Oh, but I'm busy getting all excited about the front...
I swiftly flew to terracing as obvious there, what I would have said first if I wasn't busy babbling.
Oh, well.
Even at low level, which you can do at under x amount of inches, say, 36", you can build short retaining walls with stacked broken concrete, and only as you get back toward the line of the house does it have to be a serious wall.... even at low level, it costs money.
In lieu of all that, you could still consider a screening fence from somewhere towards the back of the picture - maybe not all so far, more like a screen, - to the front of your house, with maybe a nice fat wood post at the line of the face of the houses. Level at the top of the fence line, for sure. Might not have to be variance high to do the screening, especially if planted out. The posts would have to have sturdy foundations though.
Hmm, any chance of getting rid of one spruce? I don't know spruce trees all that well. First time I met one was when I moved to north north, and at that point ran into a couple of volumes of listed conifers. Zoink....
So I don't just recognize those and how big they'll eventually get.
Your local very best nursery might (you know not home depor).
Oy the neighbor's steps! She has her downspout running right to the right hand side of the steps and it's got them so tipsy you can't even use them. (next door neighbor is nice but crazy) Wayne (the landscaper) wants to put a retaining wall at the property line about 5 or so feet left of the slip-slidey steps. If I go with that, it will be in the second or third phase.
Home Depor, a new coinage...
I agree with Wayne on that. The wall can step down and, to me, terrace at right angles from that. Though I've no idea of the feet. One doesn't want to ruin her steps... Me, I'd figure the footings and then subtract back from the P/Line.
I said I'd be quiet now quite a while ago. This is reminding me how much I like landscape design. I love the puzzles, as puzzles.
ossobuco wrote:Oh, but I'm busy getting all excited about the front...
I swiftly flew to terracing as obvious there, what I would have said first if I wasn't busy babbling.
Oh, well.
Even at low level, which you can do at under x amount of inches, say, 36", you can build short retaining walls with stacked broken concrete, and only as you get back toward the line of the house does it have to be a serious wall.... even at low level, it costs money.
In lieu of all that, you could still consider a screening fence from somewhere towards the back of the picture - maybe not all so far, more like a screen, - to the front of your house, with maybe a nice fat wood post at the line of the face of the houses. Level at the top of the fence line, for sure. Might not have to be variance high to do the screening, especially if planted out. The posts would have to have sturdy foundations though.
Eek, I meant only as you got back to the line of the house In This Instance, When Swimpy Mentioned A Two Foot Difference.
<she covers her ass, as others have other front yards>
Sorry I dropped out last night. A2K was so slow!
ossobuco wrote:LittleK, isn't your mom a landscape designer, or am I remembering wrong?
She is that, indeed. Small-scale.
Pineapple mint:
A2k life is strange. I am probably older than your mother, K, but it is you I feel peer to.
On pineapple mint, so pretty. Mint spreads, but I never had trouble with it doing that myself. Like, you can run and catch it.
I feel the same about you, Osso.
The pineapple mint is extra invasive. Swimpy wants simple....
So tell me, what happens to stuff like mint when snow falls... it comes back in spring with a big rebound?
It's still semi-green now, but we haven't had a string of freezing days. After winter, it comes up early and thrives all summer. Even in partial sun.
I have just had a long telephone conversation with Green Witch, and during the course of the conversation I brought up the subject of Swimpy's gardening thread.
I gave her all the details and she paused for a second and then said, "Gus, you tell her that I said she simply can not go wrong with hostas. Tell her there really is nothing else she needs to know. I would stop over but I am concentrating on another thread dealing with the life and times of our current president, who I am enamored with, and I just can't tear myself away. God, how I love that man. Anyway, Gus, just remember..... hosta. H o s t a is the spelling. Okie dokie then, goodbye."
I don't believe you, Gus.
Why would I lie about such a thing?
Well, we'll just wait until Green Witch shows up and confirms this whole thing.
So there.
Thanks for the message, gus. Hostas are always on the menu for shady yards like mine.
I promise to get some pictures up here tomorrow. when you see what I've been living with, you'll all understand that the place is in need of an overhaul.
I don't know if this is going to work for you. I't's supposed to be a slide show.
Click.
That worked!
The format was really distracting though -- I kept expecting to see a body sprawled somewhere in one of the kachoom close-ups.
(Do you know the Gus-GreenWitch hosta controversy? He's for, very for. She's against.)
As far as I can tell, tons of potential. I'll have to watch it a few more times to really get a feel for things though.
Didn't you see the dead body?
I can't really change the format. I'll post a few of the back yard photos, since that's where the main work will take place this year.
This is the location for he patio. The hemlock and the junipers along the left will go.
