sunset 17 is outer coastal so there will be wharf rats around, which love fruit. So much so that in my area they will even come out during the day and sit in full view on the branches of apple or fig trees, gnaw their fruits. Raccoons may also interfere with home fruit production, as in going for grapes for instance. As with wharf rats (a. k. a. plague rats) it would seem there would be a possible human health implication with these getting on and among fruits people intend to eat themselves. In my state for instance the health department web site says to assume all raccoons are carrying raccoon roundworms - which are fatal when infecting humans - and that all places the animals have been are contaminated. Some relatives of mine that used to have a grape arbor ended up outfitting it with electric lines to keep the raccoons off it at fruiting time....See MoreLE R
last yearlast modified: last yearLE R
last yearlast modified: last yearLE R
11 months agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 months agoK S
11 months agobeesneeds
11 months agoK S
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