Show me your landscaping!

[Xtina]

I am trying to get ideas about what to do with the ugly mudpit I call my backyard this year. The past two years I've spent working on the vegetable garden half, but this year, I want to deal with the other side. In case this doesn't make sense to you, my yard is divided with a four foot fence down the middle to segregate dogs from chickens and vegetables. The side with the dogs will also be the place where barbecues are held and where I just hang out in summer evenings. But, I don't come from a gardening background and I have no idea how to even begin planning. Ideally, here are the things I'd like to incorporate:

1. Under the hazelnut tree, I want to dig a spot for a dog poo composter
2. I want a path leading from the back door to the gate to enter the garden
3. I'd like to get grass growing again
4. A fire pit would be nice
5. Some kind of flower beds or shrubberies along the fences
6. I want to build a cob or brick oven somewhere

So, take some pictures of your yards and post them! Especially anyone who has a small, relatively square yard. And feel free to post ideas for things like what is the ideal path material.

 

[patandchickens]

Laying these things out is really mostly a matter of personal taste. Use hoses, boxes, whatever ya got lying around, to mock things up and spend a day or three looking at the mocked-up version from the house and different points in the yard, to see if you're likely to like a permanent version.

Be careful about putting a dog composter right under a tree - you don't want to be severing tree roots in digging the hole (damages the tree's health, can lead to other problems). Usually out at the dripline of the (half-or fullsize) tree is a safer place, if you must be digging holes near trees.

Easiest thing for a path might be big square pavers, if you don't mind the look. If you don't demand they be 100% level, you really needn't go to the trouble of digging down, laying a gravel bed, levelling, tamping, etc.... just plop 'em down where you want 'em, and they will gradually sink somewhat down into the soil instead of perching on top. If any wobble, lift 'em up and level the ground carefully with a trowel or whatever til they stop wobbling. This has the advantage of being not very much time/work commitment, so if you decide next year you want to move or change the path, you won't feel bad doing it

Once you've got a good idea where you want flower beds/shrubberies, I'd suggest getting a hold of a bunch of cardboard and organic matter. Lay the cardboard down all over the area, in teh shape of the future bed, then dump the organic material over top of it, as high a mound as you have materials for. Then ignore it for the next year or two, as it rots down and gets itself ready for planting. Fence the dogs out of it if necessary, although they would have to learn to stay out of the beds eventually ANYhow if you're going to be gardening...

As far as the grass goes, you may need to keep the dogs off that part of the lawn for a good while. If your soil is muddy and compacted it would be well worth aerating it (even roughly digging it up or loosening it with a digging fork, if your yard isn't too huge) and adding compost or topsoil if you can afford it. Then reseed and follow the usual directions (level/tamp/dampen seedbed, seed evenly, water lightly in, mulch, water daily til growing well, etc etc etc) but remember that the grass will be much more fragile for the first year or so and not be able to take as much traffic and abuse as it eventually will. Or you could lay turf, which will require a shorter period of keeping dogs entirely off, but still be fragile for some good while. (Oh, if you have mud issues now, you might try to address them by drainage improvements FIRST.)

I will try uploading some pics of our place to photobucket sometime when my (dialup) connection is working better

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Xtina]

Thanks for all the advise! Grass is going to be a major challenge for my yard, and one that I'm not nearly up to the task of doing, but I'm going to try. Pictures of what others have done though will give me a good idea of what can be done. I'm just very bad at visualizing, and I have next to no knowledge of ornamental plants.

 

[vfem]

I recently have been doing a mock up in photoshop for our yard. Dealing with our veggie garden beds right now... a lot with lining out for future beds. We don't have mud, but we do have weeds... so I've given up on good grass.

Everything you want to come up with was really well pointed out by pat. Drag some stuff out and place it around the yard to see if its convenient for what you need it for.

I laid the brick path using pea gravel over the summer. It was simple... but thats because it was a short path. Pavers for a winding path might be nice for you so it can lead to each of your new areas... and then end at your garden gate!?

 

[Xtina]

That is beautiful! I think your path idea would be perfect for my yard, especially if I can find some free bricks or gravel on craigslist. How do you keep the pea gravel from getting spread out all over?

 

[vfem]

The whole path is sunk in so its all level with the ground at the top. I have a layer of gravel down first then I placed the bricks and got them lined up with an inch in between the bricks and dumped the pea gravel over.

The trick was spraying the gravel when I was finished to cause it to settle (spray with hose, walk over it a bit) then adding more gravel and then spraying it again and adding more. Then after the first rain we added a little more and since then its all been nice and settled.

I don't have issues with pea gravel going everywhere until my 2 year old goes to town on it playing on it like a sandbox... then I just sweep up the gravel back into the cracks with a broom.

 

[Helen_]

I'm in the middle of giving my yard a makeover as well. I got some really really great ideas from yardshare.com , it has a ton of pictures. Although my sister-in-law is a professional landscaper so that helped too...

Helen

 

[wifezilla]

Here are some older pics of my back yard.

Along our ugly fence...

Patio made out of all scrounged pavers...

Herb garden that was put in a semi-fenced off area that was full of nothing but weeds when we moved in...

The fence in front of the herb garden is now covered in grape vines...

The area under the grape arbor. This is my favorite part of the garden. I have hanging lanterns I light and we chill out here on hot nights.

Yummmm.....grapppeesssss

My japanese spirea under my japanese crab apple

And the pond we just put in in front of the herb garden fence and the grapes.