Beginner Gardening: Help with starting a landscape..., 0 by 7thDirection

7thDirection wrote:
Hi all,

I'm new to Dave's Garden and wanted a little help with coming up with ideas for landscaping my new yard. The house is brand new and the builder included a few trees and shrubs with the house. From what I can tell, the builder provided seven trees: 4 Red Maples, 2 Sweetgums and a White Pine (I think). Also included: a few Azaleas, Arborvitae, Privets, Boxwoods and Junipers as shrubs along the front of the house.

I've included a map of the yard with the grading. The builder provided this plan with the house and I've drafted a 1:1 drawing in MicroStation (yeah, I'm a map geek). All of the positions of the trees are approximate except one - I've added dashed circles for the approximated tree positions and a solid circle for the tree I actually measured.

As you can see, we have a few landscaping challenges. The front yard is a very steep grade. Very difficult and dangerous to mow. I would like to mulch this area... perhaps connecting the trees and planting flowering shrubs. Either that or a rock garden (?). I was thinking the drainage ditch that separates the yard from the street (the house is on a corner) could be transformed into a dry stream bed. I'd like to place a specimen tree, perhaps a Cherry Plum or something similar in the flatter part of the front yard.

The backyard seems to be prone to heavy runoff, so perhaps a drained retaining wall is in order (?). The back/side yard is very flat, which is good. Eventually I'd like to have a deck and a patio: the deck coming off the kitchen and the patio coming off the basement walk out (which happens to be level with the back yard).

There is little privacy in the back/side yard, the back of the house faces the side yard of our one neighbor (as of yet). I would like to place a privacy hedge along the south and east sides of the yard because I would like to treat the backyard as a relaxation area. I'd love to use holly, but from what I've seen, it would be far too expensive to 'build' a hedge entirely out of holly.

The house colors are: a dark brownish red brick with khaki siding, cream window and door trim with bronze brown shutters and a red door.

I like the idea of having a color theme: white blooming flowers and shrubs, dark red/purple leaves, varigated leaves and spectacular autumn color. I've also toyed with the idea of a moon garden and I'd love to attract birds and butterflies. My husband would like to have a bat box, but I'm not sure if we have the appropriate location for one.

I plan on planting a few more shade trees in the back yard and need ideas! I also have no idea on how to deal with the front planting bed between the house and the sidewalk (we have some shrubs, including three red blooming azaleas). It would be a nice spot for a sitting area or water feature, but I don' t know for sure.

Most importantly, I am located in the Shenandoah Valley part of West Virginia... I believe it is located in the 6b hardiness zone. The soil is clay, an orangeish brown color with a lot of shale near the surface. It can be very windy in the winter.

Thank you very much for your input! :)

This message was edited May 28, 2008 12:46 PM

This message was edited May 28, 2008 1:19 PM