pls help.... need ideas!

completely new to landscaping... Im looking for simple with low maintaince. I have no idea what to do in the front yard between the porch and carport. Tore everything out including 2 huge riverburchs and started from scratch. lawn has come a long way and in remission. Recently planted crape myrtle tree as well as double-mint gardenias & abelia around the porch my husband wants tea olives somewhere... need suggestions pls help! zone 8 with full sun

This message was edited Aug 14, 2014 10:51 AM

I would fill in the planter area between door and car port with larger shrubs, then mulch with wood chips (for example, ask a tree pruning company for the material they have chipped)

Add some color (flowers or fancy shrubs) to accent the front door, draw attention away from the car port.

If you have guests parking on the street, add a walkway so they won't have to go all the way around.

JUne--

Sorry--Diana--but I would NOT recommend using fresh chipped wood as mulch!
Mulching material needs to be composted.
Using fresh chipped wood as mulch will deprive the soil of a lot of Nitrogen as it composts.

You can have mulch delivered in bulk by the cubic yard. Look into that.

Otherwise--you can landscape it as you wish. Just remember to pay attention of the
mature size of any shrubs you are using. It may look cute to have new shrubs close together--
but in 10 or 20 years--you will be sorry. Follow the directions on the tags, or ask
a professional for advice.

Nothing wrong asking people right here! There are MANY very experienced DG'ers that
will be happy to help you.
Also--there must be a Forum for landscaping here...

Best of luck! Gita

Wood chips from pruned trees decomposes so slowly it is not much of a nitrogen drag on the soil, which is easily replaced with a slow release fertilizer. If the chips are from summer pruning, then they include leaves which are higher in nitrogen. This is a form of sheet composting, an entirely viable idea.
I am not suggesting using this material as a soil conditioner, to be blended with the soil. Much too coarse for that, and the N-drag would be a problem if you did that.

Soil amendment is what you blend with the soil to improve it. This material is almost always plant based (sawdust, rice hulls, manure from herbivores...) and you do need to pay attention to the C-N ratio in such a material.
Mulch is a surface topping, and is usually coarser, and selected because it is longer lasting, breaks down slowly. This does need some nitrogen, but such a small amount over a long time that the average garden fertilizer applied to the plants is plenty. The fact that plants grow BETTER with some form of mulch like this is proof that it is the right idea. There are many reasons plants grow better when mulched, but they would not grow well if they were deficient in nitrogen.

"... there must be a Forum for landscaping here ..."

this is it.


This message was edited Aug 14, 2014 7:40 PM

Dianna--

I am a seasoned, experienced gardener.....so--no need to explain how good mulching is
or what a soil amendment is or contains.

I was just passing on information I have gathered on NOT using RAW chipped
wood from tree-trimmers as a mulch. That is all I was trying to relay.

Gita

I am answering your comments in a way that may help the OP, who is not an experienced gardener.
The difference between mulch and soil amendment is important, but often it is ignored, or not explained well.

Diana and June, I only used wood chips once as mulch and it was a disaster. The chips were big white chunks from wood with no bark (playground chips). Everywhere I put them the plants suffered. There was a 2-ft. space from the garden edging to my pachysandras-a thick bed of 8" high plants closely packed-and the pachysandra that normally invade everywhere would not grow in that space, not even weeds.

I put some next to a row of newly planted Richland Gold hostas and the hostas were attacked with a pest that cut holes in them, they were tiny, and were curled up and sickly. I call my mostly shade garden "hosta heaven" because all my dozens of hostas of various varieties thrive except the hostas next to the wood chips. All my potted plants with wood chip mulch placed on top of the soil suffered. When I placed chips around a transplanted Good Vibrations Juniperus its outer branches next to the mulch died, and this had been a very strong plant all the years before.

The extra mulch was placed in a swamp area where I usually put mulch that I plan to use later and normally high weeds fill the mulch, but the wood chips barely had any weeds after a year except a few 3" high weeds. Wood chips were the kiss of death in my garden, so I won't use them again. I asked the man at the saw mill if the chips were treated with chemicals and he said they weren't. Diana, I believe you that you have success with wood chips but I think June should be warned that they are not always safe when used on top of soil.

Nancy G.

With the front part ( first picture ) :

i would go with a somewhat hybrid beach look, because of the colour of your house i wouldn't plant too many bright green coloured plants because that will make your house look really dark. the house is also low ( in height ) so i wouldn't go for large trees - the highest trees i would plant shouldn't exceed 1.5 times higher than your house.

Ornamental grasses are excellent because the shape breaks the form and contrast nicely with the house and meanwhile the colours of most grasses are uniform with your house ( blueish green colour with brown flowers and stems. So go for wild shapes ( like grasses) , since your house is very rectangular i wouldn't go with column like shapes or round shapes.

Colours you should pick should not be too light or too dark, grey or blueish green should be dominant - second colours should be tan or cream colour ( like the colour you see on dried grass ). Red gives a warm bright feeling to it but it can easily be too overwhelming and make the house look dull ( i would avoid red or use it very very sparingly ).

So you get contrast in shape, uniformity in colour and height. Sand colour is the proper hue that compliments blue , grey and blueish grey.

Grass species i would pick would be ( for example ) :

Pennisetum setaceum
Panicum virgatum
stipa tenuissima
Festuca spp ( glauca)

just image a Cortaderia selloana on a sand path at the front porch.. very nice contrast without overwhelming. Crape myrtle is a good choice, i would pick similar trees around that height. For taller trees you can also pick hardy eucalyptus species. purple is next to grey so you can also plant plants like lavender around trees such as crape myrtle to make the foliage and flowers seem brighter.

the lower part of the stone wall (fundation ) where it's brownish i would plant lower growing plant with brighter green foliage like bergenia cordifolia or something similar. Ferns would look really good because they contrast both shape and colour of the house.

again go with grey, blueish grey, sand colour ( tan ) and compliment sparingly with red. light up dark places ( like the stone fundation) with ferns etc. Purple is next to grey and can compliment grey/blue but too much of it makes the garden seem really dark. you can contrast darker purple with bright purple flowers etc.

"Cortaderia selloana on a sand path at the front porch.. very nice contrast without overwhelming"

Not sure where you get the 'not overwhelming' idea. Pampas grass gets over 10' tall, 8' wide and has aggressively sharp leaves.
It is also quite invasive, seedlings can sprout all too easily in the milder zones. I do not know if it is considered invasive in SC, but it sure is in CA!
Similarly, some of the other grasses:
Pennisetum setaceum and Stipa (Nasella) tenuissima are very invasive.

When you want the look of grasses, make sure you are selecting sterile varieties, or go with plants not actually in the grass family, but with narrow, blade shaped leaves. Some of these are also invasive, so do your research!
Phormium
Dietes
Dianella
Hemerocallis
Agapanthus
Carex
Iris
Tulbagia
Liriope

There are as many opinions regarding the use of wood chips / mulches as there are types of wood material used in the chipping process or bark mulches.
I could not live without wood chipped bark /mulch, I have huge beds of Rhododendrons, Azalea/s, and other acidic loving soil so you have to know a) what kind of wood has been used in the mulches and chips, any type of pine is good for Adding acidity to soil BUT it can, over time kill off any plants that cant grow in acidic soil.
There is no point decrying any type of mulch or wood chip because it killed your plants, you just chose the wrong kind of material to use. OR you planted the wrong type of plants after amending the PH of your soil as that's what happens over time with anything you add to your soil, be it dug in or laid an top as mulch, all these eventually rot down and get into the soil.
It's always best to go to the supplier, lift a small bag of your choice and take it to either a wood worker or tree surgeon who will be able to tell you right away what type of wood in in that mix, especially IF your throwing it around much loved well established and expensive plants to try replace.
When you spend years ,months and hours of energy forming a garden bed or walkway, then just spare another day or several hours checking the wood mixture for YOUR garden, not the guy's who sell it, they just need to get rid of the mountains of the stuff, some are very reputable, other want a quick buck. like everything that's easy to sell and in huge demand, you should search all the more.
Hope just another opinion helps clear the confusion and what you need to do to obtain the right type of ground cover and prevent disaster for your plants.

Many new gardeners come across the same confusion so we should be happy to explain every aspect of mulching / soil improver's and plane old wood chips, Theres a vast difference between them.
Best Regards.
WeeNel.

Hi June73,
You and your husband have such potential to turn your beautiful piece of land into a paradise. I was in the same position too, and last spring I slowly turned my land into a cozy paradise and this I did without paying anyone/professional. For over a thousand landscape ideas check the link below:

Happy gardening!

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Hi June, First of all, if I were Mabatho, and was promoting how wonderful the garden makeover was, I would have sent in some pictures of the work in progress, and the finished article, before I set about promoting any DVD's. garden books or whatever,
After quickly reading the sales pitch, what sprung to mind re the costings, the items about plans, growing etc, was my dear old Dad saying "if it sounds tooooo good to be true, it probably is" so save your money, go to your local library and seek out some books for landscaping and gardening borders / bed's etc, or even a book store you have in USA where you can sit with a coffee and look through the books before you buy, take pen / paper with you to take notes, BUT remember, you want to look for books that are written in plain English, some go into way to much technical script that really would put beginners off, an easy to read / follow written book with easy to follow instructions for the tasks required is on more help and probably cheaper in the end.
The book should also give you weights and measures for any of the materials required for landscaping etc. how to do proper measurements, laying out pathways or beds. drawing plans properly, you have to draw all the manhole's, lines where drains, electric above or under the soil and also any things you have to keep / work with as you might have a soak-a-way etc that cant be
removed.

Just take your time and doodle /draw rough sketches on paper till you think you have the makings of good planning ideas, then start to make the proper plans on paper with a picture of the house and mark proper measurements with circles marking ant tree's, lines for water pipes and maybe red lines for overhead electric if you have any.
Once your happy, start to mark out your beds, use the garden hose to make the lines for the beds and curves are easier when you use flexible material like hose-pipes as you can turn, make circles, half moons or even mark out walkways you wish to meander around your garden rather than just a straight pathway.
Give it a go and you will learn more from that than any expensive DVD's with only a PROMISE of taking you to the next stage of your project..
I can only talk from some friends experiences of these type of sales pitches and after looking at the products, they get put away in the drawer and never see the light of day again, as I say, my opinion is personal and they are useless bits of money making rubbish BUT were all different, lets face it, if there were no mugs there would be no con's. but that's only my personal experience.
Have fun, take your time, there is no garden EVER, built in a day, or a week etc, a garden has to develop and grow with the owner, that's where you get your experience from .
Good luck. WeeNel.