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bmitchell7798

New home landscaping ideas/help

bmitchell7798
10 years ago

Hey everyone. Last Fall, I purchased an old home with close to ZERO lanscaping. While the home is old and the interiour is gorgeous, I am hoping to say the same about the outside. I am new to this and would be absolutely grateful to anyone that can offer ideas, suggestions or edit the attached picture to show some ideas, etc.

I really like the raised garden beds with the rock walls, if that helps!

Here is a picture of the front yead (ignore the stones on the grass)

Comment (1)

  • PRO
    Yardvaark
    10 years ago

    First, let me say that I wish everyone who offered a picture of their property would start out with a picture such as you have used. It shows the wide view. It's reasonably sharp and decently lit so details can be seen. While other pictures might be needed as the thread goes on, this is the headline picture that best explains to the person who's never been there what the property is about. So good job on that!

    With landscaping, things generally look good when first they make functional sense. A quick way to make things look odd is to impose things in the landscape that seem to serve no genuine purpose ... like retaining walls where there is no reason to retain additional earth. If you really want a nice landscape, I think it is setting out on the wrong foot to say you like this or that without first thinking of what the house and property is saying it needs and wants. The front door sits low to the ground. Is there any reason to raise the elevation anywhere in front of the house? To me, it looks like there is not, and that has me believing that anything like a raised garden bed with rock walls in front of the house will seem like a bad idea.

    It looks like you have a swale at the right side with the grade falling off and an existing retaining wall at a level that makes sense. Retaining the earth against the house allow you to level out the base which is holding up the building and give the house a setting that looks more stable than a slope would provide. But the planting space this retained area creates seems pinched and far from able to provide a luxuriant looking setting. If you want to display and feature something (like the face of your house) then don't use plantings to pinch and smother it. Use vegetation AROUND AND OUTSIDE OF IT to help make sure that the house remains the center of attention. Let those plantings guide (as like a [wide] funnel) one's view to the house. You could rebuild the retained area in a larger configuration, or leave it alone and add plantings outside of it in a larger configuration.

    You should say where you're located if you want people to also give you actual plant suggestions.