I'm planning my landscaping from scratch (just dirt & weeds now) - any recommendations?
5So we built our first home last year, and it’s time to get our yard in. What do you wish your yard has that it doesn’t?
We live out west-ish where green grass is common, but sprinkler systems are a must. I’m installing that starting this weekend.
We’re doing some xeriscaping and getting a drought tolerant grass to cut down on water costs. We’ve got a large garden planned (my wife loves gardening) and have planted 8 trees (4 fruit, 4 shade).
Here’s the general layout (the non-colored sections are going to be grass):
This is our garden - the main part is the long portion, and the two boxes at the top are for berries:
For the photo below, the light brown portions are xeriscaping and flower beds. The opaque circles are trees that we planted last year (the red ones are our fruit trees, Fuji apple, Asian pear, cherry, and white peach). The grey thing is the patio we just poured. The grey circle will be a future firepit:
For the front yard, everything left of the curvy thing is grass (with a flower garden at the top for some hydrangeas). The curvy thing will be a dry creek bed (my wife wanted some Japanese garden inspired elements). Everything to the right of the curvy thing will be xeriscaping and flowerbeds.
What do you wish your yard had? What couldn’t you live without?
While installing sprinkler lines, we’re adding a couple extra faucets for watering and washing vehicles on the driveway. I’m considering running some electrical line to somewhere in the yard in case we ever put in a water feature. I’m also considering running speaker wire… still haven’t figure that part out yet.
We’re on a limited budget (and have nearly reached our cap already), but we’re up for ideas on ways that we can plan for the future, even if it’s not installed for a few years.
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http://www.bajiroo.com/25-most-amazing-animal-sculptures-made-from-grass
@PlacidPenguin Whoa! I’m definitely not that talented
@luvche21
@ PlacidPenguin
I think is prob the desired final look, right?
@f00l my land is so much bigger though, this just won’t cover enough space. More please
@luvche21
More
All from Longwood Gardens in PA.
@f00l Nice! Makes my stomach flu day stuck at home much better
@f00l I was about to say, I recognize this place. Longwood Gardens is beautiful, and fortunately it isn’t much more than a 2-hour drive. I’ve been there in springtime and for Chrtistmas. Hopefully I get to go again this summer to see the new fountains.
I wish I had a fountain. One of those natural looking rock ones. I’d like to have it for the appearance and sound, as as a fresh water source for the dogs. But water’s at a premium and with our dry climate a lot would evaporate so I’m not sure how much it would cost to run it all day.
Ps. So jealous, your plans sound beautiful. My yard is so teeny even if stuff would grow there’s not a lot of space, especially with the Clash of the Titans going on daily. I’m having to water constantly just to keep the dirt dirt and not sand.
@moondrake Thanks! We’ve had a tough time deciding on what to do with the yard, so I hope it turns out well! It’s almost too big of a yard for me to want to take care of and continually water too…
A fountain someday would be lovely. Maybe I’ll lay some pipe for one and electrical cables just in case we decide to some day. I know my wife would love it!
Your yard looks great. If I could pick one thing to add to our yard that we don’t have it’s a water feature, more specifically some kind of trickling waterfall deal terminating in a small pool/pond. Fish optional.
@jbartus I’m thinking to at least lay some pipe and electrical cords in preparation for this… except I have no idea what kind of cord to lay yet. My wife would love me even more if I made her a water feature!
@luvche21 from what I can tell it’s actually a fairly DIY friendly project. My friend’s father made his own, the only major expense is buying the liner to keep the water from draining out into the water table.
@jbartus Hm… I might have to give it a try someday! My first project once the yard is in is to start a few espalier fruit trees, then a bonsai or two, so it’ll have to get in line!
@luvche21
My SIL has a tiny running water over rocks thing in her backyard. Very small.
The sound and the sense that it’s there are both excellent somehow.
I think she had a small kit perhaps? Did it herself, anyway. She isn’t particularly a handyperson, so it must not be terribly hard to do. She would never consider doing her own sprinkler system or other similar.
@f00l the sprinkler system is actually relatively easy. I spent the last 2 Saturdays helping my neighbor with his, then he’ll help with mine. Very doable with my limited knowledge…
I think a water feature down the road wouldnt be too hard either, I’ll definitely get a kit of sorts for the pump. Might do one of those cool Japanese bamboo fountains, although it would be very quiet, almost not enough to get the joy of hearing it.
Let it wait till tomorrow, go get a beer.
@cranky1950 The simple beauty of this strategy is that tomorrow never comes, it’s always tomorrow!
@cranky1950 I failed in that regard. I was out in the yard today for 6 hours
@luvche21 Well see now yur committed and have to get sweaty and durty and shit.
@cranky1950 Yeah, it happened today too. I’ve been out there for the last 7 hours - a few more hours to go too…
If I had my way, I’d get rid of the grass. The newer fake grass looks pretty realistic. You don’t have to mow it, or water it.
I’d like a Japanese Zen garden.
/image Japanese rock Zen garden
Put in a watering system for the produce.
/image mister landscaper vegetable irrigation kit
@RiotDemon I’d love to get rid of grass too, but astro turf is super super expensive. The payout/balance in water savings would take something like 40 years, and would cost over $20K for my yard, if I put it in myself. Rocks are expensive too
But, we’re not putting in as much grass since we’re doing some xeriscaping!
I’d love to do a zen garden, but with an infant and a toddler, it would never stay in one piece…
If you don’t want AstroTurf and green colored concrete, I’d say don’t forget to install enough faucets outside. Does it freeze in the winter? Put in the freeze-proof ones. They work great.
Also exterior outlets, weedblock cloth where where’s no garden or lawn, a small garden shed unless a garage is easily accessed and level surfaces to sit and/or put a beer on.
@daveinwarsh I looked into astro turf, but it’s extremely expensive. Would have loved to go that route though!
I’m adding 2 additional faucets outside in addition to the 2 that are on the house. As for exterior outlets, I’d love to add a few, but have no idea what I’m doing in that regard. I might just run some electrical wire until I can figure out how to actually install them.
We just poured a patio last week too! Hopefully a hot tub will find it’s way there someday!
@luvche21 Some neighbors installed 'turf the past years because of the drought. It looks terrible. Yet the dogs still do their business on it.
Dogs Pee on Turf
@daveinwarsh Fake grass has a drawback: It gets too hot, study says
"According to a UNLV study, fake grass can heat up to nearly 170 degrees in the warmer months. That’s far higher than the 122 degrees that’s considered safe for sustained use by trained athletes, let alone your average toddler or family pooch."
@moondrake
Up close, it’s one thing to play a sport on artificial grass and not tear the turf to pieces, or not worry about grass growing under a sports-roof.
It’s another thing to have it at your house. Yes, heat buildup and drainage weirdness, and if everyone did it, it might seriously mess with local groundwater and cause runoff problems.
Also, yes ugly. No one ever wants to be near it.
@f00l I vended at a convention in the stadium in Glendale. They have the entire indoor game field of natural grass on an enormous movable platform. When its not being used they slide it out into the sunshine where it can be cared for and watered like regular grass, and when there’s a game they haul it back indoors and play on it on top of the platform. It was quite a sight to see.
Looks like you have put in a lot of planning already, bet it will be awesome!
@KDemo Thanks! I sure hope so! It’s been extremely stressful planning this, since we don’t know exactly what we want yet.
I spent 6 hours out there today and got a decent start on the dry creek bed!
This is going to take forever!
@luvche21
I have some serious admiration about you two and this project. Can we get some pix at some point?
@f00l definitely! Give me a couple weeks before anything picture worthy happens though. Next step is the sprinkler system!
@luvche21 Sprinkler system:
@daveinwarsh Imagine 50 of those around my yard. That would be so beautiful!
@daveinwarsh I got one like this for my dogs to enjoy in the heat of the summer but they all think they’ll melt in water, so I get to enjoy watching them run for their lives from it instead. It’s very pretty and kind of mesmerizing. Wish my yard looked like this.
You have already done the hard part… pre-planning.
I can’t begin to tell you how many plants/bushes/trees etc I have planted, then moved (sometimes more than once) or had to cut down/dig up due to changes in plans (i.e my wife’s overall ‘vision’ for the landscaping), or due to shit growing may bigger than the labels said.
Sometimes I think my property used to be a nuclear waste dump or something!
Yes to the water feature. That is one (of many) projects I have going on currently. The ‘pond’ is in, and I just got the liner a few weeks ago to put in the upper catch basin and waterfall sometime in the next couple of weeks hopefully.
Yes to remote electrical outlets and faucets.
Another thing I really like that I did was put in rain barrels. I also will drop 4 waterproof (wired) speakers around the pool this spring as well. I installed an in wall amplifier that works great, fits in an outlet box, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg (and a testicle)… It’s not Carnegie Hall but it sounds OK and is easy to do.
@chienfou we’ve already replanted a few trees too haha, but that was only a couple weeks after they were planted initially, so it was super easy.
That in wall amplifier looks awesome! It has everything packed into that little thing too!
Our land is very flat, so we’re not sure what to do about a water feature yet, so a free standing waterfall would look out of place, right?
@luvche21 no, not necessarily. Think fountain in the mall. The sound of water running/splashing is super relaxing.
@luvche21 as for the in wall amp… yeah, I ended up buying an extra to put in my shop so I can power the old bookshelf speakers I hung out there. I like the ability to bluetooth or hard wire stuff to the setup.
@chienfou That’s true - we’ll at least designate somewhere for a water feature and figure out what kind to do sometime down the road.
BTW what kind of garden are you planning along the property line… veggies or flowers?
@chienfou the garden along that left side is a veggie garden, all 57 feet or something. To the top right of that we’ll put two planter boxes, one for raspberries and one for strawberries. The one along the top side will be a flower garden/misc plants and bushes. Are those the ones you’re wondering about?
@luvche21 yep. Not much luck with raspberries here in the south. Too humid so they tend to mold too easily. I do plant lots of tomatoes and peppers though. Have a smoker that I fuel with pecan from our trees and the occasional pear/apple wood (also from our trees) I use it to make jalapenos into chipotles and the tomatoes to make green tomato chutney to put over the smoked cream cheese I make… also have a HUGE fig tree that produces beaucoodles of figs for jam etc.
currently have planted:
(annuals)
Tomatoes (3 different varieties)
Green peppers
Jalapenos
Okra
cantaloupes
watermelons
yellow squash
zucchini
cukes
eggplants (also 3 varieties)
(Parennials)
strawberries
herbs (rosemary, oregano (2 types), sage, cilantro (it reseeded itself this year), parsley, and just planted some basil since they didn’t overwinter/reseed this year.
orchard has pears, apples, peaches, blueberries
arbor and fences have grapes, wild blackberries and soon some thornless ones I bought recently but haven’t actually put in the ground yet.
@chienfou Well it sounds like you’ve got a lovely garden! It actually sounds really close to the one that we’re planning (my wife is excellent with those things…)
We’ll be doing a bunch of Japanese veggies (my wife is Japanese) including kabucha (pumpkin) and many others.
We planted 4 fruit trees last fall - Fuji apple, Asian pear, cherry, and white peach. We’re hoping to do a few espalier fruit trees as well along the fence. We’ve been considering grapes, but I hate spiders and all I remember from picking grapes (other than the most amazing homemade grape juice) as a kid were the nasty spiders haha.
We want to try blueberries, but the soil here is too acidic (or was it basic?) - we have to figure out a soil treatment first.
Out of your list, I think okra (and maybe some of the herbs) are the only things that we don’t have planned for ours as well!
@luvche21 Yep, okra is a locally mandated crop in the south. If you plant a garden it is required!
As for the blueberries (in fact all berries I believe) they LOVE acidic soil. That’s why I mulch mine with pine straw…
Love Japanese veggies and one of my eggplants is the Japanese (long, skinny) variety. Have been seriously looking at all the @!$#% bamboo shoots coming up on one edge of the back yard (due to the f**** neighbors letting it grow and encroach into their backyard) and considering making them into an edible product, but I understand it’s a bit of a PITA.
One of our (older) pear trees is a hard, cooking pear, and it makes great pear butter/jam/spiced pears and awesome pear liqueur…
The grapes are on the back fence and an arbor (mostly scuppernong and muscadine since they do well locally) and I really haven’t noticed much of a spider problem. Maybe the mockingbird that nests in the arbor each season is eating them all!
Awesome project. I’m fond of little plots of sand for that zen thing.
@huja we would LOVE that as well, but with an infant and a toddler, that thing wouldn’t stand a chance… We’re very fond of Japanese gardens.
@huja You must not have many stray cats in your area. One of my friends has a sandbox for her grandkids that she has to keep a piece of plywood over when they aren’t there. I am in a constant war to keep the little fuckers from using every piece of my property with soft earth as a litter box. I’ve tried pine cones and cayenne pepper and it doesn’t deter them. I can’t think of much else that would leave the ground safe for my dogs but deter unwanted cats. A pellet gun is very tempting.
@moondrake
What about fox or coyote urine spray?
@moondrake If we ever get a sandbox (which we might someday), we’ll definitely have to put some sort of covering over it from the stray cats as well.
@huja Now that I think of it, we have very few outside cats in the 'hood. What ever the cat population is stays indoors.
@f00l I would think the dogs would be large enough predators to make that point but I could try it. It can’t possibly stink up the place worse than cat piss.
@moondrake
/image dog and cat repellant
Maybe this can go on the outskirts of your yard so it doesn’t bother the dogs?
@RiotDemon Thanks. Ringing the property with it would probably be expensive, but I could put it in a few key areas like flower beds where I don’t want the dogs anyway. I spent a chunk of yesterday morning fencing off my big flowering succulent ground cover as Zephyr has decided to make it his toilet, and is killing it by trampling it and it’s impossible to clean up without further destroying the plant.
@moondrake
Around here people use fox urine spray to keep critters out of the attics and crawlspaces (for non-slab houses, few very basements around here).
I’m told it works. I don’t think there is much of a smell (to human noses). after a short while.
If you have wood fencing, that’s where you’d try to soak it in. I don’t think it’s horribly expensive, dont trust my intuition on that tho.
@f00l Wood disintegrates way too fast. We were just looking at a wood fence down the block that some naive neighbors put in two years ago and it’s falling apart, looks 100 years old. I was thinking about photographing it. I’ve got Rock walls in the back of my place. I suspect any coating would cook off in fairly short order. The front is vinyl fencing, those premade sections you buy at Home Depot. We weren’t sure they were a good investment for the hard climate, but they were very affordable. The glue holding the slats on dried out after a year, but once we bolted them all on it’s held up amazingly well and still looks nice.
@moondrake
If you really soaked down whatever they used to bond the stones in the rock fencing with an odor that repels critters, and perhaps added a few features elsewhere on the edges that you could “deeply odorize”, that might help.
/giphy astroturf
@medz I really cannot figure out what’s going on in that gif… what’s that guy doing with the cup? Murdering his friend for buying pink astroturf?
@luvche21 don’t know, he’s too far behind the person to be making contact. The frog sure seems concerned, though.
Edit: source? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-07-22/thirteen-months-of-working-eating-and-sleeping-at-the-googleplex
My boyfriends and I inherited a house that already had a lot of flowers and shrubs planted already, but we are working on taking a few things out and planting new ones. We’ve talked about putting paving stones in the back yard to a firepit but it’s going to be a little while till we have the time and money to do it. I’ve always liked the little ponds people have too but I wouldn’t know how to do it myself. This is the first time I’ve had my own yard space to work with so it’s all new to me.
@ninjaemilee We might do some paving stones to our firepit area as well.
Lots and lots of work to plan all of it, isn’t it!
You inherited a house? I’m super jealous
@luvche21 well it’s a little more complicated than that. Basically my boyfriend bought his grandfather’s house after he passed away last year and he got a huge discount on the mortgage because it was sold in the family. I moved in a few months after. It was pretty well established. We’re just working on making it our own.
@ninjaemilee Well, that sounds like a lovely deal apart from some possibly tough memories after her passing. Best of luck making it your own!
@ninjaemilee
Pavers are definitely a great ‘improvement’ project, and not too expensive if you do them yourself. Things to consider:
Above all enjoy the process and planning stages. Using outdoor space is really lots of fun and having an extension of your living room in the form of a fire pit is really nice.
@chienfou Can we talk about Roundup? I have just been pulling weeds and weed whacking random grass in my small, paved and deserty yard. Ace has a great sale on Roundup (buy the sprayer, get the similarly priced refill free) and I’ve been thinking about getting it, but I worry about my small handful of beloved cultivated plants. Some trees (a couple of them little guys), ivy, and a big succulent. I certainly wouldn’t spray them directly, but how close is too close? I’d rather go on pulling weeds by hand than risk my hard won plants.
@moondrake OK, much as I am an organic garden kind of guy, I do use round up in some areas.
Of course… YMMV
@chienfou Thanks!
@chienfou I’ll keep this in mind and pass it along. Thank you for the tips!