revised landscape

Here is the revised landscape. The original layout(see previous post) had a row of laurel crossing in front of the house. After planting the row, it looked too confining and was totally blocking the flow of chi. After several replantings and unplantings and making a general mess of the place, I came up with this scheme:



I defined the grass walkway by bushes (I'll probably line with rocks too). Note how the front walkway splits. The branch leading to the driveway is functional, practical, and wide enough to be inviting. The branch leading straight out is needed as a formality to accent the front door and also to allow the flow of chi. The biggest challenge for me was to define space with a ton of mounding shrubs while still making it feel open and inviting.

It doesn't look like much without the special effects wording (thanks to Power Point). Branch to driveway:

Branch straight out:

Area to left of driveway is shown in the next picture. Here I built a shrub garden around the hydrangea that was already there. The climbing rose will go up the hydrangea and should look awesome with roses dangling down (eventually). Summer snowflake are mounding bushes that flower white all summer.

Afternoon sun backlighting sugar maple.......

zoomed out a bit

Preparations for seeding former yew hedge location: To prevent flooding in low spots, I dug four wick drains. These are holes a foot deep filled with rocks to act as a drain. This way, the rain won't turn the low spots mushy. First add cobbles, then put smaller stone on top. The smaller stone will keep top soil from washing into the cobbles.

I'm waiting for Ryan to call and deliver top soil already so I can seed the hedge area. It's $22/cubic yard plus fifty delivery and I need 6 cubic yards.

landscaping

June-July 2009 is considerable landscaping. The final results will be visible next year or the following, once the new plantings grow some.

The first job was pull up the 85 ft Yew hedge.


Rented excavator, $700 for the weekend (United Rentals) including taxes, diesel fuel, pickup/delivery. The excavator was easy and fun to use. In photo below, half the hedge is removed.

Also with excavator I leveled some lumpy ground out by the shed. I discoverd that one of the lumps was a rotted wood pile with a hugs bees nest in it.

Here the yews are almost gone. A couple buddies came and helped out. It wasnt hard to get friends to come over when you have an excavator to play with.

Not shown, the yews ended up in a HUGE pile in the cul de sac. My neighbors helped me drag the yews into the woods the day after my friends and I dug them up.

I aligned shrubs at different angles because the house is at an angle to the street.

Trucks make a fine planter but I need this one for other purposes. I am looking for an old wood cart to just leave somewhere on the lawn and grow plants in and around.

Here is digging up the asphalt walkway. The walkway was too narrow and too close to house. I am replacing it with a grass walkway that will be defined by plantings on either side.

I will seed over the old walkway. The new walkway to front door will be just grass, which won't wear because the kitchen door gets all the use.

I will train this climbing rose to climb up the burkwood, at the entrance to grass walkway. Nothing like climbing roses to give a house a cottage-y feel.

Partway done with planting, below. The Andromeda is the only thing I kept from the original landscaping. Everything else was yew or hosta and pulled out.

View looking from driveway in photo below. I got the wild mountain laurels from nearby woods a couple miles away. The wild mountain laurel flower white in spring. The kaliedescope laurel is white/pink/purlple in spring.

Below, area of yew hedge, and where laurels will extend on opposite side of driveway:

The four sugar maples block late afternoon light to garden:

I had an arborist friend prune them to let more light through. The trees ended up looking more stately, and everyone was impressed with the work.

Below, late afternoon sun lighting garden (lower right):

The garden this mid-July is a big green tangle:

All tomato plants except one (bigboy in picture below) are doing terribly because of all the rain. They've hardly grown. The bigboy I had bought as a large greenouse plant, so it is less affected.

Pole bean plants wrap around posts like vines. I just hooked up netting along the posts to create a fence. The hope is that the beans spread along the net.