Electric Chameleon
03-01-2004, 02:51 PM
Hello all! Hope you all had a nice winter and are eagerly awaiting spring as I am!
I have a question and sorry, but this may take a bit. I am looking for some landscaping ideas that are fairly inexpensive and child and dog friendly.
I have a "tough" yard to work with and this is where it is going to take some time while I try to describe it to you. I could try to take a picutre, but even with that it would not do it justice.
Okay, first of all I will tell you what I have exsisting, and then my thoughts.
My yard faces South East. It is in 3 tiers, with each tier being 3.5 feet in height. So, I go out my patio door on to a nice cedar deck with the steps facing west (3 steps). Right beside the door and the steps is a little deck area, with a nice big window. I also have one on the other side of the patio door.
Now, if you go off of the steps there is a small concrete platform to help support the steps and to the right of that I have my composter. Also to the right of the that is my electrical outlet on the wall and the hose and hanger and the kids (not baby goats) sandbox, which is against the fence. Beside the sandbox is the gate to go out into the main (side yard, which I will ask about later.)
So, about 6 feet from the bottom of the steps facing west is a very nice tall fence. (My neighbour to that side is a a wonderful person who has the most beautiful yard).
Follow the fence the down about 20 feet and you hit the end of the first level. I have a fairly tall bushy lilac there. And beside that is the children's swing set running parallel with the retaining wall.
The deck overhangs the yard so there is 1.5 feet of it that is (I think) in a couple of years going to be dangerous for the children as they run under it now, and pretty soon when they get taller they are going to be too tall and crack their heads on it or the corner.
Anyway, you walk to the end of the deck on the ground and the yard wraps around to fill in the space. Mostly when we moved in, it was a big pile of old dry useless dirt. We have put a wildflower garden there, and it did okay last year, but I would like to to see it do better. Maybe change it to a wildflower/rock garden. I have a nice bird bath in there and a beautiful dogwood shrub, which we planted last year.
Now, about a foot from this spot is a side access (another side yard) facing East and gets no sunshine. All along the house in hostas (that I have let grow wild) and a gravel path to the front yard gate.
So there is this little yard space from the flower garden and all along the East fence are very large steps going to the very bottom level.
No steps to the second grassed level, let me tell you what pain that is for mowing!
Last year we put in steps from the first to the second level and we put a children's slide from the top level to the second near the swingset too. Problem with that is they are wrecking the lawn there with feet holes.
There is nothing but grass on this level. We have a lattice type fence on the second level wood retainer to keep the dog from jumping into the third level.
Now, for the third level, we have a garden that is about 15' x 80' of mostly usable space. The west end is our "weed" pile. And doesn't get very much sun, because of the fence and how far down the hill we are from the neighbours and there Amur Cherry tree.
I have successfully grown in this very heavy clay soil. beans, carotts, zuchinni, chives, some peas, beets, strawberry's. Pretty much the layout is strawberry patch on the East side with raspberries on the North retaining wall. Anything after that is for the vegetable garden.
The last of the yard is the bottom which is a concrete slab walkway beside the hedges and chain link fence onto the bike path.
Now, I forgot to mention that we live on a bit of a hill, our West side neighbour is higher than us and we are higher than our East neighbour, We are also higher than our neighbour accross the pathway by about 50. So we can see into their yard perfectly, but they have it ringed with huge evergreens. Some of them shield my garden a bit, but not too bad.
Our deck grows great tomatoes in the pot as well, as green peppers.
I would love to try a vine or two for both fences and maybe the trellis work on the deck. I don't want a lot of bees on the deck because of the patio door right there, so don't know that I would try morning glories or sweet peas there, even though I love them.
I can't really have a plot dug becuase the dog will go in them.
Any suggestions?
Sorry for the long but I wanted to make it as clear as possible.
Next I will tackle the side yard! LOL.
EC
I have a question and sorry, but this may take a bit. I am looking for some landscaping ideas that are fairly inexpensive and child and dog friendly.
I have a "tough" yard to work with and this is where it is going to take some time while I try to describe it to you. I could try to take a picutre, but even with that it would not do it justice.
Okay, first of all I will tell you what I have exsisting, and then my thoughts.
My yard faces South East. It is in 3 tiers, with each tier being 3.5 feet in height. So, I go out my patio door on to a nice cedar deck with the steps facing west (3 steps). Right beside the door and the steps is a little deck area, with a nice big window. I also have one on the other side of the patio door.
Now, if you go off of the steps there is a small concrete platform to help support the steps and to the right of that I have my composter. Also to the right of the that is my electrical outlet on the wall and the hose and hanger and the kids (not baby goats) sandbox, which is against the fence. Beside the sandbox is the gate to go out into the main (side yard, which I will ask about later.)
So, about 6 feet from the bottom of the steps facing west is a very nice tall fence. (My neighbour to that side is a a wonderful person who has the most beautiful yard).
Follow the fence the down about 20 feet and you hit the end of the first level. I have a fairly tall bushy lilac there. And beside that is the children's swing set running parallel with the retaining wall.
The deck overhangs the yard so there is 1.5 feet of it that is (I think) in a couple of years going to be dangerous for the children as they run under it now, and pretty soon when they get taller they are going to be too tall and crack their heads on it or the corner.
Anyway, you walk to the end of the deck on the ground and the yard wraps around to fill in the space. Mostly when we moved in, it was a big pile of old dry useless dirt. We have put a wildflower garden there, and it did okay last year, but I would like to to see it do better. Maybe change it to a wildflower/rock garden. I have a nice bird bath in there and a beautiful dogwood shrub, which we planted last year.
Now, about a foot from this spot is a side access (another side yard) facing East and gets no sunshine. All along the house in hostas (that I have let grow wild) and a gravel path to the front yard gate.
So there is this little yard space from the flower garden and all along the East fence are very large steps going to the very bottom level.
No steps to the second grassed level, let me tell you what pain that is for mowing!
Last year we put in steps from the first to the second level and we put a children's slide from the top level to the second near the swingset too. Problem with that is they are wrecking the lawn there with feet holes.
There is nothing but grass on this level. We have a lattice type fence on the second level wood retainer to keep the dog from jumping into the third level.
Now, for the third level, we have a garden that is about 15' x 80' of mostly usable space. The west end is our "weed" pile. And doesn't get very much sun, because of the fence and how far down the hill we are from the neighbours and there Amur Cherry tree.
I have successfully grown in this very heavy clay soil. beans, carotts, zuchinni, chives, some peas, beets, strawberry's. Pretty much the layout is strawberry patch on the East side with raspberries on the North retaining wall. Anything after that is for the vegetable garden.
The last of the yard is the bottom which is a concrete slab walkway beside the hedges and chain link fence onto the bike path.
Now, I forgot to mention that we live on a bit of a hill, our West side neighbour is higher than us and we are higher than our East neighbour, We are also higher than our neighbour accross the pathway by about 50. So we can see into their yard perfectly, but they have it ringed with huge evergreens. Some of them shield my garden a bit, but not too bad.
Our deck grows great tomatoes in the pot as well, as green peppers.
I would love to try a vine or two for both fences and maybe the trellis work on the deck. I don't want a lot of bees on the deck because of the patio door right there, so don't know that I would try morning glories or sweet peas there, even though I love them.
I can't really have a plot dug becuase the dog will go in them.
Any suggestions?
Sorry for the long but I wanted to make it as clear as possible.
Next I will tackle the side yard! LOL.
EC