Back Yard design help needed

We've rebuilt the landscape on three sides of our house. The back yard has been left to last because it is going to be the most difficult. I've posted photos on the Garden Design forum and would especially like input from Texas gardeners. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1047737/

It is very difficult to show this eyesore to the whole world but hoping this will give me inspiration to start on it.

Thanks,
Glenna

WOW! Glenna, it may seem like a lot of work now, but when it's finished, you and Larry will absolutely love it. And be so happy that you did it. I killed off about 1/2 of my St Aug backyard a few years ago and put in flowerbeds. It isn't fancy or anything, as I'm the least creative person I know, but the one suggestion I will make is to go native. Native plants require so little maintenance. Once they're established, you will be amazed by how little time you'll need to spend on them.

As for a view from your patio window, I would suggest planting hummingbird and butterfly attractors (I confess, I have a great love for Lantana). And a bird feeder to bring the birds close to the window.

Please continue to share photos on your progress.

Carla

The water damage to our house making it necessary to excavate and rebuild the whole landscape has totally dominated our lives the last 5 years. Never in a million years would we have thought we'd get into this situation at our age after owning our home for 25 years. We don't take vacations or entertain anymore. Haven't allowed anyone to come into our house for the last 4 years. During the time the whole place was plowed up, I kept the gates entering our properly locked !!! I've had 4 landscape contractors look at the back yard over the last 3 years. No one wants to even bid on it. Now that the economy has crashed, and our business along with it, couldn't afford to pay to have it done anyway. So that's why Dave's Garden has been such a lifesaver for me. It has given me some ideas that are at least a place to start on the back yard.

You were right on with the trellis idea where the window used to be, especially with your office window right there. Or perhaps a shallow pergola with a big fat pot underneath it filled with blooming annuals and a vine growing up over the pergola. Definitely make it a view that you will enjoy after all of your hard work.

I have an antique wheelbarrow that belonged to my parents. Lots of built-up paint layers. I'll probably paint it white. I want to figure out a place to put it with pots of annuals possibly, as long as I can figure out drip irrigation for it. The little square window on the wall where the other window was removed is at my kitchen sink. Maybe put window box there.

That wall faces west and gets very intense afternoon heat. Want to remove all the grass there and make butterfly garden. After the excavation we just let the grass spread everywhere to eliminate mud. Now we'll have to remove it. Before all the trouble started, had bed on that wall of a red salvia and some other things but the salvia multiplied so that it finally forced everything else out.

I've ordered the HGTV Home & Landscape design software. Will post a to-scale drawing when I get that to get some opinions as to what would look balanced as far as putting the new picket fence somewhere on the other side of the giant oak tree to include it in the new back yard. Have a wooden swing that we've always wanted to put in that area but the rotors of sprinkler system would hit it. If we remove grass and put wood mulch and stone paths, could eliminate that sprinkler.

I can see trellis on that brick wall in view of the window also, but I would also encourage you to put in a water feature of some sort. Nothing brings in birds like the sound of water on a hot TX day.
I love the picket fence idea, including the crape myrtle bushes and elimnating the trailers etc. The extra gate to have access to the dog run would be a must to keep from having holes dug in the new flower beds! You will not miss the Bradford Pear and you plumbing will thank you. We had to have a new sewer put in and the plumber told me it was the pear that caused it. We have one more in the backyard and it's days are numbered.
As for your drainage section, I would think about the dry creek bed idea. It is something that we have done in a couple of areas where drainage was a problem. I needed to direct the water coming down a sloped yard at the side of the house and through my flower bed. I first did a raised area in the bed, but that diverted it to the fence line and directly into my flagstone area around the pond. Then we opened up a dry bed from the corner of the house out into the grass beyond the flower bed. We lined it with thick plastic and filled it with some cobble stones and large gravel. That did the trick, no more washed out beds.


Meant to say the front and side yard is so pretty, nice job on those! I have loads of seeds for sunny butterfly garden plants when you decide what you want.

This message was edited Oct 14, 2009 4:45 PM

Thanks, Sheila. Don't know whether I should try winter sowing this winter or not. If it keeps raining like this, cannot see us getting the dirt work completed before spring in order to have anywhere to plant.

We've already done swale on the south side of the house. Huge one that goes under that sidewalk where the steps go to the dog yard. Quite a project. Haven't dressed it up with stone yet but will when we're sure it is shaped right. Have a partial swale in the back yard and to the front side yard. Just have to figure out the location for it to catch the water in the other area but also be the most attractive place to position it in relation to curved elevated planting beds.

For the back sidewalk that can't be removed, do you know of any product that I could put thin flagstone over the cement? Then it would match up with the path that will go to back gate and detached garage. I think the situation by the back door is why no landscape contractor ever got back with me with their bid. They would come out, spend all the time in the world looking it over and asking questions. Then they would leave, say they'd get me a bid and I would never hear from them again !!! Four of them.

I wouldn't know about materials that might work to seat flagstone on concrete. Could be there isn't anything that wouldn't break loose with moisture and weather conditions over time. Thus, like you said maybe the reason for no call backs.

You did a good job on the drainage under the walkway. But you may consider placing a length of heavy pipe under the sidewalk and rock and mortar the spaces so the flow won't wash anymore dirt under that section. I can see the problem you were up against with the slopes from that picture more than the others. I am with you, why would they have built at that level??

Yes, have got to put a pipe and then some type of rock arrangement where it goes underneath to dress that up. The hardest part on us mentally is that there were just minor waterflow problems that were handled by having a very small swale in the grass on the side shown by the last photo. But when the wooded acreage above us was developed into a housing addition, there was no engineering studies or anyone inspecting what they were doing, and that's when things got really bad for us. We could kick ourselves because we could have bought the lot behind us for $12K back when they started the development and could have prevented all this. Hindsight being 20/20. LOL. We have 5 acres and thought that was enough.

This photo is behind us, the house that caused the disaster. Over the years, Larry did make things worse by hauling in tons and tons of crushed limestone for driveway around back side. Once it was leveled and packed, the water from above just swept over it and into our back yard. That all had to be excavated and hauled away to sort of make the driveway a channel to catch the water before it has time to soak into our back yard. Excavation left it looking really crude because the contractor did not have expertise enough to level and finish it off. Will deal with that after the new back yard boundaries are established.

It never ends does it? Always something else on our "to do" list. LOL!

Vinyl fencing questions:

Is white vinyl fencing high maintenance? Our front porch rails are wood, painted with oil-based enamel. Hard to keep them looking white because of mildew and air pollution, especially in the winter. Does this happen with vinyl fencing too?

What is the best place to see the largest selection of fencing in D/FW area?

Thanks.

This message was edited Oct 16, 2009 8:30 AM

Glenna..If no one comes back that has info on the fencing, another DGer in Florida may. Dmail beckygardener and ask her, she has the 6 foot white vinyl in her backyard. I remember her posting when she first started her garden in 2006 or 7.

Glenna, you can kick yourself all you want, but the truth is that the average homeowner simply doesn't have the knowledge to foresee these types of drainage issues. Over time the swale between my house and my neighbor's house filled in, but it was unnoticed by everyone until the Big Rains of 2007. That summer the rain coming off my eaves + coming off my neighbor's eaves and flooding into my yard caused water to get in under my patio window. My living room got wet not once, not twice, but three different times. The standing water in that corner caused my foundation to sink after everything dried up. I had to put in surface drains + get my foundation fixed. Everything happened before anyone realized there was a problem. You're irritated because you think you or Larry should have seen the water problems coming, but give yourselves a break. This is just one of those many things that we homeowners have to deal with. The end results -- a beautifully designed and landscaped yard -- will make it all worthwhile.

Carla

Right Carla, but home ownership is still the best. Ours started between houses washing away dirt exposing our foundation. The neighbor moved his drive to the opposite side of the house that eliminated part of the river we had each time it rained. Then we put in some retaining walls and planted Asian Jasmine for erosion control. Now I need something to control it. LOL!

We have chainlink fence on property line between us and back neighbors. This is on other side of driveway from what I call our back yard. Their back yard is washing away at an alarming rate, 6 to 8 inches of topsoil lost in the last 5 years, but they "don't do yard work" period. So it is up to us to try to hold the fence and post oak trees.

I've put some liriope there and that holds and survives dry spells. I plant it and then place rock around it. Anything else that would have pretty foliage or bloom with only early morning sun? As an experiment, I've put a few mounds of Katie Blue Mexican petunias there in the last week. Don't know if enough soil will hold to keep them alive through winter.

Yes, home ownership is definitely a challenge. Hopefully we'll finish this before we're moved to the "nursing facility."

;-)

I know you think your backyard looks bad but to me it just looks bare and that's very different. The one thing that is nice is that you have a large area to work with.
Do you plan on putting a patio/seating area out there? How about a small pond?
Cheryl

Cheryl, yes, it is terribly bare compared to what it was before. And I've had to resist the urge to just start planting because there's a lot of things have to be worked out so we don't repeat my past mistakes that compounded the waterflow problems. But patience was never one of my virtues.

We want to use a lot of flagstone for paths and landing/small patio by back door - if we can just figure out how to connect it all. Whatever we put at the back door has to be a relatively small area because we will have to install french drain or configure small dry creekbed around it to prevent water from pooling on it because it is so much lower than the rest of the yard. Plan on eliminating most of the grass. If we can figure out an attractive configuration of vinyl picket fence to include the huge oak tree, then seating area under it with wood swing, arbor or ?? I'm still searching through DG and collecting pictures.

Received my HGTV Home & Landscape design software yesterday and really impressed with it - so far. Once I can print blueprints, maybe I can get some hard bids on some aspects of this.

Given your attention to the details, I am certain it will look amazing when its completed.
Cheryl

Our back yard is finally completed. After three years of working on it, I am finally able to say, "Wow, I'm glad I did it." Last summer during the drought, I had my doubts. During the spring rains, we had no waterflow issues. The "dry creek" and underground drain system worked as we had hoped. What a relief !!

We ended up doing all of the labor ourselves, including major changes in existing sprinkler zones and digging the "dry creek" in hard red clay and I hope to never have to install another piece of flagstone ! LOL.

Thank you for all the suggestions, encouragement and plants received at DG roundups. DG-ers are the greatest !! Was very sorry to miss the April RU at Sybil's house but had to be out of town for several weeks due to family emergency.

Thanks, and Happy Gardening.
Glenna

Glenna!! you have done a marvelous job, I bet moving all those rocks and digging drains was extremely hard but it was certainly worth it. Congratulations,

That's amazing. It looks so wonderful.
Cheryl

Beautiful, Glenna! What a lot of hard work, and boy, was it worth it!

It is looking super! I know how rewarding it is to know you have done it yourselves too. Glad to know your water problems are in the past.
We missed you, but will look forward to next time.

That is so professional looking! You did yourself proud! Some things may need leveled, or cleaned in the future, but it won't be near the probs you have conquered! Congratulations!

Just a real good thing I wasn't there to help with the design I belong to The Charlie Manson school of design HELTER SKELTER lol The mayor called me several days ago wanting me to take over the designing and refurbishing of a small park owned by the city..My first act was to elicit advice from everyone I knew that does design ,I can build anything but my designs are strickly trial and error mostly error..

Well, Grits, we went through several "errors" for years before we got to this stage. I mean SERIOUS errors like having a cement contractor pour sidewalks with curbs that we thought would prevent the water from pooling next to the house. Unfortunately, he got the portion with the catch basin for the water at a higher elevation than it should have been and it just backed more water up to the back door, plus it was UGLY. So then we had to rent a jackhammer to bust up and haul off all that cement. I could write a book on this back yard but don't think anyone would want to read it !!! Every "professional" who got around to bidding the project wanted to bring in heavy equipment, like backhoes and trenchers. One suggestion was horseshoe shaped French drain 6 feet deep around 3 sides of the house! About that time I finally woke up and thanks to suggestions from DG-ers, started making progress but it took a while.

Glenna

Glenna, what a gorgeous overhaul!! Congratulations on your beautiful yard!!

Glenna,
Your hard work and design are truly outstanding! Congratulations on a job well done!

P.S. I have LOTS of questions to ask you. And, since it seems you are now the Official "Drainage" Queen, too, you're about to become my new "go to" person!

Hugs!

Linda

Oh Glenna, it's BEAUTIFUL!!!! I'm weeding like a mad turk, myself, and getting ready for much weekend company. Hopefully, next week I can take you up on your invitation to come out and see it all in person. It just looks so cool and refreshing all around your house.

God has really blessed you with resourcefulness, dedication and design talent. Woohoo!

Sybil, I think you should put your company to work on your place this weekend. That would make weeding fast work!

hahaha, I like the way you think, girl.

Just call it a garden party. :)

Well done, Glenna. The thing about trial and error is that when it's finally done the way you wanted, you not only know it but you absolutely fall in love with it. Your yard is spectacular.

Carla

Looks great! And yay that the stormwater part works!