Sunday, April 26, 2015

Planning Backyard Landscape

Our back yard is just plain lawn (and weed) right now. 



Not much to look at.
But it is a decent size for a yard in a city, and it's a clean slate.

My goal is to have something pretty along the fence for privacy, grow some edibles, and plant lots of hydrangeas.

But first, we must plan the big bone structure of the garden.

Time to pull out Canvas!

First, we tried something formal with lots of hydrangeas.


The yard itself looks pretty, but does not go at all with the neighboring structures.


What if we masked the view with more substantial shrubs...


Better, but not too charming.


Maybe it's better to mix lots of different plants and go for the look of cottage garden.


There!
That's what we're going to do!


But then we went shopping and ended up buying many fruit trees.  After reading about the Little Fruit Tree method, we couldn't resist!

So this is what we have planted in the end.  Well, a simulation of how it'll look.  Actual plants look like just a bunch of sticks in the ground right now.

from left, Apple 'Liberty', Apple 'Freedom', Arborvitae, Lilac 'Donald Wyman', Plum 'Santa Rosa', Peach 'Redhaven', Snowball Viburnum, Arborvitae
 
 
How it will look in winter

Depending on how Snowball Viburnum casts shadow, I may have to move the peach to a sunnier location.


Something like this is what I'm envisioning.


The advice is to take it slow and don't feel like every space needs to be filled immediately.

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